BenSpark Family Adventures

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 #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 #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 #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 #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 #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 #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 #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 #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...

 Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02421 Today Allison took our giant zucchini and made two loaves of zucchini bread. One was regular with one half covered in pecans and the other is chocolate zucchini bread. I had a small slice of the chocolate one and it was really good. I know it is not on my Virta plan but it did not raise my blood sugar that much more than regular dinner. It was worth it to have some of this since I haven't had zucchini bread in forever.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02411 I took andy to Rock Spot today so that they could do some climbing. I knew that I had a couple of passes left so that andy could climb for free. Turns out that Andy also had their own couple of passes. Andy climbed about 15 runs before we headed home. Andy does seem interested in starting classes back up after the Fall. I think that will work out okay. Let's get the Fall going with all the new things that Andy will be doing and then try to get back to climbing if Andy still wants to do so. Tonight we took andy to Morin's for dinner. Thursdays are hometown hero nights and that meant that Allison's meal would be 20% off. We had a great meal and are glad that Morin's is back open.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02407 Tonight was the last Food Truck night of 2025. For some reason I must have hit the portrait mode and it auto focused on me. Sadly everyone else is out of focus. Whoops.  Tonight I got the Lobster Street Corn Nachos. This is the first cheat meal that I've had since being on Virta. I wanted to see how it would affect my blood sugar. I did not eat the whole thing but had a pretty good amount. About two hours later my blood sugar was at 255, that is the most it has been in months. It did come back down pretty quickly, too.  I figure if I am going to cheat I am going to need to pick something that I really enjoy to make it worth it. It won't be often but I will occasionally and in moderation pick something that is not Virta approved. 

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02400 We went to Spumoni's tonight for dinner. Had a great time, very good food. Great waiter, too. Andy especially loved the giant cheese pull that they got from the French Onion Soup that they had.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02396 On the way back from our walk today I took a photo of the Hydrangea by the fence. It is nearing the end of the season and this particular plant is starting to wilt. Why does it look so vibrant? Well, I have been playing with the effects on my phone’s camera app. So, I am editing this on my phone to make the image much more striking. You can see the wilting, though. Tonight Eva was back at Folk dancing and she even jumped off the drawbridge twice. She had a great time. Before Allison and Eva went off for their trip to Folk Dancing we had ribs for dinner. I had gotten a rub at Eugene Henry’s the other day and in the morning I took the ribs out of the fridge and let them thaw. Once they were thawed I rubbed the ribs with brown sugar and the rub that I had gotten. Then I put them in the oven for 2 1/2 hours. Finishing everything on the grill afterwards.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02395 On our second day at the Cape this week Eva spent the entire day at Science School and then had a fun night with friends at Folk Singing and then they had twice baked potatoes together. She’s had some great times with friends this Summer. It has been an awesome experience for her. Tonight Allison, Andy and I went to Anejo for dinner with my friend Stephanie and her son and boyfriend. It was our first meeting of her boyfriend and her son. Stephanie worked with me several years ago and we’ve kept in touch ever since. We had a great dinner together and enjoyed our time with Stephanie, Josh and Julian. Andy even got to hold Julian and Andy looked so happy. The kid loves babies and dogs. Andy is very gentle with both. I did not get any photos at dinner but Stephanie did and shared them with me. They are of Andy and the baby but I’m not posting them. So, I have a photo of the tomatoes in my Dad’s garden. He’s got a ton of plants and lots and lots of tomatoes.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02394 We are down the Cape this week for the last week of Eva’s job at the Children’s School of Science. While she was at work we went to Main Street in Falmouth and visited Eugene Henry’s. There Andy got a few things including a tropical soda to use to make a tropical soda float. We enjoyed some time on the porch and Andy enjoyed their float. It had a very strong coconut scent.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02393 We spent the day in New Hampshire celebrating Dan and MArcia’s 50th Wedding Anniversary. In the morning I took the family over to the Golden Egg for breakfast. We enjoyed a nice breakfast together and then went back to the hotel to get ready for the day. We met up with Uncle Tom who performed a private Mass for us in his room. Then we headed over to Nate’s house again before heading to our lunch venue at Wentworth By The Sea. We enjoyed a meal at Salt and got to use their wine room. It was a nice room with a very large table. We had an excellent meal and bottles of wine. After our meal we went down to Dan and Marcia’s suite to enjoy a cake that we had brought. We got the cake from Awesome Sweets. Awesome Sweets is a bakery that my friend Sue runs. A great place with very good baked goods. I’d love it if Andy interned there some day. After our celebration we took a bunch of photos around the grounds and also on the porch of their suite. We headed to the Cape after...