July 5, 2022

Tuesday - Hot and sunny, with some thunder

I went to bed a little late last night, but slept quite well. I didn’t hear F leave in the morning. When my alarm went off I was able to snooze a little longer, but did get up and went downstairs. I came back upstairs and watched the rest of the news and then took a bit of a snooze. 

In the afternoon I spent time on my computer and relaxed a bit. It was so hot…it got up to 32 degrees in our room. I grabbed my lunch and then turned on the AC. I got it a bit cooler. I also vowed that I’d turn on the AC in the living room when I was cooking tonight…and I was prepared to fight K if necessary!

I went downstairs a little before 6 pm and….K was sleeping in bed. Ha ha! I closed all the relevant doors and then turned on the AC. I let it run for a few minutes then realized that K probably had her window open in her bedroom. She did, so I closed the doors most of the way to her room.

I was busy tonight. I did dishes, I made guacamole, and then I made a stir-fry. I was glad that we had so many leftovers from yesterday’s dinner because I didn’t have to remake them!

Earlier in the day I had made some hibiscus tea, so I served that with dinner. We had tortilla chips and guacamole, salad, bean salad, and eggplant/zucchini/mushroom stirfry. It was good, but there were some leftovers!

I took some of the empty plates to the kitchen and then washed some raspberries. We had them with some Bocca puddings from Costco. That was nice. 

I didn’t get started doing dishes until after 8 pm. I was a little worried because we had to go out and buy groceries. Tonight I tried something different and I just washed the dishes. I didn’t dry them too. I did dry MY stuff and put it away, but the communal stuff, I let it air dry. 

When I finished, I went upstairs and changed my clothes. F and I went over to MaxValu and got a few things for the next couple of days. When we finished there, we went over to the drugstore across the street and picked up a few other things. I got some dishwashing liquid and some cereal for myself!

We came back to the house and I put the groceries away. I took a shower but I didn’t have time to watch my show tonight. It’s a little sad. Oh well. I’ll hopefully watch it tomorrow…. F is trying to sleep now but is making so much noise I’m not sure how I’m going to sleep when I try. I know he’s in pain but today he wasn’t very nice. I’m trying to be understanding, but it wears on me. 

Tomorrow I’ll be cooking again. I’m debating doing shrimp or chicken wings. I’ll think about my menu tomorrow. I’m tired and can’t be bothered with it right now!

Come back later if you like and read all about my Wednesday. Until tomorrow….

July 4, 2022

Monday - Hot and Sunny

It was very hot went I went to bed. I hated to do it, but I turned off the AC.  I fell asleep and then when I woke up, I realized the AC was on again. F must have got up and turned it on again. I was rather glad. 

I went downstairs and while I was there I saw K. She told me that she was going out with her daughter today. Good for her!

I snoozed a bit and then got myself out of bed and downstairs. I was a woman on a mission. Today, I cleaned out the veggie compartment of the fridge. There’s been a ton of water/liquid in the bottom for a couple of days and it is pretty horrible! Anyway, I think it was some of K’s pickles that leaked. Sad to say, they did not survive the cleaning out. 

After I did that, I swept the staircase up to our room. It was needing it, even I thought so. I was covered in sweat when I finished. It was so hot in the daytime. Bleck. I grabbed my breakfast and came upstairs to eat. 

Today I spent a bit of time watching some of the programmes off the DVR. I decided to watch The Handmaid’s Tale as it is so difficult to watch at times. Some interesting things happened in this one as usual. 

I had lunch a bit after two today and I went downstairs and was surprised to see that K was back! I hadn’t heard her come in. I grabbed my lunch and again, came upstairs to eat it. I spent a bit of time on my computer and also watching the news. F came by for a few minutes after 4 pm and then went back to work. He’d gone to Akita today for work. 

When F called later to say he was finished work, I went downstairs to get ready for dinner. I was a busy camper. I made a bean salad, cooked some broccoli and made skewers in my air fryer with some of the Costco wieners and some veggies. I even washed and prepared a few raspberries as part of our dessert.

