All posts for the month August, 2020

Crumb cake & NYPD hoagies.

It was hard to get back into the swing of things today. Genifer got me this delicious crumb cake from Napoli Cafe when we stopped for coffee in North Top Sail Beach as we were starting our trip back home…

I didn’t go into Napoli Cafe with Genifer. I stayed in the car with Oscar…

Look at all that crumb topping…

It was as much crumb topping as it was cake. And it was delicious. Really good. One of the inadvertent themes of our trip was crumb cakes and crumbles. Without trying, I ate three crumb cakes during our trip. I think this last one was my favorite. It made getting back to work this morning a little bit easier.

I must be out of practice and a little bit rusty. This morning, I completely forgot to take photos of the sky from the top of the hill at the end of our street. But I made sure to remember this evening…

So good evening from Northside. We need to make a trip to the grocery store. We don’t really have very much food in our house right now. At all. So this evening we had an NYPD hoagie sammich party…

NYPD isn’t just for pizza parties. Their hoagie sammiches are really good as well. Genifer’s favorite is NYPD’s Italian. And my favorite is their chicken fajita with bacon crumbles added. We always add a family-sized order of fries. The good part of not having any food in the house is getting to go out to eat which makes it kind of feel like we’re still on vacation. 😀🍰🥪🍟❤️

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by Thadd F. on August 31, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #SUMMERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Tagged 2020, Aug31, August, Cincinnati, COVID Carryout, Crumb cake, Good evening, Home Sweet Home, It's what's for breakfast, It's what's for dinner, Look up in the sky, Northside, NYPD Pizza, Odds&Ends, Ohio, Overcast, Sammiches, Seen and noted, We ate this

Posted by Thadd F. on August 31, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/08/31/crumb-cake-nypd-hoagies/

Home sweet home.

It’s nice to visit new places but it’s also really nice to be home…

And good evening from Northside…

It’s nice to be home. 😀🏡🐾❤️

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by Thadd F. on August 30, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #SUMMERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Tagged 2020, Aug30, August, Cincinnati, Clouds, Dogs, Good evening, Home, Home Sweet Home, Look up in the sky, Mack, Nice to be home, Northside, Odds&Ends, Ohio, Oscar, Overcast, Pause for paws, Pets, Seen and noted

Posted by Thadd F. on August 30, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/08/30/home-sweet-home-3/

And we’re back.

We’re back from our road trip to Duck, North Carolina in the Outer Banks. We were really happy that we had the chance to getaway for a few days. And we had a really wonderful time…

The house we stayed in was really nice, a little older but it had plenty of space and a terrific salt water pool. It was also in a great location just outside out of downtown Duck with just a short walk down Seahawk Drive West and then to the beach. We spent a lot of time at the beach and in the pool…

We got up to watch the sunrise on the beach one morning, and got coffees from three different coffee shops… Sweet T’s, Duck Cottage and Treehouse Coffee. We also got espresso milkshakes from Sunset Ice Cream. We had some really great meals at Rundown Cafe (Bloody Marys and coconut shrimps), Duck Duck Burgers (mmmm… burgers), Treehouse Coffee (chicken biscuit), Coastal Cravings (crab cakes, shrimps, clams and hush puppies) and Aqua (Mahi tacos and fish & chips with bang shrimps and the banana pudding cheesecake). So much good stuff. And we got to wander through some of the many souvenir shops.

This trip marked two years in a row for us at the Outer Banks. We really liked Duck. We liked it a lot more than when we were out in Nags Head last year. Duck was very walkable. It just seemed like there was more to do and everything was a lot closer.

We really hope to make a trip to the Outer Banks an every year event. It’s really wonderful out there. And we just really like it a lot. We’re already thinking about our next trip out to the Outer Banks. Did I mention we like it out there?

We drove out to Outer Banks through Ohio through West Virginia. It was really pretty driving through West Virginia but the Google Maps took us on these twisting, turning little two lane roads through the mountains that were pretty white knuckle at times. It turns out that we had the “avoid toll roads” option turned ON in Google Maps. And it took us on some of the most narrow winding roads through the mountains of West Virginia from Charleston to Lewisburg. We stopped in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday night. And we found a Krispy Kreme right by our hotel Sunday morning. And we coasted the rest of the way into Duck on Sunday afternoon.

After relaxing in Duck for the week, we dropped down the coast to Surf City on Top Sail Island. We had lunch at Surf Dog (I got my delicious Carolina BBQ) and had a beer at Salty Turtle Beer Co. before staying at North Top Sail Beach. We swam in their pool, watched Goonies in our room and drank a crowler from Salty Turtle.

We drove back home through North Carolina to avoid the treacherous West Virginia mountain roads but the roads on the way back got a little dicey too. Not nearly as bad a West Virginia but there was a 20 mile stretch that wasn’t a cake walk. But we also got to go through a tunnel. So, it all evens out. We eventually made it and we stopped in Knoxville and had pizza before heading home the next day.

We took a bunch of photos during our adventure. We didn’t do a lot with Instagram this trip. I think we’ve kind of lost interest in the ‘grams. I might go and #Latergram some photos. But our Flickr album from this trip has over 1000 photos. There were just a lot of great memories made on this trip.

It was a great trip. We had a wonderful time. But it’s really nice to be home.😀🗺️🏖️❤️

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by Thadd F. on August 30, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in Odd & Ends

Tagged #gtfOuterBanks2020, 2020, Aug30, August, Duck North Carolina, Holidays, Odds&Ends, Outer Banks, Road trip, Seen and noted, Travels, We'll be right back

Posted by Thadd F. on August 30, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/08/30/and-were-back-4/

After these messages…

We’ll be right back. We’re heading to Duck, North Carolina in the Outer Banks with Genifer’s family. We’re really excited to be leaving the house to go someplace other than the grocery store or Taft’s Brewpourium.

Follow along on our Instagrams, our Flickr, and our YouTube. 😀🗺️❤️

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by Thadd F. on August 22, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in After these messages, Odd & Ends

Tagged #gtfOuterBanks2020, 2020, After these messages, Aug22, August, Cincinnati, Duck North Carolina, Home, Home Sweet Home, Northside, Odds&Ends, Ohio, Outer Banks, Seen and noted, Travels

Posted by Thadd F. on August 22, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/08/22/after-these-messages-13/

Sunday coffee & pizza party!

After walking the dogs, we hoped in the car to go get coffee. It was foggy over on this side town…

I accidentally ordered Genifer a hot coffee from Mad Llama…

Dang. Sorry about that, baby. When we got home, there were some really grey clouds over Northside…

Good afternoon from Northside…

This afternoon we went over to Taft’s Brewpourium for lunch…

Can you believe I forgot to take a photo of our pizza and wings? Crazy, right? We had another white pizza with prosciutto and tomatoes and Cherrywood BBQ wings. It was delicious as always!

Later, we played in the backyard for a bit…

Trips to Mad Llama Coffee and Taft’s Brewpourium make Sundays great.
😀🌄🍕🐔❤️

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by Thadd F. on August 16, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #SUMMERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on August 16, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/08/16/sunday-coffee-pizza-party/

A darn good Saturday.

Good morning from Northside…

We ran over to the grocery store to get some groceries for the week…

How adorable were these buttons?

If they would have been magnets, they would be home with us right now. And this llama pillow was pretty cute…

There were some good balloons today too. I got five on it with some stars…

There were a lot of Back-to-School balloons because it’s about that time….

