BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #448 06/30/06 We picked this frame up in Aruba during our honeymoon. Since we are finishing decorating our room at the Cape this weekend I thought I’d finally print out this picture and put it in the frame. This was from the roll of film that ran through the x-ray twice, thanks security for the grainy photographic memories. It totally fits the frame though, so that is a good thing. I printed a couple more pictures for other frames in the room. I’ll be taking pictures of the room once we get everything in place this weekend. So it is coming up on the 4th or July, that is the official start of the summer in my opinion. So to usher in the Summertime I thought I’d leave it to the Fresh Prince himself. So I changed the video early. Now I am just waiting for Allison to come home and we will be on our way to the Cape. Do some Rollerblading, work around the house, beach time, kite flying and cook-outing, I’m going to try and make the Nacho Mama’s S’mores again. This time on the gri...

Photo-A-Day #447 06/29/06 It is hot, and everything is sticky and gross. Envelopes are stuck together and it stinks. I can’t wait for some days without humidity. I played with Taylor out back and caught her in mid catch.

Photo-A-Day #446 06/28/06 All in all I ended up spending less than 24 hours in Kalamazoo Michigan. This was about the shortest trip I've ever taken. I got in to the hotel yesterday around 4 or 5pm, I can't remember, probably because I went from East Coast Time to Central Time and then back to East Coast Time, I was all over the place. But as I learned, there was a lot to do in Kalamazoo. I could have gone over to Battle Creek to learn more about Kellogg's cereals. I would have enjoyed that very much. I also could have gone to the Air-Zoo in Kalamazoo. That was a pretty neat place. I did end up popping into the lobby of the Air-Zoo there for about 15 minutes to check out the gift shop and buy a Kite for Allison and I to use at the Cape. (Also to get the Photo-A-Day.) It is a 3D kite that looks like a fighter jet. I can't wait to try it out and get some pictures, maybe even some video. We'll hopefully get to use it this weekend at the Cape. The kite is in a 4 foot tal...

Photo-A-Day #445 6/27/06 I’m in Kalamazoo, MI. My first time in the state, I haven’t had much time to check it out and I won’t. I’ve got a demo tomorrow and return home right afterwards. Today Charles dropped me at the Harrisburg airport. A good airport in my opinion because they have the key feature, Free Wireless Internet. I was scheduled for a 4:41pm flight because of the demonstration I was suppose to have today that got cancelled. Luckily Elise and Charles were very gracious to keep us over another whole day and night. I really appreciated that guys. I ended up getting on a standby flight at 11:30am to get to Chicago. Once in Chicago my luck held out again and I got an early flight to Kalamazoo. I went to get some dinner at Taco Bell (I can’t help it anymore when I see one on the road I get a meal. Allison should not have introduced me to it.) I then went to a Meijer’s to get some bottled water, mixed nuts and some grapes. I have a little kitchen and 2 bedrooms at my hotel and I a...

A pretty good effort. I wonder if lego is going to do superman along with batman and spiderman. I checked the site and didn’t see anything. That would be a cool set of lego toys, Batman, Superman and Spiderman. I like it. This past weekend I saw the Batman Handbook. It tells you how to do everything like Batman. Funny read.

Photo-A-Day #444 06/26/06 Today Allison and I went with Elise to their alma mater, Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, PA. We drove up in the morning, went to the bookstore, bought some SU stuff and then said hello to some of their friends who now work at the college. We then went to Front Street Station to have lunch. They have some really good buffalo wings there. Allison and I split that and a medium cheesesteak sandwich. The wings were similar to the Saint A’s wings from back when I spent many nights at the pub. After lunch we stopped at a few shops and the Susquehanna Trading Post. Elise took today’s photo. I thought it was a really nice one of Allison and I so that is why it gets the top billing. I took a bunch of other pictures but these three below were blogworthy. Lunch at Front street with Melissa, Elise and Allison. Elise and Allison in front of the SU entrance sign Close up in front of the SU sign

