BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02090 A few weeks back I was looking on amazon for a car emblem that said Cyberton edition. I doubted that there would be one but you never know because people make so many different things now. Well, I discovered a seller that made custom emblems for cars and I had them make the custom “Cybertron” edition emblem for my car. this is shiny chrome and it is metal. They even laser cut the sticker that goes on the back of it. And on top of that they provided a second sticker so that I could transfer this to a future car, too. I had already purchased the Autobot symbol to pair with this purchase, it is taller than the custom emblem but I think it still looks good with it. the same company also makes other custom emblems so I got my self one that says “@BenSpark” which is, of course the name of this blog and my social media handle all over. I had tried using some other car stickers to do this but they were huge and over the top. I wanted something subtle that went with the ...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02089 At the Scholastic Book Fair this year Andy found a book on different food boards to make. Andy decided that they would like to make a waffle board this weekend and that is what they did. The board had sliced fruit, waffles, candied bacon, sausages, mini corn muffins rolled in sugar and cinnamon. Andy also made an orange juice spritzer for us to enjoy. All very well done.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02089 The other day I was watching Tik Tok and there was an ad for this mic stand. It looked so much better than the one that I had and much cleaner. So, I bought it and while I now get tons of Tik Tok shop ads now, it was worth the purchase. It is much more sturdy than my old one.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02088 Today was National Sons Day and like National Daughters Day I took a photo of Andy. While this is not Andy’s natural habitat Andy does help out around the house quite a bit. Andy’s after dinner chore is to load the dishwasher and clear the table. We were hanging around in the kitchen and Allison and Eva were goofing around and I caught Andy with a genuine smile. So handsome.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02087 We have a second collaboration between LEGO and Transformers. This time LEGO has a transformable Bumblebee robot. It is smaller in scale than the Optimus Prime one but I think it is going to be fun to build. I plan on building this for my YouTube channel in the coming weeks.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02086 Today was National Daughters day so I took a photo of Eva in her natural habitat, her room. She spends a lot of time there creating all sorts of things. Tonight she was crating gems for some project that she is working on. She’s usually got about 20 or so happening at once. She is just so creative.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02085 Allison finished Andy’s humpback whale last night. This morning when Andy got up they found the whale on the rocking chair and had this reaction. I took a few nice photos of the whale outside so that Allison would have them.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02084 Allison has been crocheting a whale for Andy for a while now. She has had to do the underside several times because it just wasn’t getting quite right. Tonight she completed her work. This took several weeks of work each night to complete.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02083 On the second day of the Granite State Comicon we hung out at our hotel for the morning because the show did not start until 10am. Luckily we stayed at a place that included breakfast so we had some stuff to enjoy before heading to the con. Today we did a coordinated cosplay. I was Peter B. Parker and Eva was a teenage Mayday Parker. She spent hours styling her wig and Allison spent hours creating her hat. I put together a costume with sweats, a pink robe, spider man shirt and two different shoes. I sort of combined the Peter Parker outfits from the two Spiderverse movies. I did run into a few other people who were wearing the same sort of things. They recognized my costume first. I actually got a few people who recognized my costume yesterday, too. One little boy even stopped us to get our photo. The first thing we did was go to the exhibit hall and get our photos taken by Nerd Caliber again. I liked yesterday’s photos of me much better. I am not sure I liked th...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02082 today Eva and I drove up to New Hampshire for the Granite State Comicon. This has been our yearly adventure now for several years. Eva loves to do cosplay and she has a group of friends there that she catches up with each year. I am a big nerd and love pop culture and fun stuff like this so I love to go. also, the show was created by some college friends of mine and I enjoy seeing them every year. This year we were both in cosplay each day. Day one we did separate things. I was Bobby Singer from the show Supernatural and Eva was Ray from one of the SMPs that she watches. We made sure that we went to Nerd Caliber and got our photos taken there. We do this every year and they always take such great photos. This was good because I hardly took any photos this year. this was Eva getting her photo taken. Below is the photo that was taken. Photo by Nerd Caliber . I also had my photo taken. I like how this one came out. Photo by Nerd Caliber . We walked around the show f...