My mother and I share a love of figure skating, and it's become tradition that we go to both “Stars on Ice,” when it comes here in January, and “Champions on Ice,” when it comes every summer. This last January, my mother had the nerve to be at home in Mexico, so came with me, for which Fuzzy is grateful (he actually sleeps through ice shows), as am I.

Last night, my mother was here, though, and we had tickets to the evening performance. (Note to self: Never go to the evening performance when they've already done a matinee; unlike theatrical performances, skating shows show off the weariness of the performers.) Yes, it's sad, but true, there was a noticeable lack of energy last night.

But…
-Suraya Bonaly is still an amazingly powerful skater, though she is still failing to comprehend that she should use that, and wear bold costumes and skate to strong music, and not attempt to be flirty and girly.

-Michelle Kwan looked so happy and elegant, she was a joy to watch. As always. Well, almost always.

-Rudy Galindo is as irrepressable as ever, and apparently, we have the same hair stylist. (No, really. My mother informed me of this last night. “You know, B. does his hair.”) Well, cool, or something.

-Phillipe Candeloro might still be a decent skater, if he ever stopped vamping long enough to actually skate.

-Elvis Stojko will always be adorable.

-Alexei Yagudin skated to Bond

-The hula-hoop woman, Irina Grigorian, was fabulous. Especially when she skated while wearing a giant slinky.

As to the fireworks? It's become typical since last September for performers to do some overly sentimental patriotic gesture, even in ice shows. This ice show, which has about 50% of it's cast from Russia and the Ukraine, managed to pull this off without being cheesy: They began with Jimi Hendrix's version of The Star Spangled Banner, and segued into Ray Charles singing America the Beautiful, and all of the cast was in either stars and stripes, or red, white, or blue. And while I still think it was a little cheesy, there's something cool about seeing all these Russian, French, and Canadian skaters wearing America's colors.

At the end, the American flag dropped down over the arena, and fireworks went off. Yes. Indoor fireworks.

It was quite a night. And I even stopped obsessing about the house while I was there.