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. 😀⚽️❤️

It’s finally happening!

I can’t remember the last time we had an epic sports day. One of those days where there are so many good games on TV, you don’t how you’re going to watch them all. It’s been soooo long since we’ve had a really epic sports day. It’s been so long since we had sports. But today is truly an epic sports day! I’m calling it, EPIC SOCCER SUNDAY! This is what I’ll be watching during today’s massive football feast with the teams I’ll be cheering for highlighted in blue…

I’m not entirely sold on watching Toronto-DC United. I guess it depends on if I managed to stay awake until the end of last night’s FC Cincinnati versus Columbus match.  The 10:30pm starts during the MLS is Back tournament are just a little late for me. I might also watch my Doosan Bears versus Lotte Giants KBO game that was on ESPN very early yesterday morning. We’ll see how it goes. I might also touch up my quarantine haircut first thing this morning.

Of the four matches I’m really interested in watching today, Arsenal seems to finally be finding their form after the restart. The Gunners are undefeated in their last five with four wins and a draw against Leicester. Spuds are doing their best Totteringham over their last five with two wins, draws at both Everton and Bournemouth, and a whopping 3-1 loss away to Sheffield United. Leceister City are currently sitting fourth in the league and hope to regain their pre-COVID-19 form against Bournemouth, who have lost four of their last five. My Foxes have just one win in their last five with two losses and two draws. But with Chelsea also losing to Sheffield United yesterday, a win could put Leicester back in third.

Leading up to Sunday’s USL Championship restart, two-time USL Champion Louisville City will be christening their brand new, $65 million state-of-the-art, Lynn Family Stadium at approximately 30% of the new facility’s regular 15,304-person capacity.

And finally, there’s my Minnesota United. Before the season was suspended, the Loons won both of their matches, 3-1 away to Portland and 5-2 away to San Jose. So I’m super excited to have them start playing again. I stocked up on MNUFC gear in the off-season, and I’ve been waiting all year to finally have the opportunity to wear it.

There are other matches on Sunday too. There are two early Premier League matches on Sunday. Wolves face Everton at 7am. Wolves have been in great form since the restart and hadn’t given up a goal until they play Arsenal last weekend. The second match is Aston Villa versus Crystal Palace. And it just sounds like it’s going to be a boring, lifeless draw. But watch it end up being the most exciting match of the day. AC Milan plays Napoli in Italian Serie A at 3:45pm on ESPN+. The Rossoneri stunned Juventus 4-2 midweek. And there’s also the late MLS tournament match between Real Salt Lake and Colorado Rapids at 10:30pm on ESPN. I don’t know that we’ll make it all the way through the late MLS match. But I’m pretty sure it’ll be on our TV as we’re heading to bed.

It’s going to be an Epic Soccer Sunday. And I couldn’t be more excited. 😃📺⚽️🤗💯❤️

A really good Saturday.

Happy Saturday morning from Northside…

We made a run to Lowe’s this morning, and unexpectedly ended up with a new patio set. We didn’t realize how big it was until we tried to get it to fit in the back of the Audi…

We had to take it all out of the box. But we managed to get it home. And it looks great out on our back patio…

Genifer had another BLT for lunch. I put some deli sliced turkey on mine to make it a delicious club sammich…

Good afternoon from Northside…

We went over Taft’s Brewpourium for pizza because it’s really the only place we feel really comfortable going during the pandemic…

Taft’s has set up seating back at their bar…

We ordered our new favorite pizza. It’s the white pizza with prosciutto, cherry tomatoes, and arugula after bake. It’s so good…

We love the Brewpourium. It’s our favorite pizza in all of Cincinnati…

As we were heading out, a train started to roll by Taft’s…

Trains are so cool. Good evening from Northside…

It was a great Saturday. And tomorrow promises to be an epic soccer Sunday! 😀🗓️❤️

We made it through another week!

Good morning from Northside…

I love these types of clouds. They’re so pretty…

After we walked the dogs this morning, we ran over to Kroger. I’m really happy that they finally made wearing a mask mandatory in public… 

We stocked up on Shining Stars

Today, Kroger had both the bear and the train in the international aisle…

Kroger’s been having a balloon display by the vegetables recently…

The cutest display was with the condiment balloons or the Cinco de Mayo balloons.

After we got our groceries from Kroger, we ran into Meijer to look for another one of the Venus in-store displays I designed. And there it was…

This display looked really great as well. And then we stopped at Mad Llama for coffee…

When we got home, I had a big bowl of Shining Stars with my Mad Llama Java Whip…

After work. we had delicious BLTs for dinner…

I really love BLTs. When we took the dogs for their evening walk, the skies looked kinda ominous and threatening…

Thankfully, it seemed like those dark clouds had passed us…

The ice cream man drove by…

Of course, we didn’t have any money on us. Because we were just walking the dogs.

