January 15, 2025

Thursday - Warmish, rainy at night

I woke up this morning at 7:05am. How did I know that? That’s when F’s alarm went off. Where was F? Not in the room! I got up and went downstairs, but F came back to the room before I did. He did have the grace to apologize for not turning off his alarm!

I waited until F left before I went back to bed. I turned off my early alarms and watched a few videos before just falling asleep. I woke up fairly late, but no worries. I got dressed and then went downstairs. I did notice that F’s sister was in the house. Okay then. I used the ‘loo and then went upstairs again. I waited a while and then went downstairs and made my breakfast. I ate upstairs and then got ready to join a video meeting.

I joined a Book Club meeting and it was interesting. I hadn’t read the featured books but we talked about some of the books other people are reading and the one I’m trying again. I’ve got two on the go at the moment, one’s a modern romance (I think, I just started it) and 1984. I tried to read it a few years ago on my computer but I couldn’t get into it and I didn’t really like reading on my computer. My phone, I can get behind that! I do have a paperback version of the novel, but I always have my phone around so….

I left the meeting around 3:30. It was supposed to go until then, I needed to have my lunch and I needed the washroom.  I went downstairs and made my lunch, brought it back up to the room. Oh, yeah, when I was making my lunch, I saw K so I offered to heat up her lunch for her. She said yes and I think she ate it all. That’s good. 

It was after 4 when I came back to the room so I just watched the news, as much as I could handle of it. I ate and then worked on my favourite game site. F called me after 5:15 and said he was on the way back to the house. 

I went downstairs around 6 pm and got busy in the kitchen. Today I made hamburgers from scratch, air-fried some French Fries, steamed some veggies and served it all with a salad. Dinner was good and almost everything disappeared. After dinner, I cleared the table and washed the dishes. 

I finished around 9pm and let F know I was heading upstairs. He finished in the living room too and came up a couple of minutes later. We had a quiet time in the room. We were both watching videos on our devices! After 10pm I put on the next episode of Pluribus and it was quite good. After that, I watched an episode of The Studio which I enjoyed a bit. I know it’s a popular show, but sometimes I just don’t feel I’m in on the joke of that show. 

That’s about it for me. F was a bit late going to bed but I think he’s sleeping finally. I’m tired so I’m going to try and get to bed soon. 

Tomorrow I think I’ll try and do a load or two of laundry and then we’ll see what else I can get up to! Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

January 14, 2026

Wednesday - Cold and windy

I woke up this morning around 5:30. I’m not sure why! F was awake too. I asked him tonight if he knew why we woke up, but he said that it might have been him that woke up first. I don’t know. I had to go downstairs and then I came back upstairs and went back to bed. 

I fell asleep again and then didn’t get up at my first alarm. I got up around 9 and went downstairs again. I got my clothes ready for going out and then went back to bed for a little bit of time. I dragged myself out of bed around 10:30 and got ready to go out. F had forgotten to take his sandwich pack so I ate it as my breakfast! I went downstairs around 11:20, used the ‘loo, and then put on my boots and went out. I got to the bus stop but had to wait quite a while. I was early and the bus was late so it took a while. I was glad I had my hat and scarf and some gloves with me. Finally, the bus came and I rode it to the end of the line.

At S-Mall I got off the bus, mailed my Postcrossings (I did some yesterday) and then tried to find lunch. Unfortunately, I wasn’t interested in the hotel’s lunch, so I went to Pizza Hut Express and had their Hut Melts, the bacon and potato one. It doesn’t have tomato in it and I asked them not to give me the tomato dipping sauce that comes with it. I had my lunch with a bottle of rooibos that I had bought at the grocery store. 

When I finished lunch, it was almost time to leave. I went to the bus station and waited for my bus. I rode the three stops to the Sanno-Machi stop and got off. I was surprised that about 3 other people got off at the same stop too! I did something a little bad today…I walked through the parking lot of the building. It saved me a lot of walking around in the cold and I got to Machi-kine much quicker. 

