Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

Today was a much more quiet day here at the ranch, with all of us sleeping in a little.  Mom was up first, and she had a skillet breakfast for us as we sat and ate together, also watching the birds just outside the kitchen window.  There was one particularly menacing bird though, right there on the edge of our backyard, and hard to miss. 

Fortunately, the hawk flew off and all the other birds were able to enjoy a meal with us.  We hung up a few new feeders, including the new bluebird feeder, which took a few moments to adapt to, but soon had plenty of birds visiting.  We have five or six bluebirds at a time, and ten or more sparrows, a few cardinal couples, three or four chickadees, three or four tufted titmouse, a mockingbird, a robin, four or five warblers, four or five red finches, some yellow finches too, a couple blue jays, two downey woodpeckers, a yellow bellied woodpecker, a few nuthatches (we call them penguins), and a partridge in a pair tree.  Okay, maybe not that last one.  But the hawk was a largely unwelcome visitor, even if some of these squirrels are driving us crazy right now.  Fortunately, the squirrels haven't figured out the hanging feeders yet.  Give them time, of course.  Never underestimate the greed of a squirrel.

So we spent a good bit of the day just straightening up the house some, and we've got a long way to go on that account.  This meant going through all the plunder on the tree, putting books on the shelves, hanging up new clothing and that sort of thing.  I was back on the treadmill earning that last badge for December.  We hung up the new bird house, the one that says "Merry Christmas" on it, the one covered in birdseed.  The birds haven't quite figured that one out yet, but give it time.

Our one trip out of the house was to go and see "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom," which was at a really quiet theater.  Considering it was a cold Saturday during the holiday weekend, there weren't many people there to see any movies at all.  It's been a weaker year in cinema, that much is certain.  And we knew that this latest movie would nothing more than a "popcorn" movie of sorts, just a fun action movie with a few laughs and explosions and posing superheroes.  Of course, Aquaman is an underwater movie, largely, and that's an element I enjoyed in the movie.  We all loved the cephalopod character, and I thought seeing Storm, Aquaman's seahorse.  And yes, Black Manta is as menacing as ever.  Seriously, it took this long to get Black Manta to the theater - he was one of of my favorite villains as a kid, back when I revered the Justice League and the Legion of Doom.  How could you not love a Darth Vader that shoots lasers out of his eyes?

So we enjoyed it for what it was, what with all the scenes borrowed from The Lord of the Rings, Thor, Black Panther, Return of the Jedi and elsewhere.  It was like opening a comic book and flipping through the pages to see the colorful costumes and action scenes.  We had a good time!

It's cold outside.  We got home and had a quick meal there, and watched the finale of "What If...?"  Mom got a bath, and we played some games... but that was about it for the day.  We spent some time reading tonight, and then said our prayers.  We're sleeping in again tomorrow, the last day of the year.  No KidPak, but we'll watch church online.