All posts in category Odd & Ends

It’s been nice relaxing.

Good morning from Northside…

Genifer made lasagna for a late lunch today…

Lasagna is so dang good. And we haven’t had it in a quick minute. And I love anything that can be eaten with garlic bread.

Good evening from Northside…

We watched some football. And we watched the Mavs just destroy the Clippers…

We were having a hard time getting into Hinderland so tonight we tried Bordertown. We couldn’t really get into that one either. Maybe we’ll have better luck trying to find a new series to watch tomorrow.

But it sure has been nice just relaxing at home. 😀🌄🍽️📺❤️

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by Thadd F. on December 27, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #WINTERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on December 27, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/12/27/its-been-nice-relaxing/

Happy Boxing Day!

Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated the day after Christmas Day. It originated as a holiday to give gifts to the poor. Boxing Day was traditionally a day off for servants, and the day when they received a special Christmas box from their masters. The servants would also go home on Boxing Day to give Christmas boxes to their families. Today, it’s a great day of soccer from the UK. Early this morning, we watched Leicester rally twice to draw 2-2 with Manchester United…

And we watched my Arsenal…

Arsenal lifted the funk they’ve been in recently with a 3-1 win over Chelsea…

That’s two in the row for the Gunners. They actually looked like the formidable Arsenal of old today.

It was a very pretty evening…

Good evening from Northside…

For dinner tonight, we had stuffed mushrooms that we got at the grocery…

Stuffed mushrooms are delicious. And then we had a frozen oven pizza…

Later, we started watching Hinterland on Netflix. It’s pretty good.

We had a really good Boxing Day. 😀🌄⚽️🍄🍕❤️

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by Thadd F. on December 26, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #WINTERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on December 26, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/12/26/happy-boxing-day-2/

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! It was a chilly Christmas in Cincinnati…

And we woke up to a white Christmas…

We got the dogs a bunch of new dog toys and blankets for Christmas…

I took a little video of the dogs coming in from outside to discover all their new toys…

And now the dogs have a very full box of toys…

After the dogs got to play with their toys for a bit, we took them out on their walk…

Good morning from Northside…

Genifer made Magic Middles for breakfast this morning…

Magic Middles are delicious…

After breakfast, we opened our presents and exchanged our gifts. My parents sent us this hilarious 2020 ornament…

A huge thank you so much to my mom & dad for all our wonderful Christmas gifts…

There was a bit of debate over this advent calendar…

I thought we should start at one, count along with the days and end on twenty-five. Genifer thought we should start on twenty-five and countdown to one and end on the star. And you can see who won that debate…

This afternoon we headed up to West Chester to celebrate Christmas with Geri. We took some shrimps, a meat & cheese tray, a whole bunch of dippers and that was our Christmas dinner. We had a wonderful time spending the afternoon with her.

When we got home, we took the dogs around the block…

Good evening from Northside…

After the dog’s were done with the freezing cold walk, we watched a bunch of basketball and called it a day. We had a really wonderful Christmas day. We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas as well. 😀🎄❤️

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by Thadd F. on December 25, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #WINTERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on December 25, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/12/25/merry-christmas-6/

Merry Christmas Eve!

It was a grey and rainy Christmas Eve morning in Northside…

Good morning from Northside…

We ran over to the grocery to pick up a few little things for Christmas dinner…

My go-to game for time wasting is We Bare Bears: Match3 Repairs. In the foyer of Kroger is one of those infuriating claw games…

And inside the infuriating claw machine was Ice Bear from We Bare Bears…

We got our Christmas items and headed over to Biggby for coffee...

When we got home, it was time for the very last day of my Lego City Advent Calendar…

And there you have it. The Lego City Advent Calendar was so much fun. I’m really going to miss putting together a little Lego set every morning…

I hope they do a new one next year. Or I’m going to have to track the Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar.

And Mack was on his new dog bed the entire time I was in our studio office…

This happened rather unexpectedly…

We took the dogs out for their evening walk around the block…

Good evening from Northside…

Genifer made a bunch of delicious Christmas cookies…

We wrapped our Christmas presents. Mack watched to make sure I was doing it right…

And we put all of our presents under our tree…

Tonight, we watched The Midnight Sky on Netflix. A movie about outer space with George Clooney. I thought it was good. Genifer didn’t really care for it.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Merry Christmas Eve. 😀🌄🌧️🛍️☕️🎁🎄❤️

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by Thadd F. on December 24, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #WINTERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on December 24, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/12/24/merry-christmas-eve-3/

Happy Merry Christmas Eve Eve.

