BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01246 Apparently you can take your XBox controller apart and swap out different parts. I purchased some textured back panels for my controller that provide a better grip. I like that it is textured and not just smooth because I feel like it will slide out of my hands if it is just smooth. I also picked up a kit to replace the thumbstick controller within my other controller. I am going to have to pick up a soldering iron as well but It will be an interesting thing to try and fix.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01245 I worked in the office last night and stayed there until 8am to cover for the holiday today. On the way home I picked up some donuts for everyone. I know that Friday is National Donut day but I got a jump on it because they always do different donuts for the holidays. Today they had a tie dye swirl donut that Andy devoured. Allison took the kids to the local parade at the end of our street. They had a nice time.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01244 I am in the office tonight. I’m at our Fall River Facility because that is where my new group goes. I like the building very much because it has a fantastic view and is much nice than our Lowderbrook facility. However, there is no real great way to get here. Luckily, I have to only go in a couple of times a month. So it isn’t a huge sacrifice. I’m also working an modified time tonight so that I an cover for an hour tomorrow morning because of the holiday.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01243 This past week Allison helped the Kindergarten teacher to a special project to make Sheep Cakes with a couple of lucky kids. Andy, our resident baker saw this and wanted to make one as well. He did an excellent job with it. While I am not a fan of marshmallows outside of S’Mores but it is a very cute cake. He of course made a red velvet one, his favorite of the cakes.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01242 When we had Tim clear out the back garden it was pretty clear but about a month later it is back to growing like crazy. There are these pretty purple flowers all over the place and some milkweed and more. I’ll have to weed out the weeds but let these flowers grow.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01241 Andy has been taking Karate since he was 4 years old. He’s earned ranks through his years as a Little Dragon and he is at Advanced Red in Karate Kids. This past year he has expressed a desire to stop training in karate. He no longer enjoys it. He does not want to pursue a black belt in karate. He’s going to finish out June and then take July and August off.  When September rolls around he’s going to go back and train for 3 months and then he’ll be 11 and he’ll be able to start Jr. Krav if he wants to. He has expressed to me that this is what he would like to do. He sees that Krav has more action and you are constantly doing things. I’d love to see him do this. I really want him to have something that is so beneficial to his self confidence. However, just because it has been great for me and for Eva doesn’t mean that it will be the same for Andy but we can hope that he likes it more.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01240 My favorite sundae at Bliss is their Pound cake sundae. The last time I went to Bliss Bros. I learned that they now make it with a smaller piece of pound cake. I have been craving one for a while and figured that I’d get the ingredients so that everyone could enjoy them after dinner tonight. They were a big hit.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01239 Yesterday Andy was working with paint and today Andy has decided to take his wabbits creations to ROBLOX. He learned how to create virtual clothing to put into the ROBLOX store. He downloaded a template and he can now make all sorts of clothing for his avatar. So, he made a shirt and a hoodie and some pajamas with the wabbits character on them. He uploaded them to the ROBLOX store and in doing so he can earn ROBUX if someone purchases his creation. I’m not sure how lucrative this is but he is excited about it and hopefully someone picks one up.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01238 I know it is not finished yet but Andy has been drawing comic strips featuring these Wabbits characters that he has created. He has drawn a bunch of comic strips and is also making some paintings. He wants to sell them. He’s also made some clay Wabbits to sell as well. I applaud his creativity. He’s having a lot of fun working on the comics and he is doing so with a few of his friends from school. He’s done some comics and drawing while at karate waiting for Eva’s class to be over and he is now creating paintings. He still needs to get some paint markers to finish the painting. He feels that paint markers are easier to control then the paintbrush. We’ll have to pick some up at Michael’s soon.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01237 Allison saw these Limited Edition Old Bay Goldfish at the store today and picked them up for me. They are very good. I think I should like to try them with a clam chowder or something similar.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01236 Our Rhododendron bushes are starting to bloom. Everything around the yard is green and growing. It is already time to cut so much back.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01235 Tonight Eva had her last Aloha dance. The year is flying by and all of these milestones keep on coming. In three weeks she’ll be graduating and heading to high school. Allison went to the dance to help set up and she got a few photos of Eva and her friends having some fun. When Eva got home she let me know that she had a very nice time.