BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02120 Today was Halloween. Andy got to wear their costume to school and ended up walking home with this Hoof feet in Crocs despite having regular sneakers from gym class. When asked about this they told us that they had forgot that they had the sneakers. Sounds about right. andy wanted to go trick or treating tonight and I was going to walk around with them. We asked Eva if she’s like to go so she threw on her Spider girl costume and SCAD sweatpants and went as art school spider girl. Allison also came with us and we walked around the neighborhood. There were not many houses that were participating in handing out candy but the kids did a fairly decent job with what was there. I think this may be the last time that we do this together. I’m happy that they still enjoy dressing up and going out trick or treating. I’m not sure that it will continue much longer.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02120 We’ve been working on Andy’s Halloween costume for a few weeks now. Eva has been making the legs and I have helped by 3D printing the hooves for the feet. I 3D printed two hooves that I hollowed out and attached to the front of a pair of Crocs with electrical tape. Then Eva put some of the faux fur on the feet. Andy is going to love the costume when it is completed. I also had to 3D print some horns.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02119 I recorded another LEGO building video today. It got a decent amount of views since then but no actual engagement. No one is leaving any comments on it yet. I will try and get a couple of them posted this week and see if I can start to get more of a following. Here is the video.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02118 For context, I put the kids’ Nintendo Switch on the charger and it flashed the charging light over and over. The battery was dead. I ordered a battery replacement kit from ifixit. It came today. I installed it. The switch powered on. Then it threw an error. I looked up said error. No bueno. I tried taking it all apart again and reseating the connectors. Still error. Must be fixed by repair professionals. At this point it’s not worth it. The kids barely play it anymore and the next gen Switch is coming next year. Plus, we have mine if they really want to play something on it. This was one of the very first available Nintendo Switches, so it had a decent life.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02117 Andy had the idea that they would like to go as Grover Underwood from the Percy Jackson series for Halloween. Leading up to Halloween Andy asked for my help in ordering some things from Etsy for the costume. When I saw the price we discussed things and determined that for Halloween we could create the costume rather than buying one. So we went to Joanne Fabrics and got some brown fur and foam. I 3D printed some hooves that would be attached to a pair of crocs. Andy and Allison went to savers to pick up some brown sweatpants. Eva cut and shaped the foam and attached it to the sweatpants and I think that tomorrow they’ll be working on finishing the costume.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02116 as we left the Father Daughter Dance last night we were allowed to pick one Captain Baker donut to take with us as a treat from the event. Past years we’ve gotten things like cups and mugs and stuff but there are only so many of those that you can collect. At least in my mind there are only so many. Maybe not for everyone else. I save my donut for a treat for tonight after dinner before work. Eva enjoyed hers early this morning. She got a maple bacon one and I picked the sprinkle one that looked like a Homer Simpson donut. We did not eat them last night because we enjoyed the desserts that they had at the dance. We even took our dessert selfie, something that we’ve done many times in the past.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02115 Tonight was the Father Daughter Dance for Feehan and Eva and I went decked out in matching ties and vests. I even had a pocket square that complimented the set. We found a set with matching Vest, Tie, Pocket Square, Tie clips and cufflinks on Amazon and decided that this was the way we were going this year. Even though we got Eva the smallest size it needed some alteration. Eva worked on it herself along with her Sewing club this past week. They did a nice job getting the fit right. The dance was at the Venus de Milo in Swansea and it was the first time that I’d been there for this event. the past years have been at Patriot Place Gillette Stadium. While I liked that venue this was a nice one too. We sat with several of Eva’s friends and their dads. I even met one dad who was two years behind me at Feehan when I went there. He was attending his 8th one in a row since he has two daughters four years apart. The talk amongst the dads was better than past years ...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02114 I was in Five Below today and I saw that they started putting out the Christmas items and that includes T-shirts and sleep pants. I am considering this shirt for this year’s Christmas PJs. It is pretty funny. They also have a bunch of funny sleep pants that would go with these. I’ll have to check to see if the kids and Allison are on board.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02113 I’ve been working on the LEGO filming setup in my office. Today I added a webcam and new microphone, a lighter one for the boom arm. I am also going to get something to put around the lower level, the building level of the standing desk. This will let me put the lego pieces down and it will prevent them from falling off the platform (hopefully). I am running into some issues with regards to the wiring setup I have going on. The issue is that I have to try and wire things a couple ways in order for all cameras, displays and microphones to work and I want to be able to switch things quickly. It has been a challenge and I have been learning more about what my computer can and cannot do with the tech that I want to run on it. Still working on it but hope to start filming soon.