BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01610 Dad came up today to work on the tile floor. He also put in the baseboards and we put the vanity into place. The tiles were not all installed because for some reason we had two different types of tiles. The ones that we had picked up in individual form were the ones that Dad put down and were also the ones that Allison approved. We also lost some time because of the sewer line backup in the basement. Our plumber came over and snaked the house trap with a closet snake. It cleared right up but we have a new project to do after the bathroom is finished. We’ll have to dig up the floor in that part of the basement to fix the house trap.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01609 It is grilling season again and we realized that my grill had some rough grill plates on it. They were rusting and flaking and so not safe. I found some replacement stainless steel grill plates on Amazon.com that would fit our grill. Allison and the kids got them for me for Father’s Day. I’m looking forward to using them. Dad came up today and completed the tiles on the shower. They came out really nice. He’ll be moving on to the floor tomorrow.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01608 We got a lot of work done on the bathroom this week and now the walls, ceiling and trim are painted. I did pretty good with the paint but there are a few spots that I need to touch up because I accidentally hit the ceiling with the green paint. We are all very happy with how it looks and cannot wait for everything to be completed. Work is coming along very quickly and nicely.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01607 General Mills often sends me free samples of their new products so that I can try them out and let you know what I think. I’m a big fan of many of the fun products that they make. This time they sent me 5 new products to enjoy. I love the snack attack box that everything arrived in. Great fun packaging. Can’t wait to share with everyone what they sent.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01606 General Mills Cereal often sends me free samples of their new products. I got a very fun box of snacks and this new type of cereal bar was in the box. They were really good. I think they are too new though because I have not yet found them in stores. They will be coming soon.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01605 Ever since my Black Belt Pre-Test on May 6th I have had Olecranon Bursitis or a swollen elbow. I described it as having elbows like Olive Oil is draw having elbows. Well, apparently this condition is also called Popeye elbow. It is very fitting. When it first happened I mentioned it to one of my instructors and they said that they have had that happen with their knees before. Said unless it hurts it should clear up on its own after a time. So, I gave it the guy week. You know, the week where you put up with it and figure it will go away on its own. It has not. So, today I went to the doctors to see about having it drained. They could drain it, however I would have to be in a splint for 2 weeks to prevent it from happening again. Do you know what is two weeks from tomorrow? My final Black Belt Test. There is no way I’m going to be in a splint and not using my right arm for two weeks leading up to that test. So, I now have a compression sleeve to put over tha...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01604 Dad came up today to work more on the bathroom. He installed the trim around the door and the window in the bathroom. I gave the walls and ceiling a coat of primer to get them ready for painting. We’ll be painting the walls a nice green and the trim atrium white and the ceiling, a ceiling white. The bathroom continues to come together and is looking good.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01603 We received a free review copy of Jim Benton’s Fann Club: Batman Squad. Opinions are our own. I’ve been a fan of Jim Benton’s humor for a long time now. I’ve had the privilege of interviewing him via Zoom and meeting him in person at a couple of comic book conventions over the years. The guy has an incredible sense of humor and he can use that for both kids and adults. Jim works on many of his own properties like the Catwad and Franny K. Stein series. His new series takes place in the DC Universe and centers on a kid named Ernest Fann. Fann Club: Batman Squad is a super silly look at one kids obsession with the cape crusader and how he tries to assemble his own club of people seeking to bring the justiest justice of all to his neighborhood. Ernest is well, earnest and a bit dim. He loves Batman and he along with his babysitter, best friend and dog try to protect their neighborhood from would be villains. Ernest has the code name Gerbilwing, Hi best friend i...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01602 I found Andy playing with their VR set while wearing the Bob Ross wig from the Living Wax Museum. Sadly Andy was not playing some virtual painting game because that would be absolutely perfect considering the wig.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01601 I saw this pen on amazon.com and figured I’d pick up a set of these for myself and the kids. I knew that they would enjoy them and they did. I thought that they would be cool to display and to use while they create their little projects. Eva can use them during next year’s Steampunk festival. And it might be fun for her to use in a cosplay or something.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01600 We received a free copy of the new cookbook by Tara Theoharis, Minecraft: Gather, Cook, Eat! Official Cookbook for review. Opinions are my own. When your kids are into Minecraft and also have a passion for the kitchen it is a total no brainer to pick up Minecraft: Gather, Cook, Eat! Official Cookbook. I was asked if I wanted to review this and I jumped at the chance because my son loves both cooking and Minecraft. Andy got a whole night to showcase their cooking talents (with some help from Allison). Andy made 4 things from the cookbook. We were able to enjoy 3 of them tonight and tomorrow we will get to enjoy the fourth item. For our main course Andy made the Chicken Jockey Sandwich. This was a chicken breast sandwich on a brioche bun with provolone and bacon plus tomato and lettuce. You could also add pesto to the sandwich. I’m not a big fan of pesto but I did add a little. I enjoyed it more without the pesto. But that is personal preference. Andy also ma...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01599 On Saturdays I have to go to the office. Because I do not want to go to the office because it is a pointless waste of time I often get myself treats to get through the nights there. Tonight I went with the chocolate éclair frozen treat. I got a box of them and hopefully they will still be here next weekend when I come in to work, too. Although I did tell my cousin that he could have one and maybe he’ll stick to having one. Otherwise they probably will be gone next weekend. It is pointless to come to the office because everything I do for my job can 100% be done from home.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01598 I picked up this bag of Unicorn Popcorn for Andy when I was at Big Lots. Andy sometimes uses my office and raids my snacks there. This time I got them their own snacks in an effort to keep Andy from eating my snacks. However, Andy did not try them, I did. I was not impressed. Maybe when Andy does try them they will like the popcorn. Andy does have eclectic tastes.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01597 this week was conditioning week for Krav Maga and Jr. Krav Maga. It is interesting to see what Sensei Brochu will cram into the half hour that the kids have when he has about an hour for the adults in the mornings. We definitely do much more than the kids. Eva is one of the highest ranked kids on Tuesdays and Thursdays so she often is asked to demonstrate with Sensei. Today she demonstrated for the class and during the demonstration Sensei asked her to do a flying knee. she tried and landed flat on her back. I got it on video. I am still kicking my self for missing the time that she did all the ground work so well. Of course I get in trouble with her for catching her fall on video. But then she did a bunch of self defense so very well and I got that on video too. Today’s photo is an image pulled from that video. You can also see Andy in the background working on groundwork. Andy si looking good too with their hips up as they kick the kick shield. I also bou...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01596 Dad came back today to work on the bathroom. The underlayment is down and more patching was done to the walls. We’ll soon have the tile done and getting the vanity painted and installed, walls painted and more. I know that Eva and Allison can’t wait for everything to be buttoned up because we’ve had two millipedes in the bathroom so far. Tonight there was one that was the length of my middle finger that scared Eva half to death. I had to reassure her that I did in fact kill it. Several times. Today was my last day at CSPI. They did a lot of great work with me on my shoulder rehab. I’m glad it is all done, though.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01595 I was picking up a prescription tonight and went through the refrigerated aisle. There I saw that someone had stuck a plunger to one of the windows. Just randomly. It was a strange random day. Dad and I went to Home Depot to pick up the tile for the bathroom and when we were there we picked up some 6 X 6 tile and they were $1.56 a square foot. That would be 4 tiles that made up the square foot. So, each tile would cost $0.39 each. However, it came up as $19 or so because that was for a whole box. We spent a while getting that sorted but eventually we did. Dad got all the walls taped and ready to go.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01594 I got my copy of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom the other day. I haven’t had much time to play it yet but I’ve played enough to really enjoy it. I’ll be playing the heck out of this game for a while to come. There are some amazing physics in the game and so many cool things to create and explore. I suspect that I will be playing this for many, many hours.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01593 For Mother’s Day today we went to The Purple Rooster for breakfast. Then I had to go to sleep. Allison took the kids to church and to shop for food and get Covid boosters. Tonight Allison grilled up some fantastic steaks for dinner. It was a nice day over all.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01592 I was at Target the other day and I found a mini LEGO set of Doctor Strange opening a portal with his Sling Ring. I like this little set because his cape is actually molded soft plastic rather than a cheap paper/fabric one. The little scene also makes it look like there is a city in the background. I like the fun micro build here that uses minimalist pieces to convey a larger scene.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01591 Dad came down today and we installed the Sheetrock in the bathroom. The bathroom continues to move along and get closer to being complete. We have new light switches for the light in the shower and the light that will be over the vanity.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01590 Allison found a 9 pocket cubby for Andy’s closet to help organize it. I put it together tonight after the kid’s Jr. Krav Class. I did most of it but Andy came and helped out nailing in the tiny nails for the backing to the cubby and then we placed it in Andy’s closet so that Andy could fell it up with their clothes for school.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01589 I finally had a day to myself and went for a nice long walk this morning. While walking around Capron Park I noticed that someone had made a carving that looks like a mushroom and placed it on one of the stumps that are around the park from trees that had either fallen down or had been cut down. I hope to get out and do some more walks in the coming weeks when I have the time.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01588 This morning at my Krav Class Sensei Brochu let me know that I passed my Black Belt Pre-Test and I can continue my journey towards earning my black belt in June. I was almost not there because I had poorly written my age 49 on my paper. It looked more like 41. Because of that my 100% in Squats was a lower number. Once everything was recalculated I was much closer to that 80% number. I am going to have to step up my pushups and also get better in my plank and do a faster run. This afternoon Andy was the only foundational member so Andy partnered with Eva for the warm up.