New Year’s Recap | BenSpark Family Adventures

It is the year 2005… (I looked for that voiceover from the Transformers movie but couldn’t find it.) But despite that 2005 is here. Allison and I had some major incident already occur on the first day of the year. Our cat Duncan had a seizure this morning. And I know that pets are not children but they are dependent upon you for their survival and care so when something occurs that you cannot control it is incredibly traumatic. This morning we experienced that event. I was on the computer playing Runescape when I heard what sounded like one of the cats getting sick (regular occurrence, cats puke, it happens and it is over quick) then I heard the panicked voice of Allison calling for Duncan. I ran into the other room to find Duncan spasming on the floor, eyes wide and mouth open. We each immediately thought the same thing, his collar is stuck in his mouth again. (This happened once before and was also traumatic to watch) however when Allison grabbed for him to check if that was the case she was bitten – hard. That is when we noticed that there was no obstruction and Duncan continued to convulse. I called 911 to ask for Animal C. I got a call back from the police with a number for an emergency clinic for animals. I called that number and got the beeper number of the doctor on call. I called that number and we waited. The seizure lasted for what seemed hours but was really 2-3 minutes of time. The vet called me back and explained that it is actually a fairly common occurrence. But if it happens again to get him in for observation. So we were both pretty jazzed up with adrenaline that we tore apart the living room and cleaned it up with the intent of doing the rest of the house, but we both crashed pretty hard after the living room.

But this post is supposed to be about the New Years Eve recap. So yesterday was New Year’s Eve. And we were heading to Derek and Michelle’s house for the evening. But before we went over I had some chicken wings to make. I was going to try an experimental recipe with brown sugar and spices and cornmeal. So after work I went to Stop & Shop to get some brown sugar and cornmeal. I got home and made some Poor Man’s Truffles and began to prepare the coating for the wings. I opened the cornmeal box and I saw movement in the box. Some mealworms had been in the box and had matured into giant inch and a half long freaking bugs that could fly. I shouted and closed the box lid. Ran into he other room and grabbed a plastic bag. The itchies set upon me the moment I saw the bugs. I couldn’t stop the itchies all night and ended up showering again when I got home at 1:30 am. So it goes without saying that the cornmeal was returned to Stop & Shop before we went to Derek and Michelle’s.

I shook off my revulsion at the cornmeal and created four different types of wings. I over spiced them in my excitement to create something new. One set of wings only had Old Bay Seasoning, another set had brown sugar and Montreal Chicken Seasoning, the next had Old Bay and Brown Sugar, and the last one had Parsley, Brown Sugar, Mortons Hot Salt and Garlic Salt. The Old Bay and Brown sugar batch was the best. I think if I do it again I will only make them when I am home so I can broil them and get them nice and crispy and hot and I’ll add the seasonings after they are baked. And I’ll go easy on the seasonings.

So after the wings and Poor Man’s Truffles were complete we stopped by Stop & Shop where I discreetly got my money back from the cornmeal. And then we got to Derek and Michelle’s. Mike and Anna and Matt and Beth and Derek and Michelle were already there. Michelle made the Pampered Chef taco ring and Derek made his hot enough to kill cheese sauce. The chicken wings were added to the feast and so was the apple pie that Allison had made yesterday afternoon and the Poor Man’s Truffles were added to the mix. Neil and Andrea had not yet arrived but got there before the ball dropped. We ate and joked and had a good time and then the guys watched the DVD of Derek’s birthday party and the girls chatted in the kitchen. Mike did a great job on the DVD and it was very funny. After the DVD we played a game called Shout about Movies. It was a DVD game that is for two teams. There were 8 rounds of trivia about movies. It was a lot of fun to play and the Red Team won. The Red Team was Derek, Me, Allison, Neil and Andrea. The Blue Team was Michelle, Mike, Matt and Beth. Anna had already left for work. With the game over there was 8 minutes to midnight and we celebrated with champagne and toasting. Again another great evening with our friends. Pictures are below.

Happy New Year!