BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02503 Andy turned 14 today. I was asleep all day and it wasn't until dinner that I even got to wish them a Happy Birthday. Mem and Grandfather came up today from the Cape. They took Andy and Eva out to Michael's, Savers and An Unlikely Story. Andy got this really cool mechanical dragon figurine at Michaels ad some items to create  a steampunk Nerf gun. That is Andy's latest project.  Allison and I caught up with everyone at House of Fortune to enjoy dinner together. We got a huge meal that was really tasty. The kids have decided that House of fortune is the place for most celebrations. I also learned tonight that my supervisor and his family know Jason and Stephanie very well and have for many years.  We came back to the house so that Andy could open their gifts and enjoy a nice carrot cake. The cake was Andy's choice, they really like that type of cake. Andy got some nice things for their birthday, a new flannel hoodie, a metal 3D puzzle, some patches ...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02502 Tomorrow is Andy's birthday. I usually take Andy for breakfast but tonight Allison and Eva were off at a concert so Andy and I went out for dinner in place of breakfast tomorrow. We went to Box Seats for dinner and Andy got a piece of carrot cake for dessert. We had a nice time hanging out. Andy has been rewatching Stranger things before the new season starts. They finished watching it tonight and had forgotten certain parts that hit hard. I'm looking forward to the next season as well. It is great having some programs that we enjoy together.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02501 Tonight was Blue Pride Night at AHS.Allison and I went over with Andy to take a look at what there was to offer. There were tables set up for clubs, performances by the chorus, cheer team and band and we could go into lots of the CTE areas. We visited the garage, carpentry area and we tried to go to culinary but there was nothing open for that last night. That sort of stank because that is what we were most interested in. The school has so many programs for the students. It seems that the programs are very open and depending upon a students interest there is so much to do. Andy was recognized by a former Brennan student when we went by the drama club table. They said, "Don't you do lights at Brennan". Andy replied yes and then they said, "We have lights here, too". So I grabbed a pamphlet for Andy to look at. Andy may do that in High School too but wasn't taking a pamphlet on their own. We could certainly tell the difference in how thi...

The folks from Lumibricks sent me their latest building set, the Izakaya for free to build and review. Opinions are 100% my own. I've built a few sets from Lumibricks (formerly FunWhole) in the past and they are really fun and interesting. The photo above is of the Izakaya and also The Apartment. they are both part of a Cyberpunk theme called Neoncity. At this time there are also two additional buildings that you can build and add to this whole theme, the Game Stack and the Floating Train Station. The great things about these sets is that they light up. As you build you are also adding lights and wires and ways to illuminate the amazing build. Once you're done building you fire up some power and the lights blaze up. With Neoncity sets you get some incredible Nenon effects light signs and even neon tube lights. That is one of the coolest things about these sets is how the lights are incorporated into the build. Some very innovative bricks were made in order to thread the wiring...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02500 Over the past two years Andy has show some major improvements in responsibility. Andy initially had Eva's old phone which was totally paid off but one day on a trip back from the cape the phone got lost. We've never seen any evidence of it anywhere since that day. So I picked Andy up a very cheap motorola phone. It was the absolutely cheapest phone that Xfinity offered.  It was like $100 total. And that served Andy well for two years.  Andy turns 14 on Saturday and it is time for a better phone. Last week Andy told Allison that they were interested in a new phone because the one they have right now is completely full and cannot add apps or anything at this point. It was a cheap phone with very little memory. Andy requested a Google Pixel phone. So, I ordered andy a new Pixel 9a. That is the lowest end Pixel phone but it is 3 times as powerful as Andy's current phone. I waited for the phone to arrive all day and once it did I worked on getting it activ...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02499 Tonight was the Fall Art show at Feehan. Because Eva is a senior all of her projects are displayed in the same spot together. Allison and I met up with Eva after school at the Doran Center to see the show. The little notes with green on them are acknowledgements from teachers and staff. Eva had four of them on her still life of buttons.  During Baccalaureate Mass Eva will have a senior art show that everyone in the family can attend. There she can display all of her projects throguh all four years at Feehan.