I paid my money and went in to see The Phoenician Scheme. I like the director, the actors were great, but the movie wasn’t good. I laughed about twice and nearly fell asleep several times! I knew that there was a good chance I wouldn’t like the film since Kermode didn’t like it, but I had hoped I would. 

After the movie if I rushed, I could get to the bus stop in time to catch the bus back. I decided not to do that. I walked to the nearby drugstore and did a little shopping and walking around in the store. I bought a few things for myself including a pair of socks and a thing to make fried eggs in the microwave!

I paid and walked back to the bus stop. I was too early again and had to wait about 15 minutes in the cold. The bus came finally and I got on. There were a few people on the bus and they were all sitting in aisle seat. I had to take the single seat by the door with my big backpack. It was a bit annoying. Oh well. After a bit, when they got out of the bus, I moved over to another seat.

I walked back to the house from the bus stop and did a little bit of shovelling. Then, I went inside. I turned on the heater in the kitchen and went upstairs. I turned on the heater upstairs and made myself a cup of coffee. I had an onigiri that I had bought as a late snack and F called me around 5:25. I ended up going downstairs a bit later and taking some plastic bottles down with me. I put them in for recycling.

I got started on dinner and it went fairly well. The kitchen was freezing though. Brr. The heater is slow to heat the room and I’d forgotten to set it before I left. 

Tonight I did toaster oven chicken with a basil flavour, tuna & macaroni salad, salad, and steamed veggies. F’s rice was horrible and had gone hard at the ends. Dinner, apart from the rice, was good.

I did the dishes and then F helped me with the garbage downstairs. I went upstairs to change and did up my garbage up in the room. 

F and I drove over to Mina and bought groceries. He wasn’t as annoying as he can be today, so that was nice! After we finished, he started to drive us back to the house, but I reminded him that we needed to buy kerosene. We went over to the gas station with a couple of wrong turns along the way. He forgot we were going to the gas station and started towards another grocery store!

He got the kerosene and we came back to the house. I took care of the groceries and F took care of the kerosene. We went upstairs and F had the heater on, but the room was cold. 

At 11pm I watched WildCards, it was a good one as they caught the guy that killed Ellis’s brother and Max’s father got out of prison. 

Since midnight I’ve been watching a bit of YouTube and getting ready to go to bed. I’m really tired tonight and need to get to bed!

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow but I’ll let you know tomorrow night! Come back later if you like. Until tomorrow….

January 13, 2026

Tuesday - Warmish but windy

I woke up this morning really early for me. F had already left…it was before 7 am. He told me later that he’d gone to his favourite onsen. I thought that he might have gone there. 

I went back to bed and fell asleep after a few videos on my phone. Later on, I dragged myself out of bed. I dressed and sorted my laundry. I took a couple of loads downstairs and started washing it. I measured out my yogurt and then brought the scales upstairs to weigh my cereal. I ate breakfast and hung up my laundry when it was done.  

I went downstairs to make my lunch around 3. While I was in the kitchen, I set up dinner to marinate as well. I put some pork in a mix of soy sauce and garlic. 

Later on in the day I watched an episode of Matlock and then the rest of the US news. Head shake. 

F called after 5:30 to say he was on his way back to the house. I went downstairs after I changed and took the kerosene tank with me. I filled up the kerosene tank and left it on the stairs. I washed up and went into the kitchen to get a start on dinner. F arrived sometime around then and took the empty tanks out to the car. He also took the full tank upstairs, yay! 

I got busy with dinner. Tonight we had garlic-soy sauce sautéd pork, salad, rice, tuna & macaroni salad, kabocha and some gyoza too. It was pretty good and most of it disappeared!

After dinner I cleared the table, washed the dishes and listened to my podcasts. Then, I went upstairs and watched Project Runway. They do a really weird things these days, they don’t tell you who is out until the next episode. I don’t like that. They are also doing group projects which are boring! And, I know I’m not supposed to comment about people’s bodies but Heidi was wearing a jacket that was open in the front and it looked like she might fall out of it…she wasn’t wearing a regular bra at all! Weird. 