Photo-A-Day #443 06/25/06 I have two photos with groups of people in them that are bonus pictures from today. Since I couldn’t decide between the lunch and dinner photos of the groups of fellow diners I choose a picture of my tasty lunch at Isaac’s Deli today. Isaac’s is a great little deli in and around PA that has a funky theme. Each of the sandwiches are named for birds. The mascot is a pink flamingo and they use Pretzel Rolls. Great big soft pretzels baked as rolls for your sandwich. Fantastic. I got the Texas Wren. Don’t think that if your favorite sandwich is not on the Pretzel Roll page that it means you can’t get it on a pretzel roll, no sir. You can get any sandwich on the pretzel roll, it is up to you. We went to Isaac’s with Elise and Charles and Elise’s sister Amy. Amy just got back from camp and she had a great time. We are looking forward to our next vacation up to Elise’s parent’s place in Maine when we can see Amy again. We had a great meal and a great afternoon. Here’s...

Last night Allison and I were at Elise and Charles’ for a cookout with some of Allison’s college friends. Emily arrived first and was soon followed by Jen and her son Brett. Brett was a little cutie, with a set of lungs on him. He’s 3 or 4 months old, very new and all. We missed seeing Ben (Jen’s husband and Brett’s dad), and hope to see him on another trip down the road. Then Erin and Rob came. Erin and Rob are fellow bloggers, Rob has had his blog for a very long time. Each time he changes it he gives it another number, he’s up to #7 now. The girls had fun taking turns holding Brett and trying to get him to stop crying, Charles and I were pretty good at making him smile. Brett has the funkiest hair, Not one of my pictures really captured it very well. But his hair stands straight up and is very long. We had a great meal with tons of food, shish-k-bobs with beef or chicken, mushrooms, zucchini, potatoes, and eggplant. I was a fan of all but the eggplant, I just don’t like it and never...

Photo-A-Day #442 06/24/06 Today Allison and I went with Elise and Charles to the York, PA Harley Davidson Vehicle Operations Plant for a tour. They are in their busy production period, creating the 2007 bikes so we could not see the actual assembly line because dealers get to see the 2007’s first. Today’s photo was taken by the guy at the door who hands out the tickets to the tour. The photo on the top of the page was taken by Elise. You could not bring a camera into the plant but in the tour building you could and you could also sit on all the display bikes. We each picked one or two and gave them a try. Then we spent some time at the giftshop picking up some stuff. Hats and shirts and of course, pins. After the tour and shopping we went down the road to Laugerman’s Harley-Davidson. They had their own museum with their own family collection, some great stuff. I am surprised that their pin was a very lame one. Oh well. After that we had lunch at the 83 diner. A good meal. Some strong l...

One of my heroes, Alton Brown has a new special on the Food Network called Feasting on Asphalt. It is a series of four episodes where Brown and his crew take to the open road upon their motorcycles, (Glad you finally got one Alton – we talked about motorcycles back when Allison and I met him in 2003 at a book signing for his book Gear for My Kitchen) Here is what the Food network has to say about the show. Feasting on Asphalt Get your motor running! Eat out on the highway! Helmet snug and biker chains dangling, the inimitable Alton Brown is Feasting on Asphalt –a (working) title only he could dream up. Atop his motorcycle, Alton sets out on Route 66 to experience the most colorful cuisine that storied highway has to offer. From secret hamburger hideaways to delicious truck stop diners, he reveals the heartland havens that make up the culinary heritage of America. This show should be fantastic and for many reasons. First of all it combines two things I love, motorcycles and food. The ro...

Photo-A-Day #441 06/23/06 This is Jake. Jake is Elise and Charles’ dog. He is such a cutie. Jake is so full of energy and fun. Elise and Jake play with bubbles (animal friendly ones) Jake has a great time catching them in the air or stomping them out on the rug. I got a bunch of photos while he played. Get it Jakey! Take the Picture Quick, this is the most still I’ve been all day. So Many Bubbles. What to Do? What to Do? More Please! You Looking at Me! Jake loves them bubbles. So today Allison and I drove to PA. The Pike to 84 to 81 and here we are. We made a couple of stops but we made it by 3:00pm. We listed to three CD’s from Eragon and it was good to go back and re-listen to the start of this series. Some things I picked up on more the second time around. We played, stop after every chapter to sort out the myriad of details. We played this game less and less as the day went on as Allison was picking up the story very quickly. We had lunch at Marvelous Mugs and the meal was a very g...

Photo-A-Day #440 06/22/06 Here is Oliver; he has found refuge from the heat by lying among Allison's bags and stuffed animals. His latest perch has been on the plastic bin tower that we have in the bedroom because of the lack of space. Hopefully we will get that taken care of in the next few months. So today I found out that this blog is a favorite blog of MisterNashville.com. Eddie Christy runs MisterNashville.com and he is also a featured blogger for Metro Blogging Nashville. Eddie faithfully reads daily and comments almost daily on this blog. He leaves Kudos on almost every post. Sometimes he's so quick I haven't even gotten a chance to make any last minute edits before he's posted a message. That is so great! Check out Eddie's music and blogging skills on MySpace as well as at MisterNashville.com and http://nashville.metblogs.com/. Eddie you should grab the Photo-A-Day display box code to add to MisterNashville.com, it can be found here. Tomorrow Allison and I h...

Photo-A-Day #439 06/21/06 Today I drove home from Syracuse. To prevent falling asleep on the ride I stopped at many rest areas. I made sure to hydrate at each one or every other one. It was good to get out and move around every 30 to 50 miles or so. While I was in one of the rest stops I saw this sculpture. Beginning to feel like a tourist myself all over the country visiting rest stops I decided to take this picture. When I got home I picked up a new supply of Bumble Bars for Allison and I on our trip to PA this weekend. I also ran to WildTime Comics to pick up my subscription. I got The Transformers Art of War #2 and G.I. Joe #12, and G.I. Joe Declassified #1. I also got Astonishing X-Men #15. I am missing #9 in that series and have yet to read a single book. I want to be able to read the whole story all the way through. I was able to see Last Comic Standing because Allison taped it for me. I like Gabriel's strategy, very fair and yet very smart, don't make enemies this early...

Photo-A-Day #438 06/20/06 Today's photo is lame, it sucks! I admit it. I spent the entire day from 8:45am to 5:00pm talking, demonstrating and answering questions. I left the demo barely functional enough to remember my own name let alone how to get back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel I had no desire to leave. This picture is of the artwork that graces many the Courtyard Marriott rooms. I took this picture because a.) I love artwork in hotels, b.) I love flowers and the color yellow, or c.) With this picture I could say something lame like "Hey, I bet Allison stayed in a Courtyard Marriott and that is what gave her the idea for the yellow picket fence headboard.", and I don't even have to go back outside. I went with option C. The only cool part of this is that I took the picture in the mirror behind the bathroom door so that the flash wouldn't show as a bright spot on the glass of the picture and neither would my reflection. Now, if I could have used that f...

Photo-A-Day #437 06/19/06 I drove to Syracuse, NY today. It took me about 5 hours. A long ride, got a little tired, spent some time at the rest areas along the way to give myself some little breaks. I listened to 4 of the Eldest CDs. Allison gave me Eldest (The second book in the Eragon Trilogy) and I hadn't had a chance yet to begin listening. I figure I can get two fifths of the way through the CDs on this trip. It is a long story, even longer than Eragon. I think we will begin listening to Eragon on our way to PA. I've already heard it but really liked it and figure I'll introduce Allison to it before the movie comes out this December (December 15th to be exact.) I've been putting it off but I cannot any longer. I have to get my air conditioner fixed. I drove the whole way here with the window down to keep cool and that didn't really help much. I know that there are folks on the air conditioning vs. window way of cooling off in a car. And folks are very adamant a...

Photo-A-Day #436 06/18/06 Today Allison and I were still at the Cape. We celebrated Father's Day with a Blueberry pancake breakfast with Dad. After breakfast we put together our new headboard for the room at the Cape. Allison had the idea to use a picket fence as a headboard. We went to see about buying a section of fence from Home Depot last week. I talked to my Dad about it and he suggested that rather than buying a section of fence, we build our own to the size and specifications that we want. So today Allison got to work with a power drill for the first time ever and she did so well. I would drill a guide hole and then Allison would put a screw in the hole. This is the most solid piece of fence you'll ever see handing on a wall behind a bed. Dad and I measured it out and laid out all of the pieces. It is totally square and level and a nice piece of woodworking. Once we finished putting it all together Allison did all the painting. She painted it a bright yellow to match the...