BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02390 I was in Target today and saw that they had one of the Funko minis on clearance and it was Deadpool and his Chimichangas food truck. I had looked at it previously but it was way too expensive for such a tiny thing. But, it was on clearance and so the price was decent. So I picked that up and also the Hot Wheels Target tractor trailer because that was also on clearance. Both items I have physically picked up many times over the past few months. Just gotta hit the store at the right time to get some deals. Other than that there wasn’t much happening today. Andy had more classes at JWU and today’s cooking was American food so mac and cheese and pulled pork and bbq chicken. Andy had a big lunch and tonight them finished working on their 8th grade Aleks program which is the math program. Andy had to have it finished by tomorrow. So we are happy that Andy is all done.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02389 Since we have one week with just Andy at home we figured we’d do something nice and take them out for dinner. We should have thought that trough better because this week Andy has been at cooking camp at Johnson and Wales and Andy has been having lots of food each day. So, the last thing they really want to do is eat when they get home. Next year we’ll make sure to just take Andy for dessert since there is always room for that. Campfire was excellent. I had wings and a Caesar salad. I asked for no croutons but got them anyway. I picked out about two slices of bread worth of croutons but that’s fine. Someone who enjoys croutons and can eat them would absolutely love the place. The wings were very good. I like getting a cajun dry rub on the wings and then asking for buffalo sauce on the side so I can dip into the sauce and then into the blue cheese. The cajun with the buffalo works well. Andy got the Whiskey burger but only ate a few bites. I finished that off...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02388 I’ve been working on Virta and their eating plan for a few months now. I’ve lost nearly 20 lbs at this point. I count from 217lbs because that was from my last physical but Virta has me starting at 213. Anyway, I weighed myself the other day and hit 195. I’m 10lbs from my High School weight at this point. Granted, we’ve been here before when I did Jenny Craig back in 1999. I was nearing 185 in 2001. Then lots of things changed and I started to gain weight again. I lost weight during Covid from all the walking but have been over 200lbs for the better part of 25 years or so. It takes a lot for me to make changes for myself. Specifically changes in what I wear. I remember too many times having too tight clothes and feeling awful so I have been wearing larger and larger sizes over the years to be comfortable and not constricted in any way. this coming weekend we are celebrating my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary and we’re going to do a family photo. Allison wo...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02387 Andy is back at Johnson and Wales University for the Summer Teens cooking program. This is Andy’s first year doing the teens track and their fourth year cooking at Johnson and Wales. Andy was pretty excited when I picked them up from classes today. Andy and the team made pesto sauce for Italian day. They also made a couple of baked goods and they all got to fill cannolis for a treat at the end of the day. This week Andy will be learning dishes that are Italian, Greek, Korean and American and on Friday they get a secret basket of ingredients like the cooking shop, Chopped. Andy is most looking forward to basket day. Prior to today Andy was most looking forward to Italian day an well, that was today. Andy definitely at their fill because they were not that hungry for dinner tonight. Part of dinner tonight was some fresh zucchini from our garden. Our first zucchini so far. When Andy an I got home we were looking at the garden and were surprised to discover the...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02386 A while back I bought the X-Men Blackbird LEGO set. I had finally found it on sale because it was priced way too high. It’s been sitting in my to be built pile and so tonight I went and built it. I also needed a photo for today. I liked this build because it was fun, a little complex and I liked how they set up the wings of the blackbird. Plus this came with four X-Men minifigs. I thought that five were in the box but unfortunately only just the four. I thought Storm would have been included. I’ll have to find her and Beast in another set sometime.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02385 With Eva being on the Cape, James has taken to sleeping in bed with Allison. This morning when I got done work James had taken my side of the bed. He didn’t take off when I got to bed. Instead he went and stayed in the bed so that he could lick my arms. He stayed for a little bit but eventually took off. I’m not sure what he’s going to do when we go back to the Cape. But for now he’s actually being friendly to us.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02384 Today Allison and I went off to Aldi to do some grocery shopping. While there I looked for items that would work with my new Virta dietary plan. Cheese and meat are two things that work for me. I have been adding cheese to my omelets and that seems to fry up in the frying pan pretty well. I did try to take these mozzarella and pepperoni spirals and fry them up to make the edges crispy but I either didn’t do it long enough or they won’t work that way because they simply got melty. I’ll try again when I am not rushing to get back up to me desk for work. They do taste great, though, like a piece of pepperoni pizza.