BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #02675 Today was Eva's last day at high school. She does have one more exam tomorrow but otherwise she is finished. I can't believe how quickly this all went. We're only a couple months out from college, too. She's been doing a bunch of things all on her own like planning trips with her friends. She even bought a couple tickets to a show near her college for October in plans to go with someone she makes friend with in college. That is great for her. She's also making a couple of online purchases and has finally started using a bit of her Summer Job money to enjoy it. I'm really proud about the concert ticket purchase that she made.

Photo-A-Day #02674 Andy had a fundraiser through school where he had to sell Double Good Popcorn. This stuff was expensive but it was actually really tasty popcorn. My favorite was the Chi - Town Chow Down because it is the mix of caramel and Cheese popcorn. But they also had one that was caramel popcorn with cheese flavor on it. That was really good stuff. 

Photo-A-Day #02673 The raised bed has been filled up and the seedlings that we started in the mini greenhouses have been planted. I put in some stakes to be around the squash and zucchini. We'll try and grow them vertically off the ground a bit.

Photo-A-Day #02672 Today was Mother's Day. I had to sleep but the kids took care of Allison. Andy went to Church in the morning with Allison. We celebrated with a nice meal of swordfish and steak that I grilled for dinner.

Photo-A-Day #02671 I have a new item on my car, it is a solar powered Autobot symbol. I put it on my gas tank door. It lights up at night and goes from red to green and other colors. 

Photo-A-Day #02670 I brought a mess of pretzels in to work tonight. I also brought in one of each of the dips. Yesterday I was saying that I had to try them out and today I gave each a shot. A small amount on this pretzel so that I can speak better of the flavors that I actually like and can recommend to people. I brought them in for my cousins, Shaun. We also shared them with everyone who is upstairs in the building. There are still a ton left for him to take home.

Photo-A-Day #02669 This is our Dip Zone at The Pretzel Factory. I try and make sure that it is always filled with all the correct items. We needed to make a bunch of them each day and I like to organize them in the walk-in when I have some time. There are many flavors. I have not tried them all because they are very sweet. I do recommend the Salted Caramel one and Cinnamon is good. I like all the mustards, too.

Photo-A-Day #02668 I went and picked up my comic books today and it included this Graded comic that I won fromt he raffle on Free Comic Book Day. 9.8 is crazy high too. I'll never read this comic or take it out of the package. I'll probably look to sell it since I don't collect this series.

Photo-A-Day #02667 Tonight was Cinco De Mayo. I made some more Birria meat. I went to Chartley Country Store and picked up a 4.5 lb chuck roast and did it up with the Birria Bomb and the Instant Pot. Allison got some Margarita Mix and I had my one for the year. The consume was good and so were the tacos. Very nice night of food.

Photo-A-Day #02666 With the tree in front of the house having been removed we had to do something to get it looking nicer. Allison and I got some candy corn shrubs to plant on the corner. I also picked up some wood chips to spread around there and I'll have Andy do some weeding soon to get it all looking good. I'm also thinking of adding a big half Whiskey Barrel to the top of the stump and fill it with some flowers. At least till the shrubs grow in and get larger to cover the stump.

Photo-A-Day #02665 Today Allison and I did the Marriage PRep Course for Transfiguration of the Lord Parish. Last night we went to a fun dinner with everyone pictured above plus the team. It was a nice meal and everyone who attended was really nice. We had a whole day of talks and fun exercises to show the engaged couples that they have an additional support system with regards to their marriage. I ran out at lunch and picked up a Crowd Pleaser set of pretzels for everyone. They loved them. 

Photo-A-Day #02664 Today was Free comic Book Day. I made sure that I got over to The Laughing Shield comics to pick up my subscriptions but also some of the free comics. I had intended only o get two free comics, the Energon Universe special and the Dungeon Crawler Carl comic. However, a few other ones caught my eye and I grabbed those, too. We had a limit of 10 comics per person and so I got 8 total. There was a Supernatural one as well as The Greatest American Hero which actually looks very interesting and a fun one to continue with. I have been watching the old episodes on Amazon Prime from time to time. I also picked up a set of comic books because they had special covers. I had been eyeing them for months and today they were 20% off so I pulled the trigger on those. They were special covers of G.I. JOE featuring 5 of the Dreadnoks. I thought that they would be nice additions to my collection.

