BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #601 11/30/06 Today I demonstrated in St. Louis. Then I had a really long ride back to the hotel. A serious ice and rainstorm came in while I was doing my demonstration and our 45 minute ride to the site ended up being a 2 1/2 hour ride home. That was a bit difficult to take. All of the American Airlines flights were cancelled so tomorrow if I actually do get to head home I’m going to be in a crazy busy airport. The hotel is packed and everyone is at the hotel restaurant. So I guess staying at a full service Marriott does have the advantage of room service. I got a great turkey club on a Gus’ pretzel roll. And I got some Gooey Butter Cake with strawberries and blackberries on top. That was some tasty dessert. I am stuffed now. Today’s photo was on the way home from the demonstration. It is the St. Louis Arch in the foggy, icy, sleety rainy weather.

I just read it today. Scott Kurtz over at the webcomic PVP (a term for online gaming for player vs player) is now taking his characters into the world of animation. PVP centers around a fictional office of great characters who create a fictional magazine called PVP. The comic has been around for 10 years. 10 years is a long time in the world of webcomics, it is a long time in the world of comics too. But with webcomics being in their infancy this comic was there from the beginning. And it is a very good comic indeed.  The writing and art is fun. The characters are likeable and it is updated 7 days a week. The entire archive from 1996 onward is online. You can read all about Cole, Brent, Skull, Jade, Francis and the rest of the characters to your heart’s content. Allison just finally got caught up on the archive and she is onto reading the comic daily with me. She is also a fan. The animation show starts on February 1, 2007 and will run for a full year. There is a cost to this becau...

Today I went to see Casino Royale at the AMC in the Mall of America. What an awesome movie. From the moment it began to the end it was an edge of the seat thrill ride. The action scenes at the beginning of the movie were incredible and I didn’t really miss all the gadgets. There were also some great nods to previous Bond movies. Daniel Craig did a superb job as Bond. He played Bond less of a character and more of a person, if that makes sense. He was a much more real Bond than we have seen before. Very different from all the rest but when he said he was Bond, James Bond I believed the heck out of it. Yep, Bond is back and in a big way. I really enjoyed this movie and I think that if you are an action movie fan / James Bond fan you will love this movie. I am part of the AMC Movie Watchers' club and if I wanted I could have gotten as many $1.00 hot dogs as I wanted because I bought one of the popcorn packages. And when I bought my ticket I got a coupon for a bag of M&M’s for $1.0...

Photo-A-Day #600 11/29/06 Today I gave a demonstration here at Ready Randy's. I have been looking forward to this for a while because, well, the place is called Ready Randy's. It sounds like a seedy club for scantily clad women. However that was not the case. Ready Randy's is a Sports Bar and Grill and also a banquet hall, a pretty nice banquet hall too. The banquet hall was set up for a seminar and it was in a very large ballroom. We connected to the network wirelessly too. My friend Ken demonstrated to a large gathering of people in that room. He even had to wear a wireless microphone. I demonstrated in a smaller room next to the banquet hall. I am grateful that I did not have to set demo in that large room. From what I hear the demos went well today. On the way to the demo I saw a sign for a White Castle. I've wanted to go to a White Castle since I watched Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. One of the other demonstrators has Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle with...

Photo-A-Day #599 11/28/06 Today I went back to Minnesota to the Mall of America. This place is pretty cool. It is huge and I can’t believe that it is only the 4th most popular mall in Minnesota. I walked around, went to a movie, drooled over the toys and the giant lego setups. This place has it all. They even have an aquarium in the basement with a walking tube through the aquarium where you can see all the fish all around you rather than looking through round walls. Apparently they even have 38 sharks. I didn’t end up going there but rather I went and saw Casino Royale. Then I walked through the whole mall and had dinner at Famous Daves. It was okay but not exceptional. Here are some photos from the mall.

Allison and I finally got to some of the shows that we had taped. Standoff – This was an episode from last week. Matt Flannery helps to save a young woman who has been taken hostage in his home. She begins an obsessive relationship with Matt and eventually takes a hostage of her own. Emily, Matt’s partner, realizes what has happened to the woman and she talks through to a safe outcome. The dynamic between Matt and Emily gets better and better. This week looks to be a really tough episode to watch and one that is timely. Standoff – This was a good episode. Throughout the episode I kept going back and forth about my theories of how the show would end up. It was well written. Also, the character development was great. The Nine – Well this is probably the last episode of the Nine that will be aired. The show got pulled out of the lineup. I hadn’t realized that I taped this show last week. But I did and it was a decent episode. We learned what happened in the hostage taking between J...

