BenSpark Family Adventures

This past Saturday night Lovefest ’04 took place up on Granite Hill at Alicia’s and sometimes Ken’s place. Like any true Lovefest there was plenty of food, fun and funky prizes. Ken raided his mother’s house to provide some of the door prizes and the Tully’s house as well. Ken also produced a great sound show for the evening complete with videos and a dance contest. The winner of course would win a date with the infamous Pouliuos. The dancers gave it their all but in the end Rich’s Kung-fu fighting style of dance won the hearts of all the crowd. I’d like to thank Ken and Alicia for pulling this event, as well as pulling a large number of people, together. Now that Allison and I live in North Attleboro it is so hard to get together with our friends like we used to. We miss you guys and were glad to get some time to spend with you. Till Lovefest ’05: The return of the Buddha. If any lovefestians would like to provide me with captions, please send them to me.

Yes, this restaurant is the home of the “Beef Roll”. It is the long lost brother of the infamous Beef Log. I saw this sign the first time that I was in Sandwich, IL and I knew I had to get a photo. Well, months later I whipped out my camera while I drove by the place just so I could get this image and share it with you. Now at this moment some of you are shaking your heads and wondering what the heck the fascination with the Beef Log is all about. Well, last year I went skiing with Derek, Neil and Steve. Derek and I drove up later on Friday night while Neil and Steve went up early to get the place in order and claim the two remaining bedrooms “Great, now get out of my bedroom!” While Derek and I were riding up to the cottage he told me all about this Hickory Farms Beef Log that his mother had sent up with him for us to enjoy. On Saturday while we watched the Superbowl and had a few (many) libations Derek asked Steve to cut a few pieces of the Beef Log. Steve proceeded to cut up the ent...

Yes I’ve been a slacker. Been on the road so long that I forgot what time zone I actually live in. Couple of things to rant about. Car Rentals. Notice the picture I’ve posted. That is the tiny chip on my windshield that Hertz is slamming me with some fees about. Some rock or something kicked up on the road and whacked the windshield. I guess it was somehow my fault that I didn’t swerve off a bridge to miss the rock. Arrgh! Oh and Logan airport sucks. As usual. The worst airport I ever have to travel out of. Especially terminal B. The LIVE visit this week is going rough and I’ve been up since 5:00CST. Need sleep. Need to be home. Need it to be March 13th. That is when I’ll be home for four weeks. So everyone I’ve been promising plans to do things with will have to collect during those weeks. Anyway when my thoughts are even slightly more coherent I will post more.

Dad on a Custom Bike. Today Dad and I went to a Motorcycle show. We were supposed to be at the show in Rockingham. That is where I bought my bike last year. However, there was a fire at the Rockingham showplace and the show was canceled. Fortunately, there was another show back at the Bayside Expo Center, so we went to that. It was a little small and pretty much the same format as the one that we went to last year with Paul D. The top photo and the first one after the text are from that show. There were less bikes and not as many vendors because the Rockingham show was the bigger show, and most of the vendors were going to be there. We did get to try out some of Guzman’s Salsa served by Roy Guzman himself. There was another Portland vendor there called W.O.Hesperus, they sell some wicked hot sauces. Dad got a leather riding backpack for the sissy bar of his bike, and also some jars of salsa. So we had fun. Then we stopped and visited Shelby at work at the End Zone Pub over by Gillette ...

Eva and John on the couch Jim and Dan on the floor (Who’s got the yellow man?) Last night Allison and I went to a dinner in honor of her Grandmother Eva. Eva turned 81 yesterday. We went to Alice’s home for a fantastic dinner and a night filled with fun and laughter. Here are some photo’s from the evening.Happy Birthday Eva! Marcia and Allison The roller coaster ride that is life with the Sparks’ Allison got a cute new haircut

Last night Allison and I saw Vance Gilbert and Ellis Paul at the Rogers Center at Merrimack College. Andrea drove Allison up and we met at Bertucci’s where Allison’s cousin Erin met the three of us for dinner. We had a nice dinner and fun conversation. Then we were off to the Rogers Center. The Rogers Center is a great place to see a performance. The seats are nice and wide and the acoustics are great. We were in the third row and would have been even closer if the stage had been set up closer to the audience, A fact that Vance commented on many times. Allison and I were impressed with Vance and his ability to make up songs on the spot and his humor. His musical talent was also great. Ellis as always was wonderful. We got to hear some of our favorites like “Put a Jukebox on my Grave” and “3000 Miles”. Andrea and Erin were Ellis newbies but I think that they also had a good time at the show. It was a great night and it was nice to share it with friends both old and new.

Allison’s Mini Simba Okay so I’m a loser. It has been nearly a month since Allison’s 26th birthday party and I have yet to post a message and photos about it. Mind you I had attempted to do this weeks ago while I was on my first trip to Vancouver. I had the time and the photos and I had even written a great message for the Blog. But I saved over the message and was so frustrated that I was not in the state of mind to properly rewrite the message. So that being said here are the photos from Allison’s Birthday. On January 10th Allison turned 26 and a fun fiesta was had by all at La Carreta in Manchester. Allison’s friends Beth, Jenn, T.R. and Tina were in attendance as well as Ken and Alicia and Allison’s parent’s Dan and Marcia. We had some mega margaritas and great Mexican food. Allison got some very nice gifts and some, how shall I put it, ‘interesting’ gifts from the trouble triplets. Tina made a very special basket for Allison, and Ken and Alicia got Allison a transformer, and no sh...