BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02497 I received a Blokees Optimus Prime figure from the kids at Christmas. It is the one on the left . then I bought myself the G1 version after Christmas and built it tonight. Blokees are fun to assemble non transformable figures of Transformers characters and the ones that I made here are the deluxe versions. they have bigger and smaller versions that you can get including some blind bag options. I bought the first series of blind bag ones but stopped after that. Now I will pretty much only get a character if I am collecting them, like Optimus or Wheeljack. I won't just chance it and get something I'm not interested in getting.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02496 Apparently Funko may be going out of business. I have collected many Funko figures over the years and I recently saw that there was an Optimus Prime Magic the Gathering figure that was going to be released. So I ordered it. I do try and pick up the Transformers Funko figures and I put them on my wall in the office. This one is neat because it has a background of the Optimus Prime Magic card. I never found that or even a pack of Transformers/Magic cards but this looked like fun.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02495 I finished building my latest set from Lumibricks. They sent me this set for a review that I need to post up next week. I've been doing a little bit each day but today I powered through and completed the whole thing. This will go perfectly with my Neon City Apartment that I have in the office and the neat thing about the two buildings is that they can eb lined up and both be powered by one powerbank. I'll make sure to put them together when I post the review.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02494 When Allison and I started discussing our 20th Anniversary and how to celebrate it we were looking at a few things but they were things we had done before. Then Allison sent me a link to the Providence Tour company. she had gone with Eva and her friend Aviva on the Providence Haunted Authors Tour and really enjoyed it. The company had a Dinner Stroll on Federal Hill so we booked it for tonight. The stroll took us to Cassarino’s, Trattoria Appia, Pane e Vino, and Anthony’s Authentic Italian Cuisine. We were on the tour with three other couples who were all friends. By the end of the night we had had good conversations with most everyone from the group. We were about 10 years younger than the rest of the group. We learned that our tour guide was from North Attleboro. She was very nice. Our adventure started at Cassarino's for an appetizer sampler of calamari, bruschetta, stuffed mushrooms and clams casino. Everything was excellent. We were allotted 35 minutes a...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02493 It is our 20th wedding anniversary and my daily photo is the houses across the street. that is because Allison got a photo of the two of us and I had tried to capture the Northern Lights like we had seen last night. Tonight they were not there. But I liked the photo so it is my daily one today. We're actually celebrating tomorrow so tomorrow's will definitely be of the two of us. Int he meantime here is the photo that Allison snapped. We were hanging out and watching TV tonight and Allison took this photo of the two of us. Earlier in the day I went out and got Allison some flowers and a coffee and delivered them to school. I was going to take a vase from home for the flowers because we do not need another vase but instead I got a large reusable tumbler at Dunkin for the flowers.  after making that delivery I went over to the comic book store and picked up my weekly comics but also some back issues to fill out my collection. Kevin at the shop had most of t...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02492 Today Allison and I drove down the Cape to go to Scargo Cafe for lunch with Mem and Grandfather, Cindy and Wayne and Aunt Cathy and Uncle Roger. Scargo Cafe was one of Grandma Bennett's favorite places to go for a meal. The food there was excellent. We arrived a little early and visited a couple of shops across the street from the cafe. Found some Christmas gifts for the kids and an anniversary gift for Allison. Our meal was excellent and we had a wonderful waitress. Allison got a chicken meal that was very tasty and I got the braised short rib meal. That was also very good. In the end Mom and Dad, Cindy, Wayne Cathy and Roger split the bill and took us out for our anniversary. We were celebrating what would have been Grandma and Grandpa's 76th wedding anniversary. It was nice to go there and think of them for a while and have a lot of fun with family.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02491 For the Day off we decided on a family movie night to watch the new Frankenstein movie from Guillermo del Toro. Eva was the one who suggested it. We were having dinner and she said that she wanted to watch the movie and I had been waiting for it as well. Allison and Andy also wanted to see it and since no one had already gone ahead and watched it on their own we made a movie night out of it.  Eva read Frankenstein in English class last year and I was in the People vs. Frankenstein because Eva had been reading the book and I noticed that ACT was doing the show. Then I read the actual book and after watching the movie I am very happy at how well this movie followed the book and the themes of the book. They even got certain scenes very right. del Toro is a great director. I told Eva that she used to like an animated series called Trollhunters that del Toro created.  The movie did have some gory parts but the kids handled it well. Even andy, although ...