BenSpark Family Adventures

Last night Allison and I went with Allison’s friend Jenn to see Ocean’s Twelve at the Franklin Zeotrope Theatre. It was a good movie, much better than I expected it to be. I really didn’t have great expectations for it but it was good. Before the theatre we went to Casper’s Bar & Grill in Franklin (Formerly Goodfellas) for dinner. You gotta love the Entertainment Book for its savings. Casper’s was one of the platinum dining locations so we could get up to $13.00 off our bill. For a $20 book of coupons that is pretty good. Casper’s was a pretty typical little local restaurant with American fare on the menu. Allison had a great pizza and I had surf and turf and Jenn had a burger. There was something going on in the kitchen because the food took a long time but it was tasty and we had plenty of time to get to the movie. The Franklin Zeotrope Theatre is a second run movie theatre in downtown Franklin. The movies are $4.50 and a large popcorn is only $4.00, so much better than Showcase’...

Last night I went skiing with Neil, Andy and Neil’s friend Ron. We went to Blue Hills. It's actually not that bad. It is run by Ragged Mountain now. They have 3 runs and it costs $25.00 to night ski, luckily Neil has a 2:1 pass and skiing was only $12.50 which is about what it should cost to go there. There is one double lift and not one matching seat on the whole thing.  Andy and I rode up together and on one trip the lift operator told us to wait up and then turned around and held up his hand we move into position because we figured that he meant for us to wait for the people ahead of us and we were like, duh yeah we are waiting. What we didn’t noticed was that the safety bar on the chair directly after the people in front of us was down. Well I noticed it when it slammed into the back of my knees and then the whole lift stopped. Oops. Andy luckily got out of the way, thanks again for alerting me about the chair Andy. All in all a very good night of skiing.

Another great book on CD from the Library. The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl. This was a thriller set in 1865 with historical figures such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell and publisher J. T. Fields. The group is translating Dante’s Divine Comedy at the same time when a series of murders are taking place in Boston. The murders have a very familiar signature to them… I found this to be a very interesting book and it was great to see some of history’s figures in a fictional account. It is a similar vein to that of Caleb Carr’s The Alienist which featured Theodore Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan. Both books are very interesting because of how the characters approached such forensic investigation that is commonplace today but was just being discovered at that time.

I am the Disney Railroad. Not sure how I got that one but there you are. This was submitted by Mo, who is the Parking Lot Tram, she is, I verified it. The Disneyland Railroad: A real steam powered train, like the old mighty Santa Fe, on a picturesque route like no other! You take people from the turn of the century to Frontier-era New Orleans, to the bonafide hometown of Mickey Mouse, and into then into the world of the Future, passing through the Grand Canyon, Jungles, Forrests, Fantasyland, and the ancient world of the Dinosaurs along the way. Always on time, you are steady, reliable, orderly, and a practical form of transportation for your passengers in the park. You greet visitors as they enter and say goodbye to them as they leave tonight. You have an eye for old world detail and craftsmanship, even as you represent the industrial age and the spirit of American ingenuity. An old icon of progress, you may not be the fastest ride or as sleek as your Monorail cousin, but you can rest...

Okay some of you may not be on the Napoleon Dynamite train yet but believe you, me, its a wicked sweet movie. And it is insanely quotable. Check out this site. Napoleon Dynamite Quotes This was submitted to me by Mo, who is insanely quotable as well. Also Mo sent me this link to this quiz. Take the quiz and let me know in the comments which character you were. Mo was TRISHA, not the flippin Llama Tina. I turned out to be like Kip.  Which Napoleon Dynamite character are you? brought to you by Quizilla

Okay so there are some movies coming out that I am looking forward to. I thought I would share them with you. The one I am most looking forward too is Sahara. This is a movie that is based on the Clive Cussler Book of the same name. It is book 11 of the Dirk Pitt series of adventures. I sincerely hope that this movie does well because Dirk Pitt is one awesome character that would be great as a movie franchise. The trailer is great and I hope that this means a good movie overall. The second trailer is for the Fantastic Four movie. It was being filmed in Vancouver while I was working at a site out there. I hope that this also does well, although I am not as excited about this movie. The Third Trailer is for a Bruce Willis film. The name of the film is Hostage. I found out about this movie while at the airport bookstore in Boston. I saw the book and cover and thought, hey that looks like Bruce Willis, so I picked it up and read the synopsis. Sounds like a suspenseful movie. The last movie...

