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A Friday with Reds baseball.

We got up extra early this morning to run a couple of errands before work. But first, we had to walk the dogs. It was a little hazy this morning. The hill off in the distance looked extra distant today…

Good morning from Northside…

Our little shrub in our front yard is so blossomy…

We ran to Lowe’s so Genifer could get another gallon of paint for the living room. And then we swung through Mad Llama for coffee…

And we made it back home for my 9am meeting. It turned out to be a very pretty day…

Good evening from Northside…

And then we watched the entire Reds game, from the first pitch until the last…

The Reds looked formidable as they beat the Tigers 7-1. It was really good to watch the Reds again! And it’s so amazing to have MLB back in our lives. While we were watching the game, Oscar snuck in between the sofa and the ottoman…

It was such a pretty evening…

It was a really good Friday. It’s terrific to have baseball back! 😀⚾️❤️

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by Thadd F. on July 24, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #SUMMERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on July 24, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/07/24/a-friday-with-reds-baseball/

A Wednesday pizza party?

When we let the dogs out in the backyard this morning, it looked like it was going to be another grey and overcast day of working from home…

When we went out on our morning walk, we saw just how grey and overcast it was…

Good morning from Northside…

Someone lost their shoes. I’ll never understand how someone loses their shoes…

We used to see it quite a few abandoned shoes when we lived downtown. Somehow it made a little more sense to me downtown. I don’t know why.

The little shrub in our front yard is starting to blossom…

Just as I was settling in to get down to work, it started pouring…

Slowly throughout the day, the sun started to come out. Later, we had to pick up a refill of Oscar’s allergy pills from the vet. And then we continued on to Finneytown to pick up some carry-out Domino’s pizza for dinner…

We usually have our pizza parties on Thursday. But we were in the neighborhood. So why not have a Wednesday Domino’s pizza party?

Genifer ordered a crispy thin crust with pepperoni and banana peppers. I got a thick pan crust double sausage and we shared some cheesy bread…

Dominos pizza is delicious. It’s so good. When we lived downtown, we used to order Dominos all the time but we don’t get it as much now because it’s just not as convenient as it was and they don’t deliver to Northside. And that’s a bit of a bummer. But what are you going to do?

Good evening from Northside…

It turned out to be a really pretty evening. And it wasn’t a bad Wednesday either. But pizza parties help make any day pretty darn good. 😀🗓️❤️

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by Thadd F. on July 22, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #SUMMERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on July 22, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/07/22/a-wednesday-pizza-party/

Ugh, Mondays.

It’s another Monday. It looks like this is going to be another super busy week at work.

Good morning from Northside…

We saw this little snail shell on the sidewalk. It was right in the middle of the sidewalk…

When I picked it up to move it, I discover it was empty. I carried it home. And placed it on our little decorative rock next to our shrubbery in our rock garden.

We were both busy at work today. I don’t think this week is going to be a lot of fun.

For dinner tonight, we had the tortilla crusted BBQ chicken with cheesy potatoes and corn Kroger Prep+Pared Home Chef Express meal kit again…

It was another really delicious dinner. And it was every bit as good the second time around. We really like the Kroger Prep+Pared Home Chef Express meal kits a lot.

Good evening from Northside…

Oscar really likes hanging out under the sofa in our master bedroom…

But he doesn’t go all the way under the sofa. In fact, most of him usually isn’t under the sofa at all…

He’s pretty silly. But you should really hide from Monday before it starts not after you’ve made it through the whole day.

Happy Monday for Northside. 😀🗓️❤️

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by Thadd F. on July 20, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #SUMMERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on July 20, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/07/20/ugh-mondays/

Breakfast burrito & a lot of painting.

Good morning from Northside…

We ran over to Mad Llama for some weekend morning coffee…

This morning I tried the Mad Llama bacon breakfast burrito…

And there it is…

It was really good stuff. I like breakfast burritos. Next time we go to Mad Llama, I think I’m going to try one of their breakfast sammiches.

