BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01732 Tonight Eva had her Homecoming dance. She had Allison get her a nice new red tie and they found a great black jacket to wear as well. With her hair cut today and the new threads she was ready to go with her great fiend, Elizabeth. Elizabeth came over right before I left for work so I could take a photo of the two of them together in their coordinating outfits. I love how they plan these things out together and do such a nice job complimenting each other. I hope they have a great night!

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01731 Tonight Allison and I went to see a comedian that we both very much enjoy. He started his comedy tour tonight in Providence and will be taping a special later on during the tour or at the end , I’m not sure exactly when. Hasan Minhaj was the host of a show called The Patriot Act on Netflix and we really enjoyed it. Then it was cancelled. Then he did a guest spot on The Daily Show as a guest host for a week and we’d love to see him take over. He did a great job on the show and the comedy show tonight was so much fun. We were laughing so much. There were no phone allowed at the end and definitely no photos so we took this selfie in the parking lot of the mall before we walked over the The Vet.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01730 Andy is back at the experimental baking. Andy got the idea to create Mango Sorbet cupcakes. So, today after school Andy and their new friend Maia made these cupcakes. Andy has been walking home from school with Maia whenever the chance arises. The two of them have fun together and it is nice that Andy has made a new friend. We did have to talk a little about some walking home from school rule today, though. Trying to make the kids both understand that if they are going to hang out in the park for a bit that we get a text about that. Allison and Maia’s mom had a nice long talk this past weekend and we can contact her and let her know that the kids are playing together. The cupcakes were delicious, too. Very light on the mango flavor but enough to know it was mango.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01698 Andy decided that we would enjoy a dinner of snacks. Andy created something called Hulk dippers because many of the ingredients were green. They were crescent rolls wrapped around provolone cheese. There was also some filling which was pickle juice and olive juice. I can see the pickle juice, that is fine sort of like the fry sauce that we make but olive not so much. Then Andy made a special butter to put on the dippers. It had quite a bit of garlic added to it. It also had chopped up pickles. Andy is nothing if not creative. The basement continues to be an issue and we will be working on that this week. The highlight of that kerfuffle was Eva taking and shower at the same time as Andy flushing the toilet. That resulted in the water coming out of the pipe behind the washing machine. Lovely.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01729 Our local High School has a restaurant that is run by the students. It opens for tree days a week for lunch and I have been excited to try it out. I wanted to go because Andy is very passionate about cooking and baking and wants to be a part of this program when it is time for High School. I want to encourage Andy to pursue this because it is something very important to their happiness. Andy is incredibly happy for baking and for rock climbing and these things that make Andy happy are things that we will continue to encourage. the restaurant itself is worth the trip. They really do a great job there and I am looking forward to going back. Not only is the food good quality but it is very inexpensive as well. I was able to get a Caesar salad, very good sized, a burger and a drink plus two pastries for under $20. That is pretty unheard of right now. I want to be able to take Andy there sometime but it is at the same time Andy is in school.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01728 The kids can make these heart shapes with their fingers that are way too complex for Allison and I to do. They are constantly teasing us when we try to do the same thing with our fingers but it does not work right. They end up in a fit of giggles over it. Andy was trying to help me out to make this heart shape with our fingers and just kept laughing about it.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01727 Mondays are going to be Andy’s second day for rock climbing. We decided that since Andy will no longer be doing Krav that we would go an additional time to Rock Spot so that they can climb more often. We made a deal that Andy would climb for at least an hour on Mondays to make it worth the effort to drive over and back. So then Andy will get about 2 1/2 – 3 hours a week to climb.