2005....... Coming Soon.....

With 2005 right around the corner I look back on the year that was. Lots of big changes this past year. We lost a long time family member in Sophie our dog. And on a happy note Allison and I got engaged and I got a new job.

A preview of the coming year and a look ahead promises: our wedding, more travel for me, more challenges for both of us, possibly a house, and some fun times as always, all of which will be documented for posterity here so stay tuned.

I would also mention that 2005 is the year of the Transformer since that is the year that Transformers the Movie (the original cartoon one from the 80's) was set. It is too bad that the live action movie isn't coming till 2006 but 2005 should be a great Transformers year anyways.

Also the trivia contest has become more and more popular. Over 100 people played this past month.

Be safe tonight and celebrate the coming of the New Year in style. Allison and I are heading to Derek and Michelle's for a get together. I'm trying out a new Chicken wing recipe and will let you know how to make it if it goes over well.

Pimp My Name...

Ever wonder what your Pimp name would be, yeah you do...

http://www.playerappreciate.com/pimphandle.asp

By the way.

Andrew Bennett = Master Pimp Andrew Shmoove
Allison Sparks= Sugartastic Allison Large

Allison Adds: Okay, I tried a few times to get that one, but I like it!!

30 Second Movies.. with Bunnies

The 30 second bunny theatre presents some movies that we all know like The Shining and Jaws, but for the holidays it has Its A Wonderful Life.

Check out Angry Alien Productions.

American Red Cross Disaster Relief

You'll notice I have added a box for the American Red Cross Disaster Relief for the people of East Africa and Southeast Asia. There has been nearly $4,000,000.00 donated through Amazon.com. America pledged $35,000,000.00 and was matched by one U.S. company, Pfizer. This water may recede but the disaster is just beginning to unfold.

From the Amazon.com website.

"At least 80,000 people have lost their lives in East Africa and South Asia in the aftermath of the earthquake and resulting tsunamis on December 26. Thousands of people in Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and Indonesia are still missing; many others have lost their homes and livelihoods. Sri Lanka and Indonesia suffered the highest number of deaths, but India, East Africa, Seychelles, Maldives, and Thailand were all affected by the tsunami waves, which reached as high as 20 feet. Aid workers and volunteers are focused on stopping the spread of disease and delivering food and drinking water to survivors. The American Red Cross reports that emergency assessment and first-aid teams were on the ground quickly and are already working with local groups to support relief efforts. Your financial donation will help provide medicine, clothing, food, and shelter for victims of the East Africa and South Asia earthquake and tsunami disaster. Thanks in advance for your participation during this critical time. The American Red Cross name is used with its permission. For more information about the American Red Cross, please call 1‑800 HELP NOW or e-mail info@usa.redcross.org."

"Note to Self....

stay home from the movies during school vacation week."

Last night Allison and I went to the movies to see Spanglish. We had some movie passes that needed to be used up before the end of the month. And since I am not going to just throw money away we needed to use those passes. Unfortunately this is school vacation week, yipee!

Spanglish is an Adam Sandler movie but not like you would expect. It is funny but not in the way you are accustomed to seeing the funny from Sandler. It is touching and has heart and is funny, but not really a movie for teenagers or pre-teens. Why? Because you have to pay attention, not talk on your cell phone or bounce around on the soft springy chairs. I always feel like I could go for a nice vasectomy after spending time around most of today's teenagers. Because I know that no matter what I do to raise my kids right they will probably fall in with the wrong element just to spite me and my 'uptight' ways.

Allison and I were lucky enough to have four Fast and Furious watching, Grand Theft Auto playing, wannabe Gansta and Hoochie looking teen/pre-teens, sit right in front of us. Oh Joy! First they will play switch our seats, then they'll play laugh like an idiot to get attention, then they'll check out text messages and then the thug life wannabes will leave and the hoochies will stay and chat up a storm, till the cranky old guy behind them (me) tells them, "Would you two shut up we are trying to watch a movie!" Eventually they got bored with the movie (to much plot for their tiny brains) and left.

We could then finally enjoy the movie which by the way was very touching and well acted, Sandler was very good in this movie.

I guess what I am saying is that there is no consideration today. Maybe I am just noticing it more. For example, I like to go to Stop and Shop and do the shopping for the week. I enjoy it I really do. I clip coupons and know where everything is in the entire store, you can test me sometime while we are in the store. It's not like I can rattle off the aisle numbers if asked at this exact moment, but once I'm in the store, I'm like a grocery savant.

So I have little patience when I come down an aisle and it is clogged with 'human cholesterol' (my favorite people!) desperately rationalizing to their screaming two year old why they can only buy the regular oreos and not the double stuff. All the while that two year old kid, snot running down their nose and crying is hammering on the cart and screaming. I felt like grabbing some Hydrox or Stop and Shop brand chocolate creme filled cookies and shoving them in her cart. Pick the regular cookies and MOVE ON! Why?, because you are the Mom, because it is your money and if the kid is that much of a brat they don't deserve double stuff. When they get the double stuff they end up as teenage wannabe hoochies that piss me off. The kid is two and is not capable of rationality. Put your foot down!

But I digress. There is a complete lack of consideration and responsibility in many people's actions today. Case in point, when you are at the checkout line or maybe walking around the store do you often see items that should be refrigerated left at the checkout aisle or maybe on the chips shelf somewhere? Hey! if you took something and later you don't want it, PUT IT BACK WHERE YOU FOUND IT! And not in the bread aisle! Jackasss! And while you are at it, move out of the way, get off your cell phone and if you can't set your VCR you probably shouldn't be in the self checkout line.

Goodbye - Jerry Orbach

In sudden and shocking news to me Jerry Orbach who played Lenny Briscoe on Law and Order has passed away from Prostate Cancer. A full story is found here.

I am sad to see that Jerry has died. He was a great part of the original Law and Order series and I was looking forward to his new series Law and Order: Trial by Jury.

We wish his family peace and comfort in their time of loss.

Goodbye Jerry.

