February 19, 2025

Wednesday - Cold and snowy

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. I was surprised that I had slept so long! I went downstairs for a few minutes then came back upstairs and went back to bed. I watched a couple of videos and then snoozed. I did get up a bit earlier than usual and went downstairs after I dressed. I thought I’d just get breakfast, but I looked outside and there was a bit of snow out. I dressed for going out and then I moved it. There wasn’t a lot really. It was also lovely and sunny and it felt quite warm too!

I came back into the house again and made my breakfast. I took it upstairs to eat. I spent a quiet afternoon watching some YouTube and not working on my column. Sigh. I went downstairs around 2:40 and looked outside. Yikes. There was a lot more snow than before.

I put on my coat, hat, and gloves and went outside and moved a bit more snow. There was quite a bit and I was surprised. It took a bit longer than this morning to clear the snow. When I was done, I went inside and made my lunch. I brought it upstairs to eat too. 

I decided to watch an episode of The Walking Dead today. I watched the first episode of the eleventh season and it was good. I watched the news as well in the middle!

F called after 5 pm and I went downstairs nearer 6 pm. I looked outside but the snow wasn’t too deep so I didn’t clear it. I went into the kitchen and started the dishes from the day, and last night. I got gifted with extra, I’m so lucky. 

Tonight I made chicken wings and I tried a new recipe. I didn’t have all the ingredients so I had to do a bit of substitution but I think they worked out well anyway.  I liked them enough to look out for the ingredients next time I go shopping!

I also cooked some broccoli and plated some macaroni-tuna salad. We had some salad too, and F had supplied the rice. Dinner was really good. There was a little bit leftover, but not a lot. I packed a lunch for K and I got a little bit of leftovers for me too. 

After dinner, I did the dishes and listened to a couple of my podcasts. When I was finished with the dishes, I had to deal with the garbage. I have a system that works for me, but K doesn’t always play.

When I was done, I went upstairs and dealt with the garbage in my room, well, my stuff anyway. I left the bag for F to put his stuff in. I had a cup of mocha coffee (decaf coffee with half a cocoa sachet) and enjoyed that. 

When F came upstairs I went downstairs to take a shower. For a change, F said he’d take one tonight too, so I didn’t have to turn off the water heater. 

At 11:00pm I came back up to the room and decided to watch something. I decided I wanted something happy so I put on The Great British Bake-Off and it was great. It was just what I needed. I also did a couple of rounds of my knitting, so that was good too!

F stayed up quite late for a change and has now gone to bed. I plan to get to bed soon too. I’m a bit tired. It was a busy day and tomorrow I might be busy too. 

Come back later if you like and hear all about my Thursday. Until tomorrow….

February 18, 2025

Tuesday - Cold, snowy and icy. Brr....

I woke up around 7:30 this morning. It was cold. I had to go downstairs, so I did that. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I saw F outside. He was probably getting ready to leave.

I went back upstairs, found my clothes for the day and put them near the bed. Then, I got back into bed and watched a few videos on my phone before falling asleep again. 

I woke up again when F came back for a few minutes. He stopped in to get some medicine. I was  snoozing and a bit embarrassed, but it is what it is. He left and I went back to sleep. I did wake up about an hour later and this time I got up and dressed. I went downstairs and checked the snow situation. There was a bit, so I went outside and cleared some snow for a while. It was a bit colder than usual. 

I came back into the house when I was done and made my breakfast. I went upstairs to eat and watch YouTube and the news.  

A bit after 2 I remembered that I hadn’t done my laundry, so I had to get on that! I ended up doing two loads today. I hope to do more soon though. 

I went downstairs to make my lunch. I just had my usual, but I had run out of sliced chicken yesterday, so I had to use real leftover chicken on my toast! I came upstairs to eat my lunch, hang up a load of laundry and watch a show. Today I watched an episode of So Help Me Todd. It was fine, but I lost the plot in the middle. 

F phoned after 5:15 to say he was on his way back, but the roads were slippery. I told him to drive carefully and that I’d go and start dinner fairly soon. I was a bit longer, but did go downstairs!

Tonight I made hamburgers from scratch and they were great! I also microwaved some vegetables, and we also had rice, potato salad and salad. Dinner was quite good except K tried to give F half of her burger. I told her that hers was a small one and F told her that he didn’t want hers either. 

I went into the kitchen and washed the dishes. I got things done and then went out to see if F was ready to go to the store. I needed a few minutes to change my clothes and he needed to get his jacket and keys. 

We went to Mina and the roads were quite slippery. I asked him not to go by the river because I’m always paranoid that we’d end up in the river! He obliged. At the store, we dumped the recyclables and then went shopping. While I was buying stuff, I asked F if he had a request and he asked about me making a pork stew. I was a little unhappy about that because it takes a lot of work for me to do it. Still, I decided to try. I got a stew roux and the ingredients so hopefully I’ll make some on Thursday night. 

We came back to the house and I put away the groceries. I came back upstairs thinking I’d start warming up the room for F, but discovered that the heater was almost out of kerosene. I took the tank downstairs and filled it up. That was a pain, but better than running out at midnight!

We had a quiet evening in. I watched FBI: Most Wanted and then turned off the TV. The DVR recorded tonight’s episodes of The Walking Dead so I might be watching some of that tomorrow. Maybe!

That’s about it for me. Tomorrow I have to work more on my column. I did a bit today, but more is needed. I may have to go out and shovel some snow as well. I’m sad to say that we are in a bad weather system at the moment and it is cold.

Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

February 17, 2025

Monday - Cold, snowy, windy and blah

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. I went downstairs and then came back upstairs and went back to bed for a while. The room was so dark that when I did wake up, I thought it was the middle of the night. It was dark outside!

I dragged myself out of bed and downstairs after I dressed. I prepared my breakfast and brought it upstairs to eat. I had a quiet afternoon basically. I watched a bit of the news, I watched a lot of YouTube. I even got a bit of knitting done. I think I did three rows today. 

I was late going downstairs to pick up my lunch, but made the executive decision to watch a programme anyway instead of the news. I ended up watching Major Crimes and it was a tear-jerker one that was good for character building. I was quite verklempt at the end.

F called me after 5:15 and said he was finished work. He was on his way back to the house. I went downstairs and put my stuff in the kitchen. F had left the kitchen in a huge mess from the weekend again. I don’t know what is up with that. I leave the kitchen tidy and clean on Friday, he messes it up every weekend. Sigh. Even the “clean” dishes in the drainer weren’t that clean and had to be rewashed.

When F came back he wanted to serve his stewed daikon as part of dinner. I suggested that he come downstairs around 7 and prepare it, but he decided to do a lot of prep when I was already busy in the kitchen. I’m not sure what he was thinking! He left a few minutes later. 

I got on with dinner. Tonight I did yuzu-pepper chicken in the toaster oven, plated some potato salad and we had some baby leaf salad too. I washed that one. I had planned some broccoli too, but since F was serving his daikon, decided not to do any.

I called F down to heat up his vegetable and I set the table. I put food on K’s plate, and on mine, and when F was ready we had a nice meal. The daikon was okay. I had told F early that I was leaving his dishes for him to do and he was mildly okay with that. His idea is to use as many dishes as possible when cooking, mine is as few as possible!

After dinner I cleared the table and left the daikon dishes on the table. F brought them through to the kitchen but didn’t put them for me to wash. Yay!  To be honest, there wasn’t a whole lot of dishes, so I washed all of mine, dried them, and then washed a few of F’s dishes. I did the ones from the table and most of the cutlery. I left him the pans and the cutting board, so he didn’t have that much to do. I told him I was going upstairs, and then I did.

I relaxed for a bit and after 10 I went downstairs and took a shower. It was very nice. When I came back upstairs I watched an episode of Bad Monkey. Things are coming to a head, so I need to see the next episode soon. 

That’s about it for me for today. This whole week we are supposed to have bad weather and it’s a bit depressing. Oh, but I have a column to write so I shouldn’t go anywhere anyway. I did get a bit written today, so that is good! Fingers crossed I do more tomorrow too. 

Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

February 16, 2025

Sunday - Rainy, cloudy and then warm

I slept in this morning and it was wonderful. I realized while I was snoozing that I was also quite hot in the room. F had turned on the heater before he left the room. 

I got up eventually and then got dressed. F came in and talked about going for lunch, but didn’t have any ideas of where to go. I suggested going to Arpeggio and that’s where we went. We were able to get a table right away and then we relaxed and ordered. I had the bacon-don and F had the pork-don. We both liked our meals, except F said his was a little salty. 

We did a few things after the restaurant. We went over to the Chido Museum and looked at one of the exhibits. They were having swords featured, so this visit was for F. I kept myself busy looking at the art scrolls. That was nice.

We went for coffee next. We tried to go to Starbucks but it was so crowded that we couldn’t even park the car. Instead, we went to S-Mall and went to Doutor. On the way we noticed that the grocery store in the mall is going to close. Oh no! That isn’t good. 

I got us drinks at Doutor and we relaxed for a bit. We left the mall after a bit. I couldn’t get the wifi to work on my phone so I wasn’t having a lot of fun. 

We went to the local grocery store next and went in to do shopping. I was annoyed at F (as usual!) because at first he chose to bring in a small shopping bag. I do a lot of shopping on Sundays, a small bag won’t cut it. Then he had the buggy and wouldn’t start going around the store. At one point he gave me some money and said he was going back to the car. That was fine with me! I got the rest of the groceries and then took them back to the car. 

We went back to the house and I unpacked the groceries. I went upstairs after that and just vegged. 

Around 6:30 F started talking about our dinner. He even suggested going to Kappa Sushi. I said that was fine. I didn’t really want more rice today, but I did want sushi. F has been really against going lately. He fed his mother and then we went off. 

We were able to get a table right away and we ordered a few types of sushi. It was rather nice and we enjoyed most of what we had. We did have a few deep fried things, but not as much as we often do. I like fries and onion rings, what can I say?

We came back to the house after dinner. F put rice together for tomorrow’s dinner and I came upstairs after a little. I decided that I should watch a movie tonight since I had a couple of hours free for a change. I chose the new AppleTV one, The Gorge with Miles Teller and Anya Taylor Joy. I liked it. It was quite suspenseful and they made an interesting team. I did a few rows of my knitting during the movie too. I’m on the ribbing bit, so I have to pay attention to it. 

And that’s my day. I turned off the TV a little after midnight and then watched some YouTube while I wrote this. 

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I’ll probably do the dinner and hopefully do a bit of work on my column. The deadline is approaching. Yikes. I’ll also have the usual Monday things I do like backing up my computer and, well, who knows?

Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

February 15, 2025

Saturday - Warm and Sunny

I wasn’t too pleased with F this morning. I woke up for some reason around 6:30. He was sitting up in bed playing on his computer. I went downstairs and then went back to bed and slept on. I woke up again around 10 when my alarms started going. I dragged myself out of bed and got myself dressed.

We went off to the doctor’s office and it was the usual weirdness. F, in his wisdom, was wearing an undershirt with long sleeves and a big sweater, plus his winter coat. Our doctor’s office is always hot in winter. I had on my undies and a T-shirt. I took off my coat as soon as I sat down in the waiting room. F didn’t! I asked him if he was hot and he said he was, but wouldn’t take off his coat. Weird. 

After we finished at the doctor's and picked up our medicines, we turned to lunch. F had told me about a new-to-us place yesterday and wanted to try it. We got there but it was closed. I came up with a few other places but F didn’t want to go to them. In fact, he decided he’d like to go home. I told him that wasn’t fair to me…I don’t have any food there on weekends. 

We ended up at a restaurant that is usually closed when we try to go. It was open today, but we missed the lunch specials. We both had their chicken cutlet set meal and it was nice. 

We did a little shopping after lunch. We did a speed through the drugstore and got a few things, then went to the grocery store to get a bento and other things for F and K. Then, back to the house. Sigh.

I was tired so I went upstairs and ended up taking a nap after a bit. I was in bed for about an hour, although I wasn’t asleep for that time in one go. I dragged myself up after 5. Finally, F started asking if I was ready to go. Yes! We had a movie that was starting at 6:25 and I wanted to be there earlier of course.

F got into a yelling thing with his mother and then we left. On the way there, F asked when the movie started and I told him. He made an oh-oh sound. I asked if he thought we’d make it. He didn’t know. That ticked me off as I wanted to leave earlier but he had to yell at his mother. 

However, we made it to the cinema on time! Woot. We decided to divide and conquer. I bought the tickets and F bought the popcorn and drinks. We went to see Captain America: Brave New World. It was fine. I enjoyed it, without being bowled over by it. It was fun to see Harrison Ford Hulking out, and I thought Anthony Mackie was good as the new Captain America. 

After the movie the mall was closed or closing so we didn’t have time to take my shirt in to be sewn. I’m a little annoyed with F as I’ve been asking him for weeks to take me to the mall so I could get the sleeves hemmed. 

We came back to Tsuruoka and had dinner at Tsukyia, the gyudon shop. I wasn’t too impressed but we needed to keep the costs down. I had chicken yakitori on rice, F had gyudon. I also had a milkshake with mine but it wasn’t that good so I was disappointed. 

We came back to the house and I watched FBI. It just finished for a while. It was a good episode, but I was knitting during it, so I didn’t see it all!

And that’s about it for my day. F was tired and fell asleep earlier. I’m going to go to bed soon as I’m tired too. 

I have no idea what we’ll get up to tomorrow. We might go to the museum to see the exhibit of swords or we might do a bit of shopping or both! Come back in a bit and find out. Until tomorrow….

