BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02450 Putting out the compost tonight and the sky looked really interesting. I used the Night Sight setting on the phone to capture it. Trying to capture the moon is tough with a cell phone but I think this caught it fairly well.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02449 I'm making progress on my comic book cleanup. I've gotten most of my Transformers comics rehomed in the new boxes. I'll need a couple of more to complete the rehousing. I have a set of black ones coming Wednesday for comics other than Transformers. But I'm pretty sure I would need more to cover everything. Progress is being made. Photographing each cover is what is taking the most time, though.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02448 Today we went to see the Attleboro Community Theater performance of And Then There Were None. We were joined my our friends Frank and Heather. Frank and I had made plans back in July when we met up last time. It is a great thing that we can catch up every once and a while around a performance. We're making plans for The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge in December.  The kids went with us to see the show too. they both enjoyed it as well. After the show we dropped them off at home and then went to dinner with Frank and Heather at Wetherlaine's. When I was at Granite State Comicon I bought a book and print from one of the vendors. The book was of 20 80's movies and I knew that it would be the perfect book for Frank. The print is for the movie Better Off Dead, a favorite of mine and of Frank. The book is a good one but I knew I'd only read it once and I knew that Frank would appreciate it more than me so I gave it to him along with the print for his podcast...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02447 When I was younger I made these labels for my copies of Transformers Universe. I had some stickers of letters and used them to make these comic book boards. As I have been organizing and documenting my comic books I found these. I replaced them with some newer boards. But I had to get them documented. I've only completed two of the new boxes and have three additional boxes just filled with Transformers comics. I've got to go through them all and organize them and figure out what ones I might be missing. There are a bunch that I have never read and I need to organize them a bit more to put them in the correct reading order. Today Andy went over to their friend Onyx's house. Andy made 5 pans of mac and cheese and a bunch of cilantro lime sugar cookies. They came out really well, too. 

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02446 When I was at Granite State Comicon I found someone selling special minifigs including a Voltron Minifig. LEGO oes not make these but I liked it well enough to get it to add to my Voltron display. Th minifig sits atop Voltron. Today I was busy working on my second box of comic books. These were all Transformers books. I am finding a few that I am missing including a couple from my set of Transformers Collectors Club books. Strange that I am missing two of them and these should have all been mailed directly to me. So I am hoping that those two are somewhere mixed in with other books because I did not file them well or something like that.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02445 Today is National Comic Book Day. I have been hard at work reorganizing and cataloging my comic book collection starting with the Transformers. What you see on my desk is a stack of Transformers books that will finish up my first completed box of comics. However, my collection is not complete. I am missing 18 comics that should be in that box. I'll have to be ont he lookout for them at future conventions and at comic book shops around the area. I hope that I can find them all to complete the collection.  Speaking of completing things, I have also been trying to complete watching the Thundercats on Hulu but I am not going to be able to do that since I cancelled Hulu and my membership ends today. I got up to Episode 46 of Season 2. There are 65 episodes in the season. So, I'll figure out a way to watch the rest of them. The shirt is a new one from the convention. Both Eva and I liked it. I got it, though.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02444 Andy has a new project. The other day Andy asked about borrowing a jackknife that I had gotten from ABD because they would like to start carving. Andy actually asked if I would pick them up from school yesterday and take them to Home Depot so that they could get some wood for carving. We talked more about this and I looked online for a carving intro kit and ordered one for Andy. The key part of this kit is special gloves that protect Andy's hands from the carving knives.  It was raining today so I picked Andy up from school and when we got home they got out some sand paper and a saw from the garage to cut and sand the pieces of wood that came with the kit. I checked on Andy later and they were covered in sawdust. I've been trying to be much more relaxed and calm with andy when they do things like this. Andy executes first, thinks second. But I also want to encourage Andy's creativity and the less time online and the more time using that creativity, th...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02443 Tonight Allison and I went to a presentation at Feehan for Financial Aid. With Eva on her college search we have to figure out how best to pay for it. Tonight's session was helpful. I have work to do next week when the FAFSA opens. This has been on our minds forever and it is almost time to get that done. We also have to get some additional college tours so Eva can narrow her choices. One of the people that presented was from College Affordable. This is a program that is free for Feehan families and they will be helpful if we need to file appeals and more to help us get more money for college.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00631 The kids were home today. They go to school every other day and when they are home they have projects to work on for school. Most of the time Andy has worksheets and things like that. Not today. Today he had to build a working dam. He did not tell me that this was his assignment. I found out because I heard brick hitting brick in the backyard. Andy was out there removing the bricks around the yard and making a dam. He was out there in his pajamas and bare feet. I had to gain my composure before I went downstairs so that I did not start screaming at him for being so careless. I asked him what he was doing and he explained that he had to build a dam for school. Most kids made them out of LEGO and other things, not Andy. I had him put on clothes that he could work in and also shoes. It was okay if he used these bricks because I’ve never actually liked them in the backyard anyway but I did tell him that he could not throw them because the actual bricks of the p...