Cheese Cake

Last night Allison and I went to Tara and Erik's for a martini and Cheese Cake party. Tara made her very own pumpkin vodka. You coulda used it to strip paint and there were some straining malfunctions, but it was a good first effort. Luckily her prowess with the cheesecakes is so much better. Tara made cherry cheese cake tarts, a pumpkin cheesecake and a peanut butter chocolate chip cheesecake. Those were awesome. And I hear that Shelby made a mean Appletini. Allison sure liked them. Thanks for having us over guys.

Cyclops

I just finished the book on CD by Clive Cussler called Cyclops. Cussler's stories interweave some fantastic plots. This book was no exception. It starts with a shipwreck or some other maritime tragedy per usual that spawns a mystery and eventually reveals an incredible plot of intrigue and suspense. Cussler's hero, Dirk Pitt is the ultimate action hero, he is tough, he is witty, he is good with the ladies, and he is smart. All rolled into one that makes a great action star.

Why hasn't Hollywood picked up this character for a movie, ah but it has. (one of Pitt's earlier adventure called Raise the Titanic) And it has done a craptastic job with Cussler's characters. But Hollywood is producing Clive Cussler's book Sahara as a spring/summer, can Hollywood redeem itself and its past treatment of this literary franchise. Let's hope so.

But it looks unlikely. And the reason why is the casting of characters. The main beef I have with the casting of characters is that of Dirk Pitt's longtime friend Al Giordino. Al is a barrel chested, beefy Italian guy who is a direct contrast to Dirk Pitt's tall commanding, dangerous, presence. Think of an actor who least resembles this character suggestion and you get Steve Zahn. Now don't get me wrong, Steve Zahn is a good actor and can play great characters, however he could not be the Al Giordino of the Dirk Pitt novels. It looks like the character has been modified to be more of a buffoon then a highly skilled pilot and scuba diver and tough guy.

However, I think the movie will be a great action movie if only for the fact that it looks like Matthew McConaughy and Steve Zahn have some good chemistry together. The action looks tight and the story should be compelling. I think that if National Treasure did so well then Sahara has a shot. Let's hope so because Dirk Pitt is an action hero destined to leap off the pages and onto the screen. Look for yourself at the Sahara trailer.

Random Bits

Good morning. Last night Dad and I went to see Meet the Fockers. It was a nice follow up to Meet the Parents. Dustin Hoffman and Robert Deniro were hilarious. I was even able to tolerate Ben Stiller too. (He's got only a couple of original characters and I can tolerate about 2 of them.) But the movie had me laughing out loud alot! Not that that is hard to make happen. I am easily amused.

So, I've become addicted to the online multiplayer game called Runescape. All I can say is thank God it is blocked at work or I would get absolutely nothing done. Since I sold all of my games I found this one by accident. It is a free or subscription game where players earn experience by doing certain tasks like fishing, crafting, fighting, or mining. Its alot of fun because your character is totally your own and you control how they advance in the game. It is alot of fun.

Another online game is called Second Life where you can create anything. It is a 3D multiplayer world where you can build make your life online anything you want. You could build your own motorcycle and whatnot. I just read an article about 9 severely disabled patients who are sharing one Second Life account to play online. I guess one of the patients has motor function in their arms and whatnot but some cannot read and they are all from different backgrounds and they are working together under one account. I found that interesting. I also read that people are building certain items on Second life and are making real money by selling virtual things online. That blows my mind.

I've noticed a rather interesting thing about playing massive multiplayer online games. People are jerks! It doesn't matter if it is the real world of the virtual one if you are a jerk you continue to be one online even when you can be whoever you want to be. So why not be nice. There are people who are at higher levels who hog all the resources and look down on new players. There is an option to go into the "wilderness" to fight against other players. And there are constantly people trying to lure others (new players or 'noobs' as many of the experienced players call those whose level is even one point lower than themselves.) into the wilderness so they can kill them and take their stuff. I guess the virtual world isn't much different than the real one huh?

But then there are nice people who help out new players. Some guy needed wool from a sheep (you can shear sheep, get the wool and spin it and then use it for various other items like weaving and whotnot) and he paid me 80 coins per piece of wool. I made 7000 coins in very little time. It was pretty sweet.

I've also noticed that I can't stand the shorthand speech of the Internet, I tend not to talk to players who spell 'what' as 'wat' or anything else that is netspeak. Pet peeve, I know, I'm such a snob. Actually I tend not to talk to anyone for any reason. I work on gaining experience for my character and ignore all else.

Time Archive

So I picked up TIME magazine the other night while my Dad and I were watching the football game. I noticed something really interesting in the magazine. TIME magazine worked with HP to create the TIME Archive. This is a digital archive of every TIME magazine from 1923 to present. That is 4,100 issues that came out over the course of those years. It also has an area where you can see all the covers. You can also put in your birthday and get the cover closest to that date. Here is mine. April 8, 1974 (My birthday is the 9th but this was the closest cover. In case anyone was confused.)

Monday Morning Snowfall

Good morning folks. It's early and I've already been up shovelling, as I figure many of you have been doing as well. I figured while I was up I would post a selection of photos from the holiday weekend. Enjoy.

Shelby's Cat Lilah, All Christmassy with the red bow and green glowing eyes.

Movie Night Snack Pack from Tara and Erik

Mom and Dad by our tree on Christmas Eve

Marcia and Allison on Christmas Day

Dan opening gifts on Christmas Day

Allison, Grandma Theresa and Mom on the day after Christmas

Grandpa Bennett and his personal Red Sox World Series Bat

The Three Andrews, Jr. Sr. & III

Actors in Grandma's Annual Christmas Pagent

The Grandchildren, Great-Grandchildren, Spouses, & Fiances.

The Day After

Merry Day after Christmas. Did you go to the sales, was Christmas not over at your house? Today Allison and I headed to the Cape to visit with the Grandparents Williams. We had breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa and Jim and Donna, Carissa, Shaun, Chris and Karen. Tara and Erik and Mom and Dad and Shelby came also. We had a nice visit and then headed further down the Cape.

In the Bennett family, Christmas comes twice a year. Each year we have the annual family Christmas Party with the Bennetts. That would be the Grandparents Bennett and their eight children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. The event is a very special one to Allison and I and we wouldn't miss it for anything. The highlight of the day is the traditional Yankee Swap, (Where gifts are generally items from your home that are in good working order that would be useful to someone else but you no longer have a use for. Toothbrushes and half rolls of toilet paper excluded.) I have some photos from the weekend and will post them tomorrow. Right now I am beat.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! Allison and I have been making the Christmas rounds. Yesterday we spent time with my family. Al and I went to 4:00 mass at Sacred Heart Church. I must be getting old because I can't remember there being that many screaming kids in mass on previous years. After mass we had dinner with my family. We had a bacon wrapped pork roast from Bob's Market (very tasty) and then we opened presents. Mom and Dad surprised us kids (including Erik and Allison) with 4 day passes to Disney for our upcoming trip! Thanks Mom and Dad! The three kids and Allison and Erik gave my Dad an extended stay in Disney and a three day Harley rental. So Dad gets a couple extra days to himself to soak up the sun on an Iron Horse. Tara and Erik gave us a movie night basket and Shelby gave me a great shirt and fleece from Old Navy. We all gave and received some very nice gifts. Thanks everyone.

After our exchange downstairs Allison and I went upstairs to give each other our stockings. Allison got me Buffett's A Salty Piece of Land and the Spiderman 2 DVD! I gave her a game called Catchphrase that she calls "Smack It!" and a fondue for two set. Then we feel asleep during hour one of he 24 hours of A Christmas Story Marathon on TBS.

This morning we got up and headed up to NH to spend the Day with MArcia and Dan and exchange gifts with them too. I got some very nice clothes for work and a best buy card and other fun things. Allison got some nice clothes and a great wooden bowl. We are ready to entertain but got no place to put our stuff. Nate and Sarah gave us a great set of sunflower dishes and a pie cooling rack and other pie related items. Of wich I am grateful because when Allison made pies yesterday I nearly singed my eyebrows off crimping tin foil around the crust edges. Thanks guys. We also got some nice gifts from Harry and Sherrie that were sent from Kentucky. Thanks! I hope that your Christmas day is going well. We are preparing our afternoon meal that Dan got form his "Meat Guy" up here in NH. The place is called the Bull Run and it has great food. Merry Christmas!

Twas the Day before Christmas..

And we're at our house. Allison and I each had today off of work and we spent it doing domestic things, like cooking and cleaning and wrapping gifts. I hope everyone has a great Christmas!

More Desk Fun

In my previous post I put up my transformers. This post will showcase my Harley Davidson pin collection. I just got my newest pin today. One from Aruba. Ruth went to Aruba and picked me up one of the shop pins. I've had four other groups of people go down to Aruba and try to find me a pin. Because they had been sold out and on backorder I didn't get one. But luckily the pins cleared customs and Ruth was able to bring one back. Thanks Ruth! I have quite a few pins in my collection, mostly from places I have been while working for MEDITECH. Others I've gotten from vacationing friends and family. The collection keeps getting bigger and better. Enjoy.

My Aruba Pin

One of these was from Yos-E-mite Harley Davidson

The Cape Cod Harley Shop, Schaeffer's in PA and Boswell's in Nashville

Mardi Gras, Pacific Harley in Hawaii, Las Vegas, New Hampshire and a keychain from the Bahamas

Christmas Memories

One of my earliest Childhood memories about Christmas is when I was 5 years old and my grandparents Williams gave me a Lego set. One of the original sets with plain red and black and grey bricks, the standard little guys with the smiley faces. With this set you got an entire book of things you could create. One of those being a Mac Truck. I built that truck and spent hours playing with it. What a fantastic toy. My imagination gave me more fun than any other toys until I got into the Transformers. At 10 years old when I got my first Transformer (Wheeljack and then Prime) my imagination was sparked again. I would spend hours setting up battles with my Transformers, then I would take each apart with a tiny screwdriver set (pilfered from my father and then stripped pretty bare because I unscrewed everything.) and then put back together. I still have the love for the Transformers and thought I would share with you the view looking back at me from my desk.

Grimlock - 2005 Mustang GT

Tracks - Z06 Corvette Swindle - Jeep Wrangler Silverstreak - Subaru WRC Dead End - Dodge Viper

Sideswipe - Dodge Viper Convertible Hound - Jeep Wrangler Jazz - Mazda RX8 Bluestreak - Subaru WRT Optimus Prime - Mack Truck

My 'Army' or 'Parking Lot' depending upon my mood.

One year of Posts!

One year ago today Allison and I started this blog. We are very happy that our friends and family have been faithfully reading our posts throughout the year. This coming year promises to be even more exciting. What with our wedding coming up and all.< Anyway Thank you very much for reading. And have a Merry Christmas! (I'll post again before the New Year to wish you that too.)

The North Pole

My friend and trivia maven Lorie sent me this message.

Here's a good website link for the blog..if you know people with kids..

www.northpole.com

It's an interactive web site for kids, parents teachers etc.. with all kinds of activities related to Santa, the North pole and Christmas. The coolest part is there is a link to NORAD where they do a Santa tracker on X-mas Eve so you can see with your kids where exactly Santa is on his journey.

Check it out!!

Christmas Cookies.

Okay while not actually cookies these quick and easy (can you tell I'm in marketing now?) recipes will satisfy the most discerning tastebuds. Our friend Mo sent me this recipe and it sounds so good I had to share it.

The "Poor Man's" Truffle (though I like them better than the real thing!)

Ingredients:
Small pretzel twists
Rolos
Pecans

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Place pretzels on cookie sheet (non-stick...preferably with a sil-pat)
Place one rolo on top of pretzel.
Put in oven for 5 minutes
Take out and squish rolo down to fill pretzel.
Put nuts on top.
Refridgerate for 10 minutes to harden.

SOOO goood!! How can it not be with the word "squish" in it!!