The Northeast is coated in a layer of white that keeps shifting all over. Dad and I cleared off the driveway around 12:00pm and finished around 4:00pm. The driveway is clear now. Here’s some pictures for you to enjoy. Notice that the post right before this one was from SUNNY 80 degree California. Mom is clearing off the cars Damn! That snow is high! Clearing a way to the street. Snow is everywhere. Let’s see how much of the house we can cover. Our poor redneck reindeer using its natural camouflaging ability.

This is an entry that I am making on my IPAQ. I am on my way home from LA in seat 17B of an American Airlines flight. Let me say first off that American Airlines is nothing like Jet Blue. For one thing American Airlines overbooks customers on old crampy buses of the sky. The Jet Blue planes are newer, cleaner and have better, wider seats. Those would really come in handy at this moment. I’m a bit squished and wet (I spilled my drink, first time ever), but luckily my headache is gone. Today after a great breakfast, Peter and I headed to the Simi Valley to see The Ronald Reagan Library. It was a trip across the LA highways with more cars and lanes that I have ever seen. I have to apologize to Peter for the constant ‘inertia’ of my brake foot. We got to the Ronald Reagan Library around 10:00am. Have you ever seen a kid entering Disney World for the first time? That would be Peter’s reaction at seeing the library. His eyes lit up like a hundred Christmas Trees. And me being the dutiful She...

Today I got to demonstrate Blood Bank and Pathology at a hospital in LA. It was surreal. I am going to become the master of the 20 minute Blood Bank demo. Because that is just what I had to do again today. It was crazy. Peter started off the morning and did LIS, Lab and Micro and the lab director was like, “What else you got.” And Peter told him that we had BBK and PTH to do. He then said he had to go to his office to see if there was something that he needed to get done. So we though that he was going to check his schedule and come back. One hour later he blew in with a pathologist in tow and we were off and running. I did pathology first and then it was 3:41PM and the director asked what was left and I said blood bank. He asked if we could be done by 4:00. I said 4:00, sure thing. And I buzzed right through the BBK demo, hitting the highlights and squealing the tires round the corners. It was very interesting. After we were finished the group headed to Hermosa Beach to Sharkeez for a...

This week I have been back out on the road. I am travelling with Peter for the week. We’ve already been to South Bend, Dallas and now we are in LA. We went from snow to 40 degrees to bright and sunny weather and highs in the 80’s. It has been a cross country whirlwind week and I have really enjoyed it. Although we did get a flight cancelled and got a little lost in Dallas we did catch our LA flight by the skin of our teeth. So things are going well. I even got to demo today. Its a little different than my last job and I like it alot. And tomorrow I’m going to demo again and tomorrow night I’m catching a comedy show with Uncle Jim. On Friday I’ll be going to the Regan library. Pictures to follow.

On Sunday January 9, 2005 was the Disney Half-Marathon. The buses started running at 3:00am to bring folks from their hotels to the Epcot parking lot. Tara, Erik, Beth and Missy and I headed over around 3:30am. I had already decided that I would walk the race route. I figured that since I walked all those training days with Allison over the summer and never had any problems with distance that 13 miles wouldn’t be that bad. Well, when you training consists of long walks with no time limits then you really don’t get a great sense of how fast you can actually walk. I apparently don’t walk as fast as I thought I did. The race started at 6:00am and I was in Corral M with Uncle Wayne and Aunt Cindy and Aunt Connie and Cousin Erin. The race started and they were off like a shot, weaving through the mass of people with ease. I tried to keep up for the first mile or so, keeping them in my line of vision. Unfortunately I did not hydrate in a proper manner, I overhydrated and stopped at the first...

Here are the photos I’ve been promising. Erik, Tara, Missy and Beth on Race Day Allison at the Living Seas. Fish are Friends, not food. Drew at the Living Seas. Munch, Munch Us at Epcot, in Japan Allison’s Birthday Dessert at the Coral Reef Restaurant Allison on our Last Day at the Pop Century. Us at the Airport on our last day. Dad enjoying his Christmas Gift a Harley Heritage Softtail. Dino Driving Allison. Dino Driving Drew, are we there yet? Mom and Dad at the Tree of Life in Animal Kingdom. Us at the Tree of Life after we caught up with Mom and Dad. The Rockin’ Roller Coaster entrance. Some experiments with the night mode of the camera.

This morning Allison and I had dinner with James and Danielle and Ken and Alicia. We went to the buffet that is put on by the Raddison Hotel at the Center of New Hampshire. And there just happened to be a bridal show there. So Marcia came and got Allison and 1:00 and I headed off to shop at Target. But during our brunch with everyone I asked James and Ken if they would be groomsmen in my wedding. Thus rounding out the bridal party. Allison can now breathe a sign of relief. I am very happy to have James and Ken share in our wedding. Both are great friends from back in the days when I worked at Saint A’s and I miss spending time with them very much. So now I have to get on the ball and get some tuxes picked out.

