BenSpark Family Adventures

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 #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 #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 #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 #02383 Tonight I went to see The Fantastic Four with my friend, Frank. Frank and I have been friends since college. We don’t see each other often enough, though. We only live a half hour away from each other but it takes forever for us to coordinate and do something. this time, however, we had made a plan to see The Fantastic Four when it came out. Frank loves movies and so do I so this was perfect. We met up at BJ’s Brew House for dinner and great conversation. We caught up, laughed commiserated and genuinely enjoyed spending time together. I always enjoy conversations with Frank. After the movie we made plans to catch up again in the next couple of months. We plan to go see a Sunday Matinee of And Then There Were None, the next play at ACT.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02249 I received a great surprise after the performance today. Our friends Aaron and Denise Preston and their daughter Verity came to see the show with Allison and Andy. Eva was feeling under the weather and stayed home. Aaron had been in a play back in 2018 and I think seeing him in that play got it in my head that maybe I should try again to do some theater. I have certainly enjoyed my time on this play. After the play we went to Spumoni’s for dinner. I’ve never been and I must have passed the place hundreds of times over the years. Just never stopped to eat there. A guy at work was raving about their Italian Pu Pu Platter. So, that is what I got for my dinner. It was huge enough to have it again for dinner another night as well. In fact, we all got doggie bags with the food that we could not finish. Aaron got a seafood dish that I am definitely ordering on our next visit. It was nice to enjoy dinner with our friends, it is always a great time when we get toget...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02240 It is funny because it could mean Frankenstein as in The People vs. Frankenstein, the play I am performing in or it could mean my buddy Frank from college. Well, it means both. My friend Frank came over to see the opening night showing of the People Vs. Frankenstein and I was very surprised. I noticed that he posted on Facebook that we was attending right before we started. He hung out after the show and we chatted for a long time. It has been very long since last I saw Frank. Each time we do get together we end up spending tons of time talking. The show went very well and the writer of the play was very pleased. Two more shows this weekend.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02067 I learned that my friend Rob Merlino passed away on August 7th. I had been following Rob ever since he moved to Florida. The move was good for him and he was loving life. It was a big shock to me to find out that he had passed. This morning I found some old videos that we had made together and posted them up to my Facebook account. I chatted with his wife, too. I then got the idea that to honor his memory I would head to Snappy Dogs to chat with the ladies there. Rob introduced me the ladies many years ago and we’ve been friends ever since. So, I drove to Hopkinton and got one of their Great Dane hot dogs. We talked about Rob and reminisced a bit. It was nice to do and a nice way to remember him.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01823 I had the day off for New Year’s Eve and we took it easy most of the day. We prepared for our friends The PRestons to come over to celebrate the new year. They have two girls who are older than Andy and the other is older and Eva. However, they all get along so well and the kids have so many interests that compliment each other. We even learned that one daughter loves to paint swords. I think I know who to send The Sword of Omens when it is time to paint. Allison and I always have great conversations with Aaron and Denise. We haven’t seen each other in a long time but it was so nice to get back together as if no time had passed.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01820 We celebrated my friend Derek’s 50th birthday tonight at Towne Tavern. It was a very nice evening catching up with friends and sharing stories. Derek reminded me that there was also a birthday party for his 30th where many of the same people were in attendance. In face I was writing this blog 20 years ago and even have a post up of that night.  DEREK’S 30TH BIRTHDAY BASH! .  I have a lot of things documented in the past 20 years on this blog. so many things. While we have aged in that time we can still be transported back to the early days with all the funny stories that we have together. Before heading to the party I worked on setting up the 3D printer. I had a heck of a time getting the filament to get into the correct spot but about an hour before we were to leave I got it working and ran the benchmark print, a little boat called Benchy. The printer prints quite quickly and I’m looking forward to whatever else we can create.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01812 Tonight we had a Krav Maga social at The Town Tavern in North Attleboro. We had reserved the small room and had filled it up with so many people from class. It was really nice to see everyone and chat with everyone outside of class. These folks have become people that I enjoy spending a lot of time with. I was seated with a bunch of people that had gone through the same black belt test with me. We ad worked a lot with each other through Boot Camp and more. A friend took this photo and I borrowed it from her Facebook page because I did not take photos during the event. We had plenty of food and lots of conversation. It got super loud when the room was all filled up and the poor server was taking care of all of us. But we all had a really fun night together.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01781 Today we celebrated Andy’s upcoming birthday by having a few of their friends over for cake, popcorn, a movie and pizza. Andy wanted to keep things low-key this year and just have friends over. The kids had a nice time and for the most part got along together. I think poor Preston may have felt a little left out being the only kid who wasn’t at the same school. I also think he’s had his fill of public school kids. However, I hope that he had a good time. I think that Andy had a nice time with their friends. We had Preston, Tristan, Emma and Elliot here for a couple hours. It is nice to be able to put faces with names after hearing about them so much. Andy has been very happy at their new school and it is great to see that they have found some friends. Before the party in the afternoon Eva and I went to ABD to help out with assembling turkey baskets for the huge donation that ABD does each year. We gather and put together so many turkey baskets for the peopl...