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02081 Tonight we went to the movies as a family. We went to see the new Transformers One more. This is the first animated Transformers movie in 26 years. It was a great movie and I hope it is the start of more to come. The movie takes place entirely on the planet of Cybertron. It is the story of how Optimus Prime and Megatron went from best friends, like brothers, to bitter enemies. The story was very well done and wove in 40 years of lore. I do hope that the next movie also takes place on Cybertron but then ends with the fall of Cybertron and the Autobots and Decepticons crash landing on Earth. That would be great and then the third movie would take place on Earth with the intent for the Transformers to return to their homeworld. Everyone enjoyed the movie and t was great to spend some time together before Eva and I headed off to Granite State Comicon for the weekend.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02080 We go through soft butter like crazy in this house. It is a favorite of everyone for everything like muffins, bread and corn on the cob. When I took it out for dinner tonight it seems very, very light. That is because someone put it back empty. Luckily we buy them two or three at a time so we were good to go. Yesterday I decided that I was done with rock climbing. It just wasn’t for me. I gave it 3 solid goes but I just wasn’t into it. We should be able to use the remaining days that I bought to let Andy go in between class sessions.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02079 I was in the store today and I noticed that Rold Gold has some flavored pretzel twists. This is most likely to compete with Dots pretzels. I like Dots but they are overpriced for sure. For now the Rold Gold ones are somewhat reasonably priced. Since hey are from Frito Lay they have a Cool Ranch flavor as well. I did not pick that one up but might in the future.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02078 After dropping andy off at school I decided to drive over to North Attleboro and walk around WWI Memorial park. I had been getting over a blister on my foot and I was taking it slow. I went there as a change of scenery. I decided that I would start listening to the entire Nate Temple series once again. This is my 3rd time through and this time I would go back to chronological order of the books and different series. The last time I went through all the books I finished right as new books got published. I know there are three int he works so I hope that syncs up again.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02077 Well, it is another Monday and that means that the moment I go to try and sleep the Eversource workers start working directly below my bedroom window. Today they swapped out my old gas meter to a new one. They have been doing this all over to make improvements to the gas line and the connections to homes. It has been taking forever, though. I did, eventually, sleep.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02076 Eva and I are headed to Granite State Comicon next Saturday and while we are there we will be doing some Cosplays. I’m going as Bobby singer from the show Supernatural. The final parts of my costume arrived today with this hat. I was going to use another oe but it just didn’t work. this one is super generic and perfect for the character. I think I nailed is overall look but I will be going to get my beard trimmed before the convention. I’m looking forward to this event so much. Eva is so excited, too.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02075 Recently I learned that I could make myself some cold foam cold brew at home. It is very easy to make this at home or at the office. I have to be at the office tonight and so enjoying this dessert drink during the night. With the bottle I got I can do this two or three more times. For the price of half of one at the store.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02074 While I was out today I noticed that Nolan’s Flowers was having a little pop up event. I saw the familiar wood fire grill of Fire Wagon Pizza and thought, that would be good for dinner. I messaged Allison and asked that she pick some up on the way home. When I woke up Allison and I went to Nolan’s together and bought three pizzas. We were lucky, too because they only had 5 left after we ordered ours. We got a pepperoni, Shelly and a bbq chicken. The shelly was chicken, pickles, and ranch. It was very good. We enjoyed the pizza in the back yard with Allison’s friend Colleen and her dog, Shamrock. This pizza is some of the best. It doesn’t make you feel so full and bloated like some other pizza places. It was a good find coming across this pop up event.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02073 I found this LEGO set in the clearance rack and will soon turn it into a YouTube video with my new overhead camera. I got a message from YouTube the other day that I was about to be demonetized if I did not get my views up. I was planning to start up my channel again next month but amd going to start sooner than that. So, one day next week I’m going to get my videos working again and this LEGO set will be featured in one of those videos.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02072 Our road has been dug up ever since August. Road crews have been replacing the gas lines on the street and today they dug up between my house and across the street. Each morning it has been a guessing game as to which way we can leave the driveway and which way we can return. I hope this is over soon.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02071 When we are on the Cape in the Summer I head over to Jot Lot and find these boxes of Tootsie Pop Drops. I recently found that you can order a bag of just one color through Amazon. So, I went and ordered a bag of all grape. Sound be coming to me later this weekend.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02070 I picked up the Transformers 86 version of Brawn. He was one of my favorite characters from the G1 cartoon. I like how they did this ’86 version and he looks great. So much better than the original toy, which I never had. I did get Outback who was a retool of that figure. I wonder if he will be a cameo figure in the upcoming Transformers One movie.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02069 When I had my previous car I purchased some aftermarket side louvers for the small windows behind the back windows of the car. I wanted to dress the car up a bit and make it more my own. When I was getting that car ready to turn in so that I could get the new lease I took those off the car. I ended up getting a black car this time and while the louvers would have worked perfectly on that new car they had been on the old car for 3 years so they were weatherbeaten. I decided that I would give them new life by spray painting them. I’ve been working on them for weeks because I overdid it on the paint a few times and it bubbled up, so I sanded it down and started again, then I decided that I didn’t like how the color was coming out so I have been retaping it so that it comes out how I want it. I hope to get this finished and installed this week. That way you can certainly tell which car is mine, it helps Andy in the pickup line.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02068 I was in Five Below today like I do each Saturday. I take a quick walk through the place to see what they have for cheap t-shirts and more. I noticed that they sell a lot of Disney’s Stitch items. I like the character, makes me think of Andy when they were younger.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02067 I learned that my friend Rob Merlino passed away on August 7th. I had been following Rob ever since he moved to Florida. The move was good for him and he was loving life. It was a big shock to me to find out that he had passed. This morning I found some old videos that we had made together and posted them up to my Facebook account. I chatted with his wife, too. I then got the idea that to honor his memory I would head to Snappy Dogs to chat with the ladies there. Rob introduced me the ladies many years ago and we’ve been friends ever since. So, I drove to Hopkinton and got one of their Great Dane hot dogs. We talked about Rob and reminisced a bit. It was nice to do and a nice way to remember him.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02066 Eversource has been working on my streets for about a month now. Today they were working right in front of the house. They were also checking meters. Ours was covered by a plant and so they cut it back. That’s fine, I haven’t been good about keeping it uncovered. They did a total hack job on it. Cut most of it down except for two branches. They’ll be back later to put in new Smart Meters. A bunch of new technology is on the way. Of course, what I would really like to happen is for them to completely repave our road and redo the sidewalks. Maybe once everything is done.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02065 Andy has been going to Rock Spot and rock climbing for about 2 years now. I’ve gone with them almost every time to drop them off and pick them up. Well, there was a deal for 10 sessions this Summer and id decided to buy it so that I was forced to try climbing. The weird thing is that I never used to be afraid of heights as a kid but as I got older it creeped into my mind. I mean, I used to run around on roofs helping my dad with shingling the roofs and stuff. So there was a time when I was not scared. So, I faced my fears and gave climbing a go. I found that it was a lot harder than I had expected. Not so much the heights but the actual climbing. I am going to have to build up my strength to do this. I didn’t even get all the way to the top of any of the climbs today. But I have several more trips to make and continue to try to get to the top. Apparently my two days of walking was too much for my feet because I got a huge blister on my left foot. It p...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02064 Today was Andy’s first day of school but it was the first (semi) full week for Allison, Eva and Andy. Allison was in half days all last week and Eva went in once. So this was the first week of school for 2024. Andy starting 7th grade and looking forward to it. This year they are in accelerated math and seem to be enjoying it so far. Andy did some work on it over the Summer, not much but some. It looks like it will be a nice week this week so Andy will be walking home from school all days except for probably Friday because they will have their trombone with them to take home and rather than carry that home I’ll pick them up and then swing over and get Eva. With everyone out of the house I started my new regimen of taking a long walk and listening to an audio book in the morning, then taking care of any dishes in the sink, laundry that needed folding and then some video game time. Once the Granite State Comicon has come and gone and I shave again I’ll start making ...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02063 I’ve been adding a few things to my car to make it more my own. I was in autozone today looking for some metallic black spray paint. I ended up finding a little deadpool symbol that I thought would work well right above my license plate on the front of the car. I also ordered the item above from Amazon. I was very happy with these when they arrived. Very sharp and shiny. The fit here perfectly. I am getting some additional ones for the back half of the car. I’ll test to see how they look before I put those on. The one thing that has taken me a long time to add is the small side window louvers. I have spray painted them several times but am still not happy with the final result. I am trying again before I put them on. I think that my color choice will be a good compliment to the overall color of the car.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02062 So, I now have a Titan key. This allows m to do more at work, more work. Also, with my group we are down another person and that means, more work for me. So, for the time being I’ll be very busy at work. And then tonight it was me and one other person until they told me they were leaving at 11pm. So then it was just me all the rest of the night. More Work. Which is great because I just got a salary increase worth pennies. Woo Hoo!