April 24, 2014

Thursday - Sunny & warm

A busy day!

This morning when I got up I did something radical.  I got dressed right away!  Usually I lounge around the apartment and just enjoy my extended morning.  I did my computer stuff early, ate breakfast a little late, read the paper and watched my telly at the same time.  Then, I got busy.

I did a couple of loads of laundry and hung them up, and while they were in the machine, I took my bedroom apart.  I needed to get into my closet, so I did a bit of furniture moving too.  Anyway, I also scrubbed part of the wall and floor of my room.  I was a busy beaver.  

F called a couple of times, one to say that he wouldn't be late, the other to say that he might be late.  He was late!  

Around 5:30 I started on dinner.  I cut up the veggies, sauteed them to get out the water content, and then began making my quiche.  Tonight I used a recipe for a crustless quiche.  I put it into the oven and then when F did come home after 8pm, it was ready.  The table was set too, so all I had to do was prepare the hashbrowns, which I wasn't sure he would want anyway.  

Dinner was really nice.  We still have half of the quiche, which I'm hoping we'll save until Saturday morning.  We're going to a family thing and I think a good breakfast is definitely in order beforehand.

F did the dishes from our meal, I had done my cooking ones earlier so he didn't have a really tough job, and we settled in to relax.  I watched half of Nurse Jackie and taped the rest, then switched over to watch The Good Wife.  

I am tired!  I really didn't spend much time on my computer at all today, and feel like I had a productive day.  I didn't go out at all, but maybe I will tomorrow if I have time!  I have to go.  Night!

April 23, 2014

Wednesday-Warm and sunny

A good day.

I got up this morning, showered, and then went through to the living room.  F came home from the doctor at nearly the same time.  We chatted, had breakfast and some re-heated tea. I watched my shows…including The Walking Dead today, then F and I went out for lunch.  

I had suggested going out to Cafe Muraoka for lunch, so that's what we did.  We took off our shoes, found a table and sat down. We ordered from their lunch special, I ordered carbonara, F ordered genovase pasta.  We got small salads, and then our lunches arrived.  The weird thing was that just as we were about to eat, the kitchen staff started cleaning in the kitchen with something really chemically smelling.  I thought it might be bleach…I hate the smell of bleach.  F didn't notice it.  

Of course, F took a bite of his pasta and decided that he didn't really like it that much, so we swapped.  I quite like genovase, so I didn't mind.  We had given each other a small plate of our own pasta, so we did get to try them both.  Lunch was nice, but in all honesty, I thought that we didn't get enough for our 1100 yen. We only got pasta and a small salad.  Granted, both the pasta and the salad were great, but most other places would include at least a beverage and maybe even a dessert!

After lunch, we drove around looking for a place to have a tea or coffee. We drove around, and around, and around!  Everything was closed!  We finally found a place that I've been asking F to take me for years and were able to go in.  It was really nice, but not at all what I expected! 

Then, F suggested going to the Internet Cafe. I said it was okay, if we didn't spent the whole day there.  We went home for a bit for me to pick up some stuff, then made a detour through the hundred yen shop for F.  

We went to the Internet Cafe and spent the next 4 hours in their massaging chairs.  It was nice, but when the first three hours were up, F didn't want to go.  After 4 hours, I was ready to leave.  I did some crochet, read a little of a magazine, watched a movie and a bit of TV…and was roasting in my pleather chair.  I enjoyed it, but was ready to go home.  

We had a quick bite of sushi before hitting the grocery store for tomorrow's dinner.  We came home and spent the rest of the night quietly.  It was nice.  I was glad to be home again!

Tomorrow I have a whole slew of things to do.  I have to get my dress out for Saturday, give myself part of a pedicure and make dinner, plus do all my other things I need to do.  Argh! Come back tomorrow night and see what I manage to do!  Night. 

April 22, 2014

Tuesday - Sunny and warm

A good day.

I got up this morning bright and early.  It was before 9am and before my alarm went off too.  Strange!  

I watched a bit of telly, had my usual morning really.  F texted me and asked me out for lunch today too, but I said no.  He told me he'd be off work tomorrow.

