All posts tagged Lego City Advent Calendar

Thanks, USPS.

Back on November 27th, I mailed a package from the post office in St. Bernard. I was sending two Lego City Advent Calendars out to our niece and nephew in Boston. I sent it Two-Day Priority Mail because I forgot about the box that was sitting on the sofa in our studio office…

It was expensive but that’s fine. It was still expected to arrive on November 30th…

If figured even if it was late, the package would still arrive on December 1st or 2nd. And everything would be just fine. I started tracking the package online because that’s the fun part of sending packages, tracking their journey. My package disappeared twice with no updates, once for four days and then for another eight days…

On December 2nd, the package was still in Cincinnati. When I checked the tracking number this morning, it looks like my package is finally going to be delivered today… SEVENTEEN DAYS LATER.

And our package was delivered today, December 14th at 5:26pm…

At least, the package finally arrived, and we’re really happy about that. But still… Seventeen. Days. Thanks, USPS. 😠😡🤬📦📭🐌❤️

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by Thadd F. on December 14, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in Odd & Ends

Tagged 2020, Cincinanti, Dec14, December, JJVE, Lego City Advent Calendar, Northside, Odds&Ends, Ohio, Post Office, Seen and noted, Special delivery, Two-Day Priority Mail, United State Postal Service, USPS

Posted by Thadd F. on December 14, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/12/14/thanks-usps/

Two out of three isn’t bad.

Good morning from Northside…

This morning we ran over to Target to do some shopping…

How cute are these bears? I love a bin of adorable bears…

And there was this adorable yeti stocking…

Greetings from Antarctica…

I designed the eCommerce basic images for all the holiday Swiss Miss hot cocoa gift sets…

Speaking of Swiss Miss, how long has there been Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa with Lucky Charms Marshmallows? It’s the first time I’ve ever seen this sorcery…

And speaking of cocoa, I love hot chocolate. It’s become my go-to drink whenever we go out to get coffee.

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

We had snacks for lunch today…

We watched Arsenal lose 1-0 to Burnley…

It was the first time since December 1959 that the Gunners have lost four consecutive matches at home. They are really not doing well this season. At the same time as the Arsenal match, Michigan was playing their Big Ten opener against Penn State and our Cowboys were playing in Cincinnati against the Bengals…

Both Michigan and Dallas won their games. I guess, two out of three isn’t so bad.

Good evening from Northside…

Later, I had one of my favorite snacks, Ritz crackers and peanut butter…

We finished season one of Black Spot. It’s a very odd show. Very good, very interesting, but very odd. We’ll start on season two tomorrow. 😀🌄🛍️📺⚽️🏀🏈❤️

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by Thadd F. on December 13, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #FALLinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on December 13, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/12/13/two-out-of-three-isnt-bad/

Pizza with friends.

It was so nice this morning. The temperature was supposed to be in the low 60s today…

Good morning from Northside…

Day twelve of my Lego City Advent Calendar…

Early this afternoon it started pouring down rain though it was hard to tell from our third-floor WyzeCam…

It rained for about an hour. And then it stopped just before we went to meet our friends Mehwish and Ben at the only place we really go to anymore because of the pandemic… Taft’s Brewpourium. We met them over there to hang out, catch up,
and of course, have a beer and eat some pizza…

I forgot to take a photo of all of us. I’m so bad at remembering to take a photo when we’re hanging out with people. Or maybe just self-conscious or something. But I did remember to take a photo of our pizzas…

This was Taft’s new pizza, The Fiamma…

It’s their mozzarella with tomato sauce base topped with hot soppressata and hot honey drizzle. And it was a really delicious pizza. It turns out soppressata was less like salami and more like pepperoni. The honey on the pizza was really good. And it was hot warm, not hot spicy. It was a really terrific pie.

TRAIN!

And we saw a beautiful sunset from Taft’s…

We had so much fun hanging out with Mehwish and Ben. It was great to see them, hang out and catch up. It’s been a minute since we’ve hung out with other people.

It ended up being a pretty evening in Northside…

Good evening from Northside…

The NBA preseason started this evening with both my Mavs and Grizzlies playing their first games of the new season. We didn’t get to watch either of their games. We don’t get many of the Mavs or Grizz games on TV. But it’s terrific to know that NBA Basketball is back!

We had a pretty fun Saturday. 😀🌄🌧️🍕🚂🏀❤️

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by Thadd F. on December 12, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #FALLinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on December 12, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/12/12/pizza-with-friends/

A very pretty Friday.

The sunrise was very pretty again this morning…

Good morning from Northside…

We both had the day off work today. We ran over to Rookwood Commons this morning to do some Christmas shopping but first we stopped at Hyde Perk to get some coffees…

We stopped at Home Goods and TJ Maxx…

And it was time for day eleven of my Lego City Advent Calendar…

Our new TV console arrived yesterday…

It has a terrific faux fireplace and powerful space heater…

We think it looks really nice and hopefully it’ll help keep our living nice and toasty warm this winter…

Other than that, it was a pretty low-key and relaxing day off.