We ran out so I could drop off a return at the UPS Store. Guess what. Come to find out the UPS Store is closed on Sundays. Who knew? At least it gave us an excuse to get some Mad Llama Coffee. When we got home, Genifer started painting our living room. Here’s what it looked like primed and before she started…

And when we came downstairs to check on her, she had made a lot of progress…

It’s looking so good. She’s doing a great job. But she thinks we’re going to need to get more paint to do a second coat.

We ate all the grilling leftovers from yesterday for a late lunch today. Stuff from the grill is so good, Even when it’s warmed up the next day.

Later, we took the dogs on a walk…

And good evening from Northside…

When we got to the top of the steps, it looked really threatening off in the distance…

It got really winding in our backyard when we got home. But then it blew over and the big fluffy white clouds were back…

We had a pretty low-key Sunday but Genifer has our living room starting to look pretty amazing! I can’t wait to see it without all the painter tape. 😀🗓️❤️

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by Thadd F. on July 19, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #SUMMERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on July 19, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/07/19/breakfast-burrito-a-lot-of-painting/

A pretty good Saturday.

Good morning from Northside on this Saturday…

This morning we ran over to Lowe’s again to get more paint. After her success with painting our little half-bathroom, Genifer wanted to try painting our living room this weekend. While we were at Lowe’s, we also looked at some Pergo flooring for our third-floor bedroom. We really liked the color variations on this sample…

Pulling up the carpet on our third-floor and replacing it with wood might be our next, next project. After Lowe’s, we ran over to Kroger to get some groceries. They just had bee and sunflower balloons again today…

Have you ever tried Jack fruit? It looks like you’d get a lot of it for just $1.99…

I wonder if it’s any good? You know what IS good? These Ruffles chips…

Ohmigosh. They’re my new favorite! And this is the second time now that I’ve found them at Kroger! I was worried I would never find them again.

After we were done at Kroger, we stopped at Mad Llama for coffee…

When got home, Genifer started taping off the living room with painters tape…

And then she started priming,,,

And she did another really outstanding job with the primer…

And tomorrow she wants to paint the living room. She has a navy called Salty Dog that we think will look really nice in our living room. My job was to keep the dogs away from the paint while she was priming and tomorrow while she will be painting. And while she was priming, I got to watch the FA Cup semi-final between Manchester City and my Arsenal on ESPN+.

I don’t know why they relegated this match to ESPN+. They had a UFC behind-the-scenes show on ESPN and old X-Games highlights on ESPN2. It didn’t make much sense to me. But Arsenal defeated FA Cup holders Manchester City 2-0 to move onto the final at Wembley. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored both goals for the Gunners, finishing off an unbelievable 18-pass team move and then a swift counter-attack goal to finish off Manchester City. Come on you, Gunners!

Arsenal keeper Emi Martinez came up huge again for the Gunners especially with this save on City’s Riyad Mahrez. Watching the Mikel Arteta Bench Cam was also pretty entertaining. Arsenal’s head coach gets pretty animated on the sidelines. It’s been a week for The Arsenal. The Gunners beat newly-crowned Premier League champions Liverpool 2-1 on Wednesday and now FA Cup holders City 2-0 just three days later. Pretty darn unbelievable!

Arsenal will face Chelsea in the FA Cup final on August 1st…

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Chelsea beat Manchester United 3-1 in the other semi-final.

When the match was over and Genifer was done priming, we went out in the backyard with the dogs…

And while we were in the backyard, we fired up the grill…

First, we grilled some salmon burgers and chicken kabobs…

And then we grilled a couple of burgers and some jalapeno cheddar dogs…

The burgers were really good…

And the dogs were outstanding…

We’ve been buying this sweet Hawaiian bread at the grocery. Not King’s Hawaiian, but the Kroger equivalent. And I’ve been putting my hot dogs on that instead of buying hot dog buns too. It seemed like there were always hot dog buns leftover. The dogs taste awesome on the Hawaiian bread and now we don’t have a lot of extra hot dog buns going to waste. I think that’s what they call, a win-win.

This is Bear, the newest member of our family…

I like him. He’s fitting right into our family like he was meant to be here.

