BenSpark Family Adventures

Yesterday I saw the Nick Cage movie National Treasure. After reading the Da Vinci Code and all the Dan Brown books I could see parallels between the stories. However I don’t see that one ripped off the other. National Treasure is a scavenger hunt through American History. I was pretty fascinated about the clues and riddles and the places in the movie. If anything it got me excited to know more about these secret societies and the potential for more movies and books in this same vein. If you get a chance check out this movie. And an update on the book reading front, I have finished reading many of the Clive Cussler books featuring Dirk Pitt. So far I have finished: Pacific Vortex! (1983) The Mediterranean Caper (1973) APA Mayday! Iceberg (1975) Raise the Titanic! (1976) Vixen 03 (1978) Night Probe! (1981) I am currently listening to Deep Six (1984) on CD. Got it from the library. Awaiting the next book on CD Cyclops (1986). Unfortunately the reader sounds like he is doing a newscast. No...

So this past weekend was Thanksgiving. Allison and I did a lot of holiday traveling throughout the weekend. First we went to the Cape for Thanksgiving with my family and then on Friday we headed up to New Hampshire to spend the weekend with Dan and Marcia. On Saturday Allison and Marcia went to look at dresses, there are photos but I cannot post them since I should not be seeing the dress or possible dress before the big day. And as an update no we still do not have a firm date. While Allison and Marcia were out shopping Dan and I went and ran a few errands. We picked up some Pepsi form K-Mart because they had a great deal, 5 12 packs for $10.00. Good deal! Then we went to Dan’s Steak guy for steak tips and to his fish guy for shrimp. We had Erin and Bart over for dinner of steak tips and baked stuffed shrimp. Here are a couple of photos from the weekend. My Thanksgiving dinner and Me and Allison and Erin and Bart at Marcia and Dan’s.

Yesterday Allison and I went to my Grandparent’s house for Thanksgiving. Grandma was doing well and we are very thankful that she was with us. My mother cooked the turkey and it was very very tasty. Don’t worry I have a picture of my plate from yesterday’s dinner. However I am using a dial up modem and don’t have the USB cable for my new camera with me. When I get back to my DSL connection I’ll post some Thanksgiving photos. I changed the trivia topic this morning to movies. Enjoy. Later today Allison and I are heading up to NH.

Before the poultry melee of the afternoon I will post about a few things. Allison and I are at the Cape with my Mom and Dad. We watched the Tim McGraw special last night. It was good except for the part with Nelly. What was that all about, the game of pool being interspersed between the over and over song. It struck me funny, I guess I was the only one. If you need a retreat from all the family stuff today check out kewlbox.com. This website has tons of free online shockwave games, like Adventure Elf, Santa Balls and Fowl Words. The games are addicting. Check them out before you hit that tryptophan wall. Enjoy your Turkey Day!

From Allison and I to you, we wish you a safe and Happy Thanksgiving. If you are shopping on Friday you may need a wake up call. Set one up at Target.com. If you get bored over the weekend check out The Incredibles. I saw that movie today over in Bellingham and it was awesome. It is a great take on the superhero genre. And it is very funny and action packed. Not totally a kids movie either, lots of adult jokes too. Or see Christmas with the Kranks, an adaptation of John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas which as a funny read, with Tim Allen and Dan Akroyd in the movie it is sure to be funny.

Yes, there is more big news from the Sparks family this week… On Saturday Nathan and Sarah became engaged!! Two weddings in the near future for the Sparks’ to prepare for! We are so excited for them and are so happy that Sarah will soon be part of our family officially!

This weekend Allison and I viewed two classic movies. On Friday night we saw An Officer and A Gentleman. The classic movie of the bad boy becoming a good man. Richard Gere and Loius Gossett Jr. were incredible. It was interesting to watch the movie and pick out people who have gone on to other things. For instance did you know that CSI Miami’s David Caruso was in An Officer and A Gentleman. It wasn’t until the credits that my suspicions, about who the character was, were confirmed. On Saturday night Allison and I watched what is considered the greatest movie of all time, Citizen Kane. It wasn’t until the featurette at the end of the film that I understood the full scope of what Orson Wells achieved in this film and how much of a genius he was. (And until yesterday I thought his genius was at its pinnacle when he was the voice of Unicron in the Transformers Movie) He changed movie making forever with this film. Both movies were obtained from the local library. I love the library. My yea...

During Game Night I played with the Soda Club machine and had some humorous and disastrous results. But the soda I made was very good tasting so I read the directions and tried again. What a cool little invention. I’m having a great time making soda. I brought it to work the other day and let Steve try some because he missed out at the party. He liked it too. If you are interested in getting your own soda club machine check out the Soda Club online.

This morning I received an e-mail of my post about Friday Night Lights from Mo. I am posting the conversation and the outcome of that conversation here. ***On Thu 11:43a Nov 18 Mo wrote*** Mo has sent you a link to a weblog: I think you should have put more about Lucas Black…he’s hot. Did you NOT see him in the weight room scene?? Phenomenal actor…always has been…but a little bit nicer now that he’s all grown up:) Blog: Drew and Allison’s Blog Post: Friday Night Lights Link: https://benspark.com/movie-friday-night-lights.html From: Drew Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 11:46 AM To: Mo Subject: Drew and Allison’s Blog: Friday Night Lights Next time I will talk about how hot the guys really are. 🙂 ***On Thu 11:47a Nov 18 Mo wrote*** It would be a shame not to…you have to appeal to the audience…it’s only fair!! From: Drew Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 11:49 AM To: Mo Subject: RE: Drew and Allison’s Blog: Friday Night Lights Ask Allison to post more, she can take care of the hot men....