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02442 It was time to upgrade my comic book storage. I've had my comics in cardboard long and short boxes for a long time. I found these plastic boxes on amazon and got a set of five.So far they have been filled with all the Transformers comics that I've had from over the years. But I have many more comics and ever since I started clearing out my Transformers toys I knew that it would be time to move on to the comics eventually. There are many comics that I am going to sell off but many more that I want to keep and protect. I may even try and complete the set of Transformers comics that I never completed back in the 80's and 90s. I'm missing like 10 of them. It is pretty good seeing as I was a 10 year old kid when I started collecting these and did not have a consistent way to collect my comics until I was in college. By then it was too late. So I'm issing many of the later ones but I'll find them eventually.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02441 The second day of the convention is the relaxed day. Eva had a very simple cosplay today as Adaine from Fantasy High. As we walked around together there were three people that recognized the character. Eva had made three special bottle cap buttons and gave them to the three people.  after our breakfast at the bookstore down the street we came back tot he convention as it began. We decided to load upt he car and then went across the street to the SNHU center for the other part of the convention. There were things like the Big Dumb Robot convention where people displayed robots that they had fabricated with 3D printers and other materials. There were some amazing ones there, too. Down on the floor of the arena were additional vendors. Eva found a tea to try and I picked up a set of books signed by the author and we even found some figures that andy likes to put together. They are called Eugy figures and they are made from cardboard or wood pieces that you glue ...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02440 This morning Eva and I headed up to New Hampshire for the Granite State Comicon. This is an event that we attend together every year and each year we have more fun. This year Eva worked so hard on a cosplay costume that really spoke to her. She is cosplaying as a character from her favorite book, The spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White. Her character is that of Silas Bell. Eva spent months designing the costume from the ground up. From working on the pattern to making mock ups to embroidery to so many other details too numerous to mention. Eva did an outstanding job. This was the first time participating in the contest since 2018. This year Eva met a number of other cosplayers and made some new friends. Eva also got to catch up with several of friends that they made over the past few years. Eva's friends also participated in the contest. While none of them won any of the prizes they did have great experiences. Eva and I arrived close to 10am and too...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02439 On one of my Temu shopping sprees I got a bunch of knock off LEGO sets. They are mostly robots and supercars. Today I choose one at random to build. Actually I choose it and built all but one part yesterday but Andy too priority on the photo a day yesterday.  So I finished this up this morning and here it is. It is a bit wild looking. The TEMU cars never look like real cars, always look futuristic. At least this one wasn't made out of super tiny LEGO pieces like my fake Optimus Prime was. Had a call back phone interview with Target today. Very much a waste of time. I clearly stated on my application the days and times I could work but once we confirmed that in the interview it was over because they want people for the weekends. I told you I couldn't do weekends at all. You should never have called me. Off to Granite State Comicon tomorrow morning with Eva. Unfortunately both of the celebrities that I was looking forward to meeting and hearing their pan...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02438 Tonight we went to Andy's school for Back to School night. We met 3 of Andy's teachers. We know their music teacher from past years and did not meet the Art teacher. We met the MAth teacher on a special night for the kids doing the advanced math at the high school.  All the kids at Andy's school made a pinwheel as part of the pinwheels for peace celebration that they had earlier in the day. There were songs and poems. Andy made a really nice one and finally found it later on in the night.  We were very impressed with how Andy is going in school. All of Andy's teachers had high praise for Andy. This week Andy even received the Lucky Duck award in Social Studies for helping others and for always being ready to participate in class. Proud of this kid.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02437 Allison and I have been taking morning walks before she goes to school. We get up and get ready to go, we make sure that andy is up and moving before we leave the house because they leave before we get back. We only walk a mile but it is about 20 minutes. It may actually be a little over a mile. But we walk from the house to Wall street through Judy Robbins Park. This morning as the sky began to brighten it had some amazing pinks and reds in it. We snagged a couple of photos as we walked.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02436 I've been working on a little craft project with some of my Transformers collections. I bought a piece of foam that looks like diamond plate and I spray painted it chrome. Then I took my Transformers Robot Heroes and Transformers Movie cars and glued them to the piece of foam. Don't worry, the Robot Heroes are made out of that type of plastic that just feels 'sticky' after a few years. so I am not upset that I'm using them this way. If you are looking at the photo then ont he Left side I tried to put all the Transformers The Animated Movie characters as well as random Robot Heroes Characters. On the Right side I have my G1 Transformers and On each I separated Autobots on the left and Decepticons on the right. Now, I am realizing that I may have done that subconsciously. In the middle are the cars with again Autobots on the left and Decepticons on the right.  I have the foam set in place with some tacky glue dots so that I can remove it when I ...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02436 Allison has been using her Cricut for so many projects lately. One that she is doing for SMSH is creating little planter signs to go with plants that I guess are being handed out at the block party or at the open house. who knows, Allison has both events this week. So many things going on with us this week. Eva and I head to Granite State Comicon on Saturday morning for Sat and Sunday. She was busy adding grommets to her cosplay last night. Using a hammer and the grommet press. 