Good evening from Northside…

When we got home, we had some of this strawberry cake we got at the grocery…

It was really good. I’ve been on a strawberry kick lately. I can’t wait to see how our living room looks in its new Salty Dog blue…

When we got upstairs, we watched Louisville City lose 1-0 to St. Louis. And we watched more of the MLS is Back tournament. It was a pretty good Saturday. 😀🗓️❤️

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by Thadd F. on July 18, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #SUMMERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends, Suburbia

Posted by Thadd F. on July 18, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/07/18/a-pretty-good-saturday/

Today was Thursday.

Today was ~~Thursday~~ Wednesday. Good morning from Northside…

Genifer put the shelves back up in our bathroom. She did an incredible job painting…

It looks so good. I love this shade of blue, especially with the blue floor tiles…

Speaking of good, we had baked sausages with sweet potatoes and apples for dinner…

It’s one of my favorite dinners. And good evening from Northside…

There was this weird little leaf dangling from a strand of spider web in our backyard…

Tonight, we watched more of the MLS is Back tournament. It’s been a lot of fun so far. There have been a lot of really entertaining matches. And it’s been great to have live sports every night again.

And that was our ~~Thursday~~ Wednesday. 😀🟦🍃❤️

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by Thadd F. on July 15, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #SUMMERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on July 15, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/07/15/today-was-thursday/

There were some really pretty clouds.

Good morning from Northside. There were some really pretty clouds this morning…

Mack and Bear crashed out all day in the office…

Oscar usually hangs out in our front bedroom during the day. I made Taco Tuesday tacos for lunch today…

They were delicious. I love tacos. Especially on Tuesdays for Taco Tuesday. And Genifer made chicken ramen stir-fry for dinner…

It was delicious as well. She always finds the best recipes. It was a pretty evening…

Good evening from Northside…

We made it through another Tuesday. At least there were some pretty clouds today.
😀☁️🐾🌮🐔❤️

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by Thadd F. on July 14, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #SUMMERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on July 14, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/07/14/there-were-some-pretty-clouds/

Some BBQ chicken and a new bear.

Good Monday morning from Northside…

We rescued a dog over the weekend. We got him from people we know that didn’t want him anymore. They would leave him outside all day, if he was inside he was trapped in his crate. They wouldn’t give any love or attention and overfeed him. His name is Bear. And he’s the newest member of our family…

He slept right next to me in the office all day today. We’ve already become really good friends. I hope him and Mack will become good friends too…

I haven’t had a chance to take many photos of him yet. And the ones I’ve taken haven’t been good. Hopefully, I’ll get some good photos of him in the evening this week or next weekend. I don’t understand how you could be mean to him. He’s just a big sweetheart and is really well-behaved and mild-mannered.

After working for a bit, I noticed Mack wasn’t in the office with us. I went to look for him around the house and found him just chillin’ up in our bedroom…

I came back to check on him a little bit later and he was sleeping on our bed…

We had another one of the Kroger Prep+Pared Home Chef Express meals for dinner tonight. I forgot to take a photo of the label like I usually do. But this one was tortilla crusted BBQ chicken with cheesy potatoes and corn or something like that…

Whatever it was called, it sure was good…

It was another really delicious dinner. We really like the Kroger Prep+Pared Home Chef Express meal kits a lot.

UPDATE: We found the meal at Kroger again…

I wasn’t far off on the name at all.

Good evening from Northside…

It was another good Monday. This week is going to be a busy one. 😀🗓️🐻🐾🐔❤️

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by Thadd F. on July 13, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #SUMMERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on July 13, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/07/13/a-new-bear-and-some-bbq-chicken/

Painting and pizza party.