Photo-A-Day #598 11/27/06 If you read the comments here on the blog you may have noticed that my friend Andy has put up another great rant. I asked him to critique the new BenSpark Bookstore. And he did critique it and then went off on his own journey. I thank Andy for critiquing the site. I have been an Amazon affiliate for some time now and have recently put together my own storefront with Amazon. I had the flatwater bookstore blog and I am going to let that go away. Now I am going to maintain an Amazon storefront with books, dvds and other items that pertain to topics I am interested in. I will also try to keep a couple of pages set up for items I mention on this blog. The photo is of some kayaking books that I have read. I started the BenSpark Bookstore with Kayaking books. And there is also a kayaking shirt that I got today from Paddling.net. I joined the Paddling.net paddle perks program for 2007. If you are into kayaking then you should sign up for this newsletter. It is fantast...

Last night Monday night TV was really good. This didn’t go up till today. I didn’t want anyone to miss it. How I Met Your Mother – Wayne Brady guest stars as, wait for it…. Barney’s brother. They are not brother’s from another mother, they are brothers from the same mother, who in the flashbacks wasn’t the best role model. It explains a bit why Barney is how he is. Wayne Brady is actually Barney’s gay brother and the episode was hilarious. This show gets better and better. I loved the dynamic of the two of them on screen as brothers. Then Barney becomes an uncle because his brother, the gay version of Barney has come out as… Monogamous.  This crushes Barney’s world, he has nothing against gay marriage, he is against marriage in general. His quip about if the gays begin to marry than the straight people will follow the trend and marry too and spread their monogamy everywhere. It was very funny. The most priceless was when Barney’s brother and Barney were arguing and Barney’s brother...

I’m working on a new project through Amazon where I can choose books to be in my own affiliate bookstore. I have begun by choosing books and DVD’s related to kayaking. I set up the store to be organized so that interested kayakers can find relevant information pertaining to their style of the sport. Whether they are fans of kayaking literature and stories, building kayaks, whitewater or sea kayaking I have set up categories for all sorts of things kayak. I plan to also set up some other aspects of the store related to my other hobbies like photography and rollerblading and transformers collecting. Take a look at the The BenSpark Bookstore to learn more. Let me know what you think of the set-up so far. And Andy I mean you, you are very good at constructive criticism.

Photo-A-Day #597 11/26/06 Today we said goodbye to Dan and Marcia. We had lunch with Dan,Marcia, Grandma Eva and Grandpa John and Nate. We also were visited by Uncle Jim and Alice. Today we did not do much. Dan and Marcia packed for their trip to Florida. We packed up to go home. The Christmas decorations went up yesterday and today. So it looks like Santa has some clothes he forgot to pick up last year. Maybe he’ll come get them this year. Starman was on Sci-fi channel today. I remember seeing that movie when it came out. I really liked it. I still like it today. A very good movie overall and Jeff Bridges was great in it. From reading the user reviews it looks like the European version is widescreen with commentary, the US version does not have that. Maybe on the 25th anniversary of the movie we will get a better DVD.

Dan just bought a new GPS system. The Magellan RoadMate 2000. He went out and braved the Black Friday craziness and came home with a navigation system. This is a windshield mounting GPS system that has preloaded maps for 48 states. Sorry Alaska and Hawaii you need to find your own way around. I like having the nav systems when I rent cars but that happens very very infrequently however. But it is nice to get one once in a while. Here are a few GPS systems for you to check out. A GPS system would be great if I was into Geocaching.

Photo-A-Day #596 11/25/06 This is Clyde, he is one of Marcia and Dan’s cats. Clyde is pretty much a huge ball of fur with a tiny head. He plays till he starts panting. The poor cat has no sense but he is awfully cute to photograph. I couldn’t resist taking a bunch of pictures of him after he played for a long time. I finished reading Tyrannosaur Canyon today. A decent read. I liked the book and the characters. There was quite a cast in the book and very interesting as well. The plot was good and the action kept me entertained. I will probably read more Douglas PReston books in the future. Here are some of his books. Preston often writes with Lincoln Child Series Books Agent Pendergast, an FBI special agent, is featured in: Still Life with Crows (2003) The Cabinet of Curiosities (2003) Brimstone (2004) Dance of Death (2005) Book of the Dead (2006) Margo Green, a natural history museum curator in New York City, is featured in: Relic (1995) Mount Dragon (1996) Reliquary (1997) Non-ser...

