BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #267 12/31/05 The last photo of the day for 2005 is Derek and his lightsaber. We are at Derek and Michelle’s for the 3rd annual New Year’s Eve party. More photos from the festivities tomorrow.

Today Allison and I went with Jen to see Fun With Dick And Jane. It was really good overall. And at the end the movie is dedicated to some very special people. that was hilarious. Just a good entertaining movie. One to rent when it comes out on DVD or one to see at a matinee.

Photo-A-Day #266 12/30/05 Tonight we went to the Ellis Paul show at Club Passim. It is an annual event that we go to. Tara and Erik got us tickets (front row). It was a great time.  Last night Allison and I along with Tara and Chris went to see Ellis Paul, Don Conoscenti, Christopher Williams and Special guest Vance Gilbert at the Annual New Year’s Eve shows at Club Passim. Tara got her usual spot which is front row table, she has had that table for 5 years. We have been lucky enough to get to go for 3 or 4 of those years. We determined on the way in that Tara has been following Ellis Paul’s music for 14 years now. Since she was in High School. Tara introduced me to Ellis’ music in 1994 at a small show in Woods Hole at a chapel overlooking a harbor. I don’t think I can remember how many times I have seen Ellis in the past 12 years. But I do know that each show has been great. Allison was introduced to Ellis when we began dating. So she has been a fan for 5 years at least. We were a...

Just found out about this movie. :::: ERAGON 2006 :::: Supposedly this will be in December 2006. I know it is a year away but I am very excited. When I listed to Eragon on CD it was awesome and now I have Eldest on CD (Thanks to my wonderful wife) and can’t wait to see how the Trilogy progresses.

This started as a comment on Mo’s Blog but got out of control on me so I made it a full fledged post. Today on Mo’s blog “We’re In a Fight” she posed many questions. And one of the questions was “Why are there still brown M&Ms?” I however ask the question, “Why isn’t the Brown M&Ms represented as a Character like the other M&M’s?” You know Brown is gonna be a black M&Ms. It is obvious but it may not be seen as something that can be pulled off in a “politically correct” way. Black people eat M&Ms too, why aren’t they represented. Brown could be a a sexy female M&M like Green and thus give the Male M&M’s another female Character to drool over. Yes, I said that Green was sexy, I know she is candy, but she was made for her sex appeal especially because of her ties to “the bases” from that commercial back in the day when that kid was talking about hitting baseballs and what each M&Ms helped him accomplish. Don’t remember it? Then you are either too old, too y...

Photo-A-Day #265 12/29/05 Writers are told to write what they know. So I figure that the same is true for photographers, shoot what you know. Well, I know sandwiches and I know our cats. And every time I make sandwiches I get Oliver and or Duncan harassing me for something. I don’t know why because I never give them anything except when I make tuna sandwiches, then they get the tuna juice. I would think that they could tell the difference between tuna and turkey and when they get a snack and when they don’t. But that is probably asking too much. Tonight Allison and I went with my cousin Carissa to the Route One Cinema Pub to see Walk The Line. Very good movie. I would like to see that again when it comes out on video.

Photo-A-Day #264 12/28/05 This photo was taken in August. (I’m taking a one day break from a daily photo for a special and sad reason.) A farewell to Daisy. Daisy was Tara and Erik’s dog. Daisy is no longer with us. Daisy was a high spirited and energetic dog, she was tireless, she could be very sweet and fun, but she was also unpredictable and aggressive, as we would come to find out. Tara and Erik did everything possible to rehabilitate Daisy. More than could have been expected of any person. I’m not going to get into the details here but all avenues were explored, all roads taken and all options exhausted. This week has been very tough for us all here, especially Tara and Erik. I can only imagine the difficulty and heartbreak that they are going through today. I’m tearing up just writing this. Dad is heartbroken too. He spent alot of time with the both dogs and had a special place in his heart for Daisy. Allison and I made our goodbyes last night and I said a final goodbye today whe...