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02112 For months I grew out my hair and beard for a cosplay at Granite State Comicon. Today I went to Rome’s and Zack trimmed up the beard back to a goatee. I like this look much better than the beard, the beard was good for the costume but it started to flair out and get bushy. This Friday I have the Father Daughter Dance with Eva and I wanted to get my look cleaned up before the event. Zack was available today so I scooted over there and he trimmed me up. I’ll be coloring it later on so that it looks more natural on Friday.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02111 The Halloween season is well upon us and here we don’t get that decorative anymore. the kids are older so we don’t do as much in the way of decorating. Allison does pull out some Fall scented candles and this wooden pumpkin but otherwise we are pretty low key. The kids did get pumpkins from my parents. One is on the porch and one in the dining room.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02110 When the Eversource folks came by and dug up the yard for the enw gaslines they left a patch of land all dug up. Well, they have come back by to fix the spot and at first there was only new dirt there but I guess they came back recently and hydroseeded the spot. Hopefully we’ll have some nice new grass there next year. Did some yard work today. Andy helped. We cleaned up around the fence in the front of the house. Lots of vines.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02109 Today was Marriage Prep and we had the pleasure of having my cousin, Haley and her fiance, Joshua in the class. One of the things that we do as a couple that facilitates the day is we bring in our wedding photo. Well, Haley was one of our flower girls and now she’s getting married. Allison found some great photos of our wedding with Haley in them. As we sat there I kept looking at them and at the photos on the table. So I asked if I could take a photo of them at the end of the session. Tonight was also the homecoming dance for Eva. She was so excited about the new pants that she got because it had pockets, fit perfectly and also had belt loops. She even curled her hair for the event.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02108 Tonight we had a special dinner at our friend’s Steve and Christine’s house. They are part of the marriage prep team. We have the marriage prep program tomorrow but tonight was the pre-program dinner. This is a chance for the team to meet with some of the engaged couples and have a nice casual meal together. We had two couples at the dinner plus several members of the team. Christine likes to play little icebreaker games. She put cards on all the places and each had a word, we had to go around and say how the words described us. It was a fun night.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02107 Tonight we went to see our friend Jack Cappadona perform in Little Shop of Horrors. He was playing the role of the dentist and then had about six other roles. He’s so funny and doing a great job of it. We went and saw him earlier in the week, on Sunday he was playing at the Towne Tavern and we had brunch there and watched him perform. The whole cast did an incredible job. We enjoyed the show very much.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02106 Allison has been making these little potatoes. They are called positive potatoes and Allison will be making some little cards with positive affirmations on them. They are for the teachers at school. She’s made a bunch of them.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02105 My latest Transformers crossover set arrived today. This is a crossover between G.I. Joe and Transformers. This set has Sgt. Slaughter and Leatherneck as the G.I. Joe characters and the vehicle was one that Sgt. Slaughter had on the show. They did a really nice job of taking that vehicle and making it into the character of Kup. I do like when they cross characters between those two series.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02104 This was the first year in forever that we were not attending King Richard’s Faire. We didn’t get free tickets this year and we got a bit priced out of the event. Eva offered the suggestion of going to the Connecticut Renaissance Faire instead. The prices were better and the drive was about the same. So we got tickets and went down to see what it was all about. It was a nice Ren Faire and Eva had a great time dressed as a pirate. I put my horns on over my hat but that was the extent of me getting dressed up. I kept forgetting they were there and took off my hat only to have them fall off over and over. There were some performers and we watched a couple of shows that were enjoyable. They do not have a big production like KRF does but that is okay. We were keeping everything low key today. When we left I charted our course over to Shady Glen, a restaurant I heard about on Tik Tok. They do something really unique with the cheeseburgers. The burgers have these ...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02103 Allison and Eva went to the Farmers Market the other day and one of the things that they picked up was chocolate rugelach. It is basically a chocolate croissant or at least shaped that way. It tastes much better than one though. I took the night off tonight so that we can go to the Connecticut Renaissance faire tomorrow.