BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02481 Andy has been carving a giant branch from our tree all week long for their Halloween costume. Last night Allison and Andy worked on the costume. Last night Allison and I went and got rope form Michael's for the costume. Last night Andy let us know that they were not wearing that costume to school. This was after we had had a conversation, Allison and I, about how much we loved that Andy got into Spirit Week at school so heavily despite having to go to the High School each morning in their costumes or carrying their nonsense. We love that Andy embraces the joy of a spirit week.  So, when andy told us that they were not wearing the costume that they had been working on to school we figured that there must be something that Andy could wear instead. I suggested to Andy that because they still had their Bob Ross hair and beard that they could go as Bob Ross. Andy really liked that idea and this morning gout out the whole costume, minus peapod the squirrel because ...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02480 Last year for Anything but a Backpack day Andy took a giant inflatable treasure chest to school as a backpack. Today Andy picked something more... practical. This year Andy was helping me move all of my Transformers to be sold and noticed the old mini shopping cart that the kids had for the play kitchen. Andy tucked tha knowledge away for today to use that as their means to cart around all their books. It was a rainy day and that looks like it would be a pain in the neck to push all the way to school and back so I dropped Andy off in the morning and picked Andy up in the afternoon. When I picked Andy up I was parked on the opposite side of the curved driveway to the school so I could look out my side window and see the kids coming out to their cars. I see Andy tearing along pushing their cart. I suddenly see Andy's legs straight up in the air. Andy had pushed the cart full tilt into a bump in the sidewalk and flipped over the handle bar of the cart. I kept sc...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02479 This week andy had spirit week at school. Yesterday they re-wore their Grover Underwood costume to be a character from a movie. Today is Twins day and so Andy and their friend Amr are going to wear suits. At least, Andy hopes that Amr remembered and wore a suit. Turns out that amr did, in fact end up wearing the suit. As Andy made their way to school this morning, walking, they saw the crossing guard who always calls Andy "Buddy" instead called Andy "Sir". Andy was looking sharp in the suit and after shaving. Tonight I went to a Feehan event for major donors to the school. I was a guest of my mom. She's the donor, not me, my donations now are to Eva's tuition. Maybe at some point I'll donate again but right now, can't swing it. It was nice to attend, I did run into a couple of people who were from my class so that was a nice to talk with them. I did not look as sharp as Andy did, though. My suit right now is a bit too big and b...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02478 This year's San Diego Comicon featured a Transformers set that combined the character of Jetfire with two characters from the comic book Void Rivals, Darak and Solla. Void Rivals is part of the Energon Universe of comic books. This would include Transformers, G.I. JOE and Void Rivals. Skybound, which is under Image comic has the license of Transformers and G.I.JOE. They also have M.A.S.K. too because characters from that universe are also running around in this new one.  I have been collecting all the comics from the Energon Universe and they are awesome. I love how they are intertwined. For instance Darak and Solla crash land on a planet in their book and they discover Jetfire. This set is of that meeting. There is even a comic book with a special cover included in this set. It is a cool display but I seem to have run out of viable places for it to be displayed so it is on the back of the futon at this time.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02477 Tonight we went to Morin's with Mem and Grandfather. They took us out for Eva and Andy's birthdays. We were going to go to House of Fortune but they are closed on Mondays. We always happen to do things that way and forget that they are closed Mondays.  Morin's was a good alternative. The restaurant was recently remodeled and looks great. They had a nice selection of meals, too. I, of course, got the wedge salad with steak tips like I do each time because that works best for my meal plan. I do think that I got the wrong soda, though because I had a big sugar spike. Luckily it went back down almost as quickly as it rose. Mom and dad were up for a wake for their friend Tommy Castro. They went to the wake first and then ran some errands and then caught up with us for dinner. We walked in right behind them.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02476 The other day I learned about an Omega supreme extra large Funko Pop. I've been collecting the Transformers Funko POP! figures and displaying them on my wall. So, when I saw this I picked it up. I figured that I'd get a couple of things with the money that I made selling off other Transformers figures. I've decided that if I am buying anything more it has to be displayed.  In addition to the new Funko POP! figures I got I also got some Bitty sized Funko Pop! figures of Transformers. These I can display on my desk. I found a great Transformers shirt as well. There is also a metal model that I need to build. I've never built a metal figure before but that will be a fun challenge.