And it was another very pretty evening as well…

Good evening from Northside…

For dinner tonight, we tried these Smoked Ahi Tuna Poke Bowls…

They were surprisingly good and very filling…

We were concerned that they would be fishy. But they weren’t at all. They really just tasted like delicious spicy soy sauce. They were really good. We’ll definitely be getting them again next time we go to the grocery.

The sunset was very pretty tonight as well…

None of my sports teams played again today…

So tonight, we started watching the series Black Spot on Netflix. It’s kinda odd but it’s been really interesting so far. 😀🌄🔥🍣📺❤️

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by Thadd F. on December 11, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #FALLinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on December 11, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/12/11/a-very-pretty-friday/

Today was a beautiful day.

Good morning from Northside…

It was such a beautiful morning. Time for Legos…

Day ten of my Lego City Advent Calendar…

We made delicious boiler sammiches for lunch today. Mine was Cajun chicken breast with American cheese on Hawaiian bread with Backyard BBQ Kettle Chips…

Both of us don’t have to work tomorrow. It took a bit longer to finish up my projects for the week but I finally got them wrapped up. And then we took the dogs on their walk around the block…

The sky was just so pretty all day today. And it was almost 60º today. I guess that’s what happens when it’s not grey and overcast and the sun actually comes out to play.

Tonight, we watched some of the Thursday night football game as the Rams hammered the once great New England Patriots.

When we go upstairs for the night, Mack will come upstairs with us and hang out for a little bit. But then he’ll wander off to sleep downstairs in our second-floor studio office at night…

Most of the time he’ll come upstairs in the middle of the night or really early in the morning. During the day, he wanders off to sleep in our bedroom on the third-floor. He hangs out with us in the afternoon and evening and then he sleeps most of the night in the second-floor studio. We think he just likes sleeping undisturbed without us moving around and waking him up and stuff. He’s so good and doesn’t cause any mischief so we just let him sleep where he wants. But he’s an oddball. And that’s like we like him so much. 😀🌄🥪🐾📺🏈❤️

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by Thadd F. on December 10, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #FALLinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on December 10, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/12/10/41481/

A Wednesday NYPD Pizza party!

There were more altocumulcus clouds hovering over Northside this morning…

Good morning from Northside…

And it was time for day nine of my Lego City Advent Calendar…

The sun actually came out today…

And then we had the ultra rare Wednesday NYPD Pizza party…

We ordered a large Station House supremium™ pizza…

And Nightsticks with extra cheese…

NYPD Pizza parties are so good. Especially on Wednesdays. They never happen on Wednesdays. And after we were done eating all our pizza, we headed upstairs…

We watched Michigan thump Toledo and Xavier thump Oklahoma. Both teams won by exactly 20 points. 😀🌄☁️🍕🐾📺🏀❤️

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by Thadd F. on December 9, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #FALLinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on December 9, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/12/09/a-wednesday-nypd-pizza-party/

With peas.

It seems like whenever we have a grey and overcast Monday it’s usually followed by and grey and overcast Tuesday. I don’t know why Tuesday has to copy Monday all the time but here we are…

Good morning from Northside…

And then it was time for day eight of my Lego City Advent Calendar…

And fast forward through a very busy work day that involved completing the same project twice because it was just that awesome. But we got through the day…

For dinner tonight, we had another one of the Kroger Prep+Pared Home Chef Express meals. This meal might have had the longest name of any of the Prep+Pared Home Chef Express meals that we’ve eaten. Are you ready for this… Italian Sausage and Roasted Tomato Cream Cavatappi… with peas…

And cheesy garlic bread. Ohmigosh, I love garlic bread especially cheesy garlic bread…

And it was another delicious dinner. This one was one of my favorites because I love all the boxes it checked… pasta, sausage, sun-dried tomato, cheese and garlic bread. I could eat this meals at least once a week. We like the Kroger Prep+Pared Home Chef Express meal kits a lot.

Later, we watched the Cowboys get thumped by the Ravens on Tuesday Night Football (wait, wut?)…

After every Cowboys game I’ve watched this season, I’ve literally said out loud to myself after EVERY game is over, “Why did I just watch that game? The Cowboys are turrible.” Because the Cowboys are really bad.

I need to ask myself, “Is Andy Dalton still the Cowboys quarterback?” If the answer is yes, I need to go watch something else. Anything else.

But at least the pasta was awesome. Because the Cowboys are not. 😀🌄☁️🥣🏈📺❤️

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by Thadd F. on December 8, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #FALLinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on December 8, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/12/08/with-peas/

Come on you Loons!