Does anyone remember this show from 1993? When it began it was closely tied with Dr. Robert Ballard, the man who lead the expidition to discover the Titanic in 1985. I remember watching the first episodes and being fascinated. Steven Spielberg was one of the executive producers. Roy Scheider of Jaws fame was Captian Nathan Bridger, a great captain. Jonathan Brandis was Lucas, a boy genius. I loved that show and today I was flipping channels and found it playing on the Sci-Fi Channel. You see the show started more with science and the ocean, but starting with the second season the science fiction began to surpass the science and season three was just science fiction with a 10 year jump to the future for everyone but the seaquest crew. It was a great show and it is too bad it was cancelled. But three days ago the Seaquest DVD set for season one came out. Can’t wait to get myself a copy. I just saw that Sci-Fi has had Seaquest playing from 8-5 every single day this week. Man I hate it whe...

If you have yet to see a full episode of 2 1/2 Men or How I met your mother, now is your chance. CBS COMEDY BOWL is airing 2 episodes of each of these comedies streaming online through Yahoo complete without commercials. Some pretty funny shows here. You might want to check them out. BTW – This is the 1000th post of the BenSpark. Not epic by any means but here we are at 1000 posts.

Photo-A-Day #263 12/27/05 Today Allison and I took the day off, just another day was needed after the holiday to relax and decompress. So we hung out took care of the Christmas Cards and sending out the Wedding Announcements. So we hung around played with the cats and had Taylor in for a while. We watched Elf and it was actually fairly funny. There were come great parts and some typical Ferrell humor (Which I am not the biggest fan). But it was good overall. Tonight we went to Target and I picked up Smallville seasons 3 and 4 because they were on a half off sale. And apparently I can get a $30 rebate by mail because I bought all four seasons in the past year. It is a pretty sweet deal. We met up with Jeff and Jenna for breakfast at Bickfords. They got the Baby Apple and I got some crepes. I love crepes. Allison got a southwestern omelet. Allison is pictured holding Oliver. She is wearing her new Drive Back Roads shirt that I got her for Christmas. We are going to see Christopher on Fri...

Photo-A-Day #262 12/26/05 It is official, Ken and Alicia are engaged. They came over to Marcia and Dan’s this afternoon and hung out with us till 5:00pm. They referred to themselves as “Late Stayers” No problem guys, it was great to catch up with what you guys are up to and a huge congratulations goes out to the two of you. Ken staged this photo because he wanted one that looked like a High School Prom Picture. Alicia, do you know what you are getting into. 🙂

Merry Christmas. I’m writing this blog post with the Treo while we are on our ride up to New Hampshire. Christmas 2005 has been very good to us. We are married. We have a great family. We have wonderful friends. Can’t complain at all. Last night we gave Shelby a digital camera and photo printer. A sweet little setup because she doesn’t need a computer to print her pictures. We gave my dad a Harley Davidson ornament, a Harley Santa hat, a Sturgis long sleeve T-shirt and a children’s book “Why Grandpa Rides A Harley“, and a DVD copy of Bullit. I’m looking forward to watching that one. We gave Tara a book called Trail of Thread that goes with a pattern for a quilt that is described in the book. I got that in Kansas at the Bison Farm. We also gave Tara & Erik a gift card for Target. Erik was given Dodgeball the unrated edition and a black golfball from Three Rivers Whitewater. We gave Mom the Christopher Williams Unbroken Song Christmas CD. And when I was in Kansas I picked up the Fran...

Photo-A-Day #261 12/25/05 Marcia has many beautiful decorations around the house at Christmas Time. Here are some stockings hung along the railing with care. This is Marcia’s tree. It is covered with some fantastic ornaments. Even the cub scout one of Nate. Allison got her baby fix on Christmas Day, Lindsay’s niece Ashley. Marcia told us what she wants next year for Christmas. Subtle. Okay so there were no actual transformers gifts this year but getting my gifts in this bag was pretty awesome. Allison makes fantastic Apple Pie. This one has homemade crust with Eva’s recipe and three kinds of apples that Allison put in it. Macs, Cortlands and Granny Smiths. Delicious