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01234 At this year’s Living Wax Museum Andy was Bob Ross. He was so excited to be Bob Ross for the event. He worked very hard on his presentation as well as his report for the assignment. When we learned that he would be Bob Ross he had us take care of getting him a special wig and beard as well as a little stuffed squirrel to act as PeaPod, Bob Ross’s rescued pet squirrel. Andy also worked on a painting to display. I picked up a special desktop easel for him to use to display his painting and he is very excited to keep using it to paint more and more. At the end of the event we took a group photo and Andy was in the bathroom. When he came out everyone was shouting for Bob Ross and he came tearing over to the group with his giant wig bouncing like crazy.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01233 The Wisteria plant is flowering right now and we’ll let that go until the flowers are done. Then it is time to cut this bad boy down big time. It has gotten so out of control over the past few years and we have to do something about it. Wisteria is so encroaching. It can be cut back to nothing and come back with a vengeance. It is insane.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01232 At dinner Andy found a couple of potato chips that he decided looked like an exclamation point. He was super silly. Not much going on here today. Karate Classes for me and the kids. School. Was a pretty normal day.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01231 A while back my friend Becky sent me the Ted Lasso package that she had received to promote the Apple TV+ show. We love the show and it was really nice of her to send us the package. It contained a jersey, scarf, visor and the Believe sign that Ted posts above his office. While I am not a soccer fan I like the sentiment of the poster and so I hung it up. I can’t wait for the 3rd season to be released. The show is so good.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01230 I have quite a few dragons around my office. For a time I as working with Safari LTD. they make all sorts of dragon figurines. I have most of mine on top of my computer watching over things like my XBox controller batteries. The collection contains some LEGO dragons as well including one from Shang-Chi and The Legend of the 10 Rings.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01229 Today was Free Comic Book Day over at Wild Time Comics. Randy and the crew moved the celebration to this week because the weather was not going to cooperate last week. They really lucked out today with a great day. With the new location they had a bunch of room to set up a great outside display. Eva had a nice time. One of the comics that we have been reading together finally put out the final issue. She also picked up a Stanger Things comic and a Legend of Korra/Avatar one. Eva also saw someone there wearing merchandise from her favorite streaming group, Dream SMP. So she told them that she liked their jacket and they told her that hey liked her pins. I had to pick up a new controller because my other one had major drift. It made it so hard to actually play any games and making video was near impossible. I’m looking to get a repair kit but I don’t know if it will completely fix the problem. If it does then I will have a backup. If it doesn’t then I definit...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01228 Funko sent me a new Joan Jett Funko Pop for free to unbox and review. I will be posting my video review of this figure tomorrow but really liked the cover photo that I shot for the thumbnail for the video. I am excited about this figure because I like Joan Jett and so does Eva. I think she may want to keep this one instead of me, but it will be going up on my wall. I grabbed Andy’s electric guitar to use as the backdrop for this photo, too. Thought is was a cool touch.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01227 I make Fortnite videos throughout the week. Sometimes things happen in the videos that cause me to get surprised. I was collecting items and got sniped at so I jumped and this was the result. I also realized the next day that I had not taken a photo so I took one from my video.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01226 This morning I got up and cleared out the area along the garage that we are using to plant Allison’s Lilac bushes that we gave her for Mother’s Day. I had to pull out some elephant ears and lots of weeds and vines but I was able to clear it all out and plant the three bushes. I hope that they thrive in this location.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01225 In our bedroom we have this jar of shells. Somehow it moves over time. It is the only thing in the room that I constantly have to move back into place. It drives me crazy.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01224 Last night I worked from the office in Fall River. It took longer to get home than usual and I also stopped at Target for some dishwasher tabs. I also decided to stop by Tasty’s for a salt bagel. They had a special Mexican Street Corn cream cheese that sounded perfect so I got that for my breakfast. I went home and took out the bagel to enjoy it and discovered a poppy seed bagel with peanut butter. While I should have been sleeping I decided that I had really been looking forward to the bagel so I turned right around and went back to Tasty’s so they could get it right. They were very good about the mistake and will make it right. The person behind the counter slipped two cookies into my bag along with the correct bagel. When I finally did get home with the correct bagel I was pleased with how good it tasted. I really enjoyed the new cream cheese.