BenSpark Family Adventures

 Photo-A-Day #02773 Before I went off to work today Allison and I took Andy over to Target to get some things for the start of the school year. A set of LEGO and a cool looking AM/FM radio that doubles as a Bluetooth speaker was also not on the list but I was excited that Andy thought it was something cool that I had to get them it. Andy was so excited about it that they brought it downstairs to show Miss Colleen.  Today at The Pretzel Factory my boss was making cinnamon sugar rivets which are done in a  baking soda bath instead of a lye bath. He got distracted and started to salt the rivets.  Caught himself and then baked the pan of rivets. I took the unsalted ones and made the cinnamon sugar rivets for the display case and to sell while I also took the salted ones and made them into cinnamon sugar rivets to bring home. I brought a box him and they did not last the night, everyone loved the little hint of salt to these sweet treats. Everyone said that we should add ...

 Photo-A-Day #02772 Each day that I come in for work at The Pretzel Factory there is something new happening. My boss is always trying out new things to see what will sell. Today I was washing some donut pans because he made donuts in them. I personally don't think that he needs a pan and could just twist the dough to a donut shape. His are the two up in the top of the photo. I made the two on the bottom. I used one of his roll shapes and baked it, then put it through the cinnamon sugar we use for rivets and then baked it again so the cinnamon sugar could caramelize a bit. Then I dipped it back into the butter and this time covered it with the cinnamon donut sugar that we had when we were out of our normal cinnamon. They came out great.

 Photo-A-Day #02771 I have a fake whiskey barrel half out front of the house on the stump where the tree used to be. I planted some zinnia seeds but only one took so I went and bought two additional zinnia plants. I think my zinnia from seeds are prettier I like the two tone look of them. Allison and I have been taking daily morning walks and we pass by the flowers daily.  Last night I was converting a number of old VHS tapes and one was my sister's graduation from High School that was filmed by the local (town) TV station. It recorded but then the tape had about 3 hours of this screen after it. I made sure to record all of it because I am finding that our VHS tapes all have some weird things added in strange places. So you never know. I'll remove it when I actually get around to editing all these videos.

Photo-A-Day #02770 Tonight we went over to Capron Park for another food truck night. Tonight Allison and I opted for some cheesesteaks. She got the Angry one with lots of heat to it. I got a blue cheese and bacon one. Both were really good. We also got some Cajun fries with crabmeat on top. that was also really good but everything was super filling and I could not finish the cheesesteak or the fries. No dessert for us either. Andy and Eva both opted for Friskie's Fries and the General Taos version. I was surprised that Andy did not go for something more exotic today. Usually they get a big mishmash of things to make their own meal.

Photo-A-Day #02769 Another weekend, another realization that things are not at all better with time. For my companies' 57th year in business they gave employees an ice cream social. They did not forget about the night folks. There was ice cream for everyone ... last weekend. So this weekend when I came in I found a half gallon of rubbery, frost burned ice cream. Gross. And in my Facebook memories there was a photo of the very last company picnic from four years ago.

Photo-A-Day #02768 Finally Wheeljack is getting his own story. They've got Wheeljack by himself rebuilding what will ultimately be Autobot City in Chicago in the current storyline. He's holed up by himself in this big location. Or is someone or other someone's there with him. He's known as the mad scientist of the Autobots and in this issue he meets a real mad scientist, Dr. Henri Arkaville, a future villain who has it out for the Transformers. Wheeljack is called in to help save the life of new Autobot, Shredhead in this issue as well. A lot of story was in this issue.

Photo-A-Day #02767 This morning we took the kids to First Watch for breakfast. They were not impressed. The place was really loud, they didn't quite enjoy their meals and that made for a rather poor experience. While we were there though we talked about the things that we'd like to watch together (movies) before Eva goes off to college. We settled on watching Stand By Me as the first of a series of movies we'll watch over the next few weeks.  I worked at The Pretzel factory today until closing. Then I ran a bunch of pretzels over to America's Best Defense. I had put out a call earlier in the week for people who might want a delivery of pretzels. Sensei Howard replied and I got him on the list for tonight. Last night I went to the North Attleboro Fire Station and they practically tackled me for them. Both nights someone did not pick up their 2 Good 2 Go order so I had multiple bags of pretzels to share.  When I got home we watched Stand By Me. I think both kids really en...