BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #02639 Today after work I made some Birria meat in the Instant Pot. I had ordered a couple of Birria Bombs to add to a roast and some short ribs. Then into the pot at high pressure for a few hours. When it was done we had a delicious dinner. It was so good that I ate it and forgot to get any photos whatsoever. I didn't get the preparation quite right but it ended up tasting great. Today was my second day at the Pretzel Factory. I wasn't there as long as the first day but did plenty of work. When I got in it was oven stone cleaning day. Each week the stones are taken out of the oven and scraped clean of excess salt and char. It was actually pretty satisfying to scrap away the layers with a putty knife. Each stone is $600. That blew my mind. Also, I wish my boss had not told me as I was holding one.

  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 #02637 We spent our Easter on Cape Cod with Mem and Grandfather. I finished work today at 7am and went right to bed thinking that I would wake up around 11 like I normally do but I slept until everyone got back from church. I heard the alarm on the door go off and that woke me. I was so zonked out that once my head hit the pillow I was out plus it is The Cape so the air makes me sleep all the longer. When I woke up we hung out a bit and then had a very tasty Easter lunch with the ham that I got from work. That is our Christmas gift from the company. I've gotten many things like that over the years for Christmas and this year decided on ham because we never need the turkey after Christmas and I'd rather not have it take up space in the freezer for a long time. This way we get a really good ham for our Easter and the freezer gets some space. Later in the afternoon my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Wayne came by to visit. We enjoyed visiting with them and then we headed home in ...

Photo-A-Day #02636 We are on the Cape for the Easter holiday. We got down and had lunch then I took a nap before work. Got up and we had pizza from Paul's for dinner. Andy had everyone watching Atlantis: The Lost Empire after dinner. Andy has been watching lots of old Disney animated movies. I like that Andy has been exploring these old movies. After dinner I set up for work. When I am anywhere but home I have to set up a ton of stuff including an additional screen. I completely overtook the sun porch table. I have it all down to a science. My parent's got a new router and that has caused a few things to stop working. Mainly the Sonos speaker. I figured that out and got that working again so now they can play whatever music they like from Spotify. Then there was the general updates for my dad's computer and also trying to figure out why Quicken accounts were looking all sorts of strange with charges showing as credits and vice versa. I think I got that figured as well.

Photo-A-Day #02635 I've had this LEGO set with me at work for a few months and tonight I built it. I don't think I've ever been so disappointed in a LEGO set before. You can see in the photo that the roof of the car does not line up well. I tried for a very long time to get everything in place but it just is a wonky build. I've done so many other LEGO car builds and this is by far the worst one. I really thought i was going to be good but in the end the very last bits did not fit together well or even securely. It was very frustrating.

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.