Photo-A-Day #02663 Today was Eva's Senior Prom. She's been working on her outfit for a very long time and she and her friend Aviva matched up with each other perfectly. They were so excited for the event. I picked Eva up from school today and took her to lunch at K.C.'s Burger Bar for lunch before taking her to get her hair cut. I then took her home so she could get ready. Eva even put on some very pretty fake nails for the event. Everything she did with her outfit matched up so well from makeup to nails and also wearing Allison's wedding jewelry (necklace and earrings). Aviva arrived around 5 O'Clock. She had made special bouquets for she and Eva.  They were very beautiful and Eva was thrilled. The two young ladies looked fantastic in their outfits. We took photos in the backyard and also some under the trellises. We also took some by the Rhododendron bush. I wish that it had been in bloom but there was nothing in bloom around. The nice tree int eh backyard bloomed...

Photo-A-Day #02662 At the PRetzel Factory they are getting ready for Mother's Day! There are a couple of things that they are doing for this. One item they are making are heart shaped pretzels and the other are these giant flower shaped pretzels. Today Tim and I were experimenting with how to bake them properly without over cooking them and also not burning the outsides.The other challenge is keeping them together. We were able to solve the problem of baking them but the next was getting them off the parchment paper and keeping them intact. I had a bunch of pretzels tonight after work and so I messaged my friend Aaron. We had gone out for dinner last week and I had mentioned the pretzels. I said I had a bunch and I'd stop by on the way home so I did and gave him some of the cinnamon sugar rivets and regular rivets and a 5 of pretzels. I still had the whole flower and another 5 of pretzels and a giant bag of rivets to bring home. I'm going to bring them in to work tomorrow n...

Photo-A-Day #02661 Eva's getting the shirt that she's wearing to prom ready. She's been working on it for weeks and is down to the finishing touches. I can't tell exactly how much work she has to do on it but it seems like a good amount to get it to where she is very happy with it. I know that she'll get it done, however, we are getting close since Prom is in two days. She takes after her Aunt in this way. so much going on and coming down to the wire on things. I'm reminded of Tara finishing her wedding dress on the wedding day. We'll see if Eva is still sewing on Friday.

Photo-A-Day #02660 It was another one of the days where I forgot to take a photo. I was a both thrown off today because I was scheduled to work at the Pretzel Factory but when I got here I got a message from the boss (I have 2 there), letting me know that they had kept me on the schedule accidentally and that they were on their way in and I can go home.  My dad was up from the Cape today and he stopped in to see the place. Of course I was running all over the place baking multiple items because when I get in I just get to work and try not to stop the entire shift. I ended up leaving a bout 10 minutes after dad left and he was already back to the Cape. I was a bit annoyed that I was scheduled and then sent home especially after having no hours last week. I was looking forward to having 18 hours this week especially after having been paid recently. The money will certainly help. It isn't a ton but it helps. I can understand that they have a business to run and if it is slow and they ...

Photo-A-Day #02659 Tonight Eva and I participated in a podcast that my friend Chris produces called The Dad and Daughter Connection. He doesn't often have both the father and daughter on the show but we were both available so we did the show together. It was a lot of fun. I am looking forward to it being posted so I can share it. We talked about our relationship and how we cultivate it to be connected. We talked about the things that we both enjoy and things that we've learned. Setting up for the show I realized that I had no way to hear the show so I went through my ziplock bag of wires to find a headphone splitter. I did not have one. Eva had one so we used that. I have way too many wires and have no idea why I am still keeping them.

Photo-A-Day #02658 On Friday Allison and I went over to Briggs Nursery because she had a bunch of gift cards that she had gotten from her kids at the end of the school year. We decided to get these little Candy Corn Shrubs. They are called Double Play Candy Corn and have a nice color. We are going to use these at the corner of the house to surround the stump from the tree that was taken down. I'll have to go and get the bag of compost that we get this year before I plant these. Maybe get that done sometime this week.

Photo-A-Day #02657 I made a random Temu purchase of an Omega Supreme figure. It is a third party figure and so it came with a different name other than Omega Supreme. It was called Miracle God Robot. I did not try to transform it I'd rather keep it in robot mode for display. It isn't huge but it is decent sized.

Photo-A-Day #02656 Tonight we went to Providence for a comedy show at The Vets. It was Ronny Cheing and Hasan Minhaj for their comedy tour called "HASAN HATES RONNY | RONNY HATES HASAN". It was something a bit different than any comedy show we'd ever seen. The two of them came out to have "debates" with each other and battle on many topics. It was funny. Different, but funny. We had dinner at 579 Benefit before we went to the show. A good meal all around.