Another twist on this recipe is to substitute the mini pretze twists for the checkerboard style pretzels (I think they are called snaps) and hersey's kisses they are prepared the same way but you squish an M&M on top. A couple of years ago Marcia made them for us and I must have eaten 2000 of them in about 15 minutes, (exaggerated but I wanted to eat 2000 of them, they were that good.)

Enjoy the Holiday Treats.

Harry Potter VI is DONE!!!!

I may have to break my resolve for book buying to get my hands on the next Harry Potter Book: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. J.K. Rowling announced today that Book VI is done. Seeing as I'd gotten books 4 and 5 on the days they came out and read them within the next two days thereafter, I may have to save the gift cards I have so I can buy that book (Which doesn't break my pact with myself because tecnically a gift card for a book store is not the same as paying cash or putting a book on my credit card.)

I'd also like to thank my pal Meghan for getting me the first 3 books back when I was a Saint A's working as a Residence Hall Director. And for her telling me to hurry up and finish so we could talk about the books through our entire bus trip to Montreal and back.

Update 12/22/04 - Amazon.com has put up a preorder page for Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince which will be released on July 16, 2005. Pre-Order Yours Today.

Coyotes and Garden State

This one is for Rick.... Garden State comes out on DVD on December 28th. So its time to get out the ugly shirts and shout into the Abyss. This fantastic movie that I can't say enough about is hitting stores next Tuesday. Another bit of entertainment news would be the release of the the short lived (4 or 5 episodes) series called Wonderfalls. Well the complete series (unfortunately only a scant 13 episodes were taped) comes out on DVD on February 1, 2005.

And I will also mention three other DVD sets that I saw yesterday at Target that you may want to pick up before the next time I do 80's TV trivia (Althought Season one of the Dukes was from 1979, I remember watching that show with my friend Kevin Cryan.). Those would be season one of Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider and The A-Team. I also threw in Season Two of the Dukes and an Unofficial Guide to the Knight Rider Universe because that makes me laugh. I dug deeper into this item and found the complete synopsis of every one of the Knight Rider episodes. 90 in all plus the synopsis of the Knight Rider 2000 movie. Knight Rider Episode List.

And since I looked up the guides for Knight Rider I thought I'd look up the Dukes and A-Team as well. Guess what The Dukes had 147 episodes over 7 seasons plus 2 TV movies. Epidose Guide for the Dukes of Hazzard. And of Course the A-Team Episode List. 98 Episodes over 5 seasons, no movies and no plans for a Big Screen movie but just wait it may happen.

The Website TV Tome is a great resource when you have a disagreement about who starred in what show or who was a guest on what show. It is a great resource for the TV enthusiast.

So what does this post have to do with coyotes you ask. I almost clocked one this morning on my way to work. It tore across a busy residential road (Route 85 in Southboro). Man, what a beautiful animal. I'm glad it was quicker than the Civic.

80's Flashback

Whip out the Trapper Keeper. I've found some cool 80's stuff. No quarters needed.

20 Questions

Ever Play 20 Questions. Well someone has created an A.I. interface on the web where you can play 20 questions against the A.I. computer. I guess I thought of obscure stuff because I beat it twice.

20Q.net

Christmas is in the Air

Well, Christmas is in the air and falling all over my car. Did you know that at 5:45 AM ice is the coldest and hardest to get off your car? Its 100% true. I'm starting to get the Christmas spirit, almost time to pull out the Jimmy Buffett and Kenny Chesney albums. And of course I need to listen to the album by Walter Brennan and the Elvis Christmas songs and Christmas will be here.

This weekend Allison and I went to Fitchburg to visit Eva and John, Allison's Grandparents to bring them their Christmas gifts. They took us out for an Engagement Meal and we exchanged gifts over Eva's fantastic homemade lemon squares. After our visit we drove down to Hopkinton for Christine and Marc's rocking Christmas Bash. What an amazing array of food. And there were babies galore around so Allison was quite entertained for most of the evening. It was nice to catch up with some of the folks from implementation. We even found out that Allison and I stayed at the exact same place that Patty and Chris did at moosehead lake. Same B&B same room everything. So we exchanged stories about our experiences there and had a lot of laughs.

True to form, I had my camera with me and was able to get a shot of all the folks from the LAB MSR group who were there that night.

Christine, Me, Joanne, Peter and Rick, by the Christmas Tree

Church Signs

I am convinced that the Internet is one guy who comes up with cool stuff and then sends a message to his talkative friends, who pass along the information like wildfire all over. Basically what I am saying is I am taking note of a cool website that I found on another cool website. I give you. The Church Sign Generator.

Okay here's an interactive bit of the site. I want you to use the The Church Sign Generator to make a witty sign. I know you've seen them in front of churches all over and I bet that some of the good ones stick out in your memories so here is what I'd like you to do.

Go to The Church Sign Generator and create your witty (please no offensive materials messages.) and save the file and send it to me. I will create a page for the signs so everyone can see your creativity.

How to save an image from the Internet. If you already know this please skip. Generate your sign at The Church Sign Generator then once the sign is created put your mouse over the picture and use your right mouse button. There should be a menu with options. Choose "Save Picture As..." then save the image to your desktop for easy retrieval and then e-mail it to me.

I will post a collection of the signs in a future blog post.

Okay so digging deeper through the sites I came across a few things.

1. There are books that collect pictures of actual church signs.

2. I found a site called God Hates Shrimp.A parody site based on fundamentalists and their oh so wacky close minded blind devotion to the "Literal Truth" within the Bible.

I'm not going to get into it, but let me say this, have you ever written a paper for college at the beginning of the week and you believed that your position was solid and then had some insight or influence later that week so you revised that paper?

Well, imagine 1500+ years to work on that paper with influences from years of study and thought and political agendas. What about all the different versions that abound as well. And don't forget that some things do not translate literally, and how about the many languages the Bible has been translated to and from. How can you derive direct quotes from the Bible as "Literal Truths" when the Bible is no longer the exact literal text that was first written. I mean, I've rewritten this last paragraph 15 times so far and its only been an hour since I first posted.

