BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #02642 My sister, Tara sent me a gift card for Amazon and I used it to buy myself a fun LEGO set. I picked up the Toothless figure from How To Train Your Dragon. It was a great build. I made it while I watched the crew of the Artemis II return to Earth. It was amazing to watch. Really was something to see. I watched until the very end when the crew made it to the med bay of the naval ship.

Photo-A-Day #02641 I turned 52 today. When I came downstairs Allison showed me the fridge. Overnight one of the bottles of milk froze and exploded. I'm glad that I did not have work today because the whole morning was taken up with taking everything out of the fridge and cleaning up the spilled milk. Quite the metaphor for growing up Gen X. Not to cry over spilled milk because it can always be worse. Once the fridge was fully cleaned and everything was put back in I was able to get a little time to myself to relax. Played some Styx and some Fortnite and got to enjoy my new office chair. It had been far too long in replacing that one.  I headed over to have lunch with Mom and Dad. We ate at The Tavern. I had short ribs and mashed potatoes. They were excellent. Then I hung out in the Shaw's parking lot until it was time to pick up Eva. Running home would not have made much sense. So I picked up Eva and we headed home. Mom and Dad finished all their errands and then met us at the ...

Photo-A-Day #02640 Today after work at The Pretzel Factory I took a box of 50 pretzels over to Saint Mary-Sacred Heart School for the teachers. Today at work I made the pretzel cheese dogs. When I arrived the owners were in the middle of making 300+ pretzels because they had a big order for one of the local school districts. We ended up making 4 batches of dough through the morning. Michelle was still twisting pretzels when I left for the day. 

Photo-A-Day #02639 Today after work I made some Birria meat in the Instant Pot. I had ordered a couple of Birria Bombs to add to a roast and some short ribs. Then into the pot at high pressure for a few hours. When it was done we had a delicious dinner. It was so good that I ate it and forgot to get any photos whatsoever. I didn't get the preparation quite right but it ended up tasting great. Today was my second day at the Pretzel Factory. I wasn't there as long as the first day but did plenty of work. When I got in it was oven stone cleaning day. Each week the stones are taken out of the oven and scraped clean of excess salt and char. It was actually pretty satisfying to scrap away the layers with a putty knife. Each stone is $600. That blew my mind. Also, I wish my boss had not told me as I was holding one.

  Photo-A-Day #02638 Today I started a part time job at the Philly Pretzel Factory. They just opened up a week ago and I went in then and talked with the owner and asked about them needing help. He did and I waited a while and didn't hear so I went back and talked with his wife and filled out an application. I got a call to come in the next day and I did and the owner gave me my hat and shirt and said I could come in the next day, Friday which was their grand opening. I did say, are you sure you want to be training me during a grand opening? So he rethought that and had me come in today. I worked from 7am to 3pm. I learned how to prep the place, twist up pretzels the factory way, baked many pretzels, got trained a bit on the register and even helped the owner change out the wax seal on the bathroom toilet. He needed someone to help lift it. It was a good day and I am back tomorrow and Wednesday. Next week I'll be working afternoons into closing.

Photo-A-Day #02637 We spent our Easter on Cape Cod with Mem and Grandfather. I finished work today at 7am and went right to bed thinking that I would wake up around 11 like I normally do but I slept until everyone got back from church. I heard the alarm on the door go off and that woke me. I was so zonked out that once my head hit the pillow I was out plus it is The Cape so the air makes me sleep all the longer. When I woke up we hung out a bit and then had a very tasty Easter lunch with the ham that I got from work. That is our Christmas gift from the company. I've gotten many things like that over the years for Christmas and this year decided on ham because we never need the turkey after Christmas and I'd rather not have it take up space in the freezer for a long time. This way we get a really good ham for our Easter and the freezer gets some space. Later in the afternoon my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Wayne came by to visit. We enjoyed visiting with them and then we headed home in ...