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01726 Today Andy decided that they would make some homemade pasta for dinner. Andy has been watching many videos from Nick DiGiovanni and he has a video on making pasta. So, Andy decided that is what we’d have for dinner. It is pretty involved and is definitely something that Andy can continue to work on for future meals. Maybe get a pasta maker attachment for the kitchen aid to help with rolling the pasta out more evenly. Who knows if Andy even wants to make it again but it was a good first shot at it.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01725 Once a weekend I have to go to one of my company’s buildings. I have to set things up each time that I come in with the monitors and everything else. I also bring an iPad and my cellphone and there are not enough plugs for everything like I have things set up at home. I had been using a plug for my cell phone but now I just have a USB port but the wire I had has USB-C on both ends and I need USB-A on one need and USB-C on the other. So I picked up this Cheetos themed one at Five Below because, why not. It was the same price for a fun one as opposed to just a regular wire.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01724 Tonight I made the kids French Toast uncrustables for dinner. We picked up an uncrustables maker and with it we can make custom uncrustables sandwiches. Andy wanted nutella and fluff and Eva wanted peanut butter and strawberry jelly. I had just strawberry jelly for mine. So what to do with the scraps from making the uncrustables? You go ahead and make french toast out of those as well. Tonight’s meal cooked up real nice and was much better than store bought uncrustables made into french toast. I may make some in the future using sliced strawberries and cream cheese for the filling. I think those would be exceptional.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01723 Tonight was back to school or family night at Brennan for Andy. We all went to check out the school and meet Andy’s teachers. There was a presentation int he cafetorium and then we went to the classroom area for a teacher presentation. There was also a choir song in the front lobby. Everyone that we met was very nice. Andy enjoys their teachers and the enjoy Andy. We’ve received some very nice emails from the teachers regarding Andy. It is nice to see Andy thriving and making friends. We met one of Andy’s friends and her mom. We had actually known who the mom was because we used to walk each morning and see the mom and her dog. So, we actually finally formally met her. They live around the corner from us and Andy and the daughter are going to walk home together tomorrow. Andy had better put on running shoes because Maia likes to be the first out the door of the school at the end of the day. Andy has also been enjoying the trombone. We rented one for Andy fo...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01722 Today I took my old laptop and repurposed it for Andy. Andy loves playing Minecraft and has recently gotten back into playing it via computer. However, we have one family computer and that is used mostly by Allison while she does work for school. I basically took off everything that would be bogging the computer down and installed Minecraft so that Andy could use it. this way there is a dedicated device that Andy can use to play their favorite game. It may be a little slower than the other computer but it still runs pretty well to play that game. The book is the newest Bruce book. Andy loves the Bruce books and asked that we pick this up the other night when we were with Uncle Jim at Target. I haven’t had any free Bruce books sent to me in a while so we bought this one to continue the series. It may be a children’s book and Andy si definitely aged out of them but they still enjoy these funny stories.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01721 The folks form General Mills sent me a free care package of Fall themed products and goodies. Pumpkin spice is in the air with some Pumpkin spice cheerios as well as vanilla spice cheerios and two different Larabar flavors: Gingerbread and Pumpkin spice. I tried the pumpkin spice cheerios as a cereal and then I made some Fried Cheerios on the stove. They were quite tasty if I do say so myself. Eva claimed the hat from the care package.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01720 Tonight we celebrated Christmas early. Uncle Jimmy Christmas to be more specific. My uncle Jim came out form California and because he won’t be back this way for Christmas this year we did Uncle Jimmy Christmas early. That is when Uncle Jim comes and takes us out to various stores to get the kids Christmas gifts and then we all go out for dinner. We went to KC’s Burger Bar for dinner. That is good because it was national cheeseburger day and so I made sure to get the Super Sport burger because that is my favorite one there. Andy got a Rise and Shine burger complete with fried egg and hash brown. Andy picked out a nice shirt at Target along with a Minecraft LEGO set. Eva choose an Amazon gift card because she could not decide on something right then and there.