I took a shower tonight and then came back upstairs and watched FBI: Most Wanted. It was an odd one. 

So, that is about that. I’ve been working on my end of day stuff and planning on going to bed soonish. Tomorrow I am hoping to go out and have lunch and then go to the cinema to see a movie. If I oversleep I won’t be able to do that! Yikes. Cross your fingers for me that I’ll get up on time to catch the bus!

Come back later if you like and hear all about my days, until tomorrow….

 

January 12, 2026

 Monday - Cold and snowy and windy

I woke up early this morning, went downstairs and then came back to bed and went back to sleep for a bit. I dragged myself out of bed a bit later because of Lizzo. I have her as one of my alarms and the song is so cheerful that it usually wakes me up.

I dressed and was heating up my water to make tea when F came in and asked if I’d like to go to the restaurant that we were planning on going to yesterday. I said yes! He called the restaurant to pre-order our meal. Because I’m allergic to tomatoes, the chef told us if we call ahead, he can make another type of sauce on pasta for me. Yay!

We drove out to Oyama and went to the little restaurant there. They have a lunch special with pasta, all you can eat soup and salad for a reasonable price, so that’s what we had. We had creamy herb-chicken pasta with rotini. The soups available today were a Chinese-style one and Provence style Onion soup. I had that one and it was amazing!

After we finished our meal we left and drove back to Tsuruoka. F wanted to go to Komeda Coffee, so we drove over there.

At Komeda we were seated soon after we arrived. We both had coffee, I had decaf and we relaxed for a bit. I kept falling asleep which was rather annoying! When we left, I asked F if we could just go back to the house and take a nap. He said sure but then wanted to do the grocery shopping at MaxValu. Nope.

We came back to the house, F headed into the living room and I headed upstairs. I changed into my pyjamas and went to bed. I only napped for a little bit, but it was nice. 

I got up again and was at my computer when F came back and wanted to go out and go grocery shopping. I wasn’t quite ready but it was fine.

We went over to Mina and got a few things for dinner the next couple of nights. We got K a bento for tonight and some lunches and breakfasts as well. Back at the house, F became indisposed for a bit, so I heated up the bento for K and also made her some soup. I don’t know if she appreciated it or not, she seemed a bit surprised. 

A little later, F and I headed out for our dinner. We went to the Taiwanese restaurant again. We were seated right away and looked at the menus. F had a yakisoba combo that he of course didn’t like. I had the subuta or sweet and sour pork meal that I really did like! It came with rice, soup, a big piece of fried chicken, pickles and a dessert of annon-dofu with fruit. The subuta was nicely balanced and I liked it a lot. 

After our meal we came back to the house and F headed upstairs. I used the ‘loo and when I was washing my hands noticed a strange metal lid on the windowsill. I thought it might be from the kerosene tank for the hot water. I opened the window and outside the window was the kerosene tank and the lid was off! Yikes. I flipped the plastic lid over and went upstairs and told F. He went downstairs to check. He’d forgotten to put the metal lid on and then the plastic lids over it. Sigh. It’s been open for 2 nights and we’ve had a lot of snow today. I hope we didn’t get a lot of snow in the tank. 

We had a quiet night in. I watched a couple of shows off the Fire Stick tonight. I caught up on Criminal Minds and then watched another episode of Evil. I quite like that show. 

And that’s about it. F went to bed a while ago. He’s back at work tomorrow and I feel sorry for him as he’ll probably have to shovel a bit of snow tomorrow. I hope he’ll be okay. 

I’ll probably do some laundry tomorrow and I’ll be back to cooking dinner again. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

January 11, 2026

Sunday - Cold and snowy, windy

I went to bed rather late last night so I slept in a little bit this morning. Okay a lot. What are you, the sleeping-in Police? I hope not!