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02102 Allison gave Eva a baguette for her birthday. We got her real gifts as well but she does love a baguette and one all to herself is something she enjoys. She chose to share it us at dinner tonight. Allison made a nice soup and we enjoyed that with half the birthday baguette. Eva will enjoy the rest on her own.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02101 I’ve been adding little details to my car since I bought it. Amazon has been the source for many of the items that I’ve found and recently one item went on sale so I purchased it. It was some wine red colored covers to parts of the interior of the car. This set included covers for the vents on the dash and also a strip along the bottom of the entertainment center of the vehicle. So, more red accents of the car making it look even sharper.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02100 Today was Eva’s 17th birthday. We started out with breakfast at Boro Bagel together and then I dropped Eva off at school. For dinner we went to Blue Moon for Thai food. This is a nice local place that we enjoy from time to time. We got their very early so we got a table and were the only ones there. We got great dishes and a combo plate of appetizers. Andy and I split crispy Pad thai and Allison and Eva enjoyed Chicken Himmapan. We came home and enjoyed some brownies and ice cream. We also went outside and checked out the aurora borealis that could be seen from out back yard. It was crazy. Allison caught this photo.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02099 I started filming new content for my YouTube channel today. I’ll have to figure out some more about how to film longer builds. Maybe less chatting and more time lapse. I’ll also go and set up some livestreams to build bigger sets. I have two great ones to start with. I have Bumblebee and the Fortnite Battle Bus to build soon. For now I’ve made one video. More to come in the next few weeks.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02098 I built the new standing desk from Sunday’s post. This will be used for my new filming setup. I plan to be doing some LEGO themed building and filming for my YouTube channel. I will be making a few more changes before filming in earnest. I have to put together a usb strip so that I can simply plug and unplug everything from this rig to film and then unplug it when I use my computer separately. I’ll also have to switch out another microphone because my existing one is very heavy for the boom arm. The camera works great in that position and I have a second camera that will film me so that when I do livestream builds I can talk with people. The usb strip will be used to connect that camera, the new microphone and also the overhead camera. I will probably use the extra screen that I have to see what is happening on the screen that is to my left. That way I don’t have to keep looking to the left to make sure I am in the shot.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02097 Allison has been making some Sesame Street aliens for her teacher friend, Becky. Andy took the opportunity to go and put it on their head and pretend to be Bart Simpson.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02096 This week I’ll be putting together a special little standing desk that I’ll be using to make LEGO videos. The desk is split into two parts to have one part higher than the other so that I can use the top down camera to record LEGO builds.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02095 I went in search of the vending machines at work because I was looking for a snack. Apparently the vending machines are being removed from the building. There are two of them gone so far and only one left. In the space where one of them there is now a bookcase. There had been a small section on a counter that was being used for the books. It is a little lending library that someone here created. They even went out to get some little stickers and made bookmarks for people. I wonder why they got rid of the vending machines.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02094 Today was my first visit this school year to the Blue Pride Bistro. The burger was very good. It was described as having fried onions on it but they were sauteed. I was thinking something more like onion rings on the burger but it was still very good. They also had some focaccia bread. I was only going to eat a piece but it was so good that I devoured it. As always the fries were perfect.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02093 This year Fortnite partnered with LEGO to make a LEGO version of the game or rather a LEGO game mode. Now things are going the other way around and LEGO is releasing Fortnite sets for fans. I picked up the Fortnite Battle Bus set and I cannot wait to build it. I’ll be building it next week or so for my YouTube channel. I have a whole new setup that I’ve been working on and am looking forward to seeing how it goes. This set will be one of my first.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02092 We were watching TV tonight and Eva came in and looked over at Torrun. Torrun gave a look over at at Eva with her head turned upside down. We had Eva call to her a few times so that I could catch her looking back over at Eva upside down.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02091 The road crews have now moved on to replacing the pieces of sidewalk that they tore up. We have two sections at our house and they did the front of the house first. They did not get to the side of the house so I figure they will finish up on that tomorrow. So, we are getting towards the end of the tunnel here.