On Saturday January 8th, Allison and I along with my Mom and Dad and Tara and Erik headed to the Disney MGM Studios. We arrived at the park and had a little trouble with our tickets but it was worked out quickly. Then we used the photopass to get some group shots in front of the sorcerer’s hat that is the focal point of the MGM Studios. The photographer ended up being from Attleboro and Mom got his life’s story before we made our way over to see the Drew Carey Sounds Dangerous show. This show took place in mostly total darkness or at least it should have but people are illiterate and signs don’t apply to them. Prior to the show messages tell you that the show takes place in total darkness for 7 minutes or so. If your child cannot take 7 minutes of darkness, guess what, not the show for them to see. Step out of line and ride the teacups. So during the show there were two little kids in front of us who were using cell phones as light sources and it really detracted from the enjoyment of ...

This afternoon we are in New Hampshire. And after Allison got a haircut and I used my Christmas Best Buy Cards (One from last Christmas and One from this Christmas) to get Buffy Season 5 and Lord of the Rings, Return of the King extended Widescreen Edition (remember, if I buy a movie with a gift card that is within the restrictions of not buying DVD’s and Books, Gift cards are exempt unless I bought the gift card for myself and I’m not giving myself that loophole.). Anyway after that we met up with Mo at T.G.I. Fridays for lunch. If you don’t know Mo then that is too bad for you because she is a riot and we have so much fun getting together with her. We spent three hours in Friday’s chatting and eating and laughing like crazy. Quoting Napoleon Dynamite over and over, it was fun, you should have been there. So Why am I writing about lunch with Mo and not continuing the recap of Disney, and by the way where are the Disney pictures that I have been promising, they are coming I mean it. I ...

On Friday January 7, 2005 Allison and I went to the Animal Kingdom first thing in the morning. After a few pictures in front of the Tree of Life we headed to Dinoland U.S.A. and hit the Dinosaur ride which was a fast moving ride back in time to just before a the comet/meteor crashed into earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. The snarky lab tech from CSI Miami was our host. I don’t remember what his name was. The ride was cool because it had lots of twists and turns and even looked like little pieces of meteor were falling from the sky. After that we caught the performance of Tarzan Rocks, which by the way is a performance that my mom is still talking about. It was pretty cool with a live band and in-line skating ‘monkeys’ doing all sorts of tricks and dancers, and some cool rope flying by Tarzan and Jane. After that we were off to Asia and the Kali River Rapids, but along the way we were able to look in on the progress of Disney’s fastest roller coaster being built called Expedition Evere...

Been working all week since I got back from Florida on a demonstration. Will update with Florida Pics this weekend when I get some time. Sorry. Demo is going well so far. Still 2 hours left to go.

On Thursday the 6th Allison, Erik, Mom, Dad and I headed to Orlando. Our flight was an hour late because of the snow but at least we got out on Thursday. Jet Blue is a great airline, they have excellent customer service. In addition to multiple changes that were made for different tickets, (Dad’s, Tara’s, Shelby’s and Caitlyn’s) the flight attendants were also very helpful and sincere. There was this older woman who had been brought down by a wheelchair and then the wheelchair driver (pusher?) left but told her that she would be back to get her on the plane. Well, the plane started boarding and there was no wheelchair. I spoke with the woman at the counter and she was right on it. I couldn’t believe how quickly she got a new wheelchair for that lady. So the plane was also very impressive, each seat was large with direct TV on the headrest and they served great snacks and full sodas without having to ask for the whole soda. When we got to Florida we took a 15 passenger van from the airp...

I will try and post a recap with photos tonight. There should be a link soon to our Disney Photopass photos coming up soon. Busy week, no time to post. Will post soon.

It is 5:30am and we are up and getting ready to head to the airport to go to Disney. I haven’t been to Disney since I was in High school and am so looking forward to getting back there. The snow outside doesn’t look too terrible so I am going to knock on wood that we leave on time. Well, I should finish getting ready. Hopefully I can post during the trip, with pictures and whatnot. Enjoy the Disney trivia for the rest of the week.

