BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #02617 Tonight Allison and I prepared the gifts that the cast is giving to the people who worked on the Winter Wolf. the four adults on the cast are pitching in about $30 each for some gift cards but that didn't seem like enough. I remembered that I had collected some specialty Wolf themed ornaments well over 25 years ago. They haven't see the light of day in about that time. So I figured, why not make these gifts for the people who helped with the show. A fingle Wolf themed ornament on the tree isn't overkill. It is nice and a great remembrance of this show since the show takes place at Christmas. I even put a few of these ornaments on the tree that is on the set. I also put a few more of my wolf touches around the set and the theater. I had also ordered some little stone wolf figurines to give to everyone involved int eh production and decided to add them to the gift bags as well. Andy made special wax seals for the gift bags and they are of a wolf. I did go a...

Photo-A-Day #02616 Today was the sixth performance of The Winter Wolf and I have to say it was probably my best one so far. I didn't mess up a single line (too badly). I did not freeze and forget a line either. Before each show I listen and speak my lines based on the read through that we did. I took the read through and cut it down to just my lines and the lines before mine so that I could practice. I listen to and use that almost every day. Before each performance I put my headphones in and go off somewhere (usually behind the stage) and practice them to make sure that they are fresh in my head before each show.  Today my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Wayne came to see the show. Allison came again to see it and so did my sister Shelby and my niece Kylie. Emma who plays Cora is near Kylie's aga, a little older but she teases me very much like my own niece. I tell her that.  After the performance we went to House of Fortune for an early dinner. Thank you to my Aunt and Uncle for a grea...

Photo-A-Day #02615 Tonight was the 5th night of The Winter Wolf. For the most part the show went off without a hitch. that is until my last two lines. I completely blanked out even though I've had those two lines down pat for a very long time. They are two rather important lines and I simply blanked. Luckily my partner on stage, Stephanie covered for that flub and got us through it. I am really kicking myself because we had a near perfect show. My good friend, Frank, came to see the show. Frank and I went to college together and each time we reconnect, which has been around these plays for a while now, we have great conversations. It is really good to be able to talk with someone who really gets where you are at. After the show we went over to Morin's for a late dinner. I still had to work that night so I needed to eat something. When I got home Eva came and found me. Her theater group has made it to the next stage of the competition and they are going to Boston for the finals....

Photo-A-Day #02614 I've been playing the game Styx: Master of Shadows. It is the second game in a series around the goblin named Styx. You basically sneak around giant areas and steal stuff, avoid or eliminate guards. There are four games in the series and I have 3 out of the four to play. I'm getting close to the end of this first game and I've played the second game before but didn't get far enough through it. So this time I'm doing going to try it again.

Photo-A-Day #02613 Tonight I went to see the Bishop Feehan High School performance of the one act play Around The World in 80 Days. Eva worked on the costumes for this play and she even won in the preliminary round of the competition. She and the cast head to Semi-Finals on Saturday and I sure hope that they win. The show was excellent. Really well done. Very enjoyable and the costumes were excellent. I ran into a former classmate who is now a teacher at the school and his son is in the cast. Keeping the Feehan traditions alive.

Photo-A-Day #02612 The snow has been melting off pretty good lately. Allison and I have been taking a walk around the block after dinner each night. We're noticing the snow melting. In our yard there is a bit of a snow tunnel happening. It melted almost immediately after reaching this state but it looked cool while it was like this.

Photo-A-Day #02611 The family is excited because we can use the grill again. It is finally clear of all the snow in the backyard. Makes things easier for preparing dinners.

Photo-A-Day #02610 With the snow finally starting to melt the yard is covered with small branches from the tree being trimmed in the Fall. I've picked up a bunch so far and am using them int he raised beed to build up the base again. It is almost time to go and get some more soil and compost.

Photo-A-Day #02609 Today was the last performance of The Winter Wolf for the first weekend. What a fun weekend. This has been a very enjoyable show and I'm having fun. There have been a couple of hiccups including today. There was a moment when my onstage wife repeated a line. I got a bit flustered and we recovered but we'll avoid that in the future.

Photo-A-Day #02608 After last night's play I had to work. That is usually how I do things when I have a play, I will take 4 hours off on Fridays and Saturdays and all of Sunday off. We had a Windows PAtching Event this morning and there was something that my cousin, shaun said or tried to do and it did not work out. I had said how to do it and I just keep this photo for when someone does not do the thing I suggested the first time.

Photo-A-Day #02607 Tonight was opening night of The Winter Wolf. It went very well. The wolf head here is named Leiko and he is Doug's. Doug wanted to put it in the play at some point but it didn't work out. so Leiko is in the green room on top of an LED light so that he shines his bright eyes.  Allison and the kids came to see the show. They had a good time.

Photo-A-Day #02606 A while back I found some cute little stone wolves on Tik Tok. I picked up two sets of them to give as gifts to my fellow cast members and people who worked with the show The Winter Wolf. I can't decide if I give them to people tonight or at the end of the show's run. Mine has been sitting on my desk since close to when I got the script. We had a day off from the show today.

Photo-A-Day #02605 When Allison and Eva returned from London Eva had brought back some itty Pops of Transformers for me. However the mystery figure in this set was a Lite Brite and not Soundwave of The Transformers. There were other Mystery sets and I found a low priced G.I.JOE set. I figured that I would give it a shot and maybe get Soundwave. No, I actually got the real G.I.JOE mystery figure, Dr. Mindbender. So now I have a whole set of G.I.JOE but I am still missing the bitty Soundwave figure. I have a feeling that this is going to rabbit hole very soon. In other news tonight we had our first dress rehearsal in front of people. A handful of The Masons came down and watched the show. This is our last rehearsal before opening night on Friday. I had most of my lines down so I'm feeling pretty good on it.