Photo-A-Day #260 12/24/05 We are at church for midnight mass. Here is our luminary that we made for the celebration. Merry Christmas! Shelby got Mom the perfect gift, a warming coaster for her tea. No more running to the microwave to heat it back up. Dad has his Harley Santa hat and the book. “Why Grandpa Rides a Harley” No, there are no other announcements. Shelby opens her second gift from Tara, Erik, Allison and I. This is an HP photosmart printer that takes all memory cards and usb connections and is even useable with BlueTooth. This is to go with her new digital camera. There was so much chocolate on this cake that I had to play around with Photoshop to show the distinction. The original picture looks like a black hubcap. That was an awesomely delicious cake. Waiting for Santa ... Or for a dropped crumb, whichever comes first. Taylor the Christmas Dog. Isn’t she beautiful. And very well behaved was well. We didn’t do one on Christmas Eve so we got one taken on Christmas Day. Isn’t...

Allison and I are preparing any last minute items for the Christmas Holiday. We just watched ... Christmas Vacation It is a holiday tradition for me to watch this movie. I just love the subtle humor that you find in this movie, whether it be dialogue or a visual thing, there is so much in the movie that you may miss without the benefit of multiple viewings. To me, this is the ultimate Christmas movie. Despite being so over the top at times it really does capture the craziness of the Holiday season. I am sure that Mo will add this as one of her Christmas Movies-A-Day once her back stops hurting. So, I won’t give my review of it. I did however want to share that this is a must see movie. My absolute favorite part is when Clark and Eddie are shopping. Eddie keeps tossing dog food on the cart and Clark puts on one box of light bulbs and Eddie drops a 50lb bag right on top of it and neither says anything. It is that subtlety that cracks me up. Clearly Chevy Chase was on top of his game in t...

Last night Allison and I took a quick run to the store to get dinner. I don’t know what it is about the holiday’s but this whole week we have not had a thing in the house and have either gone out to dinner or picked up something and brought it home. So, last night we decided to go to the store to pick up something to cook for dinner. We were going to pick up something to make for tonight’s dessert for Christmas Eve with my parents and Tara, Erik and Shelby. We decided on Chocolate cake and we had all the ingredients for it at the house, a fact we realized again while we were at the store. So we picked up two Stuffies.  Stuffies are stuffed clams or quahogs for those outside of New England. Then we hit Benny’s to clear out the rest of their stock of 4X6 frames. (The best prices around for 4X6 frames, under $2 each, sweet!) What with all the pictures we’ve been printing lately it is a good thing. Have a wedding you’ll have great pictures to give all your friends and family for a whil...

Photo-A-Day #259 12/23/05 Today was the annual 1/2 day before Christmas and Company Christmas party. Each year a literal boatload of shrimp is consumed. Right below the ice sculpture is the shrimp boat and behind it is the giant tree. It is a very festive mood here today. We had a tie swap and I got one ugly and one decent, but it has a stain so hopefully I can get it cleaned or something like that.

Another Year over? What am I talking about, New Year’s isn’t for another week. Another year over means that we have just completed Year #2 of the BenSpark. Yep this Blog has just Turned 2 Years old today and we head into Year #3. So what lies ahead in Year #3? Expect more Photos (of course, I now post them to Buzznet, Flicker and mySpace) as I complete year one of Photo-A-Day and start Year #2 (I think I am going to do it again, it has been so much fun). We should hit the 1000th post right after New Year’s. Expect more messages about music as mySpace has become a great place to find new musical talent. I’ll be keeping a running tally of the Books, CD’s and Movies I mention on the BenSpark (Look for a Year in Review of all the things multimedia I mentioned this past year around the 1st of the year). There will be new drop down menus on the right hand side that will list those items. I will continue to be on the look out for other Photo-A-Day friends, funny music and videos and generall...

Gotta Send a message out about my musical friends on myspace. One of my favorite things about mySpace is that I have been able to not only find longtime childhood friends (or rather they found me.) but I can also be exposed to musical talent I would otherwise not have found. And some of that musical talent have Christmas Songs on their profiles. First up is Christopher Williams. CW has a Christmas Album called Unbroken Song. Allison and I picked it up at the last show we went to at the Lyon’s Den in Norton. The CD is great. You can hear one of the songs “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” on his myspace profile. Great song. Next Check out Timothy Daniel and his song “This Christmas” A cool sound. Shawn McDonald has his rendition of O Holy Night. Very Nice. Check out Over the Rainbow and Take my hand too, (I know they aren’t Christmas songs but they are cool.) Check out Paul Wright’s song Love Year Long, cool little original Christmas Song. Made especially for myspacers. If anyone want...