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02475 Today I went to NEwport and picked up my friend James. James has been on a New England cruise and had a stop in Newport so we coordinated a little meetup. I drove in and picked James up and we went over to the Coddington Brewing Company. James got a sampler flight of their beers and chowder while I had French Onion soup.  Then we drove around and chatted. We were going to go to Flo's for some fried clams but they were closed. So we continued to drive around and chat. That was pretty much what we wanted to do, catch up and that is what we did. We stopped at the beach to take this selfie but otherwise we stuck to hanging out in the car. It was nice to catch up. The last time we had any time together was 10 years ago at IZEAFest. It was at the same time of year, too.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02474 This morning I dropped Andy off at school and then headed to Middleboro to Dave's Diner to meet up for breakfast with my Dad. I need to return the van to him and get my car back. I'm meeting up with a friend in Newport tomorrow and wanted to drive that rather than the van.  Out front of the diner there was a giant chicken in red, white and blue. There were also a couple of smaller chickens and cow shaped seat. Inside it was a diner and the food was pretty good. Many old magazines and signs and things like that all over the walls.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02473 Today I drove up to New Hampshire to Double Midnight Comics to sell a huge lot of Transformers toys. I'd been collecting these toys for well over 40 years. After college I bought a ton of them and kept buying them. In 2007 I had them all out and did a photo shoot with the local newspaper because a Live Action Transformers movie was going to be released. The local paper was doing a story on people who were Transformers fans and I got into the mix. At one point I had 19 very large boxes of Transformers, many that were still in their own boxes.  Today I sold about 300 toys to Double Midnight. They were split up into 23 boxes. I photographed every one of them and wrote in the descriptions and dates they were released so that Scott at Double Midnight could look them over and decide if they wanted to buy. He gave me fair price for them and so yesterday I got my ad's van and Andy and I loaded up all the boxes and I drove them up today. While I was there I checke...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02472 Today I drove to the Cape to pick up my dad's van so that I could load it up with the Transformers toys that I am selling to Double Midnight comics. They offered me a good price and I'm happy to get everything sold. When andy got home they helped me load up the van with all the boxes. The whole back of the van has been filled completely. I'll run everything up to NH tomorrow. 

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02471 It is time to take out the sleep pants. The weather has gotten colder and I've been in need of a little more warmth overnight. I didn't get much for a photo today because I've been working on my comics for hours and hours. I've got a lot of the comics documented but each box takes a couple of hours to photograph and document. I have at least 4 comic book boxes left to go. And I'm still awaiting a few comics from eBay to finish off the collection.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02470 The other day I learned about a new Back to The Future LEGO set. It was up for pre-order and so I placed my order ont he LEGO Shop site and I needed a little bit more to get free shipping so I ordered this little holiday themed set the LEGO Pumpkin truck. It was a cute quick build that looks really fun. 

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02469 Several years ago I added some security lights to the garage and they have since been overtaken by plants and burnt out. They no longer work. I recently got a few sets of solar powered LED floodlights that are motion sensitive. I added one to the garage to cover the driveway and one on the trellis leading into the backyard and that covers the pathway to the cars. I plan to added two more of these sets of lights. One above the entrance to the back door and one on the side of the house facing the backyard. That one will be set to always on or at least a longer motion sense, that way the backyard will be covered in light. It has been far too dark back there with lights not working and all that. These were a quick and inexpensive option to light things up.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02468 I was in Target yesterday and found a new Wheeljack for my collection. This one has TV accurate color scheme. That means that the windows have that light blue color from the TV show and the figure looks very much like the G1 character did in the original cartoon. I'm loving it.  Last night I rewatched Transformers Cyberverse, a quick 10 minute episode series and it had a cool Wheeljack character. He even had a beard.  I do like when they make Wheeljack more of a badass fighter but is also a mad scientist.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02467 We had a group potluck tonight. One of the people here made this cute little cemetery with the oreo dirt recipe. She bought a food pen to draw on the RIP and the ghost faces. The tombstones are milano cookies. Very creative and I bet tasted great.