Photo-A-Day #595 11/24/06 This morning we got up and went to Cafe Loco for a delicious breakfast with Tara, Shelby and Erik, thanks Erik. I had the Michael Muffin and Allison had the Long Boat Key Omelet. Then we picked up some salsa to bring to Allison’s parents. We walked around back and I took some pictures of the cows. Then we stopped back to the cottage and picked up our stuff, said goodbye to Mom and Dad and headed out to Manchester to see Dan and Marcia and spend the rest of the weekend with them. Allison and Marcia spent the afternoon sorting through the decorations from various holidays. Marcia decorates her house so well and thoroughly each holiday that after many years she has many decorations. Because they are moving she is consolidating those decorations and giving quite a few to Allison. We had the trunk full after about 30 minutes. In the afternoon we were visited by Sandy and her niece Brenna and Allison’s friend Jessica. Ken called me later in the afternoon about doing...

This place is beautiful, they have goats, cows, and chickens all over. The view from the pasture across the valley is wonderful. Allison and Mom and Dad and I went for a walk intot he Pasture to take pictures. Allison made some friends with the goats and the chickens. The cows didn’t want much to do with us either. Allison finally got to sit down and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. It was a nice parade today. I loved seeing Snoopy balloon flying through the skys.

Photo-A-Day #594 11/23/06 Today was a great family day. Allison and I spent the night at a cottage at the Inn at Valley Farms with my parents. We spent the morning around the cottage. We visited with the animals, Allison made friends with the goats. Then Tara and Erik came over to use the cottage’s wireless Internet. We got to see some of his pictures from India. We are very glad that he has returned to the US. Howard and Bonnie came over and Shelby arrived. We went to The Walpole Inn for a great dinner. They had warm olives, pumpkin bread and the dinners were excellent. It was a very nice afternoon.  After dinner we came back to the cottage to get comfortable clothes and then headed to Tara and Erik’s house. We played a board game called Sequence. Shelby and I played against Dad and Tara and Mom and Allison. Shelby and I won both games. We are a bit competitive. It was a fun little game. Here is a shot of the family at dinner.

Here are a couple of breakfast photos. The Inn at Valley Farms has supplied us with a dozen farm fresh eggs, some are even from The Araucana Chicken, (the green ones). We are going to have to check more into this to make sure that I am correct in my search for the correct chicken. I tried to make some fried eggs but the frying pan was too warped and the eggs rolled to the sides of the pan. But they still tasted very good.

Allison and I would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. We are headed up north for some family time for the holiday weekend. Hopefully we won’t get stuck in a lot of traffic on our ride. I will probably be without any internet access until Friday so Photo-A-Day will be back on Friday at the earliest. Unless of course I can get some free internet access in downtown Bellows Falls. Here are some great thanksgiving movies to enjoy.  Also you may be thinking about going shopping on Friday after Thanksgiving but I urge you not to. Click the Amazon link and buy an Amazon gift card. They are much easier to get and no crowds to annoy you.

Photo-A-Day #593 11/22/06 Today Allison and I drove to Walpole, NH. Before we headed up there we stopped to visit Grandma Jean at the cemetery. Then we visited Bob and Jackie and then John and Eva. It was nice to have a little visit with the grandparents and then we continued on up to Walpole. We had a pizza party with Tara, Erik, Howard, Bonnie and Mom and Dad. After dinner I showed everyone the videos that I made for Marketing Day. Andy you will see them at some date. We had a nice night chatting and spending time with family. When we got to the place we are staying The Inn at Valley Farms and they have free wireless Internet. So I can update from the road. And no breaks in Photo-A-Day or PPP messages.

As you saw from yesterday’s Photo-A-Day I have some new WildStorm comics. I read them last night and here is what I have to say about them. Mind you that I was a huge fan of these comics back when Image first came about in 1995-1996. I had everything from WildStorm because they had the best comics with the best story lines. Things didn’t stay that way and I fell away from collecting comics from WildStorm. However I picked up some of the new WorldStorm story line. WildCats – I saved this book for last because it was always my favorite. I have every issue that came out and was Grifter for Halloween once back in 1996. I made the costume out of a red t-shirt and old army duster and some small soda cans wrapped in duct tape to make a bandoleers of grenades. I also had a dart gun that I painted it look like the Grifter’s guns. It was a sweet costume, If I can find a picture somewhere I’ll post it. The issue was a great reintroducing to the team, not everyone so far but it does look like they...