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01587 I’m still feeling the effects of Saturday’s Black Belt Pre-test. Because of that an the aches and pains I decided to try out an Epsom salt bath. It really helped out so I did a second one before bed. I’m recovering faster than I did for the evaluation.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01586 I haven’t built a LEGO set in a while and last night on the way to work I stopped at Wal-Mart looking for some Hot Wheels Character cars but they did not have any new ones. I then looked at the LEGO sets and saw this cool Lamborghini. I would have liked it in red more like Sideswipe from Transformers but white is cool, too. That is more like Red Alert who is white and is the same style car as Sideswipe. It was fun to build this set. I think I’m going to have to go up to the attic and grab one of the Marvel sets I still have to build.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01585 Last year I completely forgot to go to Free Comic Book Day. This is something I have been taking the kids to forever. And I completely forgot. Well, today we were able to come back and enjoy the festivities over at Wild time Comics. On the way out we asked the cosplayers if we could get a photo with them. REally nice costumes and very fun people. We had a nice time. Of course, I wasn’t too sure if I was gonna make it to Free Comic Book Day today because I had my Krav Maga Pre-Test this morning. I have been so nervous about it because this is the stage where I failed my first time attempting to earn my black belt. It’s been over a year and a half since then, I’ve been working as hard as I can towards this goal, running before every class with my partner, taking an extra class each week and more. I could still do more to attain this goal and I am stepping things up in the coming month. The test was intense. We did about an hour and a half of striking and then...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01584 Tonight Eva had her very first semi formal in High School. She was all excited to go. She went to a friend’s house to go with her friend and her friend’s friends. I was not able to go along because I had boot camp tonight because tomorrow is my Black Belt Pre-Test. But, I was able to get a nice photo of Eva in her outfit for the dance. It is so her. We also have a working shower once again and I got to break it in after my boot camp. The shower head is going to be changed out and maybe the other hardware. We’ll have to take a look to see what we’d like to have for finishes and other things like that. We do not have the door yet so we are using the shower curtain from the cape. Mom sent that along with dad earlier in the week. Once things move along we will get a sliding shower door to put in that space.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01583 Today Dad stayed on the Cape while our plumber continued working to get us a working shower. Unfortunately that did not happen today. I was gone most of the day with classes and running around. I did not come back until around 1pm and our plumber was looking at the roof above the bathroom. The roof is a flat roof and the venting pipe there had rubber and flashing that was all cracked and worn. It is a wonder that our bathroom ceiling didn’t look worse than it did and didn’t fill up with water every rain. Tonight I took everyone out to KC’s Burger Barn for dinner because the shower was not yet installed. Just trying to distract everyone from that, but it looks like it will be in tomorrow.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01582 Today our plumber got to work on the downstairs pipes. He ran into a few snags, though. He got most of the re-piping done around the laundry area. So much that was done in the past was done so wrong. He fixed up all of it to run more efficiently and to look much better, too. He discovered one pipe that was totally cracked and it is a wonder that it never failed on us. He also discovered that the pipe from the second floor bathroom that brings everything down from up there was basically two pipes resting on each other, not connected, just resting on each other. We are finding too many things like this. Tonight Andy made a wonderful strawberry/pineapple sorbet using their Ninja Creami. Andy also climbed a 5.9 at rock Climbing and that was a bit accomplishment for Andy.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01581 As we continue to work on the bathroom we are finding all sorts of things. My dad found that one wire for the lights above the sink has a screw right through the middle of it. How that never shorted out over the years is anyone’s guess. Today Dad and I finished up the teardown and then we went to Home Depot to pick up some supplies and a new fan for the bathroom. There are so many to choose from but I think we got a really good one. It is supposed to be quiet and with everything properly vented (things were not done properly in the past) we should have the bathroom steam cleared out quickly, even when Eva takes showers that make the bathroom feel like the Everglades. While we were in Home Depot we picked up some sheetrock. We got one piece for the ceiling that is mildew resistant and 5 pieces that were regular sheetrock. We left the cart over by the sheetrock and picked up the other things. When we came back to the cart and went to check out we noticed that...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01580 Yesterday I mentioned that we were remodeling our bathroom on the first floor. Today we began the teardown. First off, my house was built by Jack and his brother Darryl and his other brother Darryl. When our plumber got into things he found so many things that were wrong with how the plumbing was done in the bathroom. There was so much wrong. Each day we have had an adventure of finding some really inconvenient things to make everything go much slower. Today, though, we torn everything out except for a little of the ceiling and some of the walls. We’ve got a long way to go to get it completed.