I'm no theologian, (although I experimented in college) but the core value of the Bible is Love thy Neighbor, as you Love Yourself. Everything else leads up to that. The Golden Rule is the key value, something that you see in the stories about the actions of Jesus. Why do you think that the WWJD movement is so big, it is so simple, Jesus acted out of love, plain and simple. What would Jesus do? He would Love.

I guess I did get into it then. Go, eat some shrimp. Make a funny Church Sign. Serious boy is taking his soapbox and going home.

Take 5

Have you seen the new candy bar by Hershey's yet? It is called the Take 5. Why is it called that? Well it has five awesome ingredients blended into the world's most perfect candy bar. Let's look at the ingredients shall we.

• Pretzels - Out of the gate this candy bar caught my attention. Pretzels, pretzels in my candy bar, not since the invention of Ben and Jerry's Chubby Hubby have I been so excited to try a new product.
• Caramel - Well everything tastes better with Caramel.
• Peanuts - Crunchy and tasty, a winner.
• Peanut Butter - Peanuts and Peanut Butter, well this can't get any better can it?
• Milk Chocolate - That's right Hershey's signature chocolate encapsulates the 4 previous ingredients.

The Take 5 candy bar comes as two pieces like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. The bottom layer is the pretzel, then the peanut butter then caramel then peanuts and finally the whole thing is wrapped in milk chocolate. These are great candy bars and they are on sale at stop and shop, buy one get one free for a total of $0.69 for 2.

What I find so great about Take 5 is the balance of flavors. I've had candy bars from Canada and Ireland that tried to mix different flavors and textures but they were all just a little off. If you don't believe me check out the international aisle in the supermarket sometime and check out the candy bars, they don't compare the America's Candy Bars.

This product is so new that the Hersey's Website doesn't even have any information about it.

* Correction, after I did a search for "Take 5" I was able to find the site dedicated to it, and for you NASCAR fans there is a Take 5 promotion on the page.

Last Laugh '04

Comedy Central is running a special called Last Laugh '04 and some clips are up on the internet.
Allison just sent me this one.

"Go Sox"!

Gettin' in the Holiday Spirit

Allison and I put up the tree last night. It is a Colorado Blue Spruce and we intend to plant it after Christmas. No room for a large tree this year as in past years, even my parents scaled back. Instead of the 11 foot trees of the past they went with a 9 foot one instead. Still it fills the space nicely and has a great shape to it.

Our tree is decorated with handmade ornaments that my Grandmother Theresa made. She also made the giant stars in the same manner, that Tara used to decorate for her wedding.

Speaking of wedding plans, have you seen the Wedding F.A.Q. located at the top left of the blog. That will be the best place to go for wedding information and where you can go to ask questions.

Last night after we set up the tree, Allison and I finished making this year's Christmas gifts. Once Christmas is over I'll post some photos of the gifts we made as well as some other information. But for now I can direct you to the books where we got our inspiration. (Our first Gifts in a ... Book came from Bonnie and Howard.)

Gifts in a ... Series

• Gifts in a Jar - Cookies * Own and Recommend!
• Gifts in a Jar - Holiday Fun
• Gifts in a Jar - Soups
• Gifts in a Jar: Cocoas, Cappuccinos, Coffees & Teas
• Gifts in a Jar: Bars & Brownies
• Gifts in a Jar: Cakes & Cobblers
• Gifts in a Jar: Muffins & Breads
• Gifts in a Jar: One Dish Meals
• Gifts in a Jar: For the Slow Cooker
• Gifts in a Jar: For Kids
• The Best Gifts in a Jar, Vol. 1
• Gifts in a Bottle: Liqueurs
• Gifts in a Bottle: Salad Shakers
• Gifts in a Bottle: Sweet & Sassy Sauces
• Gifts in a Bottle: Bath & Body
• Gifts in a Bag: Hot Drinks
• Gifts in a Bag: Dips * Own and Recommend!
• Gifts in a Bag: Rubs & Seasonings

Ebay Blues

I have sold my first item on Ebay. I carefully checked out similar items to the one I was selling and saw that they were getting $150 - $200+ so I thought hey why not put up an auction. $61.00 was the winning bid. What! Oh well, its more than I would have sold it in the rip off store in the mall, but still. Now that I've done one auction its time to get the rest of the items up and out the door. Maybe the next auction will get me a nice shiny nickle.

Also I am trying to sell off my comic books to make wedding money. Here is a list of my comic books for sale selllist.xls

Charlie Harper Sucks

If you are a fan of CBS' Two and a Half Men and saw last night's episode you know that Charlie and Alan found a website called www.charlieharpersucks.com. Well CBS actually made the website and all the funny parts of the site were revealed on the show but it is funny anyways. The show is a riot, not as good as Scrubs, but then again what is.

The Hieracrchy of Geekdom

An interesting chart I found at Kung Fu Monkey. It is the Hieracrchy of Geekdom. Pretty funny.

Flatwater Bookstore - Open

I've started my very own Amazon.com Associates Bookstore. I'll be posting listings of books that I have read or would like to read or have heard are good. I will also be listing music CDs and DVD's. So far I have one post of Clive Cussler books because that is the series I am reading right now. The bookstore is a separate blog but I have added a link to is on the side-bar. To access the booksotre directly foolow this link. http://flat-water.blogspot.com/.

Dinner at Neil and Andrea's

Last night Allison and I went to see Neil and Andrea for dinner. We had some wedding questions to ask them and also wanted to see their wedding picture proofs to determine if we were going to work with the same photographer, sorry guys we are stealing many things about your wedding that we liked alot. Dinner was excellent as always with fresh baked bread and real grated cheese and an Alton Brown chocolate mousse. Fantastic.

And during the evening I asked Neil to be my best man. Neil has been a friend of mine since second grade, (granted there was some little tiff along the way that little boys have over little girls, but we moved on.) and I am so happy that he said yes.

Bill and Jen's Wedding

Yesterday my cousin Bill married his fiance Jen in Keene, NH. Allison and I stopped in Fitchburg to visit Bob and Jackie for lunch before we continued up to Keene. The wedding was very nice and the ceremony very moving. I used the new camera to tape most of it.