I dragged myself out of bed around noon. F was talking a bit about going out for lunch, but he’d already eaten a late breakfast with his mother so he wasn’t desperately hungry. We had a cup of coffee first and then talked about going out. F’s restaurant choice was a good one, but we left it too late and it would close soon after we got there, so it didn’t work. 

I suggested going to Cocos and then afterwards going to the nearby Daiso. F agreed a bit.  We arrived at Cocos but there was no parking at all. I suggested going over to Daiso first and then coming back to the restaurant. F agreed to do that, so we popped over to Daiso.

I got some garbage bags, a hanger for wet socks, and some kitchen sponges. F picked up a treat for his mother and somethings for his ironing. 

We were able to get into the restaurant when we finished and ordered our lunches. I had grilled chicken with veggies in a mushroom sauce plus a bun. F had a burger and deep-fried oysters. He didn’t like the oysters! We stayed there quite a while and had a funny thing where the robot delivery service came to the space between tables with desserts for the next table. We had to “Sumimasen” the people at the table to get their attention! They did look a little sheepish but grabbed their food.

F and I went over to Musashi after lunch so he could get fish food for his fish. He spent too much time looking at fish in my opinion! We came back to the house for a few minutes and he put the fish food in the freezer. On the way back to the house I had suggested to F that he make dinner tonight. He often makes nabe in this season so I suggested he make it tonight too. 

After dropping off the fish food, we headed out again to Mina and went grocery shopping. F picked up the ingredients and we picked up a few other things for the house as well. 

We came back to the house and F did a little prep and then rested for a while. I decided to spend time on my computer and went downstairs a little early to see if I could help F. I did a little. I helped set the table and got out the drinks, things that F doesn’t bother with! The nabe was rather good for a change! I didn’t help with the dishes, but I did help clear the table and put things away so I think I did more for F than he does for me.

I went upstairs and later on watched an episode of Criminal Minds. I think I missed an episode as when I started watching last night’s episode I had no idea what was going on. Luckily I could watch the correct one online and did. 

At 11:00pm I watched Thelma tonight. I hadn’t seen it before and it was a hoot! I really like June Squibb so the movie was fun. She was ripped off in a phone scam and then tries to get her money back. The lady is 92 or 93 years old and was rather funny!

F went to bed during the movie. I was sad as I had suggested that he watch it with me but he didn’t. 

So, that’s about it for me for tonight. I really am not sure what we’re going to do tomorrow. I know we’ll need to get some groceries in and we may have to shovel snow as the weather is really bad right now. 

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

January 10, 2026

Saturday - Warm & Sunny, rainy later on

I woke up this morning before 8 am. On a Saturday. NO!! It was too early for me. I got up and went downstairs then went back to bed and snoozed for a while. I try not to wake up early on Saturday so I’m not in the way of F and K getting ready to take her to Day Service. 

When I went back upstairs I put some cream on my feet-winter makes them so dry-put my socks back on and went back to bed. I watched a few videos and then snoozed. F did come in and ask if I wanted something from our favourite bakery and I said yes to whatever he thought!

He went out and when he came back I got up. He got us croissants and olive pastries. We had the croissants with some coffee and that was lovely. It felt a little French! I got dressed and then we went out for lunch.

I had suggested going for Keiten-sushi and that’s what we did. We’d eaten a little at the house so didn’t need to order so much. Unfortunately, F has this habit of wanting to order tons of sushi and the more expensive stuff. I had to keep reminding him we were on a budget! Finally we left and drove down the road. 

We went to the drugstore and bought a few things there. F found some decaf coffee in the bargain bin so we got a couple of packets. I picked up some spaghetti and some sauce there too. It’s cheaper than at the grocery store, so, win! After we finished in the drugstore we went to the gas station and bought both kerosene and gasoline!

We went back to the house at this point and F unloaded the car’s trunk. I brought in the shopping and dispersed it through the house. I went upstairs and made some hot water. A bit later, F and I had the coffee we bought today and our olive pastry. It was so good!