Good evening from Northside…

It was starting to look threatening again. But when we were walking down the steps, the sun came back out. At the bottom of the steps, we saw this Northside sidewalk snail but it was hiding inside its shell right in the middle of the sidewalk…

I picked it up and moved it over so it wasn’t right in the middle of the sidewalk…

Those are some really grey clouds. I’m happy we made it through another work week.

This evening we watched more of Hanna Season 2 on Amazon Prime. 😀🗓️❤️

Two for two on masalas.

I had more of the spicy noodles for lunch. They were less spicy today…

For dinner tonight, we had this Indian Channa Masala that we got from Whole Foods…

We really liked the Tikka Masala we tried from Whole Foods. This one was chickpeas slow-simmered with onions, tomatoes and spices served over rice and it was so good. I wish we knew more about Indian food. What little I’ve had, I really like a lot. It has such unique, good flavors.

And speaking of good, good evening from Northside…

And we’re almost to the weekend again. 😀🗓️❤️

And 2020 finally has its motto.

Amusement parks in Japan have reopened and the Fuji-Q Highland amusement park near Tokyo has an unorthodox request for its roller coaster riders,Please scream inside your heart, not out loud. The unusual ask is meant to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus.

It took six months, but 2020 finally has its motto… “Please scream inside your heart.” 😀🎢😱❤️

It was pretty dang spicy.

Good morning from Northside…

For dinner tonight, Genifer made these hot & spicy udon soup noodles that we got at Cam International Market

The noodles and broth were so tasty but they were also really spicy. Genifer made some delicious potstickers that we got at Cam as well…

Thankfully, the potstickers weren’t spicy at all.

And then we went on our evening dog walk…

Good evening from Northside…

And they actually cut the grass in the “orchard” at the end of the street…

It was looking like a hot mess. A real hot mess. And speaking of hot, even when we got home from our walk, my mouth was still on fire from those noodles. 😀🌄🥡🍜❤️

When we’re out, it’s masks on.

So we’ve been faithfully wearing our masks whenever we’ve been out in public since all this COVID-19 craziness began to hit home back in the middle of March. The masks felt really weird at first but slowly it’s become more routine with each passing day. Wearing a mask doesn’t really bother me. It’s just a new part of the world we live in now.

Yesterday, Ohio’s Governor announced a mask mandate for seven Ohio counties that are classified at Level 3 under the state’s Public Health Advisory Alert System. The county we live in, Hamilton County, is one of those counties. Now, masks will be required for everyone when they’re out in public…

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Starting Thursday, masks are mandatory inside public spaces in the city. That includes grocery and retail stores, health care facilities, restaurants, bars, the gym and buses, to name a few. The penalty for violators is a civil fine of $25.

Cincinnati’s mask mandate goes along with an order from Ohio Governor Mike DeWine that requires masks in seven counties, including Hamilton and Butler counties in Southwest Ohio, as long as those counties are considered red under Ohio’s new COVID-19 alert system. DeWine’s order takes effect at 6 pm on Wednesday.

Here’s an interesting statistic… If 95% of Americans wore face masks in public, it could prevent 33,000 deaths by October 1, according to the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. And that’s nothing to sneeze at.

US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams also said if people want more businesses to reopen and stay open, everyone should wear a mask. “Face coverings → less asymptomatic viral spread → more places open, and sooner!”

 

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I think everyone really needs to take their own responsibility and try to do the best they can with this ever-changing situation out in the world. And wearing a mask when we’re out and practicing our social distancing is a big part of that.

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We believe in face masks because we’re all #InThisTogetherOhio. 😀😷🦠❤️

Hello from Northside.

Good morning from Northside…

And good evening from Northside…

We were just getting back into our work week. It seemed like a very long day. 😀🌄❤️

Cheeseburgers & thunderstorms.

Good morning from Northside…

We went to get Biggby Coffee

Biggby Coffee is so good. We like it a lot.

We had to run some errands up north today, and afterward, we found ourselves out in Lebanon. We stopped to fill up our gas tank at this Marathon station…

It was just across the street from this train…

And we were presented with an unusual fuel option…

🤔

We decided to just go with the plus. On our back home, we stopped at Quatman Cafe in Mason for lunch. We’ve been to the Quatman in Norwood a couple of times but we’ve never been to the one in Mason before…

Quatman always has a daily special. Today’s special was a cheeseburger, fries or onion rings and a drink for $8. Two, please…

Those onion rings look delicious…

And those burgers were as delicious as they were big. And they were huge! I don’t know why we don’t do to Quatman in Norwood more. Their burgers are terrific and it’s really inexpensive to eat there. We really need to change that and eat more Quatmans.

Quatman was sooo good. When we got home, we took the dogs on a walk around the block. There were some ominous looking storm clouds that had just passed us…

But as soon as we got around the block and up to the top of the hill at the end of our street, it started raining…

And when we got home and looked out in the backyard, it was pouring…

It seemed fitting that it would rain on the end of our weekend. It was a great Monday. It was a really great long weekend. And now we only have to work four days this week to get to our next weekend!

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