BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #02737 Today after Science School we drove to Providence to see Weird Al Yankovic at Providence Performing Arts Center. This was one of the best concerts I have ever attended. Weird Al played so many of our favorite songs and both Andy and Eva were excited. I was seated right next to Andy and they got so excited when "Canadian Idiot" was played and also "White and Nerdy". I was thrilled to see him play "Dar to Be Stupid"  from The Transformers soundtrack. Al also did a couple of medleys of his earlier songs and that was awesome, too. There were a ton of costume changes as well. Below are a few photos from the show. There was no restriction on taking photos or video either. I tried to be very discrete though. Phone brightness the lowest setting and quick shots. No video. We were all very impressed with the show. So much fun! The view from our seats. They were good and we could see everything except for the top of the big screen.  Smells Like Nir...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02524 Tonight Andy and I went to Boston for the Mix 104.1 Deck The Hall Ball. This was Andy's big birthday gift because the headliner was AJR. They were excellent to see in person. Their songs are fun and there was one point where they even broke down how they created the song "World's Smallest Violin". IT was super cool to watch.  There were two opening acts and they were pretty good. Andy was super enthusiastic when AJR came on. Clapping for each song and swaying to the music. Big smile on their face, too. We had pretty decent seats. The music was LOUD so I am glad that I had bought some LOOP ear protection before the show. They really helped me enjoy things so much more. It was a good time. Lots of fun with Andy.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02422 Over the weekend I saw that Tougas Family Farm was having Jimmy Buffett days in honor of Buffett and Labor Day Weekend. I worked 8pm - 8am last night so I was a bit out of it when I finally got up and we headed there to hang out do some apple picking or whatever. I really had no plan, I guess I thought it would be a lot more chill than it was. The place was packed. So many people were out apple picking and listening to the live band covering Jimmy's tunes. We tried to go into the store but that was overwhelming so we got out and walked for a bit. We got some donuts and apple cider and then decided to do some apple picking. I'm glad that we did end up deciding to apple pick because we got a nice big ox of apples and this early in the season there were tons of great apples to pick. We got Honey Crisp and three other varieties that I cannot remember. We also picked a few yellow peaches. We rode on the wagon to the fields to pick. Allison and Andy on the wago...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02169 Tonight Allison and I went to Angle Tree Brewery to see our friend Jack Cappadona perform. He’s a very talented singer and actor. Tonight he was singing at the Krav Maga social. I did get to see some of my friends from Krav while I was there and had a nice conversation with Sensei Howard. Angle Tree is a nice spot and we had a good time. There was a guy who was there making wood fired pizza. his whole family was working for him and our pizza was delivered by his daughter who was in her Christmas pjs. It was nice to support a little family business.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01723 Tonight was back to school or family night at Brennan for Andy. We all went to check out the school and meet Andy’s teachers. There was a presentation int he cafetorium and then we went to the classroom area for a teacher presentation. There was also a choir song in the front lobby. Everyone that we met was very nice. Andy enjoys their teachers and the enjoy Andy. We’ve received some very nice emails from the teachers regarding Andy. It is nice to see Andy thriving and making friends. We met one of Andy’s friends and her mom. We had actually known who the mom was because we used to walk each morning and see the mom and her dog. So, we actually finally formally met her. They live around the corner from us and Andy and the daughter are going to walk home together tomorrow. Andy had better put on running shoes because Maia likes to be the first out the door of the school at the end of the day. Andy has also been enjoying the trombone. We rented one for Andy fo...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01704 Early this morning I saw many posts on Facebook alerting me to the death of Jimmy Buffett. It is pretty sad to hear that he died. Jimmy Buffett has been such a part of my relationship with Allison. We went to so many shows together over the years. I think that almost every show we’ve ever been to has been documented in this blog. Tonight Allison made herself a margarita. I had a sip because I had to go to work tonight. She took a much better shot that actually had the margarita glass in it. It has been a long time since we have seen a Jimmy Buffett show. We still very much enjoy his music. After Thursday’s debacle trying to sell off Andy’s bunk bed I was successful today. A young woman came and picked up the bunk bed and even paid me my asking price. So we have some money for King Richard’s Faire on Monday.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01618 Our plumber came today and hooked up the toilet in the downstairs bathroom. He also set up more plumbing in the basement and changed out the Shower head. We now have a Kohler Konnect. This is a shower head with a detachable Bluetooth speaker. For years I have been putting my phone on the edge of the shower to listen to music. Now I can leave it on the counter and connect to the Moxie speaker and play whatever I’d like and be able to hear it quite well. I personally have a 3 song maximum shower but usually get things done in one especially if it is Carry On My Wayward Son. That is the perfect length for a shower.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01228 Funko sent me a new Joan Jett Funko Pop for free to unbox and review. I will be posting my video review of this figure tomorrow but really liked the cover photo that I shot for the thumbnail for the video. I am excited about this figure because I like Joan Jett and so does Eva. I think she may want to keep this one instead of me, but it will be going up on my wall. I grabbed Andy’s electric guitar to use as the backdrop for this photo, too. Thought is was a cool touch.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00850 I backed a Kickstarter for a band called Rock Sugar. They make some great music by making mashups of rock and roll and pop. They made an album called Reimaginator back in 2010. It has been ten years and their latest album is Reinventinator with 13 new songs. I can’t even tell you how many songs they wove together in each son, there are so many. I keep hearing something new with every listen. The album coins look incredible. Today was Stripe test for all of us at Karate and Krav. I managed to capture one photo of Eva while she was doing her test. She is fierce.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00830 I often share my birthday with other events. Back when I used to travel and go to movie premieres and stuff like that I had some incredible birthday adventures at age 41 and 43. I’ve also had birthdays where I’ve attended the annual Father Daughter dance at Eva’s school. Last year it was cancelled completely because of the pandemic. This year we could do a virtual father Daughter Dance. We bought kits that included sparkling cider, cups, a candle, a frame and a gift card to the whisk and paddle bakery. I think the actual date was for tomorrow night but I got a very good shave and a beard trim so that I could take my new license photo today. We started off by getting dressed up. Eva was looking quite sharp in her vest and pants. She did her hair fancy, too. We opened the sparkling cider and had a toast. Then we put on some music on our phones and danced a round for a while in the back yard. I can only wonder what the neighbors thought of that. I took the nig...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00732 Well, here we are. A new year is upon us and there is much that needs to be done. We’re going to hold it together and keep on moving forward to make this a better year than the last. Today’s photo is of a mini suitcase that we got from Ellis Paul. We saw that he was doing a special New Year’s Eve show via Facebook Live and so we ordered these suitcases for us and for my sister, Tara and our friends, the Prestons. The show was a great way to usher in the new year last evening.

I read on Pop Candy that both Vince Neil and Brett Michaels have reality shows coming out. The reason I mention this is that I am a product of the 80’s and I loved Motley Crue and Poison. I still enjoy many of their songs. The Vince Neil show is going to follow around Vince and his family. This will be on A&E. The Brett Michaels one will be called Rock of Love and will be on VH1. It will be a similar vein of the Flava Flav, Flavor of Love. I won’t be watching either one of these because I’m not exactly excited about these guys doing these shows. But who am I to talk, I record my life and put it on the Internet, at least they are getting paid for it.

Since I am always on the lookout for new podcasts now that I have my iPod I have come across some interesting things to listen to. Like Podfitness, I found that through an ad on Google and it looks really interesting. You upload your music to iTunes and Podfitness will mix that with workouts from one of over 80 trainers. One of the trainers is Danny Bonaduce. I heard that he does a lot of working out. I think that was on the Breaking Bonaduce show that he was addicted to the gym or something. I bet his trainings were intense. I may look into how these things work. The other one I would like to check out is iTrain.

I have been so busy lately that I have not been able to do some decent posts about time wasters and fun stuff I have seen on the Internet or on TV. first off I got my iPod and have since been loading it with every available podcast I can think of finding for all of my interests. I have found podcasts for comedy, nature, Photoshop and much more. I am going to look for some on motorcycles and kayaking and cooking as well. This crazy thing we call iTunes has been a lot of fun to explore. I can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner, much much sooner. But I can change. I have embraced my previous Mac self. Yes, early on we had an Apple IIC and I loved that computer I spent hours working on Print Shop and animation studio and even a Toy Maker program. That was so much fun. I don’t think I’ll be trading in the PC computers anytime soon but I have forever disassociated myself with the notion of purchasing a Zune. It is all iPod for me now man. Last night brought back the return of one of my favori...