Photo-A-Day #592 11/21/06 Here are some of my favorite comics from college. That is when I started collecting again. But these comics are new. They have been re-launched. The teams have changed, the missions have changed and the artists have changed. I really liked these books back in college and would visit a couple of comic shops in New Hampshire. There was Hammer’s, Storytellers and another one on Elm Street (actually there were two) and one on Second Street. Now the only shop worth mentioning is owned by a friend who used to frequent the same places that I did. That shop is Double Midnight comics. If you are in the Manchester Area you should see these guys for your books. The shop is the best one I’ve ever been to. It is worth a look. Check out these titles too. Wildcats is back, so is Stormwatch, Wetworks, and Gen13. They were hot once and look to be hot again.

How I Met Your Mother – This was a very fun episode. I think it was the physical humor of the episode that really got me. Barney and Marshall and their slapbet. That was fantastic. The first slap from Marshall to Barney and Barney’s face getting all read. Then finding out that Marshall gave his slap prematurely and Barney hitting him with the 3 rapid fire slaps. The end was awesome because now you have no idea when the slaps are coming to Barney and their are four left. This makes for a funny random thing in future episodes. The Robin Sparkles video is such a funny one. The fact that the 80’s came to Canada in ’93 is also very funny. I love how they gently poke fun at Canada. I love Canada but it is fun the things that they come up with. How I Met Your Mother – I’m generally opposed to violence, but the slapbet was hysterical! I love it! Watching Barney be all twitchy was sooo funny!! And Robin’s big secret was so funny. This show is one of the best sitcoms out there. The Class –...

Last night Allison and I had the pleasure of talking with Wes Molebash on the first WesCast Live. Wes Molebash, if you don’t know who he is You really should know who Wes is. Wes is the creator of You’ll Have That a fantastic webcomic that you should read every single day. We’ve been friends with Wes for a while now and you can see many of his comics at our house. This includes the custom Wedding comic that Allison gave me and soon we will also have the Anniversary comic that I gave Allison on our walls. The show ended up being about an hour long and we had talked for about 15-20 minutes prior to the recording. We talked about our blog, photos, cats, TV, Charles Schulz, comic strips and the TV show Heroes. I hope you find this interesting. I am thinking about doing a Talkcast on this blog soon. I’m thinking of doing one with friends who are fans of The Office to talk about an episode of the Office sometime in the future. Listen to TalkShoe – Talkcast – WesCast Live!

Photo-A-Day #591 11/20/06 So last night we painted a bit of the wall with the test color green. This picture is of the wall, notice the two tone colors and whatnot, that was from where I spackled the wall to fix a crack. Needless to say I didn’t fix it so well. So Dad is going to fix those cracks the right way. I do like the green color. I think that it will go well with the bedspread and other things in the room and it will give the room a bold look. I think that once we have the whole room painted and the bed made and the furniture in the room is going to look great.

I began reading the Complete Peanuts book one today. This is fantastic. So much I have never read, you slowly see the evolution of the characters from what they were to what we know and love. Charlie Brown was a little prankster in the beginning and it wasn’t until a little while into the strip that he got his famous zig zag striped shirt. We start out with Patty and Shermy and Charlie and Snoopy, later we are introduced to Violet and baby Schroder. I also liked the foreword by Garrison Keillor.

Photo-A-Day #590 11/19/06 Today Allison made an apple pie for Thanksgiving dinner. I am very excited to have some of this pie since it is from the apples we picked up on our trip to New Hampshire last weekend. There are some new kinds of apples that we have not used before and I am anxious to taste this concoction. Should be very tasty as I know Allison make some great pies.

The new comic book is out for the Transformers animated movie. It is a new comic done by new artists but it re-tells the animated movie from 1986. I think they should have worked a little harder on it. Now don’t get me wrong the art is fantastic and it is great to see a new book bringing a resurgence of interest in the movie, but they could have at least gotten the dialogue right. I read chapter one this morning and there are so many errors. Characters saying lines of other characters. One character even addresses himself because he has the wrong dialogue. I would have thought that more care would have been taken to make a quality book.