Good morning from Northside…

While I was having my epic soccer Sunday, Genifer decided she wanted to paint our first floor half bath. We got a gallon of paint while we were at Lowe’s yesterday…

She’s getting tired of all the grey in our house. This is the before photo…

We took the shelf down and removed the outlet and vent covers…

Then she painter taped it all off…

And then she got to painting…

And now our bathroom is a very pretty sky blue to go with our pretty blue tile floor…

Genifer did an amazing job of painting! The bathroom looks so good! Oscar and I did a good job of supervising…

And later before the start of the Louisville City match, I ran over to NYPD to pick up some pizza for dinner. An NYPD Pizza party reward for painting and epic soccer watching…

I wonder what happened to NYPD’s awning? Our pizza and wings were all set when I got to NYPD. It’s pretty amazing that you can order online from NYPD and 15 minutes later, you’re heading home with a pizza…

We were so ready for our NYPD Pizza party that we just dug right in and didn’t even take a photo before we started eating…

Mmmmm, Station House with banana peppers…

NYPD changed their boneless wing count while keeping the price the same. You used to get 10 wings, now you only get six. Time to find another side to order with our pizza. But we still love having NYPD right around the corner…

And good evening from Northside.

It was a really good Sunday for just hanging around the house. 😀🗓️❤️

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by Thadd F. on July 12, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #SUMMERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on July 12, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/07/12/painting-and-pizza-party/

And here’s what actually happened.

I had this really epic soccer Sunday planned. And as you know, very rarely does anything ever go as planned. This is what actually happened with my epic soccer Sunday. I watched all the matches. But the results weren’t as I would have liked them.

Last night, the start of the FC Cincinnati versus Columbus Crew match didn’t start until well after 11pm because the match before theirs had a weather delay. I stayed up to watch the entire match. I don’t know why. It was bad. Really bad. It was the first match in charge for FC Cincinnati’s new manager, Jaap Stam. And it looked every bit of it.

News flash… FC Cincinnati is still terrible and lost 4-0.

This morning we watched the second half of Wolves clinical 3-0 thumping of Everton. With the win, Wolves became the first English side to win competitive games in two different Julys in the same season. I was all set for the start of Toronto versus DC United. But the match was postponed because of COVID-19 concerns. I mentioned we might watch yesterday’s Doosan Bears-Lotte Giants KBO game but we actually watched it yesterday. My Bears lost 5-4. Jose Fernandez hit a two-run homer with two out in the ninth to pull the Bears within one. But then the next batter flew out to center and that was the ballgame. I was also going to touch-up my quarantine haircut but I did that yesterday too. I got new clippers when we were running around yesterday. And I wanted to give them a try. They worked really well.

So with that, we had to endure Aston Villa versus Crystal Palace in its entirety. I don’t know how Crystal Palace don’t get relegated every season. Every time I see them play, they play the most uninspired, uninterested, and just plain boring soccer. Even when we saw them play FC Cincinnati at Nippert Stadium, they were pretty boring. Palace beat FC|C 2-0. But today, Palace lost 2-0 to Villa. Again.

The North London derby started well for Arsenal with Lacazette’s absolute screamer. The Gunners took a 1-0 but then the defense. Sigh. Arsenal. After the match, I changed from one of my Arsenal polos to my Leicester t-shirt. I switched the channel to ESPN to watch a bit of Parma-Bologna so I didn’t have to watch the Jose Mourinho post-match interview on NBCSN. I’ve never liked him. I can’t envision a scenario that would cause that to change.

Leicester looked to be rolling right along after Jamie Vardy scored his league-leading 26th goal. But then the wheels came off the Leicester wagon after the referee awarded Bournemouth a penalty. Leicester was reduced to ten men after a red card and Bournemouth would go on to score three more times to win 4-1. What. The. Heck?

Lousiville City started their USL season hosting Pittsburgh Rverhounds as they opened their new soccer-specific stadium. Speedy Williams scored the first goal for City in their new home. But then they gave up three unanswered goals to lose 3-1.

Are you seeing a trend here? All of my teams took a 1-0 lead and then lost.

Minnesota was trailing 1-0 as the clock approached the 90th minute. And then United scored two goals in stoppage time to win 2-1. The first was a penalty kick at 90+2 and then the winner at 90+7. And with that, Epic Soccer Sunday was salvaged!

It would have been a real bummer if all my teams lost. Thankfully, Minnesota United saved the day. 😀⚽️❤️

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by Thadd F. on July 12, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #SUMMERinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends