BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01257 Today Allison and I went to New Hampshire to Saint Anselm College for my 25th College Reunion. This should have occurred last year but because of the pandemic it was pushed out and so the Reunion weekend had three classes celebrating their 25th Reunion on at the same time. They actually had several simultaneous reunions happening with 3 classes each celebrating their 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25th. We met up with a couple of my friends for lunch and we also took a tour around campus, had a reception with the new college president, had a great dinner with some more friends and had some lovely conversations throughout the day. I wouldn’t say that the reunion was that well attended. This was the first one that I was able to get back to since my 5th reunion. My 5th Reunion was also when Allison and I officially started dating. Many significant moments at Saint Anselm College. I was hoping to see more people there but the people I did see were really nice. There was eve...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01089 Our Christmas Eve this year was a little different than past years. We have had a tradition of having my parents and my sister and her husband to the house after 4pm Mass for a chicken stew dinner. This year with my parents living on Cape Cod the drive is a bit much back and forth so they did not come. We were joined by Allison’s friend Colleen and her mother, Sue. Colleen and Sue attended Mass as well and just happened to get the pew in front of us. They came back to the house after Mass and we enjoyed the traditional chicken stew that Allison makes. Mass this year was at Saint Mary’s Church and they have a nativity scene out on the lawn. I always get a photo of the kids by the nativity scene after Mass except for last year when we had to watch Mass on Facebook. I like seeing those Nativity Scene memories come up on Facebook each year, though. There was also some fresh baked bread that Colleen and Sue brought and this year I picked up a French Silk Pie fro...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01013 Tonight was Eva’s birthday party. she wanted to have her friends over to watch Beetlejuice. The cake is also a Beetlejuice themed cake. Allison made a 6 layer cake, it was enormous! We picked up two full sheet pizzas from Apollon and one small cheese, no sauce for one of Eva’s friends. I set the girls up with the movie Beetlejuice in the back yard with the new projector. I guess it worked okay, but the girls really did not do too much watching. They did plenty of laughing and screaming. Joyful laughter, the best kind. One of the girls that came over has a brother in Andy’s class and that boy came over too so that they could watch a movie together and play, too. They watched Space Jam. It was a great night for everyone. Wish I didn’t have to leave for work and could have watched it all, but I definitely heard it all.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01008 My friend Jon came home from California this week and he set up a meet-up with a diverse group of folks from our High School years. Jon and I have known each other since pre-school. He then skipped a grade and I moved so we lost touch (this was LONG before Facebook or even email). We reconnected in High School where we both did theater. Theater in High School was where I met Aaron. The three of us reconnected several years back when a mutual friend of ours passed away. We met up at the wake and funeral. We reconnected then and that was when I discovered that Aaron lived mere minutes from my house. We’ve met up from time to time ever since, not as much as both of us would like but a fair amount. I hadn’t seen Jon since the funeral 8 years ago. I’m really glad that Jon pulled so many fun people together. We had a great time talking and laughing. we met up at Six Strings at Patriot Place. We had the place to ourselves which was a good thing because we were so loud. ...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00968 Tonight we hosted a cook out with my friend Frank and his family. He, his wife and his daughter came for dinner. His son had an event, though. I picked up burgers and dogs from Chartley Country Store and Allison made corn on the cob, potato salad, pasta salad, beans and coleslaw. They brought along a great variety of cupcakes for dessert. We had a great night and the girls got along so well together. All Eva had to do was pull out her phone and Frank’s daughter noticed her Percy Jackson phone cover. Next thing I knew they were talking up a storm all the rest of the night. It was really nice to get together with Frank and his family. I am glad that we were able to do this. So many times people say that they will get together and they never do. It had been years since we had gotten together at all and a couple times this year is really doing well. I hope that we hit a movie together soon and do Frank’s podcast, Silver Screeners.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00938 We had a great lunch at Boneyard BBQ today with our great friend Meghan. Meghan and I went to high school together and it has been several years since we last saw each other. She was home for a little while and was able to come out with us to lunch so that we could catch up. We did a lot of catching up on each other’s lives and it was a great time. We spent several hours talking about everything under the sun as we enjoyed some amazing wings. Meghan was impressed with my selection of a combination of buffalo bacon and buffalo blue cheese sauces for my wings.  We also split some curly fries and enjoyed dipping those into the sauce as well. We look forward to her next visit coming this November. It was such a nice time to spend together. Luckily Eva was at the Cape and Andy was at Karate camp because both kids get freaked out by the décor of the place. The tables are covered in concert posters and some have skulls and other things on them that freaked th...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00911 I don’t have a photo of me and my buddy Frank from today but I spent the afternoon with Frank at his house helping him out with his podcast, Silver Screeners. This is a movie podcast and Frank puts a lot of time and energy into it so I wanted to help him make it as good as possible. To that, I helped him with his intro music and making a sound buffer so that he could block out sounds as he records. I talked about it in today’s vlog. The photo obviously has nothing to do with seeing Frank but rather with Andy. I asked him to clean out from under the entertainment center and he found a piece to this marble run toy that he has. He has not played with it in a very long time but once he found that piece he decided that he would immediately begin playing with it. That is what happens whenever we do a deep clean. He find his old toys and begins playing immediately.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00807 We had a nice Sant Patrick’s Day meal tonight after Eva’s Krav Class. This year we boiled two corned beef cuts. We did Point cut in Guinness with the veggies in the crock pot all day. In another crock pot we had flat cut with Killian’s Red and all the veggies except for the cabbage. That was put in later. We decided that we enjoy eating the point cut for the meal but the flat is much better for making corned beef hash the next day because it stays together better than the point which is stringy and falls apart. But now we definitively know what to choose. After dinner we had some Pot ‘O gold cookies that the Leprechaun left for us. Andy observed that when we don’t leave out traps the Leprechaun leaves us treats. He did leave us some mischief, too like green milk and green toilet water. Eva mentioned to Allison that “the Leprechaun” should stir the milk up a lot more. I like that she keeps the magic alive for Andy. The image above was from Andy’s schoolwork ...

Photo-A-Day #685 Today I flew down to Pittsburgh for a demo tomorrow. My flight was very easy and uneventful. I listened to the official Lost podcasts that I had on my iPod and read more of Skin Tight by Carl Hiaasen. The demo tomorrow will be all day and there are about 13 of us here. Some folks are having very bad travel today. One had to take a bus from Indianapolis to Chicago O’Hare and she ended up missing her connection flight and is still at O’Hare. But I don’t think anyone had a worse day than these Costa Rican Thugs. This story from Gadling is about a really bad day for Costa Rican Thugs. Tonight as a group we went to a place called Linguini’s for dinner. It was a pretty decent place. I had a swordfish steak, it was okay, nothing too special. The ambiance of the restaurant was very nice. They had the brick oven for the pizza and in the middle of the floor was a fountain. Drew and Ryan volunteered to by photo of the day. Can you say Abercrombie and Fitch? These guys were good s...

Yesterday I was listening to the Pop Candy Podcast from back in September. This one was about the movie The Big Lebowski. Now I saw The Big Lebowski in the movie theater and it is one of the stories that my friends tell over and over. Basically it was me, Neil, Derek and Mike. After the movie Derek asked Neil what he thought of the movie.  Neil said, “It was pretty good, except for the ending.” Then Neil said, “Drew?”  And I said, “Yeah, pretty much the same thing.”  Then Derek asked Mike what he thought of the movie.  Mike said, as if it was an original thought, “It was pretty good, except for the ending.”  We all turn to Mike and start laughing because he committed to that response so much and it was as if the thought was his own completely. So in order to crack each other up we will respond when asked about anything, “It was pretty good, except for the ending.” I however do not remember much about The Big Lebowski but apparently it has a huge following. I nee...

