BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #02647 Work this week for The Pretzel Factory has been interesting. Last week I worked mornings so I twisted pretzels and cleaned the stringer. This week I did clean the stringer once but doing a closing shift. This means cleaning the whole place at the end of the shift. I'm starting to get everything down. I've learned that there are two ways of doing things. This place is run by a husband and wife. The husband does things a specific way that is more loosey goosey and the wife wants things a very particular way. Since I'm being trained mostly by the husband I find myself being re-trained by the wife.  I'm fine with either way, whatever way they want it done is the way I'm going to do it. So, with that being said I'm making sure to do things the wife's way since if I do it her way I'll get no complaints. I know that much is true.  I photo graphed my work shirt and pants since I only have two work shirts and I work 3 days in a row. This means ...

Photo-A-Day #02646 Had a regular day at work with my new schedule. I'm doing 1:30-6:30pm Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. that means closing up and that means taking pretzels home. I can't be eating these and there are only so many that the family can eat. Allison took two bags to school and I tossed the rivets into the compost. Eva took a few for her friends as well.  Today at the end of work we had a bunch of stuff that had been baked and Tim, my boss, had me take a bunch home. I was planning on having one of the pepperoni pretzel items, it was baked almost right before we left for the night. I had it in the bag of all the big pretzels. On the way to the car I saw a UPS driver eyeing me and my big bags of pretzels. I asked him if he wanted one. I said, take whatever you'd like and he saw the pepperoni and grabbed that. I had not specified that I had wanted that but it is probably for the best since that has a lot of carbs. He was very grateful and happy so that is good.

  Photo-A-Day #02638 Today I started a part time job at the Philly Pretzel Factory. They just opened up a week ago and I went in then and talked with the owner and asked about them needing help. He did and I waited a while and didn't hear so I went back and talked with his wife and filled out an application. I got a call to come in the next day and I did and the owner gave me my hat and shirt and said I could come in the next day, Friday which was their grand opening. I did say, are you sure you want to be training me during a grand opening? So he rethought that and had me come in today. I worked from 7am to 3pm. I learned how to prep the place, twist up pretzels the factory way, baked many pretzels, got trained a bit on the register and even helped the owner change out the wax seal on the bathroom toilet. He needed someone to help lift it. It was a good day and I am back tomorrow and Wednesday. Next week I'll be working afternoons into closing.

Photo-A-Day #02634 Yesterday I went by the Philly Pretzel Factory and filled out an application. I had been in there a week ago and gave the owner my name and number but wanted to follow up. He called me and asked me to come in this morning to chat and he hired me to work part time. I'm going to have to use a lot of self control not to eat pretzels on every shift. I start training on Monday.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02290 Today after work I took a quick nap and then we headed to Cape Cod for the Easter weekend. Allison drove and I stayed awake. When we got there we had some lunch and took a quick walk around the neighborhood. I took another nap before work and then we enjoyed some Paul’s pizza for dinner. After dinner I got set up for work on the sunporch for the night ahead. Andy was excited to play our new game One Hit Heroes. So Andy, Allison and Eva gave the game a shot. I have not looked at anything with the game yet so I am not sure what was happening but I’ll give the instructions a look over tonight so that we can play tomorrow.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02213 Not. There is no reason to be in this almost entirely empty building. I was here early, too because I needed to get a walk in. I’ve been real good about getting 10,000 steps a day and with the way the weather has been and how cold it has been I’ve walked inside. Mostly I walk at the mall but on the weekends I get out and walk around a 98% empty building. Another reason that we should not be here. It makes no sense to keep the building open for less than 10 people.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02062 So, I now have a Titan key. This allows m to do more at work, more work. Also, with my group we are down another person and that means, more work for me. So, for the time being I’ll be very busy at work. And then tonight it was me and one other person until they told me they were leaving at 11pm. So then it was just me all the rest of the night. More Work. Which is great because I just got a salary increase worth pennies. Woo Hoo!