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02466 I picked all the green onions out of the garden today. They are quite small but I was able to cut a few of them up for dinner tonight. I made a Chicken Enchilada soup. It was a super easy to make and tasted great. Everyone enjoyed it for dinner and the fresh green onions made it special.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02465 Andy came downstairs tonight and got out an apple to use for a Still Life photo that they needed for school. I did not catch Andy taking the photo but Allison did. Andy was taking a photo of an Apple with a knife through the top with a D20 Dungeons and Dragons die on the top. Andy used a brown paper bag as the backdrop. After taking the photo Andy ate part of the subject.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02464 Today is National Be Bald Be Free day. I've been shaving my head for the past 4 years or so and I am very happy with that. When my sparse hair does grow in it is very annoying. It is so patchy. But when it is clean shaven it looks the best for me. It was a long time coming. The whole beard is new though because I had grown it for my Bobby Singer cosplay and decided to keep it. If I can keep it trimmed properly I'll keep it going.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02463 I had a tree company come out today to assess our trees for removal. I know they need removing and they confirmed it. While we were standing there in the backyard looking at the tree a branch that had been hanging on by a thread let go and fell to the ground. It sort of toppled over not slammed or anything. But yeah, that just reinforced the fact that these trees need to be taken down. So we're going to have that done next month.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02462 I'd been seeing advertisements for Points! candies. They are supposed to have very little sugar and would be okay for a Keto lifestyle. So far so good with them. they have a different sort of taste and they don't appear to spike my blood sugar after eating. I ordered some packages of the Dark Chocolate and the Chocolate Peanut. They also sent along a couple of samples of their Points! Krunch but that appears to not be Keto friendly like the others. Way more sugar int hat one than the other two products.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02461 I took last night off so that means that today I was able to do a few things around here before taking a nap for work. Allison and I took advantage of that time to go walking at La Salette and also to visit the Farmer's Market. I have not been there yet this year and there is only one weekend left. We got some tasty treats as we walked around including a Jerusalem bagel and some pretzels for the kids. We also got some spicy thai sauce and Allison got a pumpkin spice cold brew coffee. Tonight Allison and Eva went to see the band the Oh Hellos in Boston. They had a great time at the show.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02460 Today was a big day all around. It was not only the Father / Daughter Dance for Feehan but also Eva's 18th birthday. I cannot believe that a young adult is now part of our family. Time has flown by so quickly. We captured our last special photo at the dance, we have always made a moment to take photos with our dessert ever since our first dance at SMSH.  This year we did a special coordination of our outfits. We got matching vests and ties. The sets even came with tie tacks, cufflinks and pocket squares. We then ordered special Transformers tie clips that we couldn't actually use with our ties because the vest came up too high so we clipped them to the lapels of our vests. We did a quick celebration of Eva with gifts before heading to the dance. Allison and I each got her a tea infuser. Allison got her one of a swan butt and I got a frog that hangs off the side of the teacup. Eva was excited about those and 3 more bags of her favorite tea. We're going...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02459 I've got the comic books bagged, boarded and many boxed. The spreadsheet shows me where each one is stored and now I have some labels on the boxes. These are placeholders until I make up some full color ones to make the organization better. I have this little wireless heat transfer printer that can print onto stickers. I found an Autobot symbol online and was able to print it with the printer to make box labels for the Transformers boxes. In the end I'll probably have 8 or so of them. Eventually I'll have the whole collection stored away and be able o take a box at a time for reading. All books are being ordered in a reading order so that I can enjoy all of them. I had gotten way behind in reading but kept up in the collecting of the different series that I enjoy. That means that I probably have a couple hundred books to read and enjoy soon.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02458 Today Eva and I went to Boston University for a college tour. It was pouring int eh morning and through our drive but once we got there the rain ended and we had a very nice tour. I had never been on the campus of Boston University and didn't know much about it. I'm not one for the city but Eva enjoyed it and was excited by the place. While we did not get to see the fine arts college but at some point if she wants to continue to pursue this college we'll be back to see that area specifically. 