I went to my local comic book shop WildTime Comics on Wednesday to pick up my subscription. I ended up with a huge stack of comics, because I hadn’t been in a while. I had gotten down to just collecting Transformers and G.I. Joe but now that Wildstorm is relaunching their comics I decided to give them a try as well. I have only read the Transformer and G.I. Joe comics so far and so haven’t really been able to say much about the wildstorm stuff but I will eventually read that too. Today has been a quiet day, Allison and I went and picked out two sample colors of paint for the bedroom. We got a green and a yellow. Don’t ask me to remember the names because I don’t and they really don’t matter because the paints are green and yellow. I am anxious to put them on the wall and see which ones we like. Maybe tomorrow. we finally watched Thursday’s CSI. There was a Transformers reference thus making Greg my favorite character ever.

Photo-A-Day #589 11/18/06 Tonight Allison and I went to visit with Dot and Paul at their house. Allison’s parents came down too as well as family from England. Dot and Paul’s son Matt came for dinner. Dinner was a very nice Pork roast with a rosemary, ginger and lemon marmalade sauce. They also had a spinach dish, mashed potatoes, and my favorite, cornbread. Which I also had this morning for breakfast. Cornbread twice in one day makes for a good day in my book. We had a very nice visit and a nice time there. I’ll make sure I honk from now on when I drive past on my way to work.

Yesterday I stopped at Barnes and Noble and used a couple of gift cards to pick up four hardcover Peanuts collections. Fantagraphics is releasing the complete series of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts. I picked up these four books below and can’t wait to read each and every strip from the complete collection. Other books are available as well. Some are pre-order. I have always loved Peanuts and am so happy that Fantagraphics is taking the complete set of all the daily and Sunday strips and compiling them into the most fantastic complete set of comic strips of all time. Some great extras are forewords by friends of Charles Schulz, other cartoonists and many more. I hope to have the whole set someday. I really can’t wait to get going and reading all of these comic strips. Here is the official website of Peanuts. There is a great timeline about the comic strip.

Well yesterday was Marketing Day and I think the high has finally worn off. I would have to say that working on that project was definitely one of my high points of my career. Being able to work with some very creative people and collaborating on ideas while having so much fun was incredible. The presentation went very well with hardly any technical difficulties. I ran the computer and so was on the stage during the whole thing. So I had to come up with some fun things to do. I borrowed some headphones from a DJ and pretended to be spinning the hits while we were on the music sections. I wore an old jacket that I had that had Keith Harring dancers on it, one green and one purple on a black jacket. I also threw my sunglasses on and just rocked out to the music. During one of the sections of the presentation we played the song Freeze Frame and I took my camera and got shots of the crowd during that. I also had my video camera and took videos while I had a spare moment. All the videos wen...

Photo-A-Day #588 11/17/06 So today was Marketing Day and it was a lot of fun. I’m going to write something about that tomorrow however. This evening a bunch of us from work went to Pinz to bowl. This is my team. Of the group a few of us had our own equipment, balls, shoes you name it. Now just because I have my own ball does not indicate the skill with which I bowl. I am not very good. But I had so much fun. I got tons of picture to share with folks from work. I may even create a little video to share with everyone too. I’ve got to find a good 80’s song to go with the bowling pictures. Pinz was a great place. They have bowling, pool, a bar and grill, laser tag and an arcade. So much to do while there. A very fun time. I think I should organize an event there with friends. Anyone interested?

My Name is Earl – This week Earl was supersized, Christian Slater guest starred and claymation ruled Randy’s mind. I have to admit I wasn’t paying as close attention to this episode as I usually do. I was making a bunch of last minute changes to the Marketing Day presentations and was stressed out. So I tried to keep my mind on Earl and make the little formatting changes on the HTML documents but my mind would wander. However I did like seeing Christina Slater on TV, his character was pretty funny. The naked old lady and Earl saying “Don’t freak out” over and over was a riot. All the claymation people. Crab Man in general but his saying, “Don’t bother to explain the irony, she doesn’t get it.” was priceless. Randy’s hallucinations, Earl going nuts over the environment. The dung house. So much was funny but I really liked the end part when Earl and Randy were in bed talking about who could beat up who, Sesame Street vs. Muppets, Muppets vs. Fraggles, it was pretty funny. What I really l...