After the wedding we went down to Rindge to the reception at Hidden Hills. The whole family was there. We got to see all of my Aunts and Uncles. Dinner was great with some sweet dinner rolls, (they were actually sweet). Lots of dancing and excitement. And Aunt Carol made the cake, my favorite kind of cake ever because it has the best frosting ever. I'll have some pictures up soon.

Bill and Jen leaving the church

The Mother/Son dance Carol with Bill

The Wedding Cake, So good get me a glass of milk and I'm all set.

There are no pictures of Allison and I yet because there were none on my camera, (I haven't shown anyone how to use it yet) but I'll have to get the pictures from mom's camera to put up. Gotta show everyone how beautiful Allison looked that evening.

Wedding F.A.Q.

This is the Wedding F.A.Q. It will be a permanently updated link until the wedding. These are the questions that we have been asked since we were engaged. If you have a question please ask through the comments section. We will do our best to answer any and all questions (Within Reason)

Latest news! - 11/11/05

So here is what has been happening as of late.

11/12/05 - The Wedding Day! The guys are going to be arriving soon to go for breakfast. The rehearsal went very well last night. The rehearsal dinner was alot of fun. Everyone got to see the wedding favor for the first time and they were very happy with it. I'll give a very detailed account of it soon.


Not So Latest news! - Before November 12, 2005

11/11/05 - Last day before the wedding. Man this has flown by so quickly. So quickly. So let's see about updates. Pretty much everything that needs to be done has been done. Now it is here and the roller coaster is slowly ratcheting up the hill, the twists and turns are on there way! We will have tons of updates in the next couple of weeks.

11/08/09 - Last night Allison and I met with Kevin at the Holiday Inn to talk about the reception. We went over every detail and are confident that it is going to be an excellent night. He's even getting us an 8X8 screen for the supere secret wedding favors. Which I cannnot wait to show people. Only three more days before they are revealed to the Wedding party then another day till everyone at the reception gets one.

Sunday Allison and I took our Wedding Crash Course dance lessons at Best Foot Forward in Newton. Sara and Norm were great instructors and we had a great time. Check out our moves in 4 days.

Last night we talked with our photographer Cullen Jones. We talked about what type of pictures we wanted to have taken. So Saint A's, Suesquehanna, Bishop Feehan and Memorial folks get ready for some group shots.

11/05/05 -

Allison completed the church program for the ceremony. We put together the bags for out of town guests who are staying at the hotel.

11/02/05 -

Cake topper has arrived. We spoke with Jeff the DJ last night and mapped out the dances. Allison's engagement ring is being sized. The cake topper is at the bakery and we got a program to use as a guide for our ceremony program. I had my bachelor party on the 29th of October, it was at Dave and Buster's and a great time.

10/24/05 -

We completed the wedding ceremony, music, readings whatnot.
Allison will be sending the readins to our readers. Erin, Bart and Maureen

We are almost finished with the seating chart. Still waiting on some responses.

10/20/05 -
The cake topper is done.

What? I'm not showing it till the wedding. It should be coming across the pond soon.

We have the liscense.

Almost all the response cards are back. If you haven't returned yours please send it in. Thanks.

10/18/05 - The Engagement Announcement hit the Sun Chronicle and the Union Leader this weekend.

10/15/05 - We have mailed out all the invitations. We have received over half of them back, probably closer to two thirds. So thanks for getting those RSVP's mailed back. We have completed the wedding favors and they came out great, if I do say so myself, and I do. We have also completed the invites for the rehearsal dinner and sent those out. All of the groomsmen and fathers have gotten fitted for tuxes. Allison has had her shower. We are almost complete on the ceremony. And today we are begining to work on the seating chart. So we are still a bit crazy busy.

08/23/05

• Directions from the Holiday Inn to the Church
• Directions from the Church to the Reception

08/22/05

Our Custom Guestbook has arrived.

Invitations are coming together

More odds and ends taken care of.

The wedding ceremony is almost complete.

Wedding party Gifts are being purchased.

08/06/05

• The invitation design is complete.
• The Rings have been picked out and ordered.
• We've met with Fr. Dave about the ceremony.
• The gifts for the wedding party and parents have been decided upon.
• Andy, Denise, Dan and Marcia have given us some generous amounts of help. (Thank You)
• We've made final choices at the Reception site for dinner and whatnot
• We've ordered our custom cake topper.

07/27/05 - We're checking out wedding rings. We've set the dinner menu. We've booked Allison's room for Friday night.

07/11/05 - Okay so I haven't been so good about updating this. But with the days quickly approaching double digits I need to get to updating this. We've gotten the Tuxes picked out, the groomsmen and the fathers need to go for their fittings. This would be at Mr. Tux. We just checked out a location for the rehearsal dinner last night. Looks like The Moose Cabin in Attleboro will be where we will have that. It is a nice new family restaurant that has a very large function room. It is great because the place has the same decor of the Evergreen Lodge. The place we stayed when we got engaged.

4/26/05 - We've set up the Macy's Registry this weekend. That registry can be accessed here. Macy's Registry

4/17/05 - The Honeymoon has been booked! We are going to have seven nights in Sunny Aruba at the Tamarijn All-Inclusive Resort. I was able to cut the price of the vacation in half by using 200,000 American Airline miles. All that traveling the past 3 years has paid off.

4/16/05 - Allison and I went to Mr. Tux at the Emerald Square Mall and picked out the tux for the wedding. One more thing off the checklist.

4/12/05 - Allison met with the florist and worked out the flowers.

4/11/05 - Allison and I completed our Marriage Preparation Course on Sunday April 10, 2005 at St. Joseph's in Taunton. We were among 33 engaged couples participating int he day. It was a good day.

4/11/05 -We are getting nearer to our selection of a honeymoon place, well actually, it is selected, we are going to be going to Aruba for 7 nights at the Tamarijn All-Inclusive Resort. I am just waiting for 1,500 airline miles to hit my account so I can book the trip. We are using American Airlines Vacations to book the trip and I'll be unloading 200,000 airline miles to cut the price of the week by more than half. Three years of hoarding miles has paid off. I just have to wait a little bit longer.