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02457 Well, I've gone through all of my comic books over the past several weeks and I've determined that over 40 years of collecting I am missing 40 comic books in m collection. So, the hunt has begun to fill in those gaps. So, I'll be visiting comic book shops in the area and trying to find those hard to find books. There have been times when my shop didn't pull a particular comic and I missed that. There were other times when I was just a kid and couldn't get to a comic book shop on a regular basis to find the books for my collection. The biggest gap is in my original Transformers comic book collection. Those were from when I was 10-14 years old. The hardest time to stay consistent in collecting. These are also some of the hardest to find books out there. The final issue goes for around $40. That's crazy but I'll keep looking.  This shop was in Putnam, CT and was about an hour ride. It was worth the ride because it was such a nice store ...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02456 While going through all of my comic books I discovered a few comic book cards that were in different boxes. These are from Wildstorm Studios. WildC.A.T.S. was one of my favorite books from the 90's. I collected every6thing I could with these characters and even did a Etymology report on the origins of each of the names of the characters. I brought in comic books and action figures to demonstrate the meanings of the names for many characters. My favorite character from the team was a character named cole Cash or Grifter. He was the best. I even did a costume of him back when I worked at Sacred Heart University. I wish I still had that costume. Would be great to have at Comic-cons now.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02455 While I was organizing my comic books I came across the instructions for rather, Players Guide, for the Wildstorms Collectible Card game. I've been looking fro this for a while because now that I have it I can get the cards down and see if andy would like to learn how to play the game with me. I think that Andy will pick it up quickly and I've always wanted to play this with someone else. I've played n my own as I collected the cards but not really with other people. In other comics news I picked up a copy of the Cold Slither comic book at Rubber Chicken Comics because my comic shop didn't have a copy for me. This is a one shot of the fictional band from G.I. JOE that is made up of the Dreadnoks. I was talking with my friend Ken all about it and he even remembers the entire song that went along with the show.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02454 I found the new LEGO Gameboy today at Target. This is one that I'd been waiting for for a while. The build as fairly quick but it was one of the most well constructed set that I've seen in a while. IT has the same size as the original Gameboy from Nintendo and it comes with 3 lenticular screens that you can put into the game plus two cartridges. Super Mario Land, which I never had and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, which I also never had.  I played Tetris all the time on the Gameboy, but I also had some other fun games to play like a fighting game and Tennis and some other games.  I remember when I got my Gameboy. I was working at The Dairy Tower on Cape Cod and my boss had a BJ's membership. We went to BJ's and bought the gameboy plus a brick of batteries. So many batteries were used playing that Gameboy over the years. I remember taking my Gameboy with me on a road trip with my friend James and his family. We went to and from Florida...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02453 I love Birria Tacos and the other day I saw that Snappy dogs was doing a Friday special called Tacos de Birria Muy Bueno. I hadn't planned on going but I had decided to go to Rubber Chicken Comics today in Bellingham. As I was driving there I realized that I was about halfway to Snappy Dogs and remembered the Friday special. So, I kept going and got a Big Dog for the special. This has made the rest of the house unhappy with me. They missed out on this Friday special and a trip to Snappy Dogs. Even though Eva doesn't enjoy those type of hot dogs she does like seeing the Snappy Dogs ladies. The ladies were excited to see me come by and asked about how everyone was doing. I did not find any comics at Rubber Chicken Comics but that place has everything. Wow, it was really full. I've got about a dozen original Transformers comics I am missing and some other ones from other series. I'll be checking out some comic shops to try and finish my collection.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02452 As I continue to go through my comic books I keep finding gems from the past. One of my favorite studios was Wildstorm and they made this amazing set of 8 covers that all connected across their various titles. They did an amazing job with it. My new set of black comic book boxes came yesterday and I put them together last night. Today I filled them with so many of my IMAGE comics that I collected through college. I also put together 6 short boxes of comics that I want to sell.  Andy had a friend over after school. Yesterday Andy went to their house and today they came over here. I'm very happy to see that Andy has a friend that lives close enough that they can hang out together. We've always told the kids that their friends were welcome anytime in hopes that they would have friends come over to hang out or play. It will be nice to see this happen more often.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02451 While I was cleaning out my comics I came across this comic strip that I had cut out and kept from the newspaper. This was the April Fools strip in 2012. It was the time when Game of Thrones was on TV and the show was known for major cliffhangers. It was also at a time when My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was on the cartoon networks. I had collected the My Little Pony comic books for Eva but she didn't read them. I then collected them to collect them and have all but 1 of them, I guess. I'm finding many gaps in my collection. There were two crossovers between My Little Pony and Transformers. I have one full cross over and for some reason am missing 2 issues of the other 4 issue crossover. I may have to search eBay to round out my collection. Today was my first time filling out the FAFSA. We'll see how that works out. I hope I did it correctly.