Photo-A-Day #587 11/16/06 My Dad is awesome. He was home today while the engineers were here and he took the opportunity to start laying down the Bamboo Floor in the Art Room/Office/Future Nursery. And when I got home tonight he was all but finished with it. So one room down. Our next project will be to clean, prime, and paint the new bedroom. We have to find some paint we like first. So we may head to the paint store this weekend to check our some colors.

BONES – We were promised two hours of Bones, a two hour Bones “EVENT”. I am so sick of Fox throwing around the word “EVENT”. Not everything is an “EVENT” and one hour of new Bones and one hour of repeat Bones an certainly does not qualify as an “EVENT.” That aside, the first episode last night was a new one and it was very intense and showed a lot of character development. The relationships between our main characters as well as the secondary characters were enhanced in this episode. Bones and Hodgens are captured by “The Grave Digger.” “GD” kidnaps his victims and buries them alive and then makes a demand of money to be wired to an untraceable account. That is it, no call backs no negotiation. Pay the ransom and you are given the coordinates to find your kidnap victims. Bones is the target of this kidnapping but Hodgens ends up also being kidnapped as well as being struck by a car. Putting these two in the car was genius writing. Both are brilliant and their skills came into play to ...

Photo-A-Day #586 11/15/06 This is a barren tree outside of the building I was working in today. I thought I'd make it look even more depressing with photoshop. Allison's Dad is in Florida getting settled into the new job and he sent us a note today. He's really enjoying the weather. I hope he brings some back with him.

Standoff – Another excellent episode. I really like the characters and what they accomplish during these standoffs. I understand it is far-fetched and condensed into a nice and tidy hour show. But it is really a lot of fun. I liked how Emily took charge at the radio station. I like how Matt and Emily play off each other and how the team works together. I am not going to be happy if this show gets cancelled or if any of the characters end up getting killed for ratings or shock value or drama. Standoff – This was a good episode. The character development is great and I like the hostage stories. It’s always fun to watch the FBI solve the crimes.

The Microsoft Zune media player is out today. I really think I would like to get on the bandwagon and pick one up. I know I can fill it with tons of great music. But It can also play MP4 video and that is something that my video camera takes. So I can keep some great videos on the ZUNE as well. I didn’t go for iPod or Itunes or than but I am a loyal Windows fan and the Zune is for me. As you can see they are comparably priced. Here are the technical specs on the ZUNE Size: 4.4 in. x 2.4 in. x 0.6 in. (h x w x d) Weight: 5.6 ounces Battery: rechargable [2] Music, up to 14 hours (wireless off), up to 13 hours (wireless on); pictures, up to 4 hours; video, up to 4 hours Charge Time: 3 hours; 2 hours to 90% Display Size: 3.0 inches Orientation: Vertical and Horizontal Resolution: 320 x 240 pixels Audio Windows Media® Audio Standard (.wma): Up to 320 Kbps, CBR and VBR, up to 48-kHz sample rate MP3 (.mp3): Up to 320 Kbps, CBR and VBR, up to 48-kHz sample rate AAC (.mp4, .m4a, .m4b, .mov): U...

Photo-A-Day #585 11/14/06 The video is being made into a DVD finally. It is finally complete. It looks great and I can’t wait till Friday so that everyone can see it. My new favorite website is in the background. I’m starting to get paid in actual money from them. Yipee!

Zune is the latest offering from Microsoft. It has been created and released to compete with the iPod. I am not a fan of Apple. I just am not. I like Microsoft and their products. I have been a windows fan since 93 and will continue to be so. This has caused tension in the family as we have some staunch Apple supporters. Anyway I think I want to get a Zune. But to be fair I will list a link to the Apple iPod as well. The more I have researched this the more I am actually leaning towards an iPod and that is because for just a $100.00 more I can get 50GB more of space. iTunes is a preferred method of getting new music as well as podcasts. I guess I may have to become an Apple supporter and get an iPod.

Photo-A-Day #584 11/13/06 Another day of filming. Today was very productive. I have all but one scene completed for the Marketing Day video. Then I will be pulling everything together onto one DVD. It is coming out great. This scene is in the company Atrium and the group in black suits were a back up “posse” for our two frontmen in the white shirts. Blogger has made some changes, I can no longer upload pictures and other things like videos and whatnot. Well, I can still upload pictures but the utility that I need to use doesn’t work correctly for me. I don’t know why. I have to investigate. I would think that if Blogger is now a part of Google it would have some better gadgets. Time will tell.