Q. How did Drew propose?
A. Please read this Blog Entry

Q. When is the wedding?
A. November 12, 2005

Q. What time?
A. Morning Wedding, 10:00am

Q. Where is the wedding?
A. Sacred Heart Church North Attleboro, MA

Q. Why not Saint A's?
A. We live across the street from Sacred Heart and may end up finding a home in North Attleboro, Sacred Heart is our church.

Q. Where is the reception?
A. The Mansfield Holiday Inn

Q. I'm coming from out of town, what is the nightly rate for the Holiday Inn Mansfield?
A. We have blocked off rooms and the rate is $79.00. You can book a room now, it is under the name Bennett-Sparks Wedding.

Q. How Do I get from the Holiday Inn to the Church and from the Church to the Reception Hall to the Holiday Inn.
A. Directions from the Holiday Inn to the Church
Directions from the Church to the Reception

Q. What time is the Reception?
A. 11:00 Cocktail hour
12:00 Reception Begins

Q. Chicken or Beef or Fish?
A. The choices are Hunter Chicken or Baked Scrod

Q. Does Allison have her dress?
A. Marcia bought Allison's dress on Feb 12, 2005. Allison and Marcia are very excited about it and Allison looks beautiful in it. I was told this - I have not seen it and will not until the wedding.
Allison, Marcia,T.R., Elise and Lindsey picked out the bridesmaid dresses and picked up Allison's wedding dress. Also Allison has received here veil and tiara from her eBay purchases.

Q. What are the wedding colors?
A. (Burgundy or Cranberry) and Ivory

Q. Have you chosen all the songs?
A. Not all but at least three important ones.
Our Song and the Bride and Father of the Bride Dance, Mother Son Dance.

Q. Who is your Photographer
A. Cullen Jones, we met with him this morning and were very impressed, we'll complete a contract later this week. You can see some of his stuff at his website. http://www.cullenjonesphotography.com/

Q. Who is your DJ? - 4/11/05
A. Jeff from DJ Jett Entertainment. He's a fixture at the Bennett Family weddings so why not at ours too.

Q. Where are you registered?
A. Target, Macy's

Q. Will the cats be part of the wedding? (Actually asked)
A. Do we look like crazy people.

Q. Who is in the wedding party?
A.
Maid of Honor: Elise Lane Buchanan - A college friend and Zeta Sister
Bridesmaids: Jen Black DeBell - A college friend and Zeta Sister
Lindsay Gagnon - A high school friend and my "twin"
T.R. Harris - A Zeta Alum friend and my walking buddy for the 3-Day

Best Man: Neil Lambert - Close friend of 22 years.
Groomsmen: Derek Wesley - High School Friend of 12+ years
Ken Belbin - We worked together at Saint A's, Friend since college.
James Inglee - Friend of 5+ years, I introduced him to his wife.

Q. Are you going to play the chicken dance?
A. There will be a Do Not Play List, the list and its contents will be determined. Check this space for future updates.

Some new links

You may have noticed a couple of new links on the site. I am working on setting up a bookstore through Amazon.com. There will be a link to it on the sidebar, but in the meantime I have added some Amazon.com banner ads to the bottom of the page.

I've also added a link to the Bank One credit card site if you are looking for a new credit card. I've been with Bank One since they were First USA and this has been a great credit card for me. I won't stand behind anything I haven't used myself and I won't be cluttering the site with ads, but I've added some and will continue to recommend items and link to Amazon.com.

When I recommend a book or CD you can click through to that book or CD or DVD right to Amazon.com. And if you buy anything through one of our links then you are helping us with the wedding fund because I have set up an Amazon.com Associates account. I figure that millions of people are buying on Amazon.com all the time and why not connect to Amazon.com through this site.

The online bookstore and recommendations are coming soon. Look for it.

I just saw the taped episode of this past Wednesday's LOST and the show just keeps getting better and better, but now we are into reruns for a few weeks, but guess what next week is a two hour episode the first two episodes back to back. So now is your time to get LOST!!!

I also just watched the taped episode of Ellen from Thursday with Zach Braff. That guy is just so funny. And the Garden State DVD is up for Pre-order and is being released on December 28th. But you can get the Grammy nominated Soundtrack now.

Advertising on my soda.

The other night when Allison and I saw the Jimmy Buffett Coastal Confession Concert, (which was awesome!), I found a new kind of advertisement. Dan got us some popcorn and soda and on the top of the soda cup enclosed in a special lid was a CD. The advertising company is called LidRock and they create CD's that have advertisment items for video games, music and movies as well as for major stores or events. This CD has a Circuit city advertizement and a couple of music videos and 5 free downloads from more music.com. There are also movie previews and video game previews contained on the disk. It certainly caught my attention.

I'm thinking of contacting LidRock to make our wedding favor CD's and having them placed on the beverage lids at the McDonalds where the reception will be held.

Pop Culture and Advertising Collide

Here is a great ad from Nokia featuring my favorite Autobot, Optimus Prime. The add uses the best toy ever, the 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime Action figured, which is prominently featured on my desk at work. I should take a picture sometime. But since I am in Canton today I cannot.

On a side note I had a rockin' demonstration dry run this morning and hope to keep the momentum going tomorrow during my formal demonstration. Not bad for 4 hours of sleep.

A Coastal Confession

Last night Allison and I took her parents, Marcia and Dan to the Regal Cinemas at the Solomon Pond mall to see A Coastal Confession: A night with Jimmy Buffett. What an awesome event. Jimmy Buffett was in New Orleans for a night of music and readings from his book, A Salty Piece of Land.

The book is actually centered around one of his characters, Tully Mars from a series of short stories called Tales from Margaritaville. I've read that set of short stories and I am so excited to see Tully Mars back in action. The format of the event was a LIVE simulcast across the country to over 100 movie theatres. And lest you forgot that the event was live a message would appear at the bottom of the screen that said Live from New Orleans. I just found that funny, but that's just me.