Photo-A-Day #258 12/22/05 Taylor meets Duncan, Duncan meets Taylor. I don’t know who was more scared. Probably Taylor. Duncan just relazed and ignored Taylor after a little while. Taylor has been staying with my parents for the past week or so. And Taylor sits outside of the door that separates our apartment from the main house. She has come in the past few days. And the cats and Taylor are begining to get used to each other, kinda. Oliver growls at Taylor, it is this tiny little growl, its kinda cute. A friend of mine from my childhood recently got in touch with me on myspace. Her name is Autumn. She used to live two houses down from me and we spent lots of time together as kids. She found me and put me back in touch with another of my childhood friends. Cool. Autumn’s sister Kim has a website for pet gifts and if you live in North Carolina she also runs singles events for single pet owners and DINKY Ps (Double Income No Kids with Pets) events. Check out her site at www.kimspets.com. ...

Photo-a-Day #257 12/21/05 I was driving by Saint Mary’s Church in Downtown North Attleboro tonight and I liked how the sky looked. I tried a few different shots with different settings and this one is the truest to how the sky looked.

Photo-A-Day #256 12/20/05 Probably the earliest photo-a-day taken by me. This is the concession stand at the North Attleboro Showcase Cinemas. Taken at 12:05am this morning. Allison and I went with Uncle Jim to see King Kong at 9:00 (3 hour movie plus take Jim home after = longer night or rather short night if you look at it from a sleep perspective.) Kong was visually a stunning movie. Peter Jackson is amazing at the grand set designs and incredible scenery. The cast was great and Naomi Watts was fantastic. The detail on Kong was also incredible. There were many things that were far fetched (not that a 25 foot gorilla is believable by any stretch) but the movie overall was very entertaining and suspenseful and scary at times too. (Photo taken with Treo 650 camera phone, for the heck of it.)

Photo-A-Day #255 12/19/05 Notice the painted glass window cow. My Dad raised cows when he was a boy. He even built his own barn when he was a teen and built it so well that it still stands today. My mother-in-law Marcia gave the painted window to my Dad. He has many assorted cow related stuff throughout the house. This is being displayed on the side of the house. Also pictured are the candle lights for Fire and Police. That’s a big thing around our town, you will notice a lot of white lights around and then a single red (fire) or a single blue (police) or both.

Photo-A-Day #254 12/18/05 This is my cousin Matt’s son Keith (so, is he my cousin or second cousin?). He is so much fun. Such a happy little kid who is so energetic and talented. Of course his Mom and Dad are both very talented too. Keith and I played with his Rescue Hero’s mini set, the Avalanche playset. Opening all of those twist ties is good practice for our future children and the toys that they will get later. When Keith wasn’t playing the drums he was playing this flute and he was on target with the Christmas carols we were singing. The Annual Bennett Family family Christmas party was a great time at Corrine and Jeff’s. Allison made two apple pies to bring for dessert, Dad made chicken wings and I made poor man truffles. Poor Man Truffles Ingredients: Rolos, Pretzel Snaps (great base) and salted almonds. 2. Put a sheet of aluminum foil on a baking pan, grease lightly with butter. 3. Heat oven to 350 while you lay out the pretzels with rolos on top. 3. Once all pretzels and r...

Photo-A-Day #253 12/17/05 This is one of my supervisor’s cats. It was looking very adorable hanging out with the coats. Our boys do that too. Allison took this photo of the lab group. We have Peter, Dave, Christine and me. (Allison took the shot) his is a Christmas Themed U2 shot. The lab group, again, Peter (Looking Down), Dave (looking right), Christine Looking up and right), and Me (Looking up and left) (Allison also took this shot.)

Christmas Poem Circa 1985 Back in Christmas 1985 when I was 10 years old I made these poems and mini calendars for my family. When Great Uncle Richard passed away back in July my Mom found that gift. Great Uncle Richard had kept it, even though it was a silly poem and a tiny calendar on an index card. Here is the poem (spelling errors not fixed for posterity) Christmas iis lots of fun Happy gifts for everyone Relatives gifts are open I am just hopin Saint Nick comes on every eve Try to get a picture before he leaves Moist and soft snow All of us know Special I had read this a couple of times before I posted it, it wasn’t until now that I realized that it was a poem that spelled out christmas. 1985 was my favorite Christmas, Nintendo and Transformers were plentiful in my house and I loved every minute. I am blessed with such generous family members.

Photo-a-Day #252 12/16/05 Before the photos all become Christmas ones I will sneak another of the cats in. Oliver was resting and I disturbed him when I came home. I realized today that I pass no less than 5 liquor stores on my way home. And that is just the 5 miles stretch from the highway to the turn to our street. I picked up some wine for Allison on the way home. I got her the good stuff, 2 for $12.99. It is called Fish eye Pinot Grigio. I also noticed and have noticed for a while that people no longer respect the no passing on the right law. I make sure never to pass on the right going through a town especially my town and Plainville, the next town over for two reasons. 1. I had stopped one time because the person in front of me stopped and was making a turn. The person behind me, a mom in a minivan talking on her cell phone swerved around me to pass on the right and slammed on her brakes because there were some kids walking along the side of the road. Luckily Miss can’t-be-bother...

I’m going to start telling folks about the new sounds of new artists that I have found on myspace. I generally am interested in folk singers and acoustic singers/songwriters. Today I listened to four songs from Amber Rubarth and they are very good. [I would make a terrible critic, I like what I like and generally like everything. The way I figure it is I don't have that talent so who am I to judge.] But what I can do is recommend that you listen to Amber Rubarth and decide for yourself. You can listen to her music on myspace. . Enjoy! I have many more artists to come. Amber is being added to my musicians list on the right side drop down menus too.

Okay so I now qualify for a Free Treo because I flew a few times on United. Unfortunately the free treo is through Cingular and I re-upped my contract with Verizon YESTERDAY! Oh well, I think I may go back to Verizon and get a Treo 650 from them anyway. Still debating it with myself. If anyone would like the free Treo instead let me know.

Photo-a-Day #251 12/15/05 So I decided to get the Treo 650. And when I went to get the Treo 650 for $99.00 based upon an ad in Sunday’s newspaper. Let’s just say that the ad below does not reflect the real price one would pay. You would think that one would pay $199.00 for the Treo 650. Not so, no no, not so. Silly person who thinks that ads actually reflect real numbers. How silly!  What that ad doesn’t say, and it says it NOWHERE on the whole ad, is that you have to buy the unlimited data plan to get the $100 discount. So I was expecting to go in, return my LG VX9800, and get a new Treo 650 for $99.00 ($199.00 with rebates plus $100.00 for the Verizon New Every Two deal where you get $100 towards a new phone every 2 years.). But instead I ended up running between the two verizon sellers in the store finding out exactly what the ad really meant and then paying $199.00 for the phone because I decided not to get the monthly unlimited data addition (a $44.00 a month fee that would ha...

Well, it hasn’t been a good year for the Sparks family and pets. On Tuesday, Mom and Dad had to make the decision to have our cat, Moxie, put down. We are all very sad, but know it was for the best. Moxie was almost 21 years old and had not been very comfortable for the past year or so. She was a cat with an attitude and, while she was never affectionate or lovey, she had a very special place in all of our hearts. Moxie, looking pretty. Moxie, Protecting the house. Moxie and Fraiser on the couch

Photo-A-Day #250 12/14/05 Optimus Prime contemplating the LG VX9800. I was inspired to set up this shot because of this ad for a Nokia Phone. It also reflects my current mood of deciding whether I want to keep this phone or get the Treo 650. So I’ve been standing around scratching my head trying to see what I make of the phone in this time of testing. Does anyone have the LG VX9800 or the Treo 650 and what are your thoughts.