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02498 I've been trying to complete my comic book collection recently and with that I have about 14 Transformers issues that I've been missing.Today Issue #61 finally arrived. This is one I have been unable to find for years but I got it on eBay. Most of the Transformers books that I am missing are the much later ones that had a lower run overall. That means that they will be more expensive. Hopefully through searchign comic book shops and comic cons I'll be able to complete the collection some day.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02497 I received a Blokees Optimus Prime figure from the kids at Christmas. It is the one on the left . then I bought myself the G1 version after Christmas and built it tonight. Blokees are fun to assemble non transformable figures of Transformers characters and the ones that I made here are the deluxe versions. they have bigger and smaller versions that you can get including some blind bag options. I bought the first series of blind bag ones but stopped after that. Now I will pretty much only get a character if I am collecting them, like Optimus or Wheeljack. I won't just chance it and get something I'm not interested in getting.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02496 Apparently Funko may be going out of business. I have collected many Funko figures over the years and I recently saw that there was an Optimus Prime Magic the Gathering figure that was going to be released. So I ordered it. I do try and pick up the Transformers Funko figures and I put them on my wall in the office. This one is neat because it has a background of the Optimus Prime Magic card. I never found that or even a pack of Transformers/Magic cards but this looked like fun.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02495 I finished building my latest set from Lumibricks. They sent me this set for a review that I need to post up next week. I've been doing a little bit each day but today I powered through and completed the whole thing. This will go perfectly with my Neon City Apartment that I have in the office and the neat thing about the two buildings is that they can eb lined up and both be powered by one powerbank. I'll make sure to put them together when I post the review.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02494 When Allison and I started discussing our 20th Anniversary and how to celebrate it we were looking at a few things but they were things we had done before. Then Allison sent me a link to the Providence Tour company. she had gone with Eva and her friend Aviva on the Providence Haunted Authors Tour and really enjoyed it. The company had a Dinner Stroll on Federal Hill so we booked it for tonight. The stroll took us to Cassarino’s, Trattoria Appia, Pane e Vino, and Anthony’s Authentic Italian Cuisine. We were on the tour with three other couples who were all friends. By the end of the night we had had good conversations with most everyone from the group. We were about 10 years younger than the rest of the group. We learned that our tour guide was from North Attleboro. She was very nice. Our adventure started at Cassarino's for an appetizer sampler of calamari, bruschetta, stuffed mushrooms and clams casino. Everything was excellent. We were allotted 35 minutes a...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02493 It is our 20th wedding anniversary and my daily photo is the houses across the street. that is because Allison got a photo of the two of us and I had tried to capture the Northern Lights like we had seen last night. Tonight they were not there. But I liked the photo so it is my daily one today. We're actually celebrating tomorrow so tomorrow's will definitely be of the two of us. Int he meantime here is the photo that Allison snapped. We were hanging out and watching TV tonight and Allison took this photo of the two of us. Earlier in the day I went out and got Allison some flowers and a coffee and delivered them to school. I was going to take a vase from home for the flowers because we do not need another vase but instead I got a large reusable tumbler at Dunkin for the flowers.  after making that delivery I went over to the comic book store and picked up my weekly comics but also some back issues to fill out my collection. Kevin at the shop had most of t...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02492 Today Allison and I drove down the Cape to go to Scargo Cafe for lunch with Mem and Grandfather, Cindy and Wayne and Aunt Cathy and Uncle Roger. Scargo Cafe was one of Grandma Bennett's favorite places to go for a meal. The food there was excellent. We arrived a little early and visited a couple of shops across the street from the cafe. Found some Christmas gifts for the kids and an anniversary gift for Allison. Our meal was excellent and we had a wonderful waitress. Allison got a chicken meal that was very tasty and I got the braised short rib meal. That was also very good. In the end Mom and Dad, Cindy, Wayne Cathy and Roger split the bill and took us out for our anniversary. We were celebrating what would have been Grandma and Grandpa's 76th wedding anniversary. It was nice to go there and think of them for a while and have a lot of fun with family.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02491 For the Day off we decided on a family movie night to watch the new Frankenstein movie from Guillermo del Toro. Eva was the one who suggested it. We were having dinner and she said that she wanted to watch the movie and I had been waiting for it as well. Allison and Andy also wanted to see it and since no one had already gone ahead and watched it on their own we made a movie night out of it.  