It was another cloudy, overcast, grey Monday morning…

Good morning from Northside…

Time for day 7 of my Lego City Advent Calendar…

With the exception of the mini figures, each day every little set has had a few random leftover extra pieces…

Today was pretty slow at work. It was a lot of hurry up and wait today. I was just waiting for dinner.

And fast forward through the rest of the workday to this evening. For dinner tonight, we had another one of the Kroger Prep+Pared Home Chef Express meals. This meal was Garlic-Sesame Steak Noodles with snow peas and honey roasted peanuts…

And it was another really good dinner. The noodles and the garlic-seasme sauce was terrific. And I ate all the snow peas first. I just not a big fan of most steaks. It was tasty. But there was just a lot of beef. And I kept ending up with just this ball of meat in my mouth. I could have used a lot more of the noodles and snow peas and less of the steak. But it was still another super tasty meal. We like the Kroger Prep+Pared Home Chef Express meal kits a lot.

The sky was really odd tonight. It was mostly cloudy with just this little sliver that was very bright right at the horizon. Good evening from Northside…

Later this evening was the MLS Cup Playoffs Western Conference Final between my beloved Minnesota United and Seattle Sounders…

Minnesota was a pretty sizeable underdog coming into this match…

But Minnesota really took the game to Seattle and led 1-0 at half courtesy of a golazo freekick wonderstrike by their new star player Argentine Emanuel Reynoso…

COME ON YOU LOONS! United added their second in the 67th minute on a Bakaye Dibassy header from another Reynoso freekick. The Loons were up Dos a Cero and I was on cloud nine. Sounders pulled one back in the 75th minute as they continued to turn up the pressure. 😬 And the Loons couldn’t hold on as Seattle stormed back to score two more goals, both off of corners, one in the 89th and the other at 90+4 to win the match 3-2. Crushing. Absolutely crushing.

But it was one heck of a playoff run and a tremendous season for Minnesota United. No one expected them to reach the conference finals in just their fourth season in MLS. And even though the Loons season is over, it was still a pretty darn good Monday.
😀🌄☁️🍜⚽️🏆🥲❤️

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by Thadd F. on December 7, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #FALLinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends, Sports

Posted by Thadd F. on December 7, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/12/07/come-on-you-loons/

Another pretty good, low-key Saturday.

Good morning from Northside…

We ran over to Lowe’s this morning…

We got some more Christmas lights but not the lights we wanted because most of the lights were already sold out. And we got paint for our third-floor bedroom.

On the way home, we stopped at Mad Llama for coffee and a Java Whip!

When we got home, I got to open day five of my Lego City Advent Calendar…

Genifer worked on painting our third-floor bedroom. She’s been on a real painting kick lately. She had it looking really good. But she’s really good at painting. I am not good.
At all.

We had a really late lunch. And we just had leftovers. We ate the rest of the delicious chicken marinated in Trader Joe’s Island Soyaki and Genifer made more stuffing. And it made so much stuffing…

I’m guessing we’re going to have stuffing with every meal for a while. And I’m really good with that. Because I love stuffing!

We watched Western Michigan lose their unbeaten football season to Eastern Michigan. Bummer.

And then, we took the dog’s out on a walk around the block…

Good evening from Northside…

We added these lights around the banister on our front porch….

Later, we watched Don’t Listen. It was one of those really weird movies that just left us with a lot of unaswered questions. It was weird. But other that Western loss and the silly movie, it was just another pretty good, low-key Saturday. 😀🌄☕️🐔🏈📺❤️

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by Thadd F. on December 5, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #FALLinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends

Posted by Thadd F. on December 5, 2020

https://tplusg.com/2020/12/05/another-pretty-good-low-key-saturday/

HOORAY! It’s Friday!

HOORAY! It’s Friday! It was a little chilly and a little grey this morning…

Good morning from Northside…

And it was time for day four of my Lego City Advent Calendar…

How fun is Lego stuff? I got all my work done for the day and finished my timesheets for the week.

And then it was good evening from Northside…

It was a very pretty December evening.

For dinner tonight, Genifer made chicken marinated in Trader Joe’s Island Soyaki with baked sweet potatoes and we finished the rest of the Thanksgiving stuffing….

It was such a great meal. The Trader Joe’s Island Soyaki is a teriyaki sauce/marinade that mkes anything taste like the most out of this world, outstandingly good stuff.

None of my teams were playing their sports tonight…

And as a result, we got to watch A Christmas Catch tonight on Netflix. It was pretty cheesy and not very good. It wasn’t as bad as one of the other movies we watched, Hometown Holiday but it was still far from good. Both seemed like they were Hallmark movie rejects. 😀🌄🐔📺❤️

Thank goodness it’s Friday.

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by Thadd F. on December 4, 2020 • Permalink

Posted in #FALLinCINCY, Northside, Odd & Ends