I set the table, called F downstairs and got dinner on the table. K didn’t turn on the AC downstairs until F came down. I was rather miffed at her. I was so hot in the kitchen that I was sweating, my clothes were soaking wet, but she doesn’t see any need for the AC. Grr. 

Dinner was a little later than I like it to be, but it was pretty good. The skewers were good and so was the bean salad. Dessert was good too. We had cake from the farmer’s market yesterday, ice cream and raspberries. Yum.

I did the dishes afterwards of course and it took a while. At first I was really good about keeping up with the dishes, but it got to be a bit difficult after a while. Still, they got done.

I went upstairs and F came at the same time. I decided I’d watch something off my Apple TV, so I watched the second episode of The Essex Serpent and the second episode of Loot. I haven’t made up my mind about that one yet. 

And that’s about it for me. I remembered around 2 am that I hadn’t prepared the plastic garbage for F to take out when he leaves in the morning, so I went downstairs and did it. I didn’t want it to wait another week, so I thought I should get it out. 

I’m not sure what I’m going to get up to tomorrow, but I think you should come back and find out! Until tomorrow….

July 3, 2022

 Sunday - Hot and Sunny

I went to bed at a ridiculous time this morning so I just slept in. I did set an alarm in case F wanted to do something in the am, but as usual, he didn’t.

I roused myself around 11 but we didn’t go out until 1ish. F seems to think I don’t need to eat on weekends! We discussed a few places to go but decided on trying the yakiniku place in Amarume again. We couldn’t phone them to make a reservation because the phones were still out this morning. I’m not sure if they are back yet or not.

We drove to Amarume and were able to get seated right away. We were very close to their last order though. At first, we didn’t receive their lunch menus so we thought we’d have to order something really expensive. Luckily F asked and we got them. We both had the same thing, the Korean style lunch and then we added on a caesar salad and drinks for each of us. We had a good meal. My only complaint is that the Korean side dishes weren’t spicy enough. 

After lunch, we checked out the farmers market part of the building and I picked up quite a few vegetables. I got broccoli, zucchini, eggplant and decaf coffee! That one was for me! We also bought some cake that I’ll serve with dessert for tomorrow night.

We drove back into Tsuruoka and discussed what we wanted to do. We didn’t really have any plans. F suggested driving to far places, but I reminded him that  gas is super expensive these days. He suggested going to the beach, but I said it would be hard on him walking on crutches. We then decided on going to the Chido Museum. 

We spent a bit of time at the museum looking at the latest exhibit but for me, it was a bit boring. All the info was in Japanese but none of the articles really interested me. F enjoyed them though, and that was important.  After he finished, we went downstairs and separated. He went to the washroom and I went to look at the garden. It was as lovely as ever. 

We decided to take things back to the house as it was so hot I worried about leaving the produce in the hot car. I also thought we should check on K as we’d been away for hours. 

She was fine as it happens, and I got the veggies put in the fridge, so that was good. I hid the cake upstairs because if I didn’t, K might be tempted to eat it!

F and I left a little after we arrived and went for coffee at Komeda’s Coffee. However, we didn’t have coffee. We had kakigori! I had a caramel one and F had an aloe/muscat one. His tasted good, but I liked mine better!

We bought some groceries. I have veggies now, but I needed a few other things. We picked up a few things and then came back to the house. I put these groceries away and then we came upstairs and relaxed for a while. 

Around 8:30 we went out for dinner. It was just Gusto, but I really wanted to have drink bar since I feel really dehydrated.  Sadly, I didn’t have a great meal today. I had noodles of all things and they were a bit meh. F had chicken and I’m not sure how he felt about it. We shared an order of fries and they were pretty good. Yay!

We came back to the house. I took a shower and didn’t watch any TV. I have a lot to catch up with from this weekend now. That’ll be good to do tomorrow if I can.

And that’s about it for me. I have a few housekeeping sort of things that I want to catch up with. I hope it isn’t too darn hot again. I won’t want to move if it is. 