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01719 On our second day at the Granite State Comicon Eva had a second costume. I wore most of the same costume that I had yesterday but I took off a few things like the wig and the gauntlets and gloves. I kept the sword and buttoned the jacket all the way up. We’re going to take the zipper of the jacket and put in some snaps that clasp all the way up. We ran out of time to make that change to the jacket. We started off the day listening to some music from the Clemenzi Crusaders. This band did rock covers to all sorts of TV show intros and more. They also wore various helmets and masks while playing. I enjoyed their music and it was a fn way to start off the morning. Eva’s second character takes a long time to prepare. Eva paints one whole side of her face for the cosplay and she had to do it on the opposite side than she does for recording videos. So it takes a while. We were up in plenty of time for Eva to get that done, however. Last year we used this backdrop ...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01718 Today I took Eva to the Granite State Comicon in Manchester, NH. The con is one that we have enjoyed going to since our first family trip in 2018. I did attend the very first one way back when they started because I was friends with the organizers. I still am and love to see them at the show each year. We packed up the car with our materials for our costumes. Eva was showcasing two of her characters this time out with one on Saturday and one on Sunday. This meant a couple of wigs plus my wig for my costume. We arrived at the convention just as they opened the showroom floor and we got our passes and made a first pass through the entire show. We would do this several more times throughout the weekend because that is what we do, w tour the floors and then go to a couple of the panels. Eva’s cosplay is of a character called Technoblade. I was doing an original character and when I got to the con I immediately picked up a foam sword to carry around. This is an ...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01717 Our new fridge was installed today. The delivery came around 11am. Because our house is our house the fridge could not come in through the door closest to the kitchen. It had to come in the front door and then through the dining room and then into the kitchen. This meant that I had to remove the swinging door between the dining room and kitchen. I had no idea how to do this but I figured it out. I know the delivery guys were not thrilled to see the way to bring it in. But it got in. Our house being our house again meant that the space where the fridge went was not plumb and level. When I removed the old fridge there was a set of shingles used as a shim. I had taken them out but when I put the new fridge int he space I knew I needed to put them back. Then when I did that I had to cut a board to put under the right front foot to level it out. I have not used an actual level but it is much more level than it had been and looks pretty straight in the space. I d...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01716 I’ve been preparing my cosplay costume for the Granite State Comicon and I ordered this Saint George Sword. Unfortunately I cannot add it to my costume and bring it to the show because it is metal (it is blunted) but it does have a pointy end to it. It would not pass weapons check. I could, however wear it in my costume to King Richard’s Faire next year because their weapons policy is that it stay sheathed. that would be my intention anyway. I do love the look of it and it goes with the other dragon themed things I have in my costume.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01715 The folks at PMI toys sent me a Pudgy Penguins package for Positive Thinking Day. These cute little guys are lots of fun and there is an app associated with them for kids to adopt their penguins and style them and play with them, too. I think Andy is really going to like these when I give them to Andy after school. Andy does enjoy penguins.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01714 The image is not of our house but of the stream behind the Karate Dojo. I went to class this morning and that is what I saw. Luckily nothing seeped into the school. Friends of ours were not so lucky, though. They have a flooded house and it is probably a total loss or at least unlivable for the near future. I feel terrible about it too. The guy whose house it is was the one who helped me big time during my black belt test. I also learned of the passing of one of my fellow black belts this morning. after class we learned that John, the kindly older gentleman who trained with us faithfully had passed away last Thursday. He had just been training with us on last Tuesday. I was really knocked for a loop. I felt a special connection to him because he also had type II diabetes and he was still training and working hard at Krav. That gave me more motivation in my own journey. I appreciated all of his encouragement and help as I prepared for my own black belt test....