How I Met Your Mother – Neil Patrick Harris as Barney makes this show. I love all the things that he does. He is just so funny. The Chinese gambling game was a riot and having Marshall figure it out was classic. All of the Chinese guys coming up to Barney and saying “suit up” and “Legen – wait for it – dary” You knew that Marshall and Lily weren’t going to get married but the whole, “What was that look” thing was great. Ted getting the hots for Robin’s shirt. Robin’s cameraman. How I Met Your Mother – Another great episode. I’m glad that Lily and Marshall are waiting to get married. And Barney gambling was too funny for words. Well done. The Class – I like Jason Ritter and think he is a good actor. I like the relationship that is coming along with Kat, they are so different but there is a chemistry there. I’m not sure if I think poor Richie or Richie you brought this on yourself. Here’s a guy who has been trampled because he hasn’t been able to stand up for himself. He did once by w...

Don’t… Just don’t. We froze the top of our wedding cake for a year and then ate a piece last night. The inside of the cake was not too bad. But I tried the icing and nearly threw up. Here’s what we did wrong: We wrapped the cake in tin foil and froze it thus allowing the cake to absorb every smell and taste from the freezer for an entire year. What we should have done was cut a piece of cake, froze it overnight to get it hard and then used the food saver to vacuum seal it for the year. At least that would not have made me almost wretch.

Photo-A-Day #583 11/12/06 Today is our one-year Anniversary. Allison and I wet to Cafe Loco this morning for breakfast. Allison got the Long Boat Key Omelet. It was an omelet with cheese, bacon and avocado. I had a Michael Muffin, which was a great egg and cheese and bacon sandwich on a thick English muffin. The breakfast was fantastic. We also picked up two Revel bars on the way out and Allison got another Half and Half and I got an all natural orange soda. Revel bars are chocolate and oatmeal bars that are fantastic. We snacked on that on the way to Manchester. We had Anniversary lunch with Marcia at Cactus Jacks. Lunch was very tasty. I had a Black Jack Burger and Allison got a burrito. Marcia got a buffalo chicken sandwich without the buffalo. As we had lunch we kept getting comments from a feisty old lady in the booth across from us. We said something about being from Massachusetts and she piped up, "Don't say anything bad about Massachusetts." Allison and Marcia enj...

Photo-A-Day #582 11/11/06 Today Allison and I ended up waking up early, however we slept for about 10 hours. The air up here made us tired as my mom would say. We puttered around the house a little bit and then headed over to Stuart and John's Sugar Shack for some pancakes and waffles. The place is very rustic and down home. They only serve Pancakes, French toast and Waffles, no egg dishes. However they do serve bacon and sausage. I would steer clear of the bacon, it is sub-par, but the sausage is fantastic and it is homemade. The sausages are thick patties that are lightly seasoned and full of flavor. The syrup is served warm and the waffles have real strawberries. After that we drove by a farm and stopped to take some cow pictures. We then turned the corner and two of the cutest goats ever were by the side of the road. Allison isn't a huge fan of goats because of the square pupils. But these were very cute. I gave Allison the camera and she got a couple of shots. (Photo by Al...

Photo-A-Day #581 11/10/06 Today Allison and I headed to New Hampshire to visit with Dan and Marcia. We had breakfast at Cracker Barrel and picked up some Kettle Corn to take with us on our trip. We are spending the weekend at Tara and Erik's place in New Hampshire. It is a beautiful little two family that they have fixed up with the help of my Dad. He installed 35 new windows including a very unique one on the third floor. I hadn't been here since I went to demonstrate up in Northern New York. That was shortly after the house was purchased. The windows were delivered but not all installed at that point. I helped Dad bring a bunch upstairs. The windows and all the paint and the decorations have made quite the difference. The place looks great. Before we got to the house we stopped to visit with Dan and Marcia We picked up some of the wedding gifts that we had in their cellar. We had to pick them up to take them home because Dan got a job with Citrix. Citrix is what I use all the...

Photo-A-Day #580 11/09/06 Photographic evidence of the boys getting along. Or at least tolerating each other. They actually look like they split the couch, Oliver got the bigger half too. We’ve headed North for a weekend away to celebrate our 1st Anniversay this Sunday. I will have no Internet access that I know of so Photo-A-Day will be back up on Monday. If the pictures come back sooner, bonus. Man I hope these little buggers don’t pee on the couch again.