February 14, 2025

Friday - Sunny and clear

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I woke up this morning when my alarm rang. I didn’t wake up early for a change. That was nice. I went downstairs for a couple of minutes and then came back upstairs and went back to bed for a bit. I watched a couple of videos and then snoozed for a bit. 

I dragged myself out of bed a bit later and dressed. I went downstairs and made my breakfast, I brought it upstairs and ate. It was very nice. I got a new cereal yesterday and I tried it this morning.

I had a quiet afternoon. I did a load of laundry and hung it up, I grabbed my lunch and brought it upstairs. I watched an episode of Buffy today and it was good. Spike made his first appearance. To be honest, I’ve been thinking of giving up on the show as it just wasn’t that interesting. He made it a lot more interesting!

F called me after 5:15 and said he was on his way back to the house. I reminded him that he should pick up something for his mother’s breakfast tomorrow and he said he would. I also reminded him that it was Valentine’s Day and that he might want to get his mother some chocolates. 

I went downstairs and started on dinner. Tonight I just did a simple meal of spaghetti with a Japanese-style sauce, and salad and I cooked some mushrooms in mayonnaise and soy sauce. Dinner was good and K even said that it was good. I’m glad to hear her actually talking as she doesn’t speak much these days.

I did the dishes after dinner and then talked to F for a few minutes. he thought I wanted to go out tonight and was relieved when I said I didn’t. I went up and got out the chocolates I bought for Fumihiko’s Valentine’s present. When he came up to the room, I gave him his chocolates and he felt really bad. He’d given me some for my birthday that he’d bought for Valentine’s Day! He promised to buy me something tomorrow, but I told him that would mean his would be discounted!

I took a shower after 10pm and then came back to the room. I did a bit of knitting and watched Severance. It was really good and we got to learn a bit more about one of the characters. It was….odd. 

Since midnight, I’ve been watching YouTube and doing my internet stuff. I’ll hopefully go to bed soon as I might have a longish day tomorrow. We had a doctor’s appointment in the morning and in the early evening, I hope to go and see a movie in Mikawa. It’s been a while for them to have a movie in English. 

Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

February 13, 2025

 Thursday - Cold, snowy and windy

I woke up this morning just after 7:30. I wasn’t sure why. I couldn’t fall asleep again, I had to go downstairs. On my way downstairs, I saw F!  I said hi and bye to him. I went back to bed and slept a bit longer. The weather outside didn’t look too bad at that time.

I woke up again around 9 and checked the weather. It wasn’t great. Around 10 it got really windy and there was a lot of snow coming down. I made the executive decision NOT to go out. It was sad, but the weather was horrible.

I got up properly a bit later, dressed and went downstairs to get my breakfast. I brought it back upstairs to eat and watch the news again. I think I might start skipping the news, I just get so angry!

I spent a quiet afternoon here. I drank several cups of tea and decaf coffee, I ate lunch and watched the last episode of The Walking Dead Season 10. I’m ready for Season 11. It starts next week here. Woot. I think it’s been on another cable channel, but I don’t have it. I’m hoping they’ll eventually bring some of the other shows over too. 

F called after 5:15 and I went downstairs a little later to get started on dinner. Tonight I did an onion boil in my air fryer and then added in the meat a bit later. I also plated some potato salad and some kimchi. Later on, I made some macaroni and cheese with truffle from a packet. I added in some frozen peas near the end. 

I thought dinner was good. I overcooked the meat a little, but it wasn’t burnt. Almost everything was eaten so that was good. 

I did the dishes after dinner. I listened to a few podcasts and enjoyed them. I was quite tired and had a lot of dishes to do. It took me until almost 9pm to get them done. 

I told F that we needed to go to the store and that we should go soon. I got changed and then we left. It was snowing outside and there was quite a bit of snow outside. No! We went to Mina and I went in alone and got the groceries. I’m just going to do pasta tomorrow night, so I got some chicken breast that I’m going to slice, a salad and then breakfasts for F and K as well. I got myself some cereal and some yogurt too. Yay me. 

We came back to the house and I put away the groceries. F stayed outside for a few minutes to shovel a bit of snow. K wanted to turn off the lights on him, but I wouldn’t let her! She’s a character.

Tonight I chilled out with my pyjamas on and then watched The Rookie at 11pm. It was the last episode of the 6th season. It was okay. I am a little sad that it won’t be on for a while, but it’s fine. I might watch the next series that’ll start next week. It’s called Doc. 

I’ve started knitting a hat for myself. It’s not going that well yet and I may have to frog it. I started it on circular needles that were really big, so I’m afraid that the size of it will be wonky. I switched to shorter ones, but I may still need to frog it if is too big or stretched out. 

Anyway, that is it for me for today. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….