BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #557 10/17/06 Today I gave a presentation in Chicago for our customers. I showed some new software enhancements. It was a fun but very long day. After the presentations during the day I went with the folks who were here as demonstrators to a restaurant called Wild Fire. It was fantastic. I had a triple filet sampler, which included a mushroom crusted, blue cheese crusted and a Parmesan crusted filet medallion. A very tasty meal. And after dinner I shared a delicious pumpkin pie slice with Maureen, Erin and Sharon. I used my tripod and the timer to get this picture, which is actually a composite of two pictures. Each time I took a picture I only got one side of the table, so I used PhotoShop to place the two images together. Tomorrow we are off to Indianapolis.

Photo-A-Day #556 10/16/06 Today I flew to Chicago. I am presenting a session about upcoming enhancements to our existing customers tomorrow and then I am heading to Indianapolis on Wednesday to do the presentation for our customers there. My flight was pretty uneventful. I had my clear plastic baggie with my liquids in it. So I was able to take hair gel and tooth paste with me rather than go and try to find a place when I landed. I had a very nice lunch with Bill at Stir Crazy. That place is great for stir-fry. I had my plate loaded up with bean sprouts, mushrooms, peanuts, shrimp and beef. It was very tasty. Then I practiced my demo for tomorrow and since I could get no internet access, beyond a very slow dial up back to work, I played some Dungeon Siege II for a little bit. I guess that there is an expansion pack for Dungeon Siege II. I'll wait till that hits the $10.00 mark. By then I may have actually gone through the game the three times it takes to get my character to a high ...

This afternoon Allison and I watched Click with Marcia. I liked the movie alot. I think that when Adam Sandler’s character is not a total moron that his movies are so much better. And this was one of those movies that had lots of humor and heart. I loved Christopher Walken’s character, he was perfect for that role. We had some corned beef and cabbage for a late lunch with Aunt Sandy and Dan and Marcia. Today was such a lazy like day that when we got home at 6:00pm it felt like so much later in the day. Now I gotta pack for a trip to Chicago. I have to pay attention too because on my last two trips I forgot key items. This time that is not going to happen. I am staying at some full service Marriotts during this trip and that means no free Internet access (don’t even get me started with how asinine that is when the cheaper Marriott properties give you free Internet but the full service places slam you for terrible access at a premium price.) So the photo-a-day photos may not get up till ...

Photo-A-Day #555 10/15/06 Today Allison and I went to the Center of New Hampshire for brunch with James and Danielle. We had a great brunch, with made to order omelets and French toast and fruit. It was fun to sit down and catch up with James and Danielle. It is tough from time to time to be so far away from some of our friends. It would be nice to live in a place where we were close in proximity to all of our friends, but that is logistically impossible. So we’ll catch up with them when we come up to NH to visit from time to time. I got a call while at brunch, from Ken. Ken wanted to have breakfast with us as he drank his coffee on this ride down the Mass Pike. However, since it was Ken, we were already finished with breakfast and he was an hour late, par for the course. We love you Ken. We noticed yesterday when we arrived at Dan and Marcia’s that there were quite a few pigeons on the wires. Well, they were back again today so I snapped today’s photo of the pigeons. They got restless...

Charles Schulz is my very favorite comic strip artist ever. I recently purchased four of the complete Peanuts series. This is a huge collection of some of the most prolific comic strip art ever. The series starts with the 1950 collection. I have 1950-1958 and am looking to get the rest of the series eventually. I want to make a display case for these books so that they can be seen as art and then easily removed and read. I was thinking of some sort of case for these books that will be large enough to hold the complete series. I can’t wait to introduce my children to the wonderful world of Peanuts.

Photo-A-Day #554 10/14/06 Today we went up to New Hampshire to visit Dan and Marcia and stay for the weekend. We had lunch with Allison’s brother Nate and his wife Sarah. They brought some pizza from Alley Cat (a good pizza joint off of Elm Street in Downtown Manchester.) Before we got to the house we made a stop at the Saint Anselm College Bookstore so I could pick up a new Saint A’s shirt. And we walked around the front of Alumni Hall so I could take a few pictures. Today’s photo is of the Statue of Saint Anselm. After lunch Allison and Marcia went shopping and I went out to Toys R’ Us to find some Transformers Classics. I picked up Optimus Prime and Megatron, I also got two free scout class transformers so I picked up the motorcycle Lugnutz and the hovercraft Short Round. After my toy run I got myself started up with Photography Corner. I set up an identity for the forum and made my first post. Allison and Marcia came back from the store and we watched part of a lifetime movie and c...

Photo-A-Day #553 10/13/06 Tonight Allison and I went over to Lowes and picked out some flooring for our Office/Art Room/Future Nursery. We are going with some Bamboo flooring. We are very excited about installing Bamboo Flooring. It should be great for the room. After that we visited Al and Family at The Moose Cabin. Food is still great and the place was very busy. That was good to see.