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01552 Today I drove into Boston to meet up with my longtime blogging buddy, Chris Lewis. We’ve caught up a number of times over the years but it has truly been a long while since we’ve been able to see each other. We’ve been on movie trips, road trips and even tour Plymouth Plantation together with our families. That was a fun trip. I think his eldest daughter was Eva’s age at the time and she and Andy bonded well. We met up at an Irish restaurant at one of the hotels nears his conference. He was there for a higher education conference and was really busy but I was lucky that he had a couple of hours between events to catch up for some lunch. We had a really nice talk together and it was great catching up.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01479 Tonight was the first Guy’s Night at Krav. We had an hour class where we worked on a long strike set that we created during the class. I worked with a black belt named Alan. We di the warm up and the striking together. We had been talking a bit before class, too. I did not think that there would be many guys going but we had about 30 of us in the class and then we went over to Angle Tree Brewing to hang out. There was a Food Truck outside of the place called Supa Dupa and they had some buffalo chicken nachos that I got before I went inside. I probably should have waited because the Sensei’s picked up pizza for us to enjoy. I did offer the nachos to anyone who wanted to try them. The brewery was a nice place, very relaxed vibe inside. It was good night to hang out with so many guys that I’m training with.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01381 It really like that I work from home most of the time now. It allows me to take a couple of hours here and there to do things that I would have had to miss only a year ago. Case in point was tonight. A friend of mine from High School posted on Facebook that he would be in town and would like to meet up for drinks with anyone from our class who was local. I was able to take a couple of hours of PTO to go out and have dinner with him and three other friends. It was nice to catch up with people that I had spent four very important years with. I loved High School and the friends that I made there. I got along with most everyone for the most part and catching up after many years is so much fun. We laughed, told stories and got caught up on the highlights of the past 30 years. Wow. Tonight Andy went to a Parent’s Night Out at ABD. It was zombie survival training. I dropped him off before catching up with my friends and picked him up afterwards. He was having fun....

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01331 Today I went to lunch with my college friend Frank. We met up at Mick Morgan’s Irish Pub. Neither of us had ever been there but it was in between where we each live so it was a good place to meet up. Inside it was packed completely with Irish memorabilia. They had almost everything you’d ever want in Guinness stuff. There was so much on the walls, and even the ceilings. It was very, very busy in that way. Our lunch was so much fun. We talked for two hours and caught up on everything going on in our lives. I can’t believe it had been one year since we had last gotten together. That is really sad seeing as we live only 1/2 hour from each other. We made plans to get together again in the near future to record one of his podcasts.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01258 This morning we drove from New ?Hampshire to Cape Cod to pick up the kids and also to have lunch with Allison’s friend from college and her family. We enjoyed a nice lunch at Shipwreck right along the beach. I tried several times to get the kids talking with each other but they all appeared to be in their own little worlds. Even when I brought up Minecraft, something that both Eva nd Andy enjoy they were not that talkative about it. It is tough when you only see people every few years. We did have fun though.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01257 Today Allison and I went to New Hampshire to Saint Anselm College for my 25th College Reunion. This should have occurred last year but because of the pandemic it was pushed out and so the Reunion weekend had three classes celebrating their 25th Reunion on at the same time. They actually had several simultaneous reunions happening with 3 classes each celebrating their 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25th. We met up with a couple of my friends for lunch and we also took a tour around campus, had a reception with the new college president, had a great dinner with some more friends and had some lovely conversations throughout the day. I wouldn’t say that the reunion was that well attended. This was the first one that I was able to get back to since my 5th reunion. My 5th Reunion was also when Allison and I officially started dating. Many significant moments at Saint Anselm College. I was hoping to see more people there but the people I did see were really nice. There was eve...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01089 Our Christmas Eve this year was a little different than past years. We have had a tradition of having my parents and my sister and her husband to the house after 4pm Mass for a chicken stew dinner. This year with my parents living on Cape Cod the drive is a bit much back and forth so they did not come. We were joined by Allison’s friend Colleen and her mother, Sue. Colleen and Sue attended Mass as well and just happened to get the pew in front of us. They came back to the house after Mass and we enjoyed the traditional chicken stew that Allison makes. Mass this year was at Saint Mary’s Church and they have a nativity scene out on the lawn. I always get a photo of the kids by the nativity scene after Mass except for last year when we had to watch Mass on Facebook. I like seeing those Nativity Scene memories come up on Facebook each year, though. There was also some fresh baked bread that Colleen and Sue brought and this year I picked up a French Silk Pie fro...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01013 Tonight was Eva’s birthday party. she wanted to have her friends over to watch Beetlejuice. The cake is also a Beetlejuice themed cake. Allison made a 6 layer cake, it was enormous! We picked up two full sheet pizzas from Apollon and one small cheese, no sauce for one of Eva’s friends. I set the girls up with the movie Beetlejuice in the back yard with the new projector. I guess it worked okay, but the girls really did not do too much watching. They did plenty of laughing and screaming. Joyful laughter, the best kind. One of the girls that came over has a brother in Andy’s class and that boy came over too so that they could watch a movie together and play, too. They watched Space Jam. It was a great night for everyone. Wish I didn’t have to leave for work and could have watched it all, but I definitely heard it all.