F gave his mother some dinner and then we left the house at 7ish. We went out to the mall. I’d looked at the website and it said that the restaurant I was planning to go to was open until 8:30. It was about 7:40 when we arrived but the restaurant was closed! Yikes. We needed to eat! We decided to go over to the Fast Food area and ended up getting meals at KFC. It was fine. After our meal, we were walking through Aeon when we noticed that the door was closed to the mall! Ack. 

We had to leave the mall and go around the outside to the cinema. F originally suggested going out one door but I knew it wasn’t a good idea. We’d have to walk a lot farther than my way!

We went to see Caught Stealing and I really liked it. I’m not sure if F did as much, but I thought it was funny and surprisingly different! It wasn’t a normal whodunnit movie. 

After the movie, we headed back to Tsuruoka and then to MaxValu. F was buying food for his mother’s breakfast. I got a few things for me like sandwich meat for my lunches next week and some frozen veggies for dinners. We both got a katsu sando from the deli section. 

Back at the house I heated up the sandwiches and then we went upstairs. The sandwiches were really nice. F went to bed a while ago and I’m up much too late again. Sigh.

We have no plans for the next couple of days. I’m not sure what we will end up doing. I’ve told F that there is a movie on TV tomorrow night that I’d like to watch, but I’m not sure if he’ll be interested in it. These days, he isn’t. It’s also on a bit late. 

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

January 9, 2026

Friday - Cold but not snowy. Whew!

I woke up before my alarm again this morning. I’m not sure what is going on. After I came back upstairs to the room, I sorted out my laundry for later and then I went back to bed. I watched a few videos on my phone and then fell asleep and overslept my alarms. Oh dear.

I dragged myself out of bed finally, dressed and took my laundry basket downstairs. I started some laundry and then took my yogurt upstairs and took down my old laundry. I went downstairs and got my  washed clothes out of the machine. I brought them upstairs and hung them up. Then, I ate my breakfast. Yes, it was very late!

I relaxed for a while and thought about going out to shovel some snow if it was necessary. I went downstairs around 2:30 and dressed for going out. I didn’t have to do much snow shovelling as it hadn’t snowed much overnight. I did tidy up the area around the passenger side of the car as K may be going to the car tomorrow and I didn’t want her to fall or slip. 

I went into the garage to get a bit of the no-snow chemical and then found a package that was addressed to F. I brought it into the house with me. 

I went to make my lunch and I texted F to tell him about the package. A couple of minutes later I got a message from him saying that he was coming back to the house. Huh? Okay.

Lunch made, I took it upstairs and started to eat and a few minutes later F came in the room. He told me that the package was one he received last week or something and just hadn’t brought into the house. Okay, that was weird. He also told me that he’d taken the afternoon off as he had nothing to do at work. Nice!

I watched an episode of Elspeth and then chilled.  F went downstairs and watched TV downstairs. I headed downstairs just before 6pm and got started in the kitchen. Tonight I did my usual pasta and used a garlic butter sauce. With it we had a salad and some ham. I also made my nama-ham roll-ups. I wanted to make them at Christmas but I ran out of time. 

Everything disappeared at dinner tonight. There were no leftovers! I’m glad, but I’m also a little sad as I love leftovers on Monday or Tuesday. Oh well.

I did the dishes and then headed upstairs. I relaxed with some YouTube and around 10:30 went downstairs again and took a shower. After that, I came back to the room.

Tonight I watched an episode of The Good Fight. I really want to make sure that I finish the show before they take it off. Some of the episodes will disappear in February so I need to get my skates on! It was rather funny tonight. Christine Baranski is a treasure! She was in a sexy leather outfit for part of it and was hilarious I thought.

And that’s about it for my day. I’ve got F at the house for the next 3 days as it is a long weekend. I’m not sure what we’ll get up to. I’m hoping to see at least one movie as there are two for a change. The weather is supposed to be bad on Sunday and Monday so I’m hoping that we’ll go out a bit tomorrow. 

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