Photo-A-Day #02604 The professional headshots are in and the board is up for the lobby of the Attleboro Community Theater. I've got a rather shiny head because I had just shaved it and also my smile is looking a little psycho because I can't hold a real smile for that long and then it starts to look too intense. One extreme or another I guess.  Tonight we had another run through but not in full costume. We did well tonight. Our director was very pleased. Our main actor, Emma, did so well. She's only 13 and she is carrying the show. A lot of pressure for a young kid. I asked Andy to make me some Christmas cookies for one of my scenes. They did a great job on them and even made Ninja Bread Men, which I think Emma will love because she takes karate at ABD. I learned that my former Sensei is coming to see a show.  Emma, who is a little smart-ass, said, "He's not coming to see you, you quit." I'm actually glad that she is feeling comfortable enough to tease me,...

Photo-A-Day #02603 I don't know why I look so annoyed or mad in this photo. I shouldn't be, things with the play are going well. We had our first full on run through yesterday and tonight we had a full dress of the show. It went very well. I mixed up a couple of things but overall it was good. I'm at 98% of having all of my lines ready to go. There area  couple that I either am not getting the exact wording for or I am mixing up when I say them. Just a couple but I keep working on it. We also had professional photos taken tonight. So that was a little nerve wracking since the photographer was taking photos all throughout the play. It sort of threw me off in one bit of it but wasn't too terrible. His photos are always great.

Photo-A-Day #02602 Andy has been getting into making Wax seals. They have learned how to use multiple colors to make very special seals. So I picked up a wax seal of a wolf and I asked Andy to make them with a metallic blue and white. They are for the people who are part of The Winter Wolf. Andy did an excellent job on them. Today we had the start of Tech Week for The Winter Wolf. We started with doing the technical queue run and at the intermission point lunch arrived so we ate lunch and then did the tech and queue run of the second act. Overall things went well. Once our tech runthrough was done we did it again with all the tech queues. We made some mistakes but overall I think it was going well. Tomorrow night we do the run through in full costume with a photographer. Then we do two more days of run throughs with Wednesday the performance for The Masons.

Photo-A-Day #02601 The day started poorly but ended up excellent. This morning I got off work and went to bed. I passed out with my phone in my hand and awoke an hour later. The house stunk. I knew what had happened. The shit pipe int he basement had overflowed once again. Luckily it wasn't a lot. It was more than enough to put a stink throughout the house. I had to run to Lowe's to pick up some heavy duty main line drain clearer and also get some baking soda at Walmart. So I did not get to sleep until well after 12. I then slept for 2 and a half hours and got up because I now have to find a solution to this problem. A long term solution. Allison and Andy were at the METG (Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild) HS Festival 2026 Preliminary Round of one act plays. Eva's school was performing Around the World in 80 Days. She made many of the costumes and she and her team won for Best Costume Design. They now continue on to the Semi-Finals in two weeks. I can't see the s...

Photo-A-Day #02600 The ice cream that I made on Wednesday.  I picked up our ice cream yesterday and well, I ate my ice cream before I took a picture yesterday. Today I have a nice photo. A soft lavender color to the ice cream because of the black raspberry and cherry juice. It also contains some hot honey, can't taste it, Nutella, can't taste it, peanut butter, also can't taste it. It also has toffee pieces, peanuts and oreos. The fruit flavors are subtle. It tis rather enjoyable overall. I have a feeling that at some point I'm going to get a big bit of something that I didn't mix well. I have many ideas to make another batch but this one will take a while to finish. Plus we have Andy's batch. That is a very honey heavy one.

Photo-A-Day #02599 When Allison and Eva went tot he Transformers Store in London they picked up a Funko Bitty Pop! Retro Toys set of Transformers. The way that Funko did these sets was that they had 4 different Bitty Pop! Retro Toys sets, each with a different Hasbro Retro Toys Theme. There was Transformers, G.I. Joe, Mr. Potato Head and Board Games like Monopoly and Operation. However, in these sets of four figures there was one figure that was a mystery figure. The mystery figure may or may not match the overall theme of the set. Int his case it does not match because I got Lite Brite with my Transformers. I didn't have the heart to tell Eva that I already had this set on my wall of Transformers. She was so happy to have found something fun for me in London that was Transformers themed. And they are very cool. I opened this one because I have an unopened one on my wall. I didn't know about how they worked the "mystery figure". So now I am on the lookout for Soundwav...

Photo-A-Day #02598 I had wanted to do an ice cream making class with andy during February vacation and well, since this has been an extended vacation because of all the snow days we got our chance to go today. An ice cream shop local to us, Frisbie's offers ice cream making classes. It is more of an experience than a class but it is very fun none the less. We are here with the ice cream sundaes that we got after we made our own ice cream. Because our ice cream will take a day to freeze properly they give us some of their ice cream to enjoy after class. I say give but we definitely paid for the experience. The cost was $75 per person. I think that the store probably took home 75% of that fee in profit after all was said and done. So they poured a bag of ice cream mix into the machine to mix, add air and freeze a bit. We each got a large tub and added that base ice cream. Then we could mix in our own base as well as other items. I had wanted to make a strawberry oreo ice cream but th...