Today I'm training a new product, it is called Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I am learning how to speak to the computer so that recognizes each thing that I say. I can open documents, I can close documents, I can save documents, all with the sound of my voice. Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a pretty interesting software product it understands most of what I say, especially what I speak clearly. It is funny to be talking to the computer and telling it to put in commas and periods. What is also interesting is that it cannot differentiate between me telling you to add a comma, and asking for the word comma or period. So if I want the computer spell out the word comma or period. I have to say commas or periods and then remove the punctuation. So this is my first blog entry, funny it knew the word for blog, (I needed to teach it the word lycanthrope) that I am entering with the help of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. The reason that I taught it the word lycanthrope, was that I was reading a b...

Yeah! I got the okay from my doctor to travel yesterday! My thumb is almost better. It is now it’s normal color AND the wrinkles around the knuckle are back!! I’d almost forgotten I had those! So tomorrow we are off, weather permitting! We’ll think of you all as we wander the Happiest Place on Earth!

I made a couple of changes to the Blog. One you can clearly see is the change to the layout. I was getting tired of the other layout so I made a change. However with all the custom work I’ve done to the blog, this was not a simple change. It took a while but I got it back up running smoothly. The second changes is to the comments section. I have made the decision to allow anonymous posts in the comment section. I have too many friends who want nothing to do with creating their own blog account so instead I’ll allow anonymous posts so you need not make your own blogger account. The third change was to the sidebar. I have added links to our blogger profiles. (both mine and Allison’s). And last of all with the weather looking like it may spoil our flight out tomorrow I added a local weather, for North Attleboro, box in the sidebar. Enjoy. Let me know what you think of the new design. And if you have suggestions for other features that I should add.

In five days I’ll be participating in the Disney 1/2 Marathon. I think I am ready, the experts say that one must taper their workouts prior to big events like marathons and whatnot. I’ve got that covered, I started tapering one week after I started training. I’ll be walking the 13 miles not running it. I’m really looking forward to going to Disney. I haven’t been there since I went with James and his family back in high school. I got some information from the marathon folks, one is the course map. And the other is that you can track a runners progress through the www.disneyworldmarathon.com website. I can also e-mail or page people with my race progress. I think I may be able to blog my progress too. And I’ll see about getting Tara and Erik and Beth and Missy to blog their progress too. So on Sunday January 9 between 6:00am and 9:30 (I have 3 1/2 hours to get it done) you can check here for updates. Hopefully it will work correctly.

  So yesterday I took Duncan to the vet. Why, because when I called the vet to relay the information I received over the weekend, “A seizure of a cat can be common”, my vet office, Foxboro Animal Hospital said, “That doesn’t sound right, bring him in.” So I did bring Duncan in, by himself. That might not sound significant but Duncan and Oliver do nothing without the other one around, so taking only one cat to the vet was a bit traumatizing for both cats. The vet did a whole checkup of Duncan and said there was nothing that he could see wrong with Duncan. But if something else happens we should bring him in for an X-ray and bloodwork. Duncan, stay healthy! And speaking of healthy Allison went to her doctors because of the cat bite, she got a tetanus and an antibiotic shot in the butt for her troubles. Won’t stick your hand in another cats mouth again, will ya. The doctor put her on some more powerful antibiotic and drew a little line to show where the redness was on her hand because...

Dr. Kay Scarpetta is a chief medical examiner in Richmond, Virginia, is featured in: In Chronological Order Postmortem (1990) Body of Evidence (1991) All That Remains (1992) Cruel and Unusual (1993) The Body Farm (1994) From Potters Field (1995) Cause of Death (1996) Unnatural Exposure (1997) Point of Origin (1998) Black Notice (1999) The Last Precinct (2000) Blow Fly (2003) Trace (2004) Predator (2005) Judy Hammer, Chief of Police, Deputy Virginia West and Andy Brazil, a young reporter turned rookie cop, are featured in: In Chronological Order Hornet’s Nest (1997) Southern Cross (1999) Isle of Dogs (2001)

It is the year 2005… (I looked for that voiceover from the Transformers movie but couldn’t find it.) But despite that 2005 is here. Allison and I had some major incident already occur on the first day of the year. Our cat Duncan had a seizure this morning. And I know that pets are not children but they are dependent upon you for their survival and care so when something occurs that you cannot control it is incredibly traumatic. This morning we experienced that event. I was on the computer playing Runescape when I heard what sounded like one of the cats getting sick (regular occurrence, cats puke, it happens and it is over quick) then I heard the panicked voice of Allison calling for Duncan. I ran into the other room to find Duncan spasming on the floor, eyes wide and mouth open. We each immediately thought the same thing, his collar is stuck in his mouth again. (This happened once before and was also traumatic to watch) however when Allison grabbed for him to check if that was the case...