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02435 As I continue to clean out and discover things that I have collected I find more and more strange things. At one time Hasbro tried their hand at LEGO-like sets called Kreo. They made this weird one of Optimus Prime but in a skiing jacket with skis. That is really weird. But I found it and now it is on display on my desk.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02434 I said I was going to build the Bumblebee Brickheadz soon so that I could display it in my office. Tonight I brought the set with me to work so that I could build it. Now I have to get some room on my computer to display it with the other larger Bumblebee set. Didn't sleep well today. So I got up and tackled the buckets that I had brought down from the attic. These are the boxes that I had packed up with all the knick-knacks I used to have on my desk at work years ago. So I went through the boxes and I found the remaining Transformers that I'm going to sell to Double Midnight. I also found a bunch of other things and I separated everything into different boxes. I found G.I. JOE stuff for my friend Ken. I also found Star Wars stuff for my cousin's son, Danny. My friend Marybeth has a son, Matty, who is very into Marvel and I put those things into a box for him. There are a couple of boxes for Savers and additional items that I want to sell. This week I...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02433 As I have been working on the Transformers documenting I realized that I have some additional Transformers figures that I had at the office. I have 6 boxes full of toys and knick knacks that were on my desk in the office for years. I just boxed everything up and brought it home. I have not opened the boxes in over 5 years and I am rediscovering a bunch of things. There are things that I definitely do not need but I do want to keep some things. I've gone through a couple of them so far and have 4 more to go. I'm excited to see what else I rediscover.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02432 On Labor Day we went apple picking at Tougas Family Farms. I did not think that we'd go through the apples as quickly as we have but Andy is really enjoying them for snack and more. Tonight andy had an Apple sundae. A full Honey Crisp apple and A caramel apple ice cream from Munroe Dairy. Andy really like that combination. After school Andy will cut up a full apple and have it with peanut butter or Nutella. Tonight Allison and I went to Feehan to meet with Eva's teachers. It looks like she has a great group of teachers. They were all very nice. When we got home Eva grilled us on what we thought. Allison relayed a story about when Eva shadowed another student before attending the school. The teacher she observed was someone that really intimidated her because they were so loud and enthusiastic. Now she has that same teacher for Sociology and she really enjoys him. We encouraged her to tell him the story at the end of the year.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02431 Today my parents came up from The Cape. Mom was meeting up with friends and so Dad took me to lunch at Morin's. This was Dad's first visit after Morin's extensive remodel. I got the wedge salad again because it is one of the things that works best for me. Dad got the Rueben which looked very good. After lunch we caught up with Mom and she and Dad were able to visit with Andy for a bit before they headed to a wake.  After the wake dad came back over to visit with Eva. I continued working on photographing and documenting each of my Transformers to get them ready for selling. It has been quite a project but it is working out pretty well so far. I'm going to need Dad's van to get everything up to NH. There are 22 boxes. I may squeeze them into Allison' car but I don't think so.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02430 One of the unique items in my collection is a picture plate from a Transformers Collectors Club Convention. I forget exactly which year, though. For some reason the date was nowhere to be found. I've been photographing my collection and getting it ready to be sold so I have been putting a bunch of information on each item including the year it was produced. And at this very moment I am looking at the plate and there is the date right at the bottom of the place. This was from my first Botcon in 2003. However, I have no reason to really keep this so this is part of the collection to be sold.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02429 I really tried with the Carrots. They had been growing since May and The largest one wasn't even 3 inches long. I finally pulled them all out of the garden. The garden is winding down. I cut back the dying zucchini leaves so that the new growth could flourish. Not sure if it will but I keep looking to see if we get any more zucchini.  It is the start of the first full week of school. Everyone is back and ready to go. andy has been walking to school and back. Having little trouble getting up for the day so we are proud of that. Andy has a new friend and they have been walking home together so that is nice to hear. Andy's new friend even invited Andy to an end of the Summer party.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02428 On a rainy day like today this new decoration on the hood of my car looks seamless in color. But when it is a regular day the decoration is glossy black but my car is glossy black but with a bit of a shine. I'm expecting an Autobot symbol sticker soon and It will go right at the top of the decoration there. I just keep adding little things to the car to make it look a little different than every other one on the road. This decoration looks really good and it is secured except for the back. I am thinking I'll replace the secure tape and try it one more time but this time I'll put something heavy on it to really keep it in place. Little things that are out of place bug me.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02427 I'm in the office tonight and I'm working on updating some projects which leaves me plenty of time to do other things. I do like to build LEGO when I have the time. Tonight I built this monster truck. I do like to pick up LEGO trucks when I can find them, especially food trucks. This, however, is not a food truck. I do have a couple of other monster trucks including ones that you can pull back and they move automatically.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02426 Today I took all the rest of my Transformers boxes out of the attic. In one of them I found this Transforming pen. If you push the black button on it the pen splits and grows larger to work like a real pen. I had forgotten that I had this. It is very cool.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02425 For the past couple of days I have been sorting and photographing my Transformers toys that I would like to sell. I've found some Wheeljack ones and have rediscovered so many figures that I've purchased over the years. I've found some things that I totally forgot that I had including many items from the very first LIVE Action movie. I attended the movie twice in the same night and have tickets from the Charity event and also the Botcon event. I've got a couple of posters and even some Transformers themed napkins. so many interesting things.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02424 Yesterday I drove Andy to school. Today I walked over with them. I did so not because I didn't think Andy would be safe on their own. Andy has been walking home from school for well over a year so walking to school is the same thing just in reverse. I wanted to see how long it actually took for the walk to go. I of course, over estimated how early we had to head over. The walk itself only takes a brisk 15 minutes. And that is at a modified teenager's shuffle. So Andy can leave the house around 6:25-6:30 and still get there by 6:45 when the doors open to the High School. Good to know. During the day I started one of the projects I've been meaning to start and have been putting off. I'm sorting through my Transformers and getting them ready to sell. I have talked with the guys at Double Midnight Comics about selling them my collection. Not the stuff I have on display and also I am picking out some figures that I want to keep as part of the collectio...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02423 Today was andy's first day of school. I drove them over tot he High School because it was the first day. Andy has expressed interest in walking over in the future. I wanted to make sure that Andy was there in time to eat breakfast. Of course we are still figuring out the best time to leave in order to not end up there too early.  It was also the first full day for both Allison and Eva. Eva had Senior Sunrise today and I brought her over for that and when I returned I took Andy to school. Allison is still working on taking a quick mile walk each morning before school which she was most grateful for doing later in the day. Everyone had nice days. Allison wanted to know how I celebrated "Christmas" today, my first day witht he house all to myself after having everyone home for the Summer. I really didn't do much. I have projects but did not start any of them, yet. Just an abundance of video games. Later on I went to the supermarket and picked up a ...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02422 Over the weekend I saw that Tougas Family Farm was having Jimmy Buffett days in honor of Buffett and Labor Day Weekend. I worked 8pm - 8am last night so I was a bit out of it when I finally got up and we headed there to hang out do some apple picking or whatever. I really had no plan, I guess I thought it would be a lot more chill than it was. The place was packed. So many people were out apple picking and listening to the live band covering Jimmy's tunes. We tried to go into the store but that was overwhelming so we got out and walked for a bit. We got some donuts and apple cider and then decided to do some apple picking. I'm glad that we did end up deciding to apple pick because we got a nice big ox of apples and this early in the season there were tons of great apples to pick. We got Honey Crisp and three other varieties that I cannot remember. We also picked a few yellow peaches. We rode on the wagon to the fields to pick. Allison and Andy on the wago...