BenSpark Family Adventures

It has been a while since we have posted anything, sorry about that. Nothing major to report, very quiet weekend. Allison has begun her training for the 3-Day in earnest. We walked about 7 miles on Saturday and about 4 miles on Sunday. It was Tara's Birthday on Saturday and we went there for Cake and Ice Cream, and some Homemade soda. Erik's Dad Howard got them a Soda Maker from The Soda Club. Before that we went to a clam cake and chowder dinner at Sacred Heart Church with my mom. Good clam cakes, can't wait for the summer. I got to go on a nice long motorcycle ride on Friday afternoon while it was beautiful out. Took the bike all the way to South Attleboro to pick up some comic books from Wild Time Comics. I've been hitting the gym at the Y with Erik a couple of days a week. Starting to get myself trained to run a little. Bought a trunk rack for bikes this past weekend at the East Providence Cycle Bike show. There were some good deals there. I'm all set to get out...

Post originally Written by Allison Yes, another post by Allison! Hold on to these folks, they might be collector's items some day!!  Yesterday was a busy day for me. I went to see the 2:00 showing of Movin' Out at the Colonial Theatre in Boston. My friend Cara had an extra ticket, so she called me! Movin' Out is a phenomenal show!! The music was, of course, incredible. Michael Cavanaugh, who sang the show, was fantastic. And the dancing was amazing! I highly recommend it to all fans of Billy Joel! The show was really interesting because the band and Michael Cavanaugh were on a catwalk above the stage playing, it really added to the show. Four of the main characters (Brenda, Eddie, Judy and James) were all played by understudies during the matinee, but they were amazing!     Then last night we went to see Ellis Paul (and opener Flynn) at the Dessert Club in Taunton, MA at 8:00. Both Ellis and Flynn put on great shows!  Flynn wasn't able to stick around for Ellis' set...

This past weekend Allison and I went to Derek's parents' cottage up in Woodstock, NH. We had a blast with Derek and Michelle and Neil and Andrea. Allison and I went up on Friday -taking a well deserved day out of work. One more week on the road then home for 4 WEEKS!!!! On Friday Allison and I took a drive up the Kancamagus Highway (watch for frost heaves). And then we had a nice dinner at Truant's Taverne (And I got 449 Airline miles too boot, Yeah!). Derek and Michelle arrived first on Friday night around midnight or so and then Neil and Andrea arrived after that. Allison and I were already pretty much asleep but got up to welcome everyone as they arrived. We decided to get out on the road the next morning at 8:00am or so. Early to bed early to rise. Once the morning sun was out I was up and at 'em to get breakfast put on the table for our hungry skiers and shoppers. Bretton Woods was awesome. It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining for part of the day and the ...

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 ...