Photo-A-Day #667 Today was Nicholas Gregory’s Christening. Allison and I went to the Christening over in North Providence. Both proud poppa and momma were beaming and baby Nicholas was an angel during the ceremony. I got to play with Derek’s new camcorder. I video taped the ceremony. After the ceremony we went to Chester’s for a reception and we sat with Mike and Anna and Beth and Matt. Mike and Anna’s son Matthew was there too and he was being very cute.  Neil and Andrea were at the ceremony and reception. Neil got Derek’s camera to take pictures and I gave Andrea my camera to use to take pictures. I took it back to get this picture of Derek, Michelle and Nicholas and Derek’s sister and Brother-in-law and their kids. Derek’s sister is the godmother and his brother-in-law is the godfather. We had a very nice time and are so happy for Derek and Michelle. We also got to see Derik and Sarah and their adorable little girl Riley. Last night we watched the Super Bowl and it was exciting....

Photo-A-Day #665 Tonight Allison and I went to a surprise birthday party for our friend Marybeth’s husband Damian and his brother Jason. Notice how the cake has both the Red Sox and Yankees symbols. The boys had a good time destroying the logo of the rival team. The party was a restaurant in Walpole called Finnegan’s Wake. Nice place. We had a good time with Marybeth and Damian. We look forward to getting together with them soon.

Photo-A-Day #659 01/27/07 Today Allison and I went to Jordan’s Furniture in Reading, MA. We met up with our friend Maureen and her sister Peggy and brother Bob as well as her cousin Julie, Peggy’s friend Heather and Mo’s friend Linda. This photo is of Bob, Linda, Maureen, Allison and Peggy. We met for lunch at Fuddruckers, which was right inside Jordan’s Furniture. Fuddruckers is know for their large and tasty burgers. We each got a Barry and Eliot burger. Barry and Eliot are the two brothers who are the face of Jordan’s Furniture. The burgers were very tasty and Fuddruckers has a large condiment bar where you can put many things on your burger and make it how you like it. Allison and I got to Jordan’s Furniture a little early, but not to worry, Jordan’s Furniture is not like any other furniture store. Inside they have BeanTown which is a huge display made out of Jelly Belly jelly beans. The theme is BeanTown because that is a nickname for Boston and all the things there are a play on ...

Photo-A-Day #651 01/19/07 Tonight Allison and I went to dinner with Autumn and Kenny. We went to the Fortune House and had an amazing meal. Dinner was fantastic, as always. It was really nice to see Autumn and Kenny, we have a great time talking through dinner and after dinner. We were there for quite a while and watched things slow down. Kenny brought his new camera bag and I brought my new tripod. We like to compare our toys and marvel at them whenever we catch up with each other. Kenny’s backpack is an adventure 9 photo backpack. It is awesome and has tons of pockets and they are movable to fit and protect all your photo gear. I have backpack envy right now.

Photo-A-Day #649 01/17/07 Tonight I went to the Outlaw BBQ with the guys for guys night. We had wings and beers and whatnot. This photo is of the guys and me doing a U2 picture. Steve who is on the left is the one who introduced us to the concept of the U2 picture. Have you ever noticed that in pictures of the band U2 no one is looking at the camera. Take a look sometime. I used my new gorillapod to take the shot. Today I also had my yearly physical, things went pretty well. I’m down 11 pounds from last physical so that is decent. However the bright part of my day was the arrival of my iPod. I am so psyched. I loaded it up with tons of podcasts. I just keep finding cool stuff to put in this thing. I’ve already filled 20GB of space on podcasts alone. Could be all the Best Week ever stuff. I also took my Nikon D80 to the Camera company and they took care of the stuff on the sensor. So my camera is now on tip top shape. They didn’t even need to send it out.

