BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #02754 Today was Andy's last day of Culinary Camp. This year each of the kids in the teen camp got their own knife. They got to keep it, too. Andy is pretty excited to have their own cooking knife. They had the usual dessert showcase this ear with a lot of great items to enjoy. The teens did not decorate cakes this year but rather some cupcakes. They also had a monster cupcake competition where they decorated their cupcakes with monster themes. Andy did Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc. This is funny because Andy often Mike Wazowski's themselves in photos meaning covers their face accidentally. After the dessert showcase I went over to Warwick to pick up a comic book from a fellow reader of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. They had left it on their porch for me to pick up.  In addition to the comic they also gave me two stickers. I put one on each of my water bottles. I should have swapped where I put them because the one with the straw is one I take to the office an...

Photo-A-Day #02753 I now have a key to The Pretzel Factory. My boss was telling me that tomorrow he has to prepare for a softball tournament where he's got a high school kid selling products. So, he was talking about coming in early and I offered to come in and start the burner on the oven and get things ready so that he could bake when he arrived. I was going to get there to start at 6 but he said 7 would be okay. so later in the day he gave me a key to the building so that I could come in at 7 and take care of it. This will come in handy since I'll be closing from time to time and maybe even opening. Or both.

Photo-A-Day #02752 I didn't have to work until the afternoon today so Allison and I took Andy to camp and then on the way back we stopped for breakfast at First Watch. The place just opened so they are just getting their feet under themselves. The kitchen staff is new and so they did not want to overwhelm them and are accepting less people than they have space for until the staff can keep up. so our wait was like 30 minutes. We should have signed in to the line through the app but that is okay. Allison had a free side and so we got the Million Dollar Bacon. It was very tasty with a slight kick to it, too.  I opted for the traditional breakfast with home fries and bacon and eggs plus some multigrain toast. It came with an excellent strawberry jam. After breakfast we went shopping at Target for some things for Eva for college and also some stuff around the house. I can't believe that one month from today Eva is off to school.

Photo-A-Day #02751 I made a special dip today at work. I had gone to Michael's and picked up some Orange Extract and orange food dye. The extract was actually an emulsion and I used that with some of our buttercream to make the Orange Dream dip. I wanted to call it Orange Dreamsicle like an Orange Creamsicle. My boss didn't get it so said shorten it to dream. I do like that I ave a bit of leeway to make some other items from time to time.

Photo-A-Day #02750 I worked the weekend so today was a sleep day. I went and got Andy from camp in the afternoon and after dinner Allison and I went for a walk around the block. There was a house with some beautiful sunflowers out front so I snapped this shot of one. Andy started their week of cooking at Johnson and Wales. Today was Italian day.

Photo-A-Day #02749 Dunkin Donuts put out a special Cape Cod themed tumbler. Allison and I have been searching for it since the start of the Summer. Today Allison and Andy went down the Cape to pick up Eva and their friend, Max to go and see the Hadestown Pro Shot. A Pro Shot is professional filming of a broadway play. Allison and Eva both love Hadestown and andy enjoys Greek Mythology so everyone wins.  Allison went to about five Dunkins today and finally found the tumbler at a small shop. She was quite excited to finally have it. It is a cute one. Lots of fun Cape Cod details on it, too.

Photo-A-Day #02748 Allison and I went to the Attleboro Farmer's Market. We picked up a few things like empanadas and Foss Farms sauce as well as a couple of Jerusalem Bagels form NAVAD. It was nice to walk around and see what they had all around the market. I haven't had one of the Jerusalem bagels in a while. They are so tasty. I think I'm going to try and make a pretzel like this next week at work. We have the sesame seeds there.