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02047 But forced to Work. I got a new shirt a few weeks ago and it has become my work at the office shirt. It is no secret that I dislike having to go to the office to do something that I can 100% do at home. I had been wearing another shirt every time I came to the office and even wore it two days in a row simply to see if anyone would noticed. But when you are in the office with maybe 4 other people not much gets said. The building is completely empty except for my group of 4 people on the second floor and about 6 people on the 4th floor with my cousin Shaun. We’re losing one of the people in our group and I have been trying to convince Shaun to come to my group. But he is not. He should, but is not. You might notice that I haven’t shaved in a while. I’m trying to grow out the beard and hair a bit for the Granite State Comicon. I’m doing two costumes this time, one with Eva and one on my own. The one on my own is a guy from the TV show Supernatural. He wears a hat, h...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01648 We’ve been down the Cape for the past week. I decided that I would work from here this weekend to see how it would be. I’ve been working from home for a few years now and haven’t done work from the Cape before because I had to be on the phone with people and I did not want to disturb anyone in the house. Now that I don’t take phone calls I don’t have to worry about my voice carrying and keeping anyone up. So, I am working here on the sunporch at The Cape. The sunporch is also a big gathering spot for the whole family. So, after dinner while I set up for work Dad and Andy and Tara and Erik and Mom hung out here. They were playing Rummy while I was working. Later on we were joined by cousin Dylan and Auntie Shelby. I had to explain what I do for work. Of course, I don’t have to do a ton of work overnight so I have a few things to keep me awake and entertained. I do love that whenever I am actually typing I’m asked if I am working.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01417 This wall art is a bit different than what I have on my walls but I am not in my own office. I’m in the office at work tonight. I am lucky that I only have to do this once a month. It makes me realize how much I miss my home setup for working. Having everything right where I need it is very important. When I go to the office I have to move a bunch of stuff around to get a working area for myself. I no longer have a desk to go to and as a group I go to a different building from where I used to have a desk. So, I sit at someone else’s desk and use my laptop and their monitor. I think the only useful thing is the second monitor but that’s about it.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01369 I was working with my boss tonight when my computer suddenly crashed out completely. I thought that I was going to have to go to the office this week and get a new one. But, luckily it came back up to work once again. I have no idea how or why but it did. No early night for me. I’ve been getting better and better all week but still having some difficulty with any exertion. Still having coughing fits after things like laughing or exertion. Just hoping that everyone feels better soon. Andy has been coughing and sick for the better part of two weeks. He’s been negative for COVID with every test, too. But, today he was sluggish and had a low grade fever tonight. He’s going to stay out of school tomorrow. Let’s hope that he feels better in the morning.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01272 Every couple of weeks I need to head to the office to work there instead of being home. I wasn’t a fan of this at first, but I’ve only had to go in twice in June so that has been nice. Now with the weather outside being nicer I look forward to the view I get from the windows of the office building. I don’t get a chance to go for a walk but at least I can enjoy the view. Had my annual review tonight. First one in a very long time that has me excited for work. I have been enjoying the new position and who knows, I may even get a raise this year. We’ll see.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01244 I am in the office tonight. I’m at our Fall River Facility because that is where my new group goes. I like the building very much because it has a fantastic view and is much nice than our Lowderbrook facility. However, there is no real great way to get here. Luckily, I have to only go in a couple of times a month. So it isn’t a huge sacrifice. I’m also working an modified time tonight so that I an cover for an hour tomorrow morning because of the holiday.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01181 I’m back in the office this Sunday. I was supposed to be in the office last night but because Andy was sick I stayed home. I didn’t have much going on today so when I got in to work I had not yet taken my daily photo. I took a walk around the building and found the desk that has more toys and I’ve had on mine. This guy has a giant Unicron figure on it and it made me think of one of the characters in the audio book series that I’ve been listening to. The character is a dwarf that wears a horn helmet but his helmet has one broken horn. Just made me think of him is all. I have this figure, too but it is boxed up in the attic.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01158 For the past few weeks work has been providing us with sandwiches and salads. That has been nice. It would have been nicer to have them provide us with some decent headphones. I picked up a new set so that I could use them with the laptop and with my cell phone. These are wireless and they even work wirelessly with the Nintendo Switch. I should be able to have some decent headphones on while I run the switchboard in the office. I have yet to find the “perfect” solution for all the communication needs, though. Still trying to figure that out.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00929 Well, I’m back in the office. My desk is exactly as I left it over a year ago. I think I have cleared everything off my desk once or twice and put everything in boxes. Then I end up getting more things to collect. Some are given to me and some I get myself. I work with Playmates toys often so there are plenty of TMNT toys in my collection. Then another company sent me tons of little Fortnite characters. Also got some of my LEGO Marvel mech suits have ended up here, too.