Photo-A-Day #645 Today Dad and I worked on a project at the house. We spent most of the morning and afternoon working on it. Later on in the afternoon he sent me for more supplies and I found out that my exhaust in my car decided that it was all done. 92028 was as many miles as that exhaust system was going to take me. I was stuck in traffic heading to Lowe’s when I heard the car make a “clunk” sound and the next thing I know it sounds like I’ve added a tip to my muffler. The difference between 20 and 30 is that when you are in your 20’s or younger you want your car to sound this way. When you are in your 30’s you are embarrassed by your car sounding like this. I’m sitting in the car wondering, did the muffler fall off completely? Are people looking at my car to see if it has a tip on the muffler and saying, that guy is too old for that? So now I have a date with Midas in the future. This evening Neil and Andrea and Derek and Michelle and baby Nicholas came over for dinner. We showed t...

I have mentioned my Friend Autumn on this blog before. Well she has her own blog and is actively updating it now. She added my Photo-A-Day to her blog the other day and wrote a nice little blog post about it. Autumn is awesome in so many ways. First off she is probably the sweetest person you would ever meet. She had hungry hungry hippos when we were growing up (This was important as we we neighbors till I was 7 and we often played together. I did not have hungry hungry hippos and at that time that game was one to be coveted. I loved playing it. She also had strawberry shortcake dolls and I played with them too, it was the 80’s, don’t judge me!) I also remember watching Frankenstein (we’re talking the black and white version) at her house on Creature Double Feature and getting scared. I’m a big baby when it comes to scary movies. I seem to have gotten off on a tangent. Autumn was also recently crowned Miss Wheelchair America and she is visiting all sorts of cool places like the Rose Pa...

Have you been hooked on the Mad Gab Phenomenon. Well maybe it isn’t a phenomenon but the game is addictive and fun. We played it last night with my cousin Carissa and her boyfriend Chris. The game is so much fun as well as funny to play. We played with Mom, Dad, Tara, Erik Carissa, Chris and Allison and I. I forget how the teams were split up but we enjoyed it a lot. The most fun is watching the other team try and get their answers. Listening to the team trying to get their answers while knowing the answers yourself is hilarious. The game is worth buying to play with friends and family. Spend a night at home and play Mad Gab. There is even a new DVD game for Mad Gab.

Welcome John Chow Readers Please visit this link for the information on how to participate. The post below is about the family I have been trying to help. I was contacted by my High School a couple of days back to participate in a phone-a-thon. Apparently they didn’t get the memo that I am not the class liaison any longer. Not a big deal. I let them know and they told me that I should get in touch with a former classmate about the 15 year reunion. So I did and now I am helping with the reunion. It was pretty crazy planning it 5 years ago and I wasn’t quite sure that I wanted to get back into the fray. But when Allie told me about why she is planning it I had to jump in with both feet. Another former classmate of mine Becky is having a very difficult time. She has three beautiful kids and a great husband. Becky had cancer and it is currently in remission. Now her husband has cancer and their health insurance provider will not cover them any longer. The constant doctor’s appointments and...

Photo-A-Day #632 12/31/06 Today Allison and I went to Providence to see Dublin Carol starring William Peterson from CSI. Allison got me tickets for our 1 year anniversary. We started the day with lunch at Fire + Ice. Dinner/Late Lunch at Fire + Ice was a fun experience. At Fire + Ice you pick out the food that you want to have cooked. Then you pick a sauce to go with it. You pile up your bowl of ingredients. I would not go with crayfish again but the sauce was very good and everything else in the bowl was good too. We each made two trips up to the food stations and tried a couple concoctions. It was a fun experience. I think it would be a good time with a large group of people as well, but it was equally good with just the two of us. After Fire + Ice we walked to Trinity Rep to see Dublin Carol. We passed through Waterplace Park and up past the Dunkin Donuts center on the Way to Trinity Rep. Waterplace Park The play was very good, dark humor, some of it depressing, but I think that the...