BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #02632 Allison and I took a walk around the neighborhood after dinner tonight. I snapped this photo of the stump from the tree that we had taken down this Fall. Not sure what I'm going to do in that space but we shall see.

Photo-A-Day #02631 The Spring is coming and the first flowers have arrived. I always enjoy seeing these little guys pop up each season. I can't help but photograph them too. I think I have crocus photos from every year and they pretty much are all the same as these guys pop up in the same place each year.

Photo-A-Day #02630 This afternoon we had lunch with Tar and Erik at Morins. We went for the meal and the advice on college funding. We're working on how to fund Eva's first year of college. We're in that "No need" level of college funding and that means taking out plenty of loans. So we are working on how to best do that. So I've got a lot of research to do to get the best rates I can for loans and we are also looking at scholarships. while we were there Erik told us about how much he has fond memories of the Charlie Burger and how he and his grandparents used to split them whenever they went there. They liked the renovations that were made to the place. I told them that they had to see the sign on the side of the building, it really gives the place a great look. Before we went to lunch Mem and Grandfather stopped over to congratulate Eva on her award at the METG Festival.

Photo-A-Day #02629 Tonight we celebrated my sister Tara for her 50th birthday. Erik hosted the event at The Blackinton Inn's carriage house. We had an excellent meal, appetizers and good conversations. Many of Tara's friends came for the party. A few I have not seen in years and it was so nice to see them.  We sat with Mem and Grandfather as well as their friends Heather and Brian Johnson. I spent time chatting with my cousin Matt, Brian, Tim and a few other people. It was full of Tara's good friends that have been friends of hers for so many years. Great to see most of them had come to see and celebrate her. And speaking of Celebrating, we are celebrating a big win for Eva. She won an award for Technical Excellence in Costume Design from the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild tonight. We were watching along with the livestream but couldn't really see much of anything. We did see Eva go up to present an award for Weymouth High School. Later in the video she receive...

Photo-A-Day #02628 Of course, these projects are not actually work related but I am doing them at work. Building a few little LEGO sets, trying to fix the stick drift on a couple of my backup controllers and catching up on my solo D&D game. Between these little projects and watching old episodes of The Greatest American Hero I have things to occupy my time until the Downtime project tonight, you know, actual work.

Photo-A-Day #02627 Eva was up bright and early today for the METG High School Drama Festival. Her theater group from Feehan performed their one act play, "Around the World in 80 Days" tonight. Allison went in to Boston to see the play. She caught up with Tara and Erik as well because they flew in for the weekend. This was the first time that Erik was able to see one of the performances that Eva was involved in. The festival is 3 days in Boston and the kids go back and forth on a bus over the days. Eva is very excited for this experience and we are hoping to hear good things from the group when awards are presented. They have a fantastic show. Tonight I went to see Andy's last band concert for Brennan. Mem and Grandfather came up from the Cape and went with us. They also took us to dinner at House of Fortune where they could congratulate Jason and Stephanie on their upcoming retirement. The meal, as always was delicious. Andy and I had plenty to take home and enjoy tomorro...

Photo-A-Day #02626 I have been enjoying the warmer weather lately. Today I went and picked up my comic books from The Laughing Shield Comic Book Store. Today I picked up the latest Thundercats book and also Void Rivals. Thundercats has been really fun to read and the next couple months will be even better since they will be crossing over with the Silverhawks, another 80's cartoon. It makes a lot of sense because these two cartoon series featured many of the same voice actors. Void Rivals is part of the Energon universe and so there is crossover between the characters in this and those in Transformers and G.I. JOE. Soon we will be getting M.A.S.K. added to the mix so that is exciting for me. Another cartoon and toy brand that I really enjoyed as a kid.