I took my Dad to see Friday Night Lights at the Route One Cinema Pub tonight. Good football movie, good movie all around. Tim McGraw did really well in his first real feature film. He was very convincing as an abusive alcoholic father. Christian Kane of Angel had a bit part in the movie. He looked like hell. I read an article that Christian Kane actually went to school with the guys from that team. That’s pretty awesome to be in a movie about people that you actually know. Friday Night Lights also re teams Lucas Black with Billy Bob Thornton who worked together in the movie Sling Blade. The whole movie I was racking my brain to figure out why that kid who is the quarterback (Black) looked so familiar. Thank the Internet for Internet Movie Database.

Last night Neil, Derek, Steve and I went to the Funway Cafe in Foxboro. Free Popcorn, beer, leather couches and flat screen TV’s all over the place. And in the back they have a game room with Air Hockey and video games. There is also a pool room. It wouldn’t be guys night without the buffalo wings. So we ordered two dozen of them and some more beers. After the wings and beers we hit the arcade room for some air hockey and video games. Steve summarily dismissed my attempts to win at every avenue. Derek defeated Neil, and then I went to play the ATV game so I missed who won the tiebreaker. Yesterday I received my eagerly anticipated new toy. I bought a Xacti C4 digital camcorder/4 megapixel digital still camera. I ended up picking it up in Raynham because Fed Ex wouldn’t deliver without a signature. Worth the trip.Check out the Xacti Here. I brought the camera with me to guys night and we took a few pictures and some video. I tried taking video while driving on the Daytona 500 game. Not ...

Today after shoveling away much of the freak snow from the freak snow storm Allison and I went to the Holiday Inn in Mansfield to look at their wedding package opportunities. It is a nice place and we shall see about possibly getting it for our reception. Sticker Shock hasn’t quite worn off when I began to work out how much this thing is gonna cost. Yep, still shocked. Tonight Allison and I hosted Game Night. We played the game Scene It!. Allison’s friends Krista and Dan and Sue and Joe came over as well as our friends Andy and Rondi and Steve and Erin, my sister Tara and her husband Erik also came over. We got Chinese food for dinner from our favorite Chinese food place, Quan’s Kitchen. If you are in the North Attleboro area or Mansfield find your way over to Quan’s. Scene It! is a very fun game. (My team won one of the games so I am happy. Trivia, Movies, yeah I get competitive.) Apparently my competitiveness became the rally cry for the other teams whose sole purpose was to make sur...

I’ve been quite for a while. Sorry nothing very interesting going on lately. Helped Tara and Erik work on their house yesterday. Hope anyone who had a good day off yesterday took advantage of that time. Now the Funny… Here is a message about wedding planning. Here is the Democratic slogan for 2008. Views expressed in either item are not necessarily reflective of mine or Allison’s.

Last night Allison and I watched part of the CMA’s (1st 1/2 hour till Scrubs and SVU came on.), but we caught the end where Kenny Chesney got the Entertainer of the year award and his speech got snipped. That sucks. The guy wins the biggest award of the night and he gets to talk for 20 seconds. Ouch. Scrubs is the funniest show on TV. Each week I laugh till it hurts.

This past weekend I spent at the cape. I help my father strip a roof and set it up for shingling. It was certainly windy on Saturday. I kept looking up at the sickly trees of the cape wondering when one of them would snap, luckily they didn’t, but they didn’t look like they were going to make it. I had dinner at the British Beer Company on Saturday night with Mom and Dad and Uncle Paul D. It was Paul’s birthday yesterday, we had the best chocolate cake,it stood about 7 inches tall. On Sunday my Dad and I finished stripping the roof and got both sides papered in. We watched Tara come in from the Falmouth in the Fall race. She had her best time ever for Falmouth 56:??. Way to go Tara. Allison spent some quality time with her family and her Uncle Paul and Aunt Dot. They gave us some very nice wine glasses as an engagement gift. Thank you.

Whether you lean to the left or the right the votes are in and America has their President. Check out Boston.com for the latest information on the election and a nifty Map of all the states and who won each state. And if you would like to also read some political commentary. Check out neilsview.blogspot.com. The views expressed on any of the links do not reflect my political views or those of Allison.

Go and Vote. Where to Vote in MA. Optimus Prime says Rock the Vote

Yesterday began the NaNoWriMo Challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel in one month. I started yesterday and have written 4,126 words so far. I’m going with the write what you know theory and so far chapters one and two are clearly about me and my life. I am using foreshadowing so that I can twist the whole plot and head down a more exciting avenue. Once I get a couple more chapters out of the way I may post the link. But for now I think I will keep the novel under wraps. The blog for my progress is http://flat-water.blogspot.com. It is still not too late to sign up to participate. http://www.nanowrimo.org