Wasn’t the poseidon adventure remake on TV recently? Here is a feature film of a remake of the Poseidon adventure. Weird. Looks pretty cool and it is good to see Kurt Russell get more work. Apple – Trailers – Poseidon – Large

Check out this site Da Vinci Code and click Teaser Trailer and that will bring you to the full length trailer. It looks awesome! Only have to wait till May 16th for it. I loved the book and hope that the movie captures the same sense of adventure.

You may have noticed that I often put up different books or items from Amazon.com. The reason I do so is because I believe in Amazon.com and their affiliate program. Out of all the things I have added to this page to generate a small income (I’ve generated $9.99 in two years, yippee! And I won’t see that money unless I earn $50 total) Amazon.com seems to be the only thing that is worth clicking for folks. I think it is because amazon is a good company to deal with, I’ve been buying from Amazon.com since it started and have never had a bad experience. So as you are doing any last minute shopping check out Amazon.com but go there through this site to help us out a bit. It is pennies per purchase and in 2015 I will see that $50.00. Just use the box below. Or the one I will add to the top of the screen. Thanks for making your Christmas Purchases through our site. For book Recommendations please go to Flatwater Bookstore (My bookstore site with some of my favorite authors. I have many more ...

Photo-A-Day #249 12/13/05 New phone. Guys night. ‘Nuff said. Okay maybe there is more to say. Today I got a new phone. It has a camera built into it. Scary thought that I can now take pictures with my phone and post them too the web. Very scary indeed. I got the LG VX9800 VCAST phone. I have a free month of VCAST service and have been playing around with it a little bit. Tonight I took this shot of the guys at the Funway Cafe. We have Peter, Derek and Neil. (Derek is making the BK face, basically that freaky look from the Burger King in the BK commercials. He loves that guy.) We had a great time at Guys night, ate some buffalo wings, had a few beers, told some stories and played some ice hockey. Good times, good friends. Updated 12/14/05 – Okay so I am getting the hang of this thing. For instance the image is too big for my settings for this blog so I had to edit the size of the image. Also it is really not sharp at all. I know it is a camera phone and all but it is 1.3mp and I have an...

Photo-A-Day #248 12/12/05 When in doubt of a photo-a-day subject look to the cats. Here is Duncan being curious. Sorry to be boring today. I have a week full f internet demos so my creativity is a bit cramped at the moment, worried about doing a good job and all.

Photo-A-Day #247 12/11/05 Tonight Allison and I trimmed the Christmas tree with my parents and Tara and Erik. We used the ornaments that Grandma Theresa made. So we have a very simply decorated tree downstairs. It is a very nice tree and the first one in years that we could actually get all the way around.

Photo-A-Day #246 12/10/05 This afternoon Allison and I went to see the Chronicles of Narnia at the Bellingham Movie Theater. We met up with Neil and Andrea for a 4:10pm show. At the theater there was alot of activities for the kids. People were dressed up, there were swordfight shows and a picture taking area. They were even giving out great Narnia Posters. I didn’t get any photos at the begining of the show. So I got this ont he way out. I had to lighten up the poster. What a fantastic movie. The story is awesome and the visual effects and the actors were incredible. You could really tell that they enjoyed making the movie. It was fantastic.

Photo-A-Day #245 12/09/05 So the Northeast got some snow today. I got sent home early from work too. Pretty sweet. I actually got the nod prior to the overhead announcement. So, when I was waiting for the elevator to come to my floor, the overhead announcement came on to let everyone know that a Snow Emergency was declared from and supervisors could let their people go home. So here I am standing at the elevator and this announcement comes on and I am all ready to leave. Steve sees me and says, You wasted no time getting out of here didn’t you. My timing is just priceless sometimes. The drive home was an adventure. I had Eragon on most of the time so that was good company. So I am finished with that book and can’t wait to listen to Eldest. I requested that for a Christmas gift, that is pretty much all I want for Christmas this year. As for other books, I am halfway through a Superior Death. I really like the series so far. Tonight Dad and Erik took the two snowblowers out and did the d...