In the afternoon, I wrote a couple more postcards and then scanned them all.  I stamped them and decided to go out to mail them.  I went off to the further away but next to the bank post office.  I took out some money and then went to the post office.  I bought something, and then I sent it, plus another package away.  I mailed my postcards and then came home.  

It was a lovely afternoon.  The trees in the park still have a most of their cherry blossoms, it was slightly windy, but warm…a nice day to be out.  

I came home and got a phone call from F just before 5 pm.  He said he was going to be late, he didn't think it would be too late, but he wasn't sure.  I used the time to cut up another t-shirt and then pulled the yarn.  

F didn't come home until 8 pm.  He'd had to do some after-hours driving for work.  He was fine though.  

We went out for dinner, we went to get gas first and then to Bikkuri Donkey for dinner.  We both had the salad/burger dish.  It would have been quite healthy if it hadn't been for the two side dishes we got too!

We came home afterwards and had a quiet evening in.  We watched the last bit of Romeo+Juliet which wasn't bad, then I watched Criminal Minds and started or re-started the bag I am planning to make for the Convention workshop.  It's going well.  

That's really about it for tonight.  Tomorrow F will be off work, so after the morning, I have no idea what I'll be getting up to!  Night. 

April 21, 2014

Monday - Rainy

A good day.

I got up this morning and took a shower first thing.  I needed to wake up, and I had a sneaking suspicion that F was going to call & invite me to lunch.  I was right!

We went out for lunch and had a quick and cheap lunch at the gyudon shop.  I hadn't felt well before I left home and didn't think I was up to Chinese style food.  I think it was a good call.  I was also going to do some shopping/banking on the way home, but felt poorly again, so just came home. I think it was a good call.

At home, I did a load of laundry and also cut up another t-shirt.  I made a very cool necklace.  I'm not quite finished it yet, but I really like it.  The colour is very dark though, so it probably needs to be seen on a light dress.  I'm also debating embellishing it with charms or not.  

F came home at his usual time and a little while later I got dinner underway.  It came together quite well tonight.  I did fresh pasta with garlic alfredo sauce (from a jar), plus shrimp and broccoli.  I got good reviews, so that was nice!

F did the dishes and then we spent the evening together.  Later on, I made some tea and we watched CSI and then Newsroom.  Well, I did anyway.  I enjoyed them both. I also wrote up a few cards, first time in a while.

That's about it for me.  Tomorrow if the weather helps me out, I might go out for a bit of the afternoon.  I would like to pick up a couple of things and do a little personal business.  Night.

April 20, 2014

Sunday - Windy, sunny, cool

A good day.

I woke up this morning, barely, and got up and got dressed.  A little while later, F and I went out to have breakfast.  We went to Grado and had a lovely lunch.  We both had pork roast with a yuzo kosho sauce.  

After lunch, we drove out to Kushibiki to a park/old castle grounds that I had never even heard of before.  It was lovely.  We saw some gorgeous cherry trees in bloom, and walked around.  We visited a graveyard area and it was so peaceful and beautiful that I wouldn't have minded staying longer.  On our way back to the car we passed some small statues that were very interesting and very different to those I usually see in Japan.  Finally we saw a group of Jizo that were wearing lovely new hats and bibs.  They were cheerful rather than sad like they are in most shrines that I've seen. 

Me under the torii

Jizo

Kushibiki drain cover

From Kushibiki we drove on and made a stop at Matsugaoka.  We didn't plan it this way, but there was a craft sale going on there.  We parked and had a look around.  There were many beautiful things that I would have loved to buy, but I have neither the money nor the space for the items.  I know that F would have bought me something if I had asked, but I really didn't need anything.  Sadly we arrived around 3:30 and the sale ended at 4:00 so we didn't have a lot of time to poke around the stalls.  

From Matsugaoka we came home for a bit.  F needed to re-bandage his foot and then we rested for a while.  

We went out for dinner to the Evil Place, the yakiniku buffet.  It wasn't my suggestion, but since F rarely makes requests I don't mind, I went along with it.  It wasn't too bad.  I had this really cool thing while I was there.  It was cooked spaghetti in tin foil.  They'd put onions on the bottom of it, then the spaghetti.  From there, I could and did add cheese and a spaghetti sauce.  I took the foil wrapped package, twisted the top and put it on the grill.  A few minutes later it was steaming and ready to eat.  It was so simple…I think it would make a great camping dinner really! You could bring pre-cooked  pasta and add the sauce at the campsite.  Grill over the fire and there's dinner.  Yum.  

After dinner we made a quick run through the grocery store for tomorrow's dinner.  It'll be a meatless one…we'll have shrimp but no meat since we had too much today!

At home we relaxed.  I made tea and emptied a few more things out of the fridge.  I've been trying to throw out a lot of the expired junk that has accumulated in my fridge over the years.  It is starting to made a difference space-wise. Yay.  

And that's it for me.  It was a good day and totally unexpected!  I hoped it would be this good, but didn't think it could be. Nice to know I'm wrong.  Got to go. Night!

April 19, 2014

Saturday - Warm and sunny

A pretty good day.

I got up this morning to an empty apartment again. I watched Gordon Ramsey's cooking show this morning. All I can say is "Bring back Nigel Slater!"  Ramsey wasn't terrible, it's just that he is a lot more aggressive than Nigel. 

F came home and about the time he did, I started to get very tired.  I was going to go back to bed, but decided I'd sit on the couch instead.  F was there, and so was a bunch of his crap, so I started to move it.  I picked up a couple of socks that had been on the couch for 4 or 5 days and put them on his keyboard.  He went ballistic and got angry with me.  I didn't throw them down, I very gently placed them on his computer so it wouldn't hurt anything.  I was trying to make the point that they shouldn't be on the couch.  He stormed off to the bedroom.  I decided to go back to bed too and did.  I fell asleep, but when I woke up, he was on the couch sleeping.  Crazy.

The good thing is that when he woke up, he was in a good mood again.  I made some drinks and then we decided to go out.  We made a quick detour to the Washington Hotel so I could buy a couple of things, then headed out to Mikawa.  

We arrived at the mall quite early.  We had a late lunch/early dinner of bibinba and then ice cream from Baskin Robbins.  We went along the mall to Aeon where I looked at the craft supplies and bought a small something, then came back along the mall.  F & I looked in the book store, then went to the theatre.  Tonight we saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and liked it.  It was quite a lot of fun, and it was nice to watch an action movie without a heavy metal soundtrack. 

After the movie we drove back to Tsuruoka.  We picked up a few things at the grocery store and then came home.  I watched a bit of TV and F set up the bread-maker.  

And that was it.  It turned out to be a good day.  Hooray.  I'm not sure what we're going to do tomorrow.  Things might change in the morning depending on the weather.  Come back tomorrow and find out.  Night!

April 18, 2014

Friday - Sunny but windy

A good day.

I got up this morning to an empty apartment.  I got up and got ready to take my shower, just as F came home from the doctor.  

I showered, had a quick breakfast and watched my telly.  I got dressed for going out at 11:30 and then at 11:45 I went out and met my friend.  We went to the new Bistrot des Points and had a lovely and slightly expensive lunch there.  We both had Shonai Pork for lunch.  We had kabocha soup first, then the pork with cabbage and potato.  We finished with dessert and coffee.  Yum.  We stayed there and chatted so long that the chef and his wife gave us refills on our drinks!  Amazing.  

After lunch we went over to Hard-Off to look at kimonos.  My friend was thinking of getting herself a kimono.  We looked at a lot of them.  Some were great, some had terrible stains or were sun-faded, but she managed to find one that was cool and in pretty good condition and not too expensive either! She found an obi that looked beautiful and matched the kimono too, so I think she did really well.  

Sadly, it was time for her to go home, so she dropped me off at home and I waved goodbye.  I went into my quiet apartment.  F was off somewhere so I texted him and then waited to hear from him while I watched the news.

He came home and wanted to go out again almost immediately.  He wanted to go to the Internet Cafe, so that's where we spent the rest of the evening.  

While I was at the Internet Cafe I did a little reading, a little crochet and a little bit of watching TV.  I found a way to watch cable so I watched part of a UK mystery.  That was cool.  

We came home before 11:30 and relaxed around the apartment.  We watched a little TV, well I did, and I had a late night snack.  

Tomorrow, I'm not completely sure what we'll get up to.  We'll probably go and see a movie in the evening, but apart from that, who knows?  Come back and see what happens.  Night.