BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #02807 In addition to the Transformers stickers that I got at Granite State Comicon there were also a couple of Dungeon Crawler Carl stickers. Bun Leung is one of the only people I saw making original art pieces of the characters. so I had to pick them up. I recently started the series over again and just finished the first book. I look forward to reading a lot more.

Photo-A-Day #02806 While at Granite State Comicon I visited one of my favorite artists, Bun Leung. I have bought a ton of his art over the years in the form of stickers and a couple of mini prints. This year he has a whole bunch of new stickers including some Transformers ones. I didn't get them all just a couple of Transformers like Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Grimlock and Soundwave. I like the new designs that he put out this year. Tonight I went to see Transformers The Movie at the movie theater. It is still a great movie and it still holds up as far as story and animation. The soundtrack is pretty great, too. There was a 12 minute short at the end which was Peter Cullen's last work as Prime. It was okay, I don't think it was that great but it was interesting. I enjoyed the tribute to him at the beginning of the movie more.

Photo-A-Day #02805 Today was the last day of the convention. Eva went as Pony Boy from The Outsiders. They even made the shirt that Ponyboy wears in the movie. I was again Bobby Singer from Supernatural. I got a new verst and flannel for this year. Was as recognized as I was in past years but that is okay. I had kept my glasses on. We started our morning by going to The Bookery for breakfast. They have a small cafe inside. In the alley before the bookstore there is a bunch of cat themed murals. This is the cat alley. We could have gone over here yesterday and gotten hot dogs from a small place in this alley. Our first stop was the convention center. There are always a few vendors there and I was hoping at an author that I had met last year would be there again this year but they were not. I did get to play the new Transformers pin ball machine. That is a really nice machine. When we were done in the arena we went back to the hotel and went to the main vendor floor. There I saw a person...

Photo-A-Day #02804 Today was the first day for us to experience the Granite State Comicon 2026. This is an event that Eva and I do every year and it has become our tradition. This year was extra special because it was the first time I had been able to see Eva since they headed to college. We started our morning 0out be going to Mokapot for some breakfast sandwiches and beverages. When we got back to the hotel it was time to get into our costumes. I was a character from the Dungeon Crawler Carl books, Big Tina. Big Tina is a t-rex that wants to put on a recital because Big Tina is actually a bear cub child that was turned into a dinosaur. I put my costume together from a mishmash of stuff from Amazon. Eva sewed the tiara on for me. This year Eva has been excited about The Lost Boys (both movie and musical). Eva's character is Star from the Lost boys movie. That is the version that Eva based the costume on. Star is also in the musical and maybe Eva will do that character int he futur...

Photo-A-Day #02803 Today after work I took a big bag of mini pretzels (minis) with me to pick up Eva from school. I drove into Boston found a parking spot and walked to the Treehouse. Eva came down and I gave them the pretzels to bring up to their roommates. Then we got on the road to New Hampshire. On the way up we stopped at The Common Man in Windham, NH. It was a very nice meal. Eva and I got to talk all about the first couple of weeks that they have been in school. School is going great for Eva. They like their roommates, are making friends and classes are going great. We continued on to the hotel where we would be staying for the weekend. We got up just a bit too late to get our badges. We did run into a couple of my friends who organize the convention and got a good night's sleep.

Photo-A-Day #02802 Every so often I get a sensor fail for my Dexcom G7 Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM). It happens enough that I always take a photo of the box so I can get all the numbers I need when submitting a claim for a new one. This one will fail tomorrow at 4:00am. They never fail at a good time. When that happens my phone alarms. Never any issue going on with me, just the device failing. It is a pain in the neck. Quiet day around here. Even quieter at work without our student intern. But it was still hopping from time to time. From pizzas to milkshakes and everything in between. I find myself going in many directions at once. We started the night thinking that we had to put together 2 Too Good Too Go bags only to have someone buy 1 and then another person buy the last two during the time of pickup. Well, I had only made 2 bags initially, then I took everything in the case for the third bag and when I learned that we had the last two bags I had to scramble to make everything a...

Photo-A-Day #02801 My mom was up visiting from the Cape today. I went over and took a walk with her around my Aunt Donna's neighborhood. One of the houses had this little fairy house and mushrooms.  Then I had work and today was another day with our student intern. By the time I got home every part of my nerve endings was fried. The kid is autistic and very very loud. I try and be as patient as possible. Not easy. When I headed home I dropped back over to my Aunt's house to drop off pretzels for her. also some of my coffee caramel dip for the pretzels.

Photo-A-Day #02800 I'm putting the finishing touches on my cosplay for Granite State Comicon. I'm doing one day as a Dungeon Crawler Carl character, "Big Tina". Big Tina is a T-Rex. I got some fingerless gloves and also some dinosaur claws. I cut the claws so that I could glue them to the gloves so I could use my hands.