Eva read Frankenstein in English class last year and I was in the People vs. Frankenstein because Eva had been reading the book and I noticed that ACT was doing the show. Then I read the actual book and after watching the movie I am very happy at how well this movie followed the book and the themes of the book. They even got certain scenes very right. del Toro is a great director. I told Eva that she used to like an animated series called Trollhunters that del Toro created.  The movie did have some gory parts but the kids handled it well. Even andy, although ...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02490 I've been enjoying cold brews most days but the weather has turned colder and now I'm transitioning over to hot coffee. I picked up some Mexican chocolate coffee a while back and Allison has made it for Cold Brew but now I'm enjoying it as hot coffee. Got a nice little much for now but may look at one that keeps the coffee warmer.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02489 I saw a Tik Tok for these little pins and decided to pick up a set of them. It was like 8 bucks for 30 of them so I brought them with me to work and passed them out to everyone who is on the weekend night shift. Everyone got a kick out of them.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02488 I have finally completed all of the documenting of the comics in my collection. I've also realized that some comic book series that I enjoyed I stopped before they stopped so I've been looking through eBay to complete the collections. I am now missing about 20 or so but still waiting for deliveries. I'm also going to create some better labels that go in the little rectangular spots for each box. I showed this image to my cousin and he said it looked sort of like Optimus Prime. I can see that as well.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02487 I was contacted by Lumibricks to do a new build review for them. I started tonight by building out all the little figures that are part of the set. This is another large set for their NEO-CITY line. So it is a futuristic set and I look forward to building all of it. It was just a bit too dark to do a proper begin to the build. It may take me several days to get this one completed.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02486 Tonight Eva was inducted into the National Honor Society. We attended the ceremony with Mem and Grandfather. After the ceremony we went to dinner at House of Fortune with Eva's friend Aviva. Mem and Grandfather headed home but that is okay because we went to House of Fortune in the afternoon for lunch.  This morning was the funeral for Peggy Conrad-Pope from our church. She helped out with the Altar boys when I was a kid. I served with her two boys. She'd also been part of the prayer group that Allison and Mem participate in. So Allison had become friends with Peggy over the years, too. We all attended the funeral and then afterwards Allison went back to school and I went to lunch with Mem and Grandfather.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02485 Today was election day for the municipal elections. Now that Eva is 18 she can finally vote and has taken part in her very first election. She has been taking it very seriously, too. She's been looking at the candidates and everything. She's also been following the NEw York City Mayoral election. 

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02484 Back in the 90's I was all about collecting the WildStorm comic books and my favorite character was one called Grifter from the WildC.A.T.S. I even created a costume for this character. I'm thinking of resurrecting the character for a future Granite State Comicon. I've got a few things to find for the costume. I'll also need a wig. I had hair back then.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02483 For a while now I have been reorganizing and documenting my comic book collection. I moved the comics from the cardboard boxes to some upgraded plastic boxes that provide more protection. I've been taking each comic out and photographing it, documenting the publication date, cover price and more information for each book. The spreadsheet shows about 2670 comics and the album of photographed comic covers is at 2080 so I have close to 600 more to go. Some need boards and bags and some, I am discovering, are missing issues. I discovered that one of my favorite comics, WildC.A.T.S. has 6 volumes of books and for some reason I am missing a large chunk of the 5th volume but have all of the 6th. So it is off to eBay I have been going to fill out and complete the collection. It has proven very helpful to get the collection complete. I figure if I can photograph a box a day I should be done with this by the weekend. Then I can show my new shelf with all the boxes of b...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02482 A while back I bought the Fortnite Battle Bus LEGO set, I have yet to build that one, but it came with a free LEGO set of a couple of Fortnite characters as BrickHeadz. Not a fan of Peely the anthropomorphic Banana but Cuddle Team Leader is cool. This set has been on a stack of LEGO sets I have yet to build. I'll probably resell these ones because I have no more display room. I'm trying to limit anything I purchase to what I can still display. Otherwise, I end up with years of collectibles that are just sitting in boxes until I get the motivation to sell them.