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01713 Andy baked some cupcakes yesterday and today, decorated them. Andy mixed up several batches of frosting in various colors and then put their skills to work creating grass and flowers and bumblebees. You can see much more detail in the photo below. Andy was going to make whoopie pie donuts but that was going to be too involved especially with the heat happening around here lately. So, instead the red velvet cupcakes for friends at climbing.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01712 I’ve gotten another delivery from TEMU. This time it is of some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures in LEGO form. These are knock offs but I got them because I like to display fun things around my office and I love the turtles and they looked pretty fun. They each come with a skateboard and their signature weapons plus a pizza. They are all nicely done with great prints on each one.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01711 Andy got his new glasses today. We ordered them weeks ago and I had hoped that they would be in before Andy’s school pictures on Friday but sadly they were not. Andy looks quite handsome in their new glasses. I think that Andy is quite happy with the glasses.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01710 Eva and I are headed to Granite State Comicon next Weekend. We’re going there Saturday staying over until Sunday. Eva always has a lo of fun doing cosplay and she puts a lot of work into her costumes and characters. I wanted to do a character thing this time around and so I put together some articles to make an original character. The character does not have a name and this is not everything that I have for the costume. All that will be revealed next weekend. I may even have Eva do some scars and stuff on m for the full effect of the costume.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01709 We were able to sell off Andy’s bunk bed last week and I ordered a new bed for Andy’s room. We were going to go with a new box spring on a metal frame that my parents had but a box spring is around $100 or so. I found a metal bed frame that would have enough support for just Andy’s mattress for much cheaper than that so I went with that. It also has a foot of clearance under the bed so we can store things like blankets and other items under the bed easily. That way they are not piled up near the head of Andy’s bed. I think I can also pick up a headboard if that is something Andy wants for the bed. I should be able to attach it to the frame since it has holes for something like that already.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01708 Back when Skylanders was a big deal and back when I was working with Activision to promote the brand I was given a code to create my own Skylander. I have not played any Skylanders in such a long time. So many other games have been taking up my time and since I played through all of Skylanders, all 5 games and the Nintendo DS games as well I just haven’t gotten back into it. I am thinking about packing them all away again and using the display cases for some of my Transformers collection instead. That way I can clean and dust and then reset things. It may also motivate me to start listing some Transformers for sale. Not my originals or anything and nothing too special but probably the ones I picked up when I was doing a lot of Transformers buying in the late 90’s early 2000’s.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01707 Playmobil sent me their latest retro toy, the Magnum, p.i. Ferrari 308 GTS Quattrovalvole playset to review. Playmobil has been doing a great job making different sets for many of the classic shows that I’ve enjoyed in my childhood. Most of the shows have iconic vehicles in them like K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider and the A-Team van. Magnum, p.i.’s Ferrari 308 GTS Quattrovalvole is also quite iconic. Who from my generation can still see that car cruising around Hawaii as Magnum got up to his antics. This show ran from 1980 to 1988 and I was 6 when the show debuted. That is probably why I never got into watching it. I probably would have enjoyed it because I liked so many other shows of that genre at that time. Despite not watching the show I do know much about it and was excited that Playmobil made this playset. The iconic Ferrari 308 GTS Quattrovalvole from the classic 80s TV crime series Magnum, p.i. Set also includes the main characters from the series: Thom...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01706 Today we went to King Richard’s Faire. We were guests of the realm as we have been for the past 10+ years. this has been a family tradition for so long. We get press passes to come to the faire as a family and we have such an amazing time each trip. This year there were some new attractions but there were also some of our old favorites. We never miss the Jacques Ze Whipper show. We also make sure that we watch both parts of the musical the is created every single year. The parody songs are incredible and the cast is fantastic. We also make sure that we see our many friends around the realm. We got to the Faire and we sat for a photo with Kind Richard the 11th. Our friend Julie took the photo and I will share that once it is published. Photo by Julie Dennehy, APR Dennehy Public Relations We then walked through a few shops and I picked up $100 worth of food tickets (we ended up needing $110 total for the four of us to get lunches, drinks and a snack at the en...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01705 Last month I painted a wall in the kitchen with chalkboard paint. I picked up some chalkboard markers and Allison created the family calendar and a place for a monthly quote and another place for artwork. I was taking a walk a couple of weeks ago and photographed a pallet that someone had on their lawn and I liked it so I took a photo and asked Allison to recreate that on our wall for the month of September. So today Allison made the new artwork on our wall. Eva takes a look at it and says, “So, September is one of our values?” Such a little wise ass. She was being feisty later int he day and Allison spoke to her and she says, “Sorry, I was being a little too September there wasn’t I?” She’s definitely a product of our making.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01704 Early this morning I saw many posts on Facebook alerting me to the death of Jimmy Buffett. It is pretty sad to hear that he died. Jimmy Buffett has been such a part of my relationship with Allison. We went to so many shows together over the years. I think that almost every show we’ve ever been to has been documented in this blog. Tonight Allison made herself a margarita. I had a sip because I had to go to work tonight. She took a much better shot that actually had the margarita glass in it. It has been a long time since we have seen a Jimmy Buffett show. We still very much enjoy his music. After Thursday’s debacle trying to sell off Andy’s bunk bed I was successful today. A young woman came and picked up the bunk bed and even paid me my asking price. So we have some money for King Richard’s Faire on Monday.