Good morning from Northside…

This morning we ran out to get some Christmas Eve Eve Biggby coffee…

We ran around a little bit to do some last minute Christmas shopping…

We got some odds and ends stuff. And a bunch of new dog toys for Oscar & Mack. I also got Mack a new dog bed and Snoopy blanket to go in our studio office where he sleeps a lot. I snuck his new bed upstairs while he was outside…

I showed him his new dog bed and he pretty much spent the rest of the day lounging on it…

While I was hanging out in the studio office with Mack, I decided to check out day 23 of my Lego City Advent Calendar…

I think he really likes his new dog bed…

Later, we had a NYPD Pizza hoagie party….

NYPD hoagies are so good. And their fries were even better than normal tonight.

We dragged Mack off his new dog bed to take the dogs around the block…

Good evening from Northside…

After he got his treats, Mack was right back upstairs, crashed out on his new dog bed…

This evening, we finished the second season of Mindhunter on Netflix. It was a really good series. We hope they get around to making a third season someday. But it probably won’t be anytime soon.

And Mack was still sleeping on his new dog bed…

We hope everyone had a Happy Merry Christmas Eve Eve! 😀🌄🛍️🐾🥪🍟❤️

Oh. I also thought these drawings from @crazyheadcomics & @wearyourvoice were really beautiful…

It just reaffirms how blessed we are and how good we have it this Christmas Eve Eve.

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by Thadd F. on December 23, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #WINTERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on December 23, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/12/23/happy-merry-christmas-eve-eve-3/

And… we’re done with work.

We walked down to watch the sunrise…

And good morning from Northside…

Today was day 22 of my Lego City Advent Calendar…

We powered through our last work day before Christmas. And finished up our projects for the week.

Then it was time to take the dogs on their evening walk around the block…

Good evening from Northside…

For dinner tonight, we had another one of the Kroger Prep+Pared Home Chef Express meals. This one was Stroganoff Beef Meatloaf with green beans…

And it was another really delicious dinner. Those little meatloaves were just out of this world. I love anything beef stroganoff. I think it’s my favorite gravy. We really like the Kroger Prep+Pared Home Chef Express meal kits a lot.

We received a card in the mail from Skyline today…

During one of the Xavier basketball games a while back, I won a $15 gift card during their Skyline Chili virtual parachute drop on Twitter…

And today, our gift card showed up in the mail…

Thanks, Xavier and Skyline! That’s pretty dang cool. We’re looking forward to having some Skyline very soon and cruising into the long holiday weekend. 😀🌄🍽️🧧❤️

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by Thadd F. on December 22, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #WINTERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on December 22, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/12/22/and-were-done-with-work/

Happy winter solstice.

Today was the Winter solstice. It’s the official start of winter and the shortest day of the year. I found this online and thought it was pretty funny…

Day 21 of my Lego City Advent Calendar…

It was a really beautiful evening…

We took the dogs around the block….

I took a little video of the sunset as well and then sped it up a bit in iMovie…

The little clouds were so pretty. It was really pretty from our backyard as well…

I think the bright star at the end of the branch just below the middle of the frame is the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn…

The two largest planets in our Solar System, Jupiter and Saturn, were so close to each other in the sky that they were both be visible through a telescope eyepiece at the same time. We don’t have a telescope. But such close passes are known as Great Conjunctions. The Great Conjunction of 2020 was the closest in almost 400 years.

I was just about to go grab my biggest telephoto lens but the clouds started quickly taking over the evening skies…

For dinner tonight, we had another one of the Kroger Prep+Pared Home Chef Express meals. This one was Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Alfredo Penne with mozzarella…

And it was another really good dinner. We didn’t like this one as much as the Italian Sausage and Roasted Tomato Cream Cavatappi… with peas. It was good. We just wished it was something other than chicken. But it was still a really good meal. We like the Kroger Prep+Pared Home Chef Express meal kits a lot.

We headed upstairs and watched a couple more episodes of Mindhunter on Netflix.

And I also saw this one online today that I thought was pretty funny…

Just one more day of work for the year. 😀🌄🌤️🪐🍜📺❤️

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by Thadd F. on December 21, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #WINTERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on December 21, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/12/21/happy-winter-solstice/

Urban Artifact + Kitchen Factory.