Photo-A-Day #685 Today I flew down to Pittsburgh for a demo tomorrow. My flight was very easy and uneventful. I listened to the official Lost podcasts that I had on my iPod and read more of Skin Tight by Carl Hiaasen. The demo tomorrow will be all day and there are about 13 of us here. Some folks are having very bad travel today. One had to take a bus from Indianapolis to Chicago O’Hare and she ended up missing her connection flight and is still at O’Hare. But I don’t think anyone had a worse day than these Costa Rican Thugs. This story from Gadling is about a really bad day for Costa Rican Thugs. Tonight as a group we went to a place called Linguini’s for dinner. It was a pretty decent place. I had a swordfish steak, it was okay, nothing too special. The ambiance of the restaurant was very nice. They had the brick oven for the pizza and in the middle of the floor was a fountain. Drew and Ryan volunteered to by photo of the day. Can you say Abercrombie and Fitch? These guys were good s...

Photo-A-Day #678 Today I worked from home and I was using my laptop on the old desk for part of the day. It was very cold yesterday and our front room gets plenty of sun so it is very warm. I moved there for the afternoon. Oliver decided that he wanted to be some place near me so he hung out in one of the cubbies and watched me as I worked. I sometimes wonder what these cats think about the things that Allison and I do each day. Anyway, I know I have had a lot of Cat pictures lately but with cats as cute as ours it is hard to resist. Yesterday I also completed capturing the video from our wedding. I used Microsoft Movie maker to take the video off the camera and then save it into 10, 15 minute files. I will then take the files, and work my magic with Adobe Premiere, adding sound, removing sound, adding images, removing some of the images and then burning it all to DVD. We are hoping I finish this sometime before the second anniversary. My grandmother taped the wedding from the altar an...

Photo-A-Day #672 I arrived home from St. Louis today. I have to say that the beds at the Marriott by the airport are so comfortable. There are a bunch of fluffy pillows that I basically place all around myself to lock myself into the bed. The bed itself is very comfortable too. This room has some very nice features. The alarm clock could wake you up with ocean sounds or put you to sleep with ocean sounds. I wasn’t too sure about waking up to the ocean. I didn’t think that it would do the trick for me. I got my customary wake up call, set the alarm and now I set the iPod alarm as well. So there was no way I was going to oversleep and miss a flight. You just don’t want to start your day in that fashion. The flights were very uneventful. I shouldn’t do first class that often because I have come to really enjoy the room. It was a sad reality sitting in the back of the plane getting my knees jammed and having the person in front of me reclining their seat practically in my lap. Yep that was...

Photo-A-Day #671 Today I was in Springfield, IL in the morning and then we drove to Clinton, IL in the afternoon. I demonstrated for less than an hour and then we began our 3 hour journey back to St. Louis, MO. On the drive back we stopped at this Route 66 roadside antique store that had some giant statues. One is of a pink elephant and the other is of a giant boy who looks like he should be holding a bottle or something. I like getting a chance to see different interesting things on the road and the giant statues were pretty interesting. We made it back to the hotel by the airport and checked in. I then went and dropped off the car at the rental return and caught up with Mike at the concierge lounge. We went to the hotel Restaurant for dinner and had a delicious Lobster Macaroni and Cheese and some Gooey Butter Shortcake for dessert. Very tasty. It’ll be an early night tonight as I have a 6:10am flight. I have the best room tonight. There is a 37″ flat screen TV and I can connect my...