BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02542 This afternoon and into tonight we went to the Salem Cross Inn for one of their Fireside feasts. This was the last one of the year and a celebration of the New Year.  We arrived and went to the basement of the building where they have this giant fireplace and there is an antique roasting jack, the only one still in use. There are 6 prime ribs roasting in the fire. They had started the roasting around 2pm. This location was the gathering place for everyone before going upstairs to enjoy the feast. There is a bit of theater to have before that. The kids were dressed warmly and nicely for the occasion.  We had to dress warm because we would be on a sleigh ride around the property.  I even pulled out my very heavy sweater for the occasion.  The horses that drew our sleigh were Jerry and Jim. We posed with them after the ride. They gave us either Mulled Cider or Mulled Wine to enjoy. They did the mulling with rods from the fire. It was cool to watch...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02541 Before I get into what I am printing on the 3D printer we are now on day two of passport scramble. At 12:45 we headed over to the post office for our appointment for Eva and Andy's passports. We got there and there was a line so I got in and when I got up to the line and the person ahead of me was done I let them know that I was there for my passport and was told that the people ahead of me had to go next. So why make an appointment? While in line we heard one of the post office people say that the form had to be done in black ink. We did ours in Blue at Triple AAA. We failed to read the top line of the form. So, I get two new forms and I fil out Andy's while Allison filled out Eva's. We get up tot eh line for our turn and it is a new person who immediately looks at the form and says that it is the wrong form. but we just got it there in the post office. The other person who had given me the forms gave me the 2020 forms not the 2025 forms. There are l...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02540 Ever since we learned, yesterday, that Eva and Allison are going on a trip with Mimi I've been scrambling to get things set up for Eva's passport. I know I should have done this the moment the orange tyrant took office but I did not. So now here we are. Triple AAA does the passport photos for free so we went there to get the photos and the applications needed to get the passports. We decided that we might as well get one for Andy, too.  I read everything online I could about what we needed for the applications. Eva has a MA ID so that is all she needed along with birth certificate. Andy would need birth certificate plus my license and Allison;s license. I read that they needed photocopies so I made them of everything. After Triple AAA we went over to the Attleboro post office to do the rest of the steps. While walking in I saw that you needed an appointment for a passport so I made one for later in the day and we went for lunch at Mac and Walt's. Lunc...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02539 Our last day on the Cape. We hung out till around noon and then headed home. Lexie has been huirting a bit, she need surgery on her knee and is having a tough time getting up onto the couch, but she has been managing.  We drove home and got settled back in at home. Caught one more mouse and had a couple of traps tripped. Still hearing a bit of scrabbling in the ceiling and walls so I hope those ones make their way down to the basement and are taken care of soon. The gifts that I had ordered for Erik and Tim arrived. While they were actual products and not a total scam I do feel a bit cheated on them. They were supposed to be in nice boxes and they were supposed to be the charred version of these bourbon drinking cups. They came together in just a single bag. Very disappointing. Eva got a call from Mimi, she's taking Eva and Allison to London over February break. Now we have to scramble to get Eva a passport.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02538 Today we went on our annual family bowling trip to Mashpee Commons. We started doing this last year as an activity rather than sitting around the house all day. I did not take the photo so the photo from the even cannot be today's daily photo. But here is the group photo. Who knows, this may be next year's Christmas card photo but we may get a better one this Summer on the beach or something like that. Bowling was a good time. The kids all bowled together. Tara, Erik, Shelby and Tim had their own lane and Allison, Me, Grandfather and Mem also had our own lane. It was a nice time. Always fun family activity. We were treated to another beautiful sunset tonight. I like this photo of all of us the best but Moms eyes are shut. the think I like is that you can actually see Andy, not just their eyes. But as far as eyes, Kylie has a killer Side-eye going on here.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02537 We're down the Cape for a few days to enjoy time with family and celebrate Christmas. Today my sister Shelby and her family came down. All the kids are getting so big. The boys are now taller than Grandfather and the girls are taller than Mem. The boys are so close in height that they are pretty much equal in that respect. Eva still has an inch or so on Kylie. We enjoyed the day,m exchanged gifts and had a nice time together. Andy and Grandfather finished the puzzle first thing in the morning. We took many photos in front of the tree at the end of the day.  The Cousins Shelby's Family with Mem and Grandfather Shelby's Family Mem, Grandfather, Drew, Tara and Shelby Our Family The kids with Auntie Tara and Uncle Erik Tara and Kylie Tara and Erik Me and Allison I was very excited to give my sister and my dad these dog poop bags. I saw them online and knew I had to get them. They are hilarious. I am also so glad I was not scammed. It was a very nice day...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02536 This morning we woke up and had our family Christmas with cinnamon rolls, presents and opening of stockings. We hung around the house enjoying each other's company and exchanging gifts for a while. The big family gift was to go see Weird Al Yankovic in July. Allison got me tickets to the GenX takeover tour and tickets for she and Eva to see Wicked. It was a nice morning.  I'm sort of in charge of the stockings and I picked up a ton of stuff for everyone else at Aldi this year. Lots of interesting sweets. For myself I found some World's Smallest Transformers, G.I.Joe and He-Man figures. They were cool because they each came with a super tiny version of the original comic books from 1984. I ended up with Issues 2 and 3 of Transformers and Issue #1 of G.I. JOE. I am tempted to see if the Target had any more so I could get issue #1. Today is when Allison and the kids actually saw with the house now looks like after the yard was cleared of a couple of tree...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02535 Today is Christmas Eve. We are all off of school and finishing up last minute things for the holiday. Allison made her chicken soup for dinner and we went to 4pm Mass for the holiday. We got the yearly photo of the kids in front of the nativity scene. After Mass we drove home quickly to get bundled up for a walk around La Salette to see the lights. It was frigid cold out and we had to basically speed walk around the place. No stopping at the Nativity Scene Museum today, Allison had gone earlier in the week with her friend Jenn.  We made one lap and headed home for some hot chicken stew. The big pile of tree trunks from our trees were picked up this morning. A guy came with a truck with a giant grabber arm and he vey efficiently picked through the logs and put them onto his truck. He must have an amazing sense of space because they fit on that truck very well. We all watched. After dinner we watched a movie. We watched many Christmas movies this year. I'm not ...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02534 No, ot Christmas trees. We had two of our trees in our yard taken down today. We went with the company, Out On a Limb and they were excellent. It took a while for them to actually come but when they did they got everything done in the day. I no longer have to worry that someone is going to get crushed by our giant dying tree in the side yard. That sucker is gone and it was so dead inside. I think that this tree needed to come down when we moved in and that was 14 years ago. It took me that long to bite the bullet, get the cash and get it done. We were all watching from the windows as the guys took these trees down and ground most of them up. The pile above will be picked up tomorrow.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02533 I went out shopping today for some Christmas gifts. Some of the ones that I had ordered are not going to make it for Christmas if they even make it to me at all. I am starting to think I got scammed on this purchase. And that sucks because the thing I ordered would be perfect. So instead I was off at the liquor stores for gifts. I came across an interesting beer called Dragon's Milk. So I bought a few. I don't drink often. I drink from time to time.It was pretty good. 

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02532 One of Eva's friends wanted to print out a file on our 3D printer and I hadn't had it up and running for the better part of a year. I had a cover for it that my cousin Shaun printed for me. However, it broke and so I ordered a new one because I finally found an official one from Creality. I also got a few upgrades for the 3D printer that I will install at a later time. I only needed the cover to get started. I'm still kicking myself for not clearly labelling ever screw after I took this thing apart the first time.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02531 There is a Tik Tok creator that I have been following for a while and I am a fan of their work. She cosplays characters from Star Trek and this past couple years I have been enjoying the heck out of the Star Trek franchise on Paramount +. Seraphima cosplays Lt. Ortega the ship's pilot. She also has a service dog named Riker after Commander Riker from Star Trek: The Next Generation. This year at Megacon Jonathan Frakes, the actor that portrays Commander Riker, will be at the event. Seraphima wants to get a photo of her service dog, Riker with Riker. So she has attempted to raise money by selling photos of Riker that were signed by her dog. I bought one and it arrived today. She also included a Christmas card and some Star Trek stickers.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02530 A while back skybound put together a Kickstarter for a Transformers Compendium. This collects the 80 issues from the 80's - 90's. That is the collection of comics I just completed in their original form. The compendium is 4 giant embossed cover books. Then they reprinted 3 key issues from the comic book series. They were issues 2,5 and 67. They even made some tech specs, lenticular images and portraits of characters. I did buy an extra Decepticon sticker because I bought the Autobot version of the compendium and so the sticker for Decepticons only was part of the Decepticon version. There was also an Autobot pin and a challenge coin. It is a beautiful set.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02529 Eva's friend Ollie has a 3D print that they want to get done and asked if they could use our printer. I had not used the printer in a while so I ran some test prints. I then decided to try printing something I had wanted to print for a while and well, the red thing int he picture, that is a 3D printed cover that my cousin Shaun made me when my actual cover broke. That has now broken as well. So, I searched on amazon and see that there are a few upgrade kits I can get for the printer. I'm getting a new cover and a few other things to give the printer the ability to print multiple colors of filament in a single print. I won't be getting the item that you need to do this quite yet. Let's see how much printing I actually do in a while but the ability is there when I decide to go for it. At least it will be when the kits arrive this weekend and I overhaul the printer. Tonight was the talent show and play at Andy's school. andy ran the lights for th...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02528 Tonight at dinner Eva let us know that she had a decision email in her inbox from MassArt and she wanted to open it with us around her!. She was accepted for the 2026-2027 school year! We are very excited and happy for her because this is Eva's first choice for school and she has been eagerly awaiting the decision. Now, her stress is over.  Mine begins. Se did get $1000 a year in an award right off the bat so that is great to hear. Now we just work on the financial aid stuff. And preparing ourselves for her eventual departure from the house. Don't want to think about that yet.