Good morning from Northside…

Day 20 of my Lego City Advent Calendar…

Good evening from Northside…

Shannon ordered us some Urban Artifact beers for Christmas. This evening we ran over to UA to pick up our order. We were really excited to see what she got us…

And there’s our order…

On our way back home, we stopped to pick up dinner from The Kitchen Factory…

When we got home with our dinner, the sunset looked so pretty from our backyard…

And tben it was back to our dinner from Kitchen Factory…

Genifer ordered their Veggie Meatball Hoagie…

I ordered the Baked Chicken Pesto Hoagie…

We both ordered the pasta salad as our side. And it came in a condiment container…

It was less of a side and more of a mouthful of pasta salad. Still, it was really good. We just wished there was more of it. We also ordered a side of their Famous Vegan Mac & Cheese…

Our dinner was sooo good. The hoagies were amazing! We’ll definitely be ordering from Kitchen Factory again. We’ll have to order a couple of their pizzas sometime as well.

Genifer made some incredible seven-layer bars for dessert…

Now that our bellies are full, let’s take a look to see what Shannon got us…

Wow! Those sound like some delicious beers! We placed them under our Christmas tree. And we can’t wait to try them! Thanks, Shannon!

We’ve been watching Mindhunter on Netflix. It’s about the origins of the FBI’s Behavioral Sciences Unit in the late ’70s. It’s been a really good show so far.

And we had a really good Sunday. 😀🌄🐾🍺🥪📺❤️

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by Thadd F. on December 20, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #FALLinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on December 20, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/12/20/41718/

The last Saturday before Christmas.

Good morning from Northside…

We ran over to the grocery store this morning…

Jell-O just upped the jello game with Jell-O Play…

These might have been around for a while but they’re new to me. Both panda and the train were on the shelf in the international aisle today…

Check out the old-skool Doritos packaging…

And Kroger didn’t have any special balloons today…

What the heck?! After we were done at the grocery, we headed to Biggby for coffee…

Day 19 of my Lego City Advent Calendar…

We were pretty lazy when we got home…

I don’t know why I found this so funny…

It was just the open bag of sugar in a tupperware container but the sugar was still in the bag and I thought that was really funny. But I’m weird… so, yeah.

I got this little serving of full-cooked shrimps at the grocery and ate them for lunch. Geri found this super extra spicy cocktail sauce. It’s so good. Such horseradishy goodness…

The shrimp are just a delivery vehicle to get the spicy cocktail sauce into my mouth.

Good evening from Northside…

We made some White Russian drinks this evening…

And Oscar was just like, “Are we going to go upstairs any time soon?”

Sorry, buddy. We had another pretty good Saturday. 😀🌄🛍️☕️🐾🦐🥃❤️

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by Thadd F. on December 19, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #FALLinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on December 19, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/12/19/the-last-saturday-before-christmas/

A great start to a three-day weekend.

We both had the day off work today. I could really get used to four-day work weeks. Genifer doesn’t work on Fridays and I used my very last vacation day of 2020…

Good morning from Northside…

Time for day 18 of my Lego City Advent Calendar…

The lead of the eCommerce group at work dropped off a Christmas gift…

It was pretty amazing that she did this. It’s very appreciated. And the roll of toilet paper is hilarious.

Later, we walked down to Blue Jay for lunch. As we were walking down Hamilton Avenue, we noticed a new hair salon has already gone into the location where Helltown Bazaar Workshop used to be…

Surprisingly, Django Western Taco just closed up shop and no longer has a presence in Northside…

And that’s a bummer. We really liked Django a lot. But whatever, it was time for lunch…

Genifer ordered a grilled cheeses with tomatoes…

I ordered my favorite chicken tender sammich…

Blue Jay is always so good. It’s nothing super fancy. It’s always just solid. We never had anything but terrific meals at Blue Jay. Afterward, we stopped at Shake It Records…

It’s really hard for me to find new and interesting music that I like. I really like reggae. And I like usually music. I was thumbing through the global music vinyl. And found some interesting stuff to check out…

I’m going to check these out on iTunes or Amazon Music and then come back for the ones I like. At some point, I’d like to upgrade our turntable and get some little speakers in our living room as well…

Hi Oscar…

We took the dogs around the block…

Good evening from Northside…

I had a leftover taco for a dinner snack…

Genifer made this sugar cookie mix..

I thought the cookies were pretty good but Genifer didn’t care for them. They could definitely use some icing. The dogs always go outside one last time before we go upstairs…

Tonight was the final episode of season two of The Mandalorian,..

Now that all the episodes are avialable, we could finally binge-watch the season. And it was amazing! That show is just wow. I wish we could binge watch it every single day. I wish they would make an infinite amount of Star Wars series with all sorts of storylines from around the Star Wars universe. That would be amazing.

In my Timehop today, we ate at Django when they were still in Northside…