My ipod was delivered today and I have iTunes running on both my home and work computers. I just discovered that I can only sync with one iTunes. That stinks. I will have to figure out if there is a way around this. I have been downloading podcasts like crazy for the past couple of hours. There are still over 110 episodes from various podcasts that I am downloading. Then I’ll sync them to the iPod. There is so much I have to learn about this program. I am very excited to give my new iPod a test drive. And I am very satisfied with how the dock that is built into my new monitor is working out. That Viewsonic VX2245 is fantastic!

Ellis Paul recently released a greatest hits album called Essentials. It is a collection of 34 tracks from many of Ellis’ previous albums. Allison and I have been Ellis fans since we have been together, that is about 6 years and each year we try to see him at least once if not 5 times. We just love his music. He is one of the most talented singer songwriters that are out there now. His roots in the Boston area don’t hurt the major following he has out this way. I was actually introduced to Ellis more than 10 years ago I think. My Sister Tara was a big fan and she has seen him many more times than we have. She brought me to see one of his shows at a small chapel in Woods Hole. You have to at least go and listen to Ellis Paul’s sample tracks, you will be hooked.

Photo-A-Day #644 Target still had a few items on major clearance. This remote control VW bus with an MP3 player hook up in the trunk was marked down from $60.00 to $14.00. I picked it up because I’d really like to repaint it some Buffett colors and fill my MP3 player with Buffett tunes and drive it around the next concert in the Tweeter Parking lot. Here is the rear view. The bus also makes me think of the A-Team for some reason even through the van and the colors are off. There is just something about it that makes me think A-Team.

Why? Because it is just such a twisted idea but done with such reverence to the Christmas spirit. Billy Idol’s christmas album Happy Holidays is one of those that must go in my Christmas Collection. Give a listen at his myspace site. Actually you can hear one song, Oh Christmas tree, on the same player as you can hear Eve of Destruction but the truly remarkable part are the videos that are on the site of Happy Holiday (An Idol tune), White Christmas and the one that cracked me up, Jingle Bell Rock. www.myspace.com/billyidol

The Microsoft Zune media player is out today. I really think I would like to get on the bandwagon and pick one up. I know I can fill it with tons of great music. But It can also play MP4 video and that is something that my video camera takes. So I can keep some great videos on the ZUNE as well. I didn’t go for iPod or Itunes or than but I am a loyal Windows fan and the Zune is for me. As you can see they are comparably priced. Here are the technical specs on the ZUNE Size: 4.4 in. x 2.4 in. x 0.6 in. (h x w x d) Weight: 5.6 ounces Battery: rechargable [2] Music, up to 14 hours (wireless off), up to 13 hours (wireless on); pictures, up to 4 hours; video, up to 4 hours Charge Time: 3 hours; 2 hours to 90% Display Size: 3.0 inches Orientation: Vertical and Horizontal Resolution: 320 x 240 pixels Audio Windows Media® Audio Standard (.wma): Up to 320 Kbps, CBR and VBR, up to 48-kHz sample rate MP3 (.mp3): Up to 320 Kbps, CBR and VBR, up to 48-kHz sample rate AAC (.mp4, .m4a, .m4b, .mov): U...

Zune is the latest offering from Microsoft. It has been created and released to compete with the iPod. I am not a fan of Apple. I just am not. I like Microsoft and their products. I have been a windows fan since 93 and will continue to be so. This has caused tension in the family as we have some staunch Apple supporters. Anyway I think I want to get a Zune. But to be fair I will list a link to the Apple iPod as well. The more I have researched this the more I am actually leaning towards an iPod and that is because for just a $100.00 more I can get 50GB more of space. iTunes is a preferred method of getting new music as well as podcasts. I guess I may have to become an Apple supporter and get an iPod.