BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #02574 Was a very quiet day for me as I slept all day long. I needed that. So I didn't get many places or get out for a photo. I was putting out the trash and I noticed a bunch of bunny prints. I see the bunny int he backyard all the time but I have no idea where it lives most of the time. Seems to be doing just fine int he snow, though.

Photo-A-Day #02573 I've been playing a solo D&D RPG this year with a daily calendar. I learned about this Transformers deck building card game and I picked it up. It has a solo mode and a multiplayer mode as well. There are many expansion packs. I'll see how the game is before I look into expanding.  Speaking of Transformers I finished reading my first box of comics today. I finished with Regeneration One Issue #100. I'll go put that box back on the rack and bring up Box #2 tomorrow. More Transformers. I think I have 6 or 7 that are just Transformers  related. The kids finished watching The Lord of the Rings tonight. I came down when they were making popcorn and about to start disc #2. I could hear them from downstairs and they both exclaimed "2 Hours!" These were long movies.

Photo-A-Day #02572 The other day when we had a snow day and spent the evening watching The Lord of The Rings Eva and Andy really enjoyed the movie and wanted to continue watching the rest of the movies in the trilogy. Allison was out for the night and the kids decided to have a movie night, just the two of them. they watched The Two Towers, the second movie in the trilogy and plan to watch the third movie tomorrow night. It was really nice to see the two of them enjoying each other's company and a movie together. This afternoon we had a Zoom birthday party for Mem. She and Grandfather are down in Florida and Tara set up the Zoom so we could all get together to wish her a happy birthday.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02571 Today I came out to see that the hood of my car had  several prominent scratches on it. The snow had finally melted off enough to notice it. My first thought was that when the kids were clearing off the car that they used a shovel and that is where the scratches came from. But, Allison was out with them and said that they only used the foam snow remover. Then I thought that someone plowing backed into the hood of my car. I also thought that maybe something happened while I was out parked somewhere but I hadn't gone anywhere. It was driving me crazy. When I picked Andy up from clubs today I asked if they had used a shovel to clear the snow away. They had not used a shovel. I explained that there were several scratches and a bit of a dent on the hood of the car. I mentioned that I couldn't figure out what did it and wondered if a plow backed into it. Well, it wasn't a plow. Andy had been walking on the snow in my old snowshoes and must not have realized...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02570 I've been making great progress in rereading my comics and also reading some I've collected and yet never read before. One series I had never read was Regeneration One which continued the original Transformers run of comics from the 80's some 20 years later. But, since I had never actually read the whole original run I didn't want to read these until I had completed that. So, now I am there and ready to read these books.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #025689 With a major snow day yesterday and a second snow day for Andy today plus a 2 hour delay for both Allison and Eva we had more time at home. Yesterday Andy made some chocolate/coconut cookies and Eva made chocolate chip cookies. Today Andy made everything but the kitchen sink cookies with M&Ms, pretzels and potato chips. Needless to say It has been a challenge to stick to the Virta diet that I am on. I had a few of these cookies. Each was good but my favorite are the coconut ones. Andy did a great job on them. Although next time we figure that they leave out the chocolate chips and dip the cookies into melted chocolate instead. I continue to work on reading my comic book collection.Today I completed the 12 issue series of Transformers Generation 2. Good story, not the best but I was so excited in 1993 when Transformers came back to comic books. I don't think I'll ever tire of reading these stories.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02568 Today we enjoyed a snow day. We got a about 15 inches of snow overnight and through the day. I finished work and slept for a couple of hours and when I got hup Andy, Allison and Eva had all gone out to shovel to the driveway and try to get over to Joanie's driveway to shovel her out. Luckily her other neighbor had already gone ahead and shoveled her out. I got up around 10:30 and went out and did the snowblower on the sidewalks and our driveway and back patio.  After the snow we had lunch and then played Andy's new board game. It is called Hues and Cues. The point is to describe a color in one or two words and that allows the players to guess which color you are trying to describe. Then players can score points by guessing the correct color or by being close. Andy is great at being able to put color hues together but they did not end up winning the game. That went to me. After the game we decided to watch a movie. At first we were going to watch Spaceball...

 Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02567 Eva and Andy were helping me shovel today and as we did a perfect snowflake landed on Eva's sweater. You can see it by her finger. It looked better moments before I photographed it, however, it does still look like a snowflake that one would picture when thinking of a snowflake.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02566 MExican chocolate is one of my favorites. I love mixing spices with chocolate so much. When I learned about Roasty Buds online I picked up a couple of bags of their Mexican chocolate and we made cold brew from it. That was over the Summer. But now it is the Winter and it is cold, very cold and I'm having hot coffee. Luckily roasty Buds makes K-cups and I can make myself cups of this tasty blend to enjoy.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02565 I do love a LEGO food truck. they are so fun. I love the look of each of them and have a few. This one will go perfectly with the Hamburger food truck. They also have a Toy truck that is out but I haven't found it yet. I'm sure that there are also some retired food trucks as well. They are very fun to make.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02564 I purchased these 8 comic books from 616 comics. They are special covered done by two different artists. The ones on the left are by Tiago Da Silva. I have all of his other Transformers split view comics where one side is of a pristine robot and the other is battle scarred. I did not know that he had done Soundwave and Jazz until recently. So when I got some Christmas money I decided to get these comics. The ones on the right side are by Bjorn Barends. They depict Optimus Prime facing off against Megatron. The Megatron one is the perfect comic book for him because in it Megatron returns in a huge way.  I recently reread and read for the first time all 80 comics from the original Transformers comic book run from Marvel. I never had all of them until last year. Now I have them and also a compendium of all of them plus the UK versions of the comic and some short stories and more. There is a lot in the compendium. I've been trying to reread my entire Transformers...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02563 Today I received a new Transformers figure called Road Rage. He is an Autobot that is the same style as Tracks. Tracks is the blue Corvette and that was the original one that I've had since the 80's. Road rage is a great looking figure, too. It arrived in robot mode and I was able to transform it down to a car so that he could slip in with the rest of the Autobot cars.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02562 We had rehearsal tonight and I had brought gifts for everyone but I have yet to give them out. I ordered these cute little stone wolves to give to everyone. I thought that tonight would be a good night to give them out but I think I'll pass them out on opening night.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02561 Today was the first snow of the year. We got enough to have to shovel but not enough to pull out the snowblower. I ended up going out during my break and shoveling off the snow from our neighbor and then I had Andy shovel the rest around our house. Then got some sleep.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02560 With a day off tomorrow andy has been preparing for a D&D session with friends. One thing that andy has done to prepare is to create several Wanted posters for the campaign. Andy had purchased some special paper for one of their new hobbies, Wax seals. Andy has been using the papers for letters but tonight they made some cool wanted posters. Andy found some files of characters to point and on the distressed papers and then used paint to mark up the posters and add Wanted to the top of each one. I thought that was pretty slick.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02559 A while back I bought some different off brand LEGO like sets from TEMU. This three headed dragon was in a blind box and I had no clue that I had ordered it because it was a while ago. So it was fun to see this and build it tonight. Took me several hours but since we had nothing going on at work tonight I had the time. Thi was where I was at 11:58pm.  Finished Dragon

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02558 I popped in on Eva before heading to work tonight and she was working on her costume for tomorrow's Steampunk Festival. She's volunteering at the event and has put together a rather cool outfit. She needed my steampunk goggles to finish it off so I grabbed them for her. I hope it is a super fun day tomorrow.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02557 LEGO has release two Back To The Future Delorean sets. This one above is the latest set and it is at a much better price point. I picked it up and also made sure to grad the light kit from Briksmax so that I could have it lit up for display. I'm trying to figure out a rig to display it on the wall in the over mode and also keep the battery pack attached to the bottom. The battery pack is huge so hiding it will be interesting.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02556 Today was a good comic book day because I had two of my favorites ready to pick up. The ongoing G.I. JOE and Transformers comics were great. I also get G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero which continues the story from the 80's, it is good but not my favorite. The great thing about the other two was some major reveals. Both had jaw dropping final panels. I did not see one of the twists coming at all and the other was insane. I'm loving these series and I also continue my reread of the Classic Transformers comics including many of the UK ones I have never read before.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02555 Heading downstairs and Torrun was looking photo ready. Had to take a few because she just kept turning away. She is not that cooperative for photos.