Here's the press release on the event. What I found awesome was how Jimmy discussed his writing style. Sure it is the good old write what you know sort of thing. (Hence my heavily airport themed raving posts.) But Jimmy also made me want to find out more about lighthouses and of course learn more about the history of pirates. Jimmy played a bunch of songs including one of my favorites from his new album called "Piece of Work" Jimmy and his beach band played that with the songwriter, And I can't remember his name. On the album he plays the song with Tobey Keith. That is a great song. What was also great was getting some insight on the behind the scenes of certain songs. Here is an interview about A Salty Piece of Land.

Jimmy Buffett Books

• Jolly Mon (Children's book)
• Tales from Margaritaville
• A Pirate Looks at Fifty
• Where is Joe Merchant?
• A Salty Piece of Land
• Trouble Dolls (Children's book)

Kitten Survives 275-Mile Ride Next to Car Engine

Story from Reuters, Oddly Enough News.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German couple was shocked after a 275-mile car journey to discover a surprise stowaway cowering next to the engine of their car -- a 6-week-old kitten.

The meows of the tiny animal only became audible after Elisabeth and Dieter Gesehl had parked their car.

"First of all we called the police as we feared for a moment that we must have run over and seriously injured a cat," the 64-year-old woman from Eggenfelden told Bonn express newspaper.

After checking under the hood, however, they discovered the unharmed kitten. The animal, which the couple have since adopted and named "Pussy," was soon back to normal after a few minutes of petting.

There is so much one could say about this story. I'll leave it to you to make your own punchlines.

Ellis Pa.... Er, Vance Gilbert Concert

On Sunday night Allison took me to the Vance Gilbert concert at the Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry NH. Vance was incredible. But before Vance took the stage, as a favor to his friend Ellis Paul (Who was prevented from coming by a family emergency), we listened to some guy I think his name was Dave or Dan or something. Anyway he loves Jerusalem (He told us 25 times in one song, subtle).... Yeah, well I hope that works out for you buddy. His songs were hard to follow and got annoying quickly.

Vance Gilbert was great though, this guy has such a range. He sings so well and he is funny as hell. He had to match wits with some lady in front of us who kept blurting things out at random times. But he handled himself well and didn't let her rattle him. Obviously she annoyed me, but then again what doesn't annoy me. But you all know that Allison and I have the absolute worst luck about picking seats at any event that we attend. It is a given that some wacko will be sitting near us and want to interact with us. I like to keep my interactions with wackos down to a once a week , tops.

For his encore, Vance Gilbert came out into the crowd and sang a song a capella and it was so powerful. We missed out and didn't have our copy of Side of the Road with us so we got no autographs or photos. Maybe next time.

Joe and Jen's Wedding

This weekend, my friend Joe Hausmann got married!! Congrats to Joe and his lovely wife Jen!! They are a fabulous couple and we are truly happy for them.

I met Joe at Saint Paul's Advanced Studies Program in Concord, NH. We had a great experience at the ASP and continued our friendship beyond our time there.

On Saturday evening Joe and Jen were married at Saint Joseph's Parish in Epping, NH and a lovely reception followed at The Three Chimneys Inn in Durham. The reception was very festive with Christmas trees Gingerbread houses decorating the room. It was a wonderful evening - Thanks to Joe & Jen for inviting us to celebrate with them.

Here are some pictures from the evening with Drew's captions.

The Wedding Cake

Cutting the Cake

Allison and Drew, looking festive

This was above the 'throne' in the men's room. I didn't notice it at first because I grabbed some toilet paper to blow my nose and as I am blowing my nose I look up and am practically nose to snout with this boar. Oh, well if you're gonna get the crap scared out of you, might was well be in the bathroom.

Joe and some fine ladies

The Happy Couple and the Happy Couple in training.

The BIGGEST Sparks News Yet!

That's right folks, usually one to sit quietly and let his family be the wild and crazy attention-getting bunch, Dan-o has pulled an unexpected move and announced the biggest news of the year for the Sparks family - he has recieved an offer and accepted a job!!!

Where is he working, you might ask... I haven't a clue. He will be doing Marketing for a company that is spread nationwide and he will be working from his home office in Manchester.

Way to go Dan-o!! We're all very proud of you!

New Feature

I've added a new feature to the blog. I have added two blog feeds, one from gizmodo for all my techno geek friends and Upcoming.org: Boston events for those of us in the New England area. If anyone would like to see a different feed please let me know I'll look into this further and come up with some more items over time.

New Blogs of Note

Today I heard about the word Blog being the top of the list of new words being introduced by the 2005 edition of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

I've found many new blogs of note. I've added additions to my list that already includes the outstanding Zach Braff (No Scrubs last night, Blast it!), and The Incredible Hulk and Neil's View.

I have added Renee's Rants. Renee is a friend of Tara's who has created an insightful and humorous blog.

Gelatometti A Blog by Amazing Comic book artist Jim Lee.

Kung Fu Monkey. A Blog written by John Rogers, the reported writer of the now in production Transformers Live Action Movie slated for a 2006 release and being produced by Steven Spielberg.

New Trivia Tournament Starts Today!

The trivia Contest from last month is now complete. A new tournament begins today. Remember to play every day to stay in the running for the top ten for the month of December. Here is the final standings for the Month of November.

Nov 04

61 players played during the month.

1. abennett48 (396 points, 3 wins)
2. roller74 (365 points, 1 wins)
3. smartgirl (316 points, 4 wins)
4. ekstaron (311 points, 2 wins)
5. Jo'CRAZY (308 points, 3 wins)
6. Mo (307 points, 3 wins)
7. triviamonkey (297 points, 4 wins)
8. Emperor Wesley (283 points, 1 wins)
9. alsparky (263 points, 0 wins)
10. Gamblor (259 points, 0 wins)

61 Players! That is awesome! Thanks everyone for playing and inviting friends to play as well. A new topic and tournament started today. 80's Television. Enjoy!