Photo-A-Day #244 12/08/05 A T-Rex runs amuck in the Pittsburgh Airport. I saw this last night around 11:45pm (I wasn’t staying around till midnight to take the picture for today’s Photo-A-Day. I knew I’d be back today to get the shot.) It is a pretty fantastic thing to see. What wasn’t fantastic was the oblivious dolt in front of me in the security line. So Captain oblivious takes a grey bucket to put his laptop in, moves ahead enough for me to take another grey bucket for my laptop. I go to get my laptop from my backpack and C.O. takes the grey bucket I picked up for my laptop and puts his laptop bag inside it. First of all, bags don’t go in grey buckets, they are for laptops and electronic devices, get a helmet. Second of all, What! Do you think I am your personal assistant or something, I mean I could be someone’s personal assistant, details and organization are my thing but not yours buddy. I got that bucket for me, not you, What a jerk. I hope he felt the heat of my disapproving s...

Hey there, about to go to my next demo this morning. I finished Track of the Cat last night and started A Superior Death. I think I’m gonna like Anna Pigeon. It was a good thing my connection last night was a 2 1/2 layover because out of the 4 people on my flight from Binghamton I was the only one to get to my connecting flight. I’m not going to want to get into a political discussion about what happened in Miami yesterday. I watched the talking heads on Fox News ask their insipidly stupid questions and debate the actions of the air marshalls. I for one would want to make sure that any threat percieved or otherwise was neutralized. I make no apologies for my stance on this. There is so much I want to say about this but will keep it to myself. But talking heads, you weren’t there you don’t have the training you have the luxury of sitting back and playing Monday morning quarterback. The air marshalls did what needed to be done, that is why they are air marshalls and you are not. Decision...

Photo-A-Day #243 12/07/05 The glamorous life on the road. Got in last night at 8:00pm (after not being able to find the hotel). Have to check out and drive an hour to site in about 30 minutes. Then will be at site till 4:30 pm, have to drive 1 1/2 hours back to the airport for a 7:20 pm flight from Binghamton to Philly, then from Philly to Pittsburgh, getting in at 11:46 pm and then hitting the hotel to sleep and wake up for another demo early in the morning. Needless to say this is my only opportunity for Photo-A-Day today. Maybe tomorrow will be a better one. Looks like I got a chance to get online at the Binghamton Airport and upload a second Photo-A-Day for today. I mean this morning was just lame, nothing of real value. This is a picture of The Link Trainer. It is a flight trainer that was built in the 1920’s by Edwin Albert Link. There is a museum here at the Binghamton Airport to Edwin Albert Link.

Photo-A-Day #242 12/06/05 Duncan is very easy to entertain, just give him some shadows to chase and he is all set. I love our cats, they are so much fun. Skittish and crazy, but fun none-the-less.

Photo-A-Day #241 12/05/05 Tonight Allison and I went with Rondi and Andy to see Christopher Williams play at the Lyon’s Den in Norton at Wheaton College. As always an entertaining evening. It felt like a private show because of the small space and the smaller number of patrons. The Lyon’s Den is a coffee shop on the campus of Wheaton College where I am guessing student activities money was used to get Christopher there. Hey, if the college kids aren’t gonna take advantage of a great evening of music then the spoils go to us. We are more than happy to hang with CW and his lovely wife (whom we met for the first time tonight and was very nice) and chat about Photo-A-Day, the honeymoon, the wedding. They have the same anniversary but got married last year. So, we talked about the honeymoon and the wedding and CW told the students about Photo-A-Day because I was taking pictures for tonight’s Photo-A-Day. I was messing around with the lighting settings and filters on the camera to get this s...

I know I am posting this a little late, but Lola the cat has died. She went missing about Thanksgiving and Ed, Dan and Marcia’s neighbor, told them that she had died and he took care of burying her. Lola was Dan and Marcia’s grey and white kitten. I mentioned her back in 2003 when they got her. She was a cute little ball of fur. Such a beautiful cat, we will miss her very much. We were very sad to hear the news and are sad for Dan and Marcia. Here are a couple of pictures of Lo-Lo (What we called her from time to time.) Lola the Kitten Lola the Cat.