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

July 2, 2022

Saturday - Hot and sunny

I woke up before my alarm this morning. I was alone and sweating. It was so hot in our room. Yuck. I went downstairs and came back up and had a nap. F came back a bit later but had to go to his massage. 

After he came back we talked a bit about where to go for lunch. It was a toss up between Arpeggio and Monami in the Daiichi Hotel. We decided on the hotel since I needed to do a couple of things in the mall.

We got to the mall and went in. We were able to be seated in the hotel’s dining room and after a bit ordered. We had the same thing, roast pork but we had different sides and drinks. It came with salad and bread or rice. I had bread, F had rice! F had iced coffee, I had iced tea.  We paid and then left.

I looked at a few things in the mall and then bought F a drink in Doutor. I left him at the table and went upstairs and ran my errands. I wanted to go to the hundred yen shop to get my stuffed animal from the seal campaign. I got it and a few other things. I joined F at the coffee shop and got my own drink. 

After a while I read on Facebook that there was a problem with our internet/phone provider and many people didn’t have phone service. That was interesting! We tried to phone a bento shop to make an order, but we couldn’t. F was upset to discover that he couldn’t even phone me sitting next to him in the car!

We went to the bento place after a lot of detouring and F got his mother a bento. We came back to the house and he gave it to her.  We left soon afterwards.

We went to Mikawa Mall and did a little shopping. F said that he needed shoes so I introduced him to Skechers. He did get himself a pair.

We drove around to the movie area of the mall and parked there. F and I went in and bought our movie tickets. Then, we had our dinner at the bibinba kiosk.  We both had our usual, the pork kimchi one. They were good. 

We ate dinner and wasted a bit of time. Then we went over to the cinema and bought our popcorn and went in. Tonight we went to see Elvis, the new Baz Luhrmann movie. We both really liked it and I thought that Austin Butler was excellent. 

We came back into Tsuruoka after the movie and made a quick trip into a convenience store. Back at the house we just relaxed and I blogged and F watched something on his computer. He’s gone to sleep a bit I think.

I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. You’ll have to come back and find out, if you are interested! Until tomorrow….

July 1, 2022

 Friday - Hot and Sunny - Happy Canada Day

Thursday was an okay day until we got going.  In the morning, I did a couple of loads of laundry and hung them up in my room. I watched one episode of something off the DVR and also watched some of The Mentalist. 

I packed my suitcase, got a few things ready for our trip. I got some of the bags out for going to Costco. I was ready!  F got back to the house at a reasonable time and he got ready to go. He brought some bentos for his mother so that she wouldn’t have to cook while we were gone. 

I asked if he wanted to eat before we left, he said he didn’t. I told him that I did, but would be happy to grab something small at a convenience store. He was fine with that. We loaded the car and then set out. When we got to a convenience store, I tried to show F where the hotel was on my phone’s map app. I couldn’t get it to work properly and instead of zooming in I zoomed out. He got angry with me and told me that he’d do it on his own phone. Which he probably should have done in the first place. He wouldn’t go in the store with me and he wouldn’t let me buy him a drink for the trip. Sigh. 

I got an onigiri and a sandwich and a bottle of water. I ate them in the car. We had a pretty quiet trip down to Yamagata. I didn’t feel like talking much to F and he was in a bad mood so he didn’t talk. We stopped at Sagae for a pit stop and then drove to our hotel. 

Sadly, there weren’t any parking spaces left at the hotel, so F had to drive to another parking area. I waited at the hotel with the bags. I checked us in and then we went up to the room. It was a really nice room. We had a queen sized bed, and it really was and a lovely bathroom too. We spent a couple of minutes relaxing and then decided to go out for dinner. We ended up going to an Okinawan Izakaya near the hotel. We had a good meal, but F ordered and didn’t ask me what I would like! We agreed on one main dish to share and then F ordered 3 other dishes that I didn’t want. One of them was really good, but the other two were a bit meh. I had a root beer (in a frosty mug…Yay!) and later on I had an actual drink, a hibiscus sour. It was okay.

