When we were walking home from our dog walk, w e stumbled across them prepping yet
another set from movie “Carol,” filming in downtown Cincinnati. This set was at the corner
of Eighth and Broadway Streets…








Pretty cool stuff. You never know what you’ll find in downtown Cincinnati. 🙂

Opening Night of the 2014 Reds baseball season was against the St. Louis whiny birds.
The night began with a two-hour and 40-minute rain delay before the first pitch. And we
patiently watched the Reds Twitter and Fox Sports Ohio for word on when OR if the game
would actually start. And as soon as we heard they were going to actually start the game,
we hustled down to Great American Ball Park…





The kettle corn people have an actual little kettle corn house this season not just a tent…

I got a bunch of points when I heckled in on my Foursquare…





And as soon we got to GABP, Joey Votto got his 1000th career hit…





At end of the first inning, it was already 10:07pm…

Okay, 10:08pm…

It was like watching a game out on the west coast. But right here in the middle of the west.
Right time, Wong location. Just like Kolten Wong from the whiny birds…

Right player, Wong team. Thanks to Genifer for reminding of that joke from last season. 🙂

The view from our seats…

Oh geez, man… I thought our seats were right next to The Gap at GABP, not the crack.
Tony Cingrani was throwing fire from the mound for the Reds…

Racking up strikeouts. Maybe we’ll get free pizza at our first game of the season? Votto…

Don’t leave the ump hanging, Joey. Geez. And couple batters later, Wacha, the St. Louis
pitcher, managed to hit both Ryan Ludwig and the ump. Jerk.

There were a lot of zeros up there in the Reds lineup…

Bases were loaded for the Reds…

And nothing. Time for some nachos…


Oh nachos, we missed you so. 🙂 The Rusty Griswald’s hung in there and kept playing…


Is it sprinkling again?

Yep.

Oh dear. 11:26?

Tony Cingrani posted NINE strikeouts through seven…



Offense? There wasn’t much tonight…

Not much, at all. But you can’t beat being back at the ballpark!


There were some new faces…

I’ve honestly never heard of Bernadina before. And 11:45…

The US Men’s National Team was playing a friendly versus Mexico at 11:45. Time to go.

As we were leaving, we got a glimpse of the new Reds Brewery District Bar, which is an
85-foot-long bar on the third base side of the lower level…

It features 60 taps with 23 different local, regional and national beers…

GABP is so beautiful…


The Reds would go on to win 1-0 on a walk-off single by Chris Heisey. He scorched an 0-1
pitch for a line drive into left-center field to end the game in dramatic fashion! It’s so good to
have Reds baseball back in Cincinnati! Oh, and the Reds pitchers tallied 12 strikeouts so…
we get our first FREE LaROSA’S PIZZA of the season!!! HOORAY for the Reds!

And congratulations once again to Joey Votto!

It was amazing to be back at the ballpark! And it’s wonderful to have our Reds back! 🙂

April showers bring May… er, April flowers?

The trees are starting to blossom and bloom down at Lytle Park. 🙂

We have our tickets all set to go for Reds Opening Night against the Whiny Birds!

Unfortunately, there’s a 60% chance of rain this evening. Fingers crossed. 🙂

Finally! After what has seemed like the longest winter in recorded history, baseball is back!
And Deskey threw a big Opening Day Celebration…



The was ballpark food. And games. And gorgeous weather. And beer. Lotsa beer…


Great Day. Great Company. And here’s to another great Reds season!
Click to see all the photos I took at the Opening Day Celebration.

Before the basketball games started, we stopped in to Rusty Bucket in Hyde Park at
Rookwood Commons for lunch. Genifer ordered their double decker quesadilla…

And tomato and cucumber salad…

And I went after their full slab of ribs…



Delicious stuff! 🙂

It rained all day today. We tried to wait it out for a while. But it wouldn’t stop raining. So
we had little choice but to grab our rain coats and umbrellas and walk the dogs. We did
alright until the final block of our walk when our cheapy yellow umbrella caught a gust of
wind and got all turned around inside-outside, you know basically it got wrecked…


I guess that’s going to happen from time to time. 🙂

On our dog walk this evening, we wandered by the prepping of another set for the film
“Carol,” the new Cate Blanchett movie being filmed in part in downtown Cincinnati…

This set was in front of the Cincinnati Club at the corner of Fourth and Broadway Streets…




And once again, there were a bunch of 50’s era cars lining the streets…




Pretty cool stuff. You never know what you’ll stumble across in downtown Cincinnati. 🙂

Check out this basket of shrimps I got for lunch today from Sport Page on Main…

A bunch of shrimps! And they were very YUM! Great stuff as always from Sports Page! 🙂

This evening we were invited to a celebration of family and friends at Bella Luna as they
toast their 13th anniversary. Eat well, love deeply and live long!










“La Bettola will be home to weekly entertainment and hand crafted, private label beers
created just for Bella Luna. Specialty beers include: Papa’s Secret Batch, a pre-prohibition
style lager and Gigi’s Redhead Ale, a red ale. Both are craft beers created by Cincinnati’s
Listermann Brewing Company. Each of these beers, like the Welcome Home campaign,
reflects family and friends. Papa’s was named after owner Harry Stephens’ grandfather,
Angelo Scozzafava, whom Harry called respectfully called “Papa”. Gigi’s Redhead Ale is
affectionately named for his own favorite ‘redhead’, wife and co-proprietor Gay Stephens.“
The two Listermann Brewing Company Bella Luna beer offerings on tap…


“Harry, Gay and family are excited to launch the Welcome Home campaign. “It’s a true
reflection of Bella Luna’s foundation of friends and family. People venture out to try new
things, have experiences but it is always nice to be home with the people that you care
about,” comments Harry Stephens. Stephens goes on to say, “After thirteen years of
operation I still love to surprise my customers with exciting new dishes. We have become
a place where people celebrate life! Bella Luna is a place for fun, friends and family.“
































“Bella Luna is also excited to launch a brand new website with easy navigation for events,
menus and reservations. bellalunacincy.com launched on March 24th and will be updated
with live entertainment and changing menu features.“

It was a great night and a really fun event. I love getting to go to things like this. It’s
really something special to be invited to share Bella Luna’s special night with them. 🙂
Click to see all the photos I took Bella Luna’s Welcome Home celebration.