November 23, 2009 - Monday

The BIG NEWS? My ring is back. The shop that fixed it apologized to F as the labour to replace the stone cost more than the stone. I think the stone is slightly lighter in colour than my last one, but it is still beautiful.



The Birthday Boy in Niigata. We found these "trees" in the plaza around The Rainbow Tower. They are made from plastic "pet" bottles. I'm not sure if it is really recycling, but they were surprisingly attractive!

The Trees at night.



A View of the river in Niigata at night. We went to see the late show of Inglourious Basterds, and while we were waiting for our theatre we waited overlooking the river. Some of the picture shows the lobby's reflection, but I think it's an interesting jumble!

On our way out of the Minami Niigata Mall we saw a heron on the waterbank. It didn't seem afraid of all of the cars going by. Sorry it's not a great picture but I was in a moving car at the time!



Sunny and warm in Niigata, rainy back home.

We're back! We had a really nice trip, shopped up a storm, walked our feet off and ate far too much, but it was great.

I hope to be posting some pictures later on, so I won't write too much. I think F's birthday was a good one. I gave him a couple of DVD's, a coaster that lights up and changes colour, and a bag of "stuff" that I thought he might like.

Today we checked out of the hotel and then had lunch in the hotel. After that, we went off to the Minami-Niigata Aeon Shopping center. I got a few decorations for my school and we bought a few things from the import food store there. We also had my absolute favourite beverage from Starbucks, Black Assam Tea Latte. I can't describe just how nice it is.

When we got home, F wanted to have dinner, but I was not hungry. He wasn't really either, but needed to eat before taking some medicine, so we went to a ramen shop. It was hard to find one that was open. I had some stir fried veggies at the restaurant, which was really all I wanted. I was still not very hungry. My lunch was huge!

We came home after buying a few groceries and had a quiet evening. F is back at work in the morning, I'm in the afternoon. That's all you get for now. More will likely follow. Night!

November 20, 2009 - Friday

Clear and sunny. Nice day.

I got up this morning, did my news and coffee thing and then got on with my day. I had an earlier class today, so I had to eat earlier. Today I had leftover spaghetti squash and sauce and an egg. No omelette for me.

I biked over to the school, was there a bit later than usual, but not too late. I changed, got ready and waited for my student. And waited. And waited some more.

I called her at 3:10. She was still at home and had lost track of time. She zoomed over to my school and we were able to have a short but good lesson. We started talking about money and tipping. All things good for her upcoming trip.

After class I did paperwork then relaxed and read the paper for a while. I headed home around 5:15. I went via the bank machine to make a deposit and then arrived home. I was greeted by my husband's car in the parking space. Hmm. Another week where he didn't bother to call me when he finished work. In any case, the weather was nice and it was nice to ride home, but I would have appreciated knowing that F was at home. He said that he just arrived home and didn't have a chance to call me. Oh well.

He took a nap for a while and then when he got up we went out for dinner. It was just Grado, our local place, but it was okay. I had chicken and stew and F had fish on rice. We both enjoyed our meals.

We came home and watched Get Smart on WOWOW. After that it was the one about Harold and Lloyd, the characters from Get Smart, followed by Species. It's been years since I saw it, and it is really quite a good little sci-fi thriller. The actors are good, the plot fairly believable. It's well worth watching again.

Anyway, that's about it for me. I'm going away for the weekend so I most likely will not be blogging. I have a lot to do in the morning too. I have to finish packing my suitcase!

I'll most likely be back on Monday night. I'll talk at you then. Night.

November 19, 2009 - Thursday

Sunny and nice in the morning, torrential rain for the rest of the day.

I got up before 9 this morning and got over to the TV. I had to check if my shows were on. They were. Yay. I watched State of Play then flipped over to watch the news when it was on. Then, I watched my tape of the Brit drama. Later in the morning I watched The Perfect Housewife show. It was quite good. I find that I quite like the show. The theme of the show is of course having a clean house, but also about having a well run home. I shudder to think what they'd say about my apartment. Sigh.

In the afternoon I debated going to the post office or not. I planned to finally, but just as I was about to leave, I looked outside and it was pouring. I stayed in instead. My first student of the day also called me and cancelled. She was very busy and couldn't come.

Around 4 I cooked my brunch and also started watching Medium. This season is quite good. The episode ended with a cliffhanger so I set up the VCR to tape it tomorrow.

Just before I was set to leave for work, I thought of a cunning plan. I thought that maybe my hubby would be home before I had to leave for work, and I might be able to cadge a ride from him. It would work to his advantage too as he wouldn't have to pick up my bike after my class. I was texting F when I heard the combo go on the door. What was happening? Hubby got to leave work an hour early. Yahoo! He drove me to work a few minutes later. Hurray.

At the school, I prepped a lesson for next week and then read the paper. I checked over today's class too.

When my student came, we talked a lot about movies and then got on with our class. It was quite good. She left nearly on time and then I cleaned up.

I did some paperwork and then relaxed a little bit. Around 9 I got a call from my husband which surprised me. He asked if I was done and then said that he'd see me soon. I was thinking to myself, "I hope he's not calling from outside," when the doorbell rang. He was. Honestly, not a pleasing thing. I told him he could come, thinking it would take him 5 to 10 minutes, to get there, not 1 minute. Grr. I finished up and then we went off.

F was supposed to be in charge of dinner, but didn't bother with anything, so he took us out tonight. We had tonkatsu. It was nice, but F got a bit ticked at me because I told him to order anything for me. If I don't, he spends 10 minutes translating the menu, which I really don't care about anyway! Thick cut, thin cut, extra special thick cut, extra special high quality....really, I'm not going to tell the difference anyway! We arrived just before last order, so the best option was just for him to order and I'd have what he was having.

Afterwards, we bought a very few groceries, then came home. We watched ER at 11. It's getting towards the end of the show. Abby is in quite a bit of trouble. Can't say more than that.

And that was my day. Tomorrow I should pack my suitcase for the weekend, plus I have one afternoon class. I'll try to talk to you tomorrow night. Gotta go! Night.

November 18, 2009 - Wednesday

Cloudy, but not rainy. Bonus!

I had an odd start to today. I woke up when the doorbell rang. At 10:30. I had totally overslept my alarms, missed the news and the Brit TV show that was on. I got up to get my parcel, which had some books from a friend in it. She'd also sent along a Christmas Card, so today, I got my first Christmas Card! Woot.

I did a lot of catch-up today. I did my laundry finally, checked email, blogged because I didn't do that last night, and then finally had lunch. While I was doing the dishes I also washed one of the drip pans around the burners on my stove. Someone (not me) has a nasty habit of cooking noodles and letting them boil over. The pan was in an awful state, but came clean quite easily.

I biked over to the school, but made a stop at the drugstore on the way. It was really busy. I was quite surprised. They had security guards directing traffic and the store was close to crowded. I bought a few things, mostly for me, but a few little "things" for the hubster.

At my school I set to work and put things away quickly. I had to turn on the heater and warm it up. The last couple of days have been 13 degrees or so in the school when I get there.

My student and I had a fairly good class. After class, I did paperwork, finished a puzzle and then called my husband to come and get me.

We came home and I started cooking quite quickly. Tonight we had spaghetti squash with kinoko (mushrooms) and shake (salmon) sauce, salad, and miso pork. I made F cook the pork because I was busy with the squash. Of course he did it too soon, but timing everything is difficult. I made coffee and set the table.

After dinner we settled in and watched another episode of American Idol. We were both surprised that it was on tonight. Still, very enjoyable. I crocheted for a bit during the show, but then stopped and had a gander through our nengajo book. This year there are some amazing cards to make, but I'll have to get more ink for my printer first. Speaking of which, I used it for the first time since upgrading. I had to download a driver, but the OS update knew what to do. Everything seems to be working fine, but I'm not sure I like the updated Printing system.

Anyway, I think I should get myself to bed soon. It's not quite 3, but getting closer. At least I've finished blogging now. Night!

November 17, 2009 - Tuesday

Rainy all day.

Sorry I'm late with this. I looked at the clock last night at 3 am and just decided that I'd rather get some sleep than blog.

I finally watched Twilight and it wasn't bad. In fact, it was quite charming. I wouldn't say that it was my favourite film, but it definitely was better than the book!

I went off to work around 4. It was darkish, but the rain wasn't too bad then. I got to my school and set up. My first student came for the first time in a few weeks. We had a good class, and he did very well. After a break, my second student arrived. That was a treat. It was her first class in 3 months. She had gone to the US to work on her English and to travel. She had many adventures, so we talked about them.

After class I finished up and then called F. He had just arrived home so changed and then came and picked me up. He was supposed to be in charge of dinner but as he worked late, and I worked late, we went out. It was just Cocos, but it was okay.

We bought some groceries on the way home and then settled in to watch American Idol. They had two episodes on back to back.

Around 3 I just gave up the idea of blogging for the night. I was tired and it would take quite a while to blog and then post it, so I passed for the night. On the whole, a wise decision I think.

Gotta go, work on the doings for today's blog!

November 16, 2009 - Monday

Happy Birthday Vanessa!

Rainy and miserable. But, a good day for me.

I got up when my alarms rang this morning, checked the paper and decided since the news wasn't on, I would go back to bed for an hour. Yay me. Well, not really, but I did. I had a lovely little snooze.

When I got up, I took care of some business. I emailed a couple of students about different matters and then received notification that someone had commented on one of my Facebook group postings. We did a bit of back and forth writing and it turns out that this person is actually a second cousin. His grandfather was my father's brother. I've known of him, but don't think I've actually met him.

Later in the afternoon I watched some of my weekend's telly. I still haven't gotten around to watching Twilight yet. Think I might need a good stiff drink or something first...and I don't drink! I watched a Brit Drama on WOWOW today and it was quite neat. It was about the perils of global warming and they kept talking about a Calgary Conference and at one time really tore off a strip about the Athabasca Tar Sands development. (I think there's a pun in there somehow.) I'll have to watch more of it tomorrow.

I also was moved this afternoon to do a little bit of housework. I vacuumed the livingroom and bedroom, cut up the milk cartons for recycling, and even cleaned the drain. Oh, and I cleaned the toaster oven and gave the coffee pot a good scrubbing with baking soda. I usually just lie down until the urge to do housework goes away, but I went with it today.

F came home around 6 and we chatted for a while. He suggested yakiniku for dinner tonight, so we tried Togashi's. It's our favourite place and we had a nice meal. We got a variety plate (F loves those...don't know why) and some okonomiyaki, soup and he had something else that I didn't want.

Afterwards, I suggested going to Mr. Donut for a coffee, so we went there. We haven't been done that for a while, gone for an evening coffee and to chat, so it was nice.

We came home via the grocery store. The idea was to get something for tomorrow's dinner, but I decided that F should be in charge of that. He's not too happy about the whole prospect. I work quite late tomorrow, so I'm not planning to cook. If he choses not to cook, that's okay. It's up to him.

We came home and he made us some lovely Royal Milk Tea with hot milk. It really tasted very nice. I enjoyed it. I "booked" the TV from 11 pm and watched Grey's Anatomy and then Private Practice. They were both quite good. I've read some of the spoilers from the States about Grey's so I know what's coming, but I don't want to tell F.

Anyway, that's about it. I had a good day and tomorrow I go back to work. One of my student's should be back for the first time in 3 months. She was in the US but has come back now. I'm looking forward to hearing about her adventures. Night.

November 15, 2009 - Sunday

Rainy and coldish.

A good day. I got up before noon, which surprised me a bit. Still, it was a good thing to be up. A couple of hours later F and I had lunch in Kintaro Sushi. Yum. We drove out to the mall after that.

At the mall, we went to the travel agency to book my tickets for the convention. Yay. I'm going via Sendai, which is a bit of a pain, but I can't really fly from here directly. I could fly to Tokyo and then fly to Sapporo, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I have no idea how much that would cost either. Anyway, I'm booked. I have to pay in two weeks. No problem.

After the important stuff was done, we hacked around the mall a bit. I got something for my nephew at Uniqlo...actually a bunch of somethings, then had a cappucino with F at Seattle's best. We talked about what to do, and decided to go home and watch a dvd.

We came home and I put on Persuasion, which is the movie version of one of my favourite Jane Austen novel. The movie is wonderful too and I fell madly in love with Ciaran Hinds the first time I saw it. F liked it too, but as I bought the dvd in Canada, it didn't have subtitles. It was a little bit difficult for him, but he said he liked it.

We had dinner in Grado tonight and instead of ordering something plus the usual set, we had Kabocha soup to start, then our favourite pasta. The ironic thing is that I didn't have any meat at all today. Weird for me! The pasta was a fish based one. Very yummy though.

We came home again and vegged for a while. Around midnight I tried to call my sister. I got her answering machine, but she called back and then I called her again. Tomorrow is her birthday, and I wanted to say hello. We talked for a while about lots of things. I don't call her often enough really, but she's so busy it is hard to catch her. Even today she has two soccer practices to go to for her children!

Anyway, it's getting colder here now and I really should get myself off to bed. I have a few things that I need to do tomorrow. Wish me luck with them eh? Night!