Photo-A-Day #02799 Getting ready to sleep tonight and James is on our bed. I get into the bed and try not to disturb him. Then try to pet him and he moves away and then just ignores me. He's been sleeping in our bed each night now that Eva is at school. He takes up a lot of space.

 Photo-A-Day #02798 Allison stripped the sheets and remade the bed today. As she was doing so James climbed the cat stairs on the side of the bed and plopped down in the middle of the bed. Allison kept flipping the sheets up all around him but he would not move. Torrun would have been running for the hills if it was her, but James stayed put. I came into the bedroom as Allison was depositing the sheets, cat and all, on the floor. James would not move out the way. Andy got their Steam account back today. However, later in the afternoon Andy received a message from Steam that their account was locked because of messages that were not sent by Andy violated the community guidelines. That was the scammer using Andy's account to try and scam everyone on Andy's contact list. So we opened a new support ticket and explained what happened and that Andy did not send any messages from that account because the account had been stolen from Andy. I hope we get this all cleared up soon.

 Photo-A-Day #02797 I've been transferring old VHS tapes into digital media. The last time I was on the Cape I got two big boxes of old tapes. They are very old and this one is the first that I have found that is broken. When I rewound it the tape snapped. I also know that I've already digitized two other tapes that were of Tara's graduation. I can't imagine that we had the graduation filmed from multiple angles or anything. This one also says "dads copy" so it seems like this one is a copy of what we already have.  It was an eventful day here. Andy learned a valuable lesson about online scams and we are working on fixing the damage done. I'm very proud that Andy came to us for help. He was also very responsible to get their Chase account secured. It was a learning experience and I am sure that it will stick with Andy for a while. It just sucks that such an earnest and thoughtful caring kid got taken advantage of. We had a nice dinner together. While Andy ...

Photo-A-Day #02796 I created a new dip flavor at The Pretzel Factory. This one is Caramel Coffee. I used some salted caramel topping that we use for ice cream and also some of the espresso flavoring that we purchased, plus a pump or two of the Autocrat syrup. I mixed that with our buttercream to create this new flavor. We'll see if people like it.

Photo-A-Day #02795 I was online today and saw that Target was selling an Optimus Prime popcorn bucket shaped like his head. I checked the Target app for my local store and they had two in stock so I bought one. The think has light up eyes! While I may probably never use it for popcorn, or I may use it every year when I watch Transformers The Movie, who knows.

Photo-A-Day #02794 After work I went over to The Laughing Shield Comic Book Store to get my weekly comics. That is what I end up doing with my cash tip money each week, getting my comics. Luckily I either collect very few comics or my tips have been good because I can usually cover it. I also bring the owner a few pretzels when I go there after work.  At work today we had a new guy training. He is a former funeral director who is on disability and can only work 20 hours. We are hoping that he can help do the baking on the weekends.We also had our student from the high school who is part of an outreach program. He's an interesting one. He's autistic and the program is so that the student can work someplace and get evaluated on their readiness to be working on their own. Our last kid was super quiet and took forever to do anything. This new one is not quiet and has some issues with regulating their voice and activity. It has been an adventure. The major thing in the comics today ...

Photo-A-Day #02793 We've been making pizza at The Pretzel Factory lately. My boss has been perfecting the dough and the cooking method to make some excellent pizzas to sell in the store. I am also making pizzas. We need additional people besides my boss who know how to make the pizzas. I'm there often and so I am also making pizzas.

Photo-A-Day #02792 I found an artist online who has created a bunch of Transformers designs including this one of Wheeljack. I think I'm going to wear this when I go to see Transformers The Movie in a few weeks. The movie is being rereleased in theaters and even though Optimus Prime dies in the movie and that is going to be extra sad this year because Peter Cullen passed away this year we cannot forget that many Autobots also died in this movie including Wheeljack.

Photo-A-Day #02791 James is getting older and he enjoys being up on Eva's bed and now our bed. The issue is that he's getting a bit old to hop right up there so I got him some special cat steps to get up on the beds easier. I have not seen him use them but I'm sure that eventually he will.

Photo-A-Day #02790 There is not much that I find beneficial for working in the office but I do enjoy the unlimited beverages. I occasionally get a Diet Coke from McDonalds and use the cup to refill several times through out the night. Then I have my water bottle with all my stickers on it.

Photo-A-Day #02789 My boss at the Pretzel Factory has a Nintendo Switch 2 and he picked up this special case that makes the Nintendo Switch 2 much heavier and sturdier with better grips on the side. I picked one up for my Switch 2 and I am pretty happy with it overall. Great case for carrying and it even has space for me to store games and take them with me. Now to find a game that is going to hold my attention.

Photo-A-Day #02788 I took some spare dough and rolled it flat through a pasta maker and then sliced it into triangles. They puffed up a lot when they baked and were hollow inside. They were really good with a garlic butter that we use for the pizza crust. I may try these again.