Photo-A-Day #02747 I finally smartened up and froze some of my pretzels so that I could enjoy them throughout the weekend. By freezing them I can pop them into the air Fryer for 5 minutes and have nice hot and fresh soft pretzels as intended. If I leave them on the counter they start to absorb the salt and get gummy. One night is fine but beyond that, no good. When I went into the Pretzel Factory today for my shift 11:00am - 3:00pm I was greeted by my boss frantically making trays and trays of rivets (Pretzel bites) because he had an order going out at 11:15 for 4 large Rivet trays. The oven wasn't up to temp yet and he wasn't even sure if he had enough stock for the order. It was chaos for the first hour but we got it taken care of and he even put in 6 heart shaped pretzels because this order was for a wedding. The bride is a big fan of The Philly Pretzel Factory and wanted a bunch of our branded stuff to have at the reception including a ton of cups and other things.

Photo-A-Day #02746 The fat cat is really missing Eva. He's been sleeping in bed with us and he takes up a ton of room. Regardless, I'm not sleeping as well. I always sleep poorly in the Summer when it is hot. I cannot wait for Fall and warm covers not stifling heat and AC.

Photo-A-Day #02745 It was back to the Pretzel Factory today. They have a new item on the menu. It is their take on a Cinnamon Bun. I had seen a post on social Media about them and it was titled a Cinnabon which is a brand and come to find out the bosses wife put that up and then had to fix it because Cinnabon is a brand. the way they make these is that they take the raw dough, put it in the butter and then the cinnamon and then spiral it out and put it in the walk-in. Then they bake it for the 7 minutes per usual and top it with a dip. I suggested that they show one with dip and one without and let people decide to put a dip on it. when that happened the next person to come in bought one with no dip.

Photo-A-Day #02744 Allison was out tonight so Andy and I went to The Meadows for some frozen Custard and then over to Briggs for Dinner. Yes, we did dessert first. They have some excellent custard there. We got the Oreo cheesecake. We split a special pizza at Briggs and when we came home we watched Spider-Man 2 together. Andy is watching all the Spider-Man movies to prepare for seeing the new Spider-Man movie next week.

Photo-A-Day #02743 Today was National Ice Cream Day and we did not have anything I liked in the house. So, I went over to Seabra and found a pint of Autocrat Coffee Milk and Cookies from Warwick Ice Cream. It was excellent. I spent the day wondering if Eva would have to go to Jury Duty tomorrow. The kid barely turns 18 and is nailed with the civic duty right away. Luckily, she did not have to interrupt her time at her job on the Cape to have to go in for Jury Duty. We were lucky.

Photo-A-Day #02742 Tonight was another Food Truck night at Capron Park. We went over along with Andy's friend Autumn. Autumn is the one giving me the "Who is this crazy guy" side-eye. The meal was a good one. I got the buffalo chicken fries from Friskies. Andy found two places and combined the meal. Autumn got Friskies as well and Allison got a Buffalo Chicken sandwich. Then we walked over and got dessert.

Photo-A-Day #02741 While the rest of the family is away the cats hardly ever come near me. I have no idea why but they simply avoid being anywhere near me. Today when I woke up Torrun was up on the bed peeking at me. She took off when I went to pet her.

Photo-A-Day #02740 Tonight we had a group get together to say goodbye to my supervisor, Ben. Ben is heading to days and as with all things here we celebrate with some food. I decided that I'd be bringing pretzels. I also decided to try out the Too Good Too Go app and get the pretzels that way. I got it as early as possible and did pay the highest price but that is okay I felt kinda weird doing that then just buying an actual item so I bought 3 large dips to make up for that. The Too Good Too Go bag had 15 pretzels as well as a bag of rivets and two bagels. Seemed a little lighter than we normally make it but that was because Tim wasn't there.  People seemed to like the pretzels and I was happy to have some once again after not having any for two weeks. Could also be why I'm back under 200lbs. So, I'm going to have to watch that now that I am back.

Photo-A-Day #02739 Today was my last day on the Cape. I had to get home for a meeting of the Attleboro Community Theater and then I have to work in the office this weekend. Allison and I went for our morning walk and then I took Eva to Science School, came back and got Andy and took them to Science School and then headed home. I made a couple of stops like Somerset Creamery and then home to pick up my comics and prescriptions. I wanted to get a Detroit style pizza from Rehobeth Baking Company for dinner but the wait was 45 minutes. So I said nope and headed to bliss to try one of the smash burgers. It was pretty good. At the board meeting I got my trustee position and that is the Grants trustee. In a month or so I'll have to start writing grants for the theater. I figure it will get me into shape to work on looking for scholarships for Eva, too. Same idea, different implemnetation.

Photo-A-Day #02738 Earlier this year Andy expressed that they may not be as interested in culinary in High School as they had been in the past. Andy has expressed that maybe carpentry might be of interest. Luckily Andy will be going through a multi week trial of all of the CTE programs at the school and will find their fit.  Today Andy and their cousin Dylan helped Grandfather build the frame for a new screen door for the sunporch. They measured the door to the back patio first and then Grandfather taught them how to use the miter saw. That is after teaching them how quickly one can lose a finger. Andy took to using the saw really quickly and was happy to cut all sorts of things. They even cut a few pieces to use to carve up when they get home. Andy is planning on making some horseshoe crabs from those pieces. I really liked seeing Dad and Andy working together and Dad giving Andy instructions. With Andy having some interest in these sorts of things it is good to learn from someone...

Photo-A-Day #02737 Today after Science School we drove to Providence to see Weird Al Yankovic at Providence Performing Arts Center. This was one of the best concerts I have ever attended. Weird Al played so many of our favorite songs and both Andy and Eva were excited. I was seated right next to Andy and they got so excited when "Canadian Idiot" was played and also "White and Nerdy". I was thrilled to see him play "Dar to Be Stupid"  from The Transformers soundtrack. Al also did a couple of medleys of his earlier songs and that was awesome, too. There were a ton of costume changes as well. Below are a few photos from the show. There was no restriction on taking photos or video either. I tried to be very discrete though. Phone brightness the lowest setting and quick shots. No video. We were all very impressed with the show. So much fun! The view from our seats. They were good and we could see everything except for the top of the big screen.  Smells Like Nir...

Photo-A-Day #02736 I worked last night so I was sleeping for the morning. Allison took Andy to Woods Hole for Science School but also to do some shopping. Andy picked up a really nice set of watercolor cards and a gift for their girlfriend. The gift is a sweatshirt that Andy's been wearing ever since they got it. A nice Cape Cod one from Soft As A Grape. 

Photo-A-Day #02735 My dad is the president of the Falmouth Classic Car Club and they do four car shows a year. Today was the second one and we were around for it. Allison and Andy came back from home at eleven and we headed over to the show. We walked around and saw all the cars. Eva brought their new film camera and was taking some great shots of the engines of the cars. The camera has black and white film so Eva was all about different textures. There was one car where a guy had a bucket of hot wheels and one was The Milano spaceship from The Guardians of the Galaxy. I asked Andy to take that one. Andy took it and I suggested that Andy create a Tik Tok about having to take a child's toy for their dad. That cracked me up even though I suggested it. We got our lunch there, too. There was a food truck called Fried Guys that had a couple of Blackstones working and they were making smashburgers and even some fried hash browns and fried oreos. I got a breakfast sandwich and hash browns...

Photo-A-Day #02734 We do a lot of grilling when we are here on The Cape. Tonight we had swordfish and steak tips. I had marinated the steak tips for a day and we did the swordfish with a butter and dill mixture that was brushed on. Then we had many items in foil. We always have many items in foil. The trick is getting the timing down so that those items in foil get cooked well enough as everything on the grill.  I worked in Dad's Office/Andy's room last night because Andy and Allison were home. I have it again tonight but tomorrow I have to move my setup downstairs to the sunporch. I do like working at Dad's roll top desk, though.

Photo-A-Day #02733 To say that we have a lot of milkweed at the Cape house would be an understatement. There is so much that we are an official monarch station. There will be tons of butterflies around the yard as well as many, many bumblebees. And the milkweed continues to spread but it is really helping the pollinators. Allison and Andy headed home today. I am staying here to work from here so that I don't have to go back until next week. When they got home Allison and Andy picked some of the vegetables from our garden including 2 cucumbers and 2 zucchini and 1 bumpy squash.

Photo-A-Day #02732 This morning Allison and I drove up to Mashpee to see if we could find the Cape Cod tumbler at a Dunkin Donuts. We were unsuccessful after visiting 7 of the stores. We did, however, go to Duke's Donut Worx and got some those donuts because Dunkin's donuts just don't cut it. In the afternoon we took Andy to CSS and then went to the farmer's market. There I got a Chicago Dog from Wally's Hot Dog Cart and we also found some fun flannel shirts that had be upcycled with T-shirts sewn onto the backs. I found a Voltron one for me and for Andy we found aU2 one. Andy was not impressed. We also picked up some smoked Salt at the Farmer's Market. This is another thing I want to try on Philly Pretzels.

Photo-A-Day #02731 This is Eva's new camera. Eva is a teaching assistant for the film photography class at CSS. Tara got Eva the new camera and an additional lens. I look forward to seeing the photos that they take this Summer. Today was the art fair on main street in Falmouth. Allison, Eva and I went before Eva's classes. We found some neat things. I got some spicy mustard and a dip that sounded like it would go well on pretzels. Of course I have to wait another week before I have any more. The street fair was nice. We did that, ran the kids back and forth to their classes and had steak tips for dinner. 

Photo-A-Day #02730 I went upstairs to read and promptly fell asleep in the afternoon after brining the kids back and forth to Science School. When I woke up we were having pizza on the sunporch with everyone. After dinner Allison gave Kylie French Braids. She had been wanting them for a while.

Photo-A-Day #02729 Our Lexi is back on the Cape. She had been off Cape for the 4th to avoid all the fireworks. She's back and guarding the sunporch as fiercely as ever. This morning Allison and I took Eva to Woods Hole for classes and then we got Allison's car inspected and had breakfast over at Persey's Place. We had never been before. The food was very good. 

Photo-A-Day #02728 We spent some time at the beach today and this evening we went to main street in Falmouth and had dinner at Anejo. This is an excellent Mexican restaurant and we had a great meal. We watched Norway win their match at The World Cup and the kids are fascinated with Haaland. I think we all are at this point. The guy is a machine and from all signs appears to be a good guy.

Photo-A-Day #02727 My back was okay enough for me to drive to the Cape this morning. It wasn't good enough to really do much of anything other than sit and use the muscle stimulator. We had my cousin Bill and his family over for dinner before the fireworks tonight. I opted to stay on the porch to watch them and did take this one obligatory fireworks photo. Not my best. Allison went to the beach and she was able to get some great shots of Bill's kids by the water as the fireworks went off. I also didn't make it to the parade in Woods Hole to see Eva walk with CSS. Allison did capture a photo of Eva though.

Photo-A-Day #02726 There is a new taco place a few doors down from the Philly Pretzel Factory. I stopped there today before work. I got their birria tacos and they were very good. I also got some chips and queso which was also good. They were also fairly inexpensive. I'll be back. Today at work I was twisting pretzels and going pretty hard at everything. My back has been a mess lately and today it went all the way to being thrown out. It seized up on me to the point where I could not move without intense pain. I finished my shift and then went to my uncle's house and got into his massage chair. It did not work. I went home and was worried that I would not be able to drive to the Cape the next day. It has never been that bad. I think I scared my boss. He gave me a device that gives electrical stimulation to muscles. I used that a bunch and it seemed to help out. 

Photo-A-Day #02725 To celebrate the 3rd anniversary of Skybound's Energon Universe a series of interconnecting covers were commissioned to be done by the artist Tom Reilly. I couldn't get them at my store so I turned to eBay and got them for a great deal. The whole set was $14 plus shipping. Each book is between $5 & $6 so that worked out well in my favor. There is also a black and white variant of these books but I stuck with the color one. The art is really well done.

Photo-A-Day #02724 Our garden is now producing some cucumbers. I've found at least two of them so far mixed in with the squash and zucchini. Not much else going on aroun dhre. Been working 5 hours each day at the Pretzel place. Will have put in 21 hours by the end of the week. That is helpful to earn a bit extra through the Summer.