And without a hint of irony, the Back-to-School balloons were right next to the Get Well Soon balloons…

There should have been a promotion, Buy any Back-to-School balloon, get one, Get Well Soon balloon for free.” Ugh. It’s hard to believe that the pandemic has been raging for six months now, and nothing’s getting any better. And speaking of the pandemic when we were done at the grocery, we ran into Target…

While we were at Target, I got an eye exam…

If you remember a while back, I cracked my glasses right in two. I’ve been going without glasses for a minute. And today, I ended up getting two new pairs. One near-sighted pair with blue light filter for working on my computer and one far-sighted pair for driving and watching movies. Both of them compensate for my pretty considerable astigmatism. I’m so excited for my new glasses. They’ll be ready in a couple of weeks. The best part is that between my insurance and health savings account that both pairs of glasses cost me a grand total of $10. How cool is that? And I also got this new little bluetooth speaker…

It has a really good, full sound. Also full was my belly after eating a BLT with turkey bacon and Canadian Bacon for lunch…

It looked like it was raining off in the distance…

And good evening from Northside…

This evening I trimmed the grass in our little front yard…

And our little front yard flowers are really flourishing…

And of course, we played some ball in our backyard…

Mack was waiting for us upstairs at the top of the steps…

When we got upstairs, we watched the Grizzlies lose the the 8/9 play-in game to the trailblazers in the NBA bubble. It was a really good game. I love the Griz but I think the Blazers will give the Lakers more problems. And it was be awesome if the Lakers got knocked out of the playoffs.
We also watched Louisville City beat Loudoun 2-0.

It was a pretty darn good Saturday. I can’t wait for my glasses. 😀🗓️❤️

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by Thadd F. on August 15, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #SUMMERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on August 15, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/08/15/a-darn-good-saturday/

50 Follows.

We just went over 50 WordPress followers for our blog…

Actually, our current tally is 55 followers. Thanks for stopping by and seeing what we’ve been up to lately. We really appreciate it! Especially during this pandemic when it feels like all I’ve been posting has been pretty much the same photo of the sky from the same vantage point. Every. Single. Day.

On a somewhat related note, I was forced into using the new WordPress block editor. It’s annoying when websites or apps redesign their sites or interfaces, especially when everything worked just fine. the classic editor was so easy and I was really used to working with it. I got really frustrated with it. But now after working with it for a few days, I’m really starting to get used to it, and it doesn’t bother me any more. 😀💻➕⭐️❤️

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by Thadd F. on August 15, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #SUMMERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Tagged 2020, 50 Follows, Aug15, August, Cincinnati, Home Sweet Home, Northside, Odds&Ends, Ohio, Seen and noted, T+G Milestone, Wordpress

Posted by Thadd F. on August 15, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/08/15/50-follows/

Burgers to start the weekend.

We always let the dogs out in the backyard before we take them on a walk…

Good morning from Northside…

Our flowers in our front yard are looking really pretty…

I’ve been pulling weeds everyday. Hopefully someday our little front yard will be weed-free and the clover will just take over. Speaking of flowers, how pretty is this one that we saw on our dog walk this evening?

And good evening from Northside…

After work was done and after we walked the dogs tonight, we walked down to Tickle Pickle to get burgers and shakes for dinner….

Tickle Pickle makes vegan shake that Genifer just loves. I’ve been in love with their regular strawberry milkshakes…

Genifer ordered the Eagles chicken sammich…

And I ordered my Buns ‘n Roses burger with extra cheese…

Tickle Pickle is delicious. And it was a great way to start the weekend. 😀🌄🌻🍔❤️

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by Thadd F. on August 14, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #SUMMERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on August 14, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/08/14/burgers-to-start-the-weekend/

The last of the cupcakes.

Good morning from Northside…

I don’t remember what we had for dinner. But we finished the cupcakes…

It’s always a little sad when you eat your last cupcake.

Good evening from Northside…

And we played ball in the backyard…

We watched the Grizzlies beat the Bucks by 13 to officially clinched a spot in the Western Conference play-in game against the Portland Trailblazers. It was probably the Grizzlies best win of the bubble. I like the Grizzlies. I think they have the best logo in the NBA. But then again, I just really like bears. So I might be biased. And we watched the Phoenix Suns finish a perfect 8-0 in the NBA bubble as they defeated our Mavericks, 128-102. I’ve been really getting into the NBA bubble games. The officiating has been horrible as ever. But it’s been fun to watch the basketball. 😀🌄🐾🏀❤️

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by Thadd F. on August 13, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #SUMMERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends