BenSpark Family Adventures

Kinda makes you queasy, huh? So Jimmy Buffett is coming to Fenway. And the Fenway neighborhood has neutered any good natured parrothead partying. Thanks! Well I for one am not paying upwards of $7.00 for a thimble of beer in the Fenway neighborhood. Generally, I'm not the biggest fan of the marble-mouthed mayor but he at least tried to get some tailgating areas for fans. Fenway will be an interesting show, I don't think it will be the Buffett show that we've come to know and love. But, hopefully fans won't be as drunk as they were past years, mind you I have nothing about drunkenness, it is the beer muscles and temper tantrums that I have a problem with. I would hate to see a repeat of last year's events with the bimbettes behind us and the events that ensued. But I for one am holding out hope that Jimmy will announce a Great Woods Show, most likely after the Fenway show is all sold out. There is nothing scheduled for that weekend at Great Woods, so I'm holding ...

Originally Posted by Allison For those who have been to my parents house and met the zoo that my mother calls her cats, I have sad news. On Friday mom had to have Fraiser put down. He was the giant white cat with more personality than most humans I know. Fraiser had Feline Leukemia, unbeknownst to us; that combined with fluid around his heart made him rather sick at the end of last week. My mom and Fraiser had a special bond and she has had a difficult time dealing with his loss. I think I'm still in denial a bit, since I haven't been home yet. But I know that he's at peace now and is probably up in pet heaven with Rikki, causing trouble and enjoying nice juicy steaks. So farewell Frais! "Meow"

This weekend I was reminded again what a lucky guy I am. On Saturday afternoon I came home to find the house filled with many of my friends who came to a surprise party for my 30th birthday. My very sneaky and oh so wonderful girlfriend, Allison, pulled together this surprise, and she even kept it completely quiet until the big day. I was totally surprised, and had absolutely no clue that there was a party being planned. I would like to thank everyone involved in the planning of the event. Allison for pulling it together, Tara for helping Allison with the preparations and Erik for so vigorously inspecting bicycle seats and other bike accessories to keep me distracted and then delivering me to the party. Also, thank you for the cake Erin and Bart. I really appreciate that so many people were able to come to the party. It totally made my day and it was so awesome to see so many of my friends. Thanks for coming Neil and Andrea, Steve and Erin, Derek and Michelle, James, Erin and Bart, Tar...

Originally posted by Allison We've been bad about Blogging.... I know. We've been busy, and the few minutes of downtime we've had, we've enjoyed in peaceful quiet. So, my training is coming along. I'm back on the road after a brief hiatus. I have finally recovered from my 10 miles on Saturday. I'll get a few miles in tonight, and hopefully some more on Thursday if it doesn't rain!! I promise I'll make Drew blog soon... his posts are always so much more entertaining than mine!

Last night Allison and I went to The Center for the Arts in Natick (TCAN) to see Ellis Paul and opener Flynn. The Center for the Arts in Natick is in an old firehouse in downtown Natick, MA. It is really a nice place to see a concert. The concert was sold out too. Ellis was being filmed for something, not sure what exactly but I think that is why he was really working the storytelling angle last evening, which is one of the things I really like about Ellis, his stories, so I was happy. Flynn was also wonderful with the solid four songs that we've seen him do before, his storytelling is also wonderful. The concession stand was a little sparse, nothing like The Dessert Club's. However they did have Boylan Bottling Company products. Allison has a root beer and a ginger ale, I stuck with grape soda because I love grape soda. The bottle itself was awesome, many special touches, painted labels, raised reliefs on the bottle itself. And the bottle caps were cool too, when I get home I...

The inaugural Monthly Game Night took place last evening at our apartment. In attendance were Neil and Andrea, Tara and Erik, their friends Brett and Julie, and Allison's friends Sue and Joe. We started the evening with pizza from North Attleboro House along with some salads and some fine Sam Adams, Light and Winter Lager. After everyone had their fill of pizza and time to get acquainted we delved into the game of Cranium. Halfway through reading the directions aloud it was noted that Neil and Erik had expressions like that of dogs contemplating the inner workings of a spin dryer. So the instructions were junked and the game board set up. If you've never played Cranium before, it sounds complicated, but it is, in fact, very simple. There are elements of many other types of games and that is what made it interesting, funny and downright frustrating. We split into two teams of five because it looked like having four teams (2,2,3,3) would take too long, but the game can move quick...