A weekend of birds, beer, and Poe

We seem to have finally bested the flu and whatever other virus' and bacteria have been causing havoc in our family in 2023. Everybody is feeling good again. We took advantage of a 61F sunny day in January by meeting the local Audubon Society group at Byrd Park for a birding walk around the three lakes in the park. We were focusing on aquatic birds wintering in the park lakes, so I didn't even pay attention to whatever birds may have been in the trees. Canada Geese and Ring Billed Gulls were around in abundance, as well Double-crested Cormorants and one juvenile Bald Eagle that we observed soaring over the lakes. In total I recorded 15 species in the one hour walk. I'm sure that would have been double had I bothered to look up in the trees.

Saturday evening I treated my best girl to an exotic dinner of cooked meat at Arby's, where a coupon resulted in dinner for 2 for $10. Dating like we are in college again! After dinner we went to our third place, Intermission Brewing, and hung out till closing at 9 PM. Back at home we watch the Luckiest Girl Alive, a Mila Kunis flick that explores the longer term ramifications caused by a teenage sexual abuse incident. It's a well done movie and the IMDB 6/10 rating is about right. It's well executed, but a little slow in the first half as the story builds, and pretty damn dark all the way through.

Sunday we headed out to the Poe Museum, located in the only pre-Revolutionary War building still standing in Richmond VA. It's a small museum dedicated to Edgar Allen Poe, who grew up in Richmond when he was orphaned here at age 3, and taken in by a wealthy family. Like a lot of America's great writers, nobody really appreciated him until after he was dead. Speaking of death, he died under mysterious circumstances at age 44. It's been a long time since I read any Poe. I think I'll remedy that soon.