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01223 Today was Mother’s Day and while I had to sleep an work Allison and the kids had a nice time at their friend Joanna’s House. They had brunch and Mass at the house. Miss. Colleen’s brother, Larry performed the Mass. Allison brought an egg bake for brunch. I put it together last night in between taking down sites and bringing them back up. Tonight for dinner we ordered sushi from Four Seasons. It was a good spread of tasty choices. Some new favorites along with old favorites. I, unfortunately, had to run off to work tonight because I now have to go in a couple of times a month and tonight was my night. We did get Allison some nice lilac bushes that we are planting along the garage.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01222 My Skylanders collection is not doing much these days except for being decorations in my office. I keep talking about doing some streaming with these toys. I should really start doing that on my YouTube or Twitch channel.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01221 Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness came out in theaters today. Marvel movies are finally coming back to theaters in a more timely and consistent manner. I’ve seen pretty much every one of the movies so far and am looking forward to all those that are upcoming. This one was pretty good and I’ll definitely see it again with Eva even though we are both looking more forward to Thor: Love and Thunder coming in a couple of months. I did love the cameos that were in the movie. We finally got to see someone portray a specific character and fans have been asking for that forever. Then there was an actor who reprised a little known role and I loved that, too. It was visually very, very cool.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01220 Today we celebrated Cinco De Mayo. This is one of two days a year that I have an alcoholic drink. We did margaritas with our taco dinner. Andy had a glass of the sour mix to pretend that he also had a drink. I think he liked it more because we rimmed the glass with salt for him, too. While we did not have any dessert plans we did have some of the Opopop Cinnalicious popcorn. It had a great cinnamon flavor very much like a Churro. It worked really well as a dessert themed for the day.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01219 I received a free download code for the movie Uncharted. The movie came out on Digital on 4/26 and will be on Blu-ray 5/10. Opinions are my own. I have never played the Uncharted games but I am very sure that I would enjoy them. I love figuring out puzzles and clues and all sorts of fun things like that. So, when I was asked if I wanted to participate in a scavenger hunt as a promo for Uncharted I said yes. I was sent an envelope that contained four clues that would lead me to my own digital download code of the movie so that I could watch it. The movie stars Tom Holland and Mark Walhberg and looks like a wild ride. the envelope contained a few things. There were some maps, some postcards, a key, a pen, a flashlight and some bubble gum. I used the clues to solve the puzzles in order to find my download code and it was really fun figuring everything out. Eva helped me and we had everything figured within a could of minutes. The puzzle was a challenge but I h...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01218 For the past two years I’ve been working at home and in during that time I purchased some really nice headphones. These headphones connect to both my XBox and my phone. I am able to watch shows while I work and also take calls without ever having to take them off. Well, I guess the wear and tear of taking them off and putting them back on again put stress on the headphones and they snapped at a critical point. I have no idea how a break would happen in that spot but it must be how I take them off and put them on. The break is right below where the headphones can swivel from side to side and where they flex out a bit. The break was all the way through, too. I first attempted to use super glue on it but that did not work very well so I then put duct tape on it to keep it together. It works, for now. Nothing internal to the device was broken but now I have a big silver piece of duct tape on the side of it. Luckily it is not too noticeable in my videos.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01217 I was given a free sampler of Opopop Gourmet Popcorn Flavors to try out and review. Opinions are my own. It is no secret that I love popcorn. I am a huge popcorn fan and I like everything from popcorn at the movies, to target to making it at home on the stove, in a n air popper or in the microwave. Microwave popcorn has fallen out of favor at our house because the whole chemical taste and smell. I thought that Microwave popcorn would be gone forever for me but along comes Opopop. Opopop is different and much better than regular microwave popcorn. This is a small company out of Devner Colorado They grown all of their own corn for their popcorn. They also flavor wrap each kernel so you get the most flavorful mouthful ever! The sample I received came with 12 of their Pop cups. These are peel and pour popcorn cups. The sampler also came with a few of their shareable size popcorn packets. These included flavors like Maui Heat, Cinnalicious, Vanilla Cake Pop, Sal...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01216 Allison ordered a bunch of stuff from See’s Candies for Easter and she got me a special jar of Lemon Drops. I didn't even know that See’s had anything other than chocolate. These are excellent Lemon Drop candies.