We went back to the hotel via the convenience store and then up to our room. I discovered that I could sign into my Amazon Prime Video account from the TV so we decided to watch a movie. F chose Sing and we watched it. I had seen part of it before, and enjoyed watching it again. F fell asleep on it, but he’d driven all the way plus worked a full day in heat and had three drinks so I understood it.

I watched something else and then turned off the TV. I went to bed a little early. It was a bit difficult to sleep because my eye mask was too tight. I usually wear a sleep mask because F’s alarm clock and computer can make the room really bright. I didn’t take my usual mask and the one I did have with me was tight. Oh well. I woke up a couple of times in the night, but managed to sleep fairly well.

F got up before me in the morning and took a bath or a shower or maybe both! When he finished, we went down to breakfast. F had the Japanese style breakfast, I had the western one. Mine was good, but quite messy. 

We went back up to the room, I took a shower and packed up my suitcase. We left the hotel a few minutes before 11. We walked over to the parking building and drove off to the Aeon Mall. At the mall, I bought some of my favourite rooibos tea and then we went to Aeon and F bought himself some clothes. He did offer to get me something too if I wanted, but I didn’t.

We drove off to Costco and, well, it wasn’t a great success. F was being rather a jerk again. I didn’t have a huge shopping list and was doing my best not to buy a bunch of crap that we wouldn’t use. I got my must-haves and asked F if he’d like anything. He did his usual not caring bit, so I got things that I liked for myself. 

After we paid, I suggested getting some dry ice to keep our cold food cold. He wanted to go to the car and get the cooler and put the dry ice in it right away. I didn’t understand the point really, but whatever. In the end I told him I didn’t care what he did. He went off to the car and brought the cooler back, then bought the dry ice. We packed the cooler and then headed for the car. I was pushing the buggy for a change and just as I was starting out, F yelled at me to watch out. I asked him what he was talking about. There wasn’t anyone near me. The nearest person was about 10 feet away. He got mad at me again. I got on the moving walkway up and he didn’t. He ended up being two groups behind me. He seems to think that I’m an idiot who aims for other people. I get so tired of him telling me to watch out for hazards that aren’t anywhere close. Oh yeah, at one point today he yelled at me for almost banging my elbow on the shopping cart. I didn’t. He said it was because he moved the cart…who asked him to? I mean…why yell at me for that? I wouldn’t have been badly hurt if at all. 

We put the food in the car and F was being his usual unhelpful self. He would hold a bag up while I tried to put things in it. If he’d put the bag down into the cart I could have seen what I was doing. So annoying. We both got angry with each other. 

We went back into Costco to go to the Food Court. As usual, F did the thing where he went up to the cashier but wasn’t ready to order. I changed my mind a few times, but decided to get the roast beef sandwich and F got the bulgogi bake. We both got sodas. We had to wait for a bit to get a table, but finally did. I got the drinks and we ate. My sandwich was expensive and it was really good. I enjoyed it a lot. I did suggest doing a bit of swapping but we never did that. When we finished, I got us some ice cream. That was nice!  It was really hard to get F ready to leave. He was watching videos, which drives me crazy. 

We went back to the car and started driving back to Tsuruoka. We just weren’t mentally connecting this weekend. Or ever if I’m honest. He got into a turn lane and then he’d ask if I wanted to go to a store that he needed to go straight for. After a detour we did go to Yamaya. I got a herb from their spice section, and another type of tea. I know, I know. I should stop!

We came back to Tsuruoka, we did make a pit stop along the way, but it was fine. We got back to Tsuruoka before it was dark. We unloaded the car and I put the groceries away. F and I came upstairs after he checked on his mother (she was fine) and had a bit of a rest.  Eventually, he went downstairs and gave her one of the bentos that she hadn’t eaten yet. We took a bit longer to decide where to go. F suggested an Izakaya and I was quite pleased, I also mentioned Foodever as a second choice. 

On the way downtown, F said that he didn’t want to go to an izakaya as his office mates were going out tonight. Sigh. We went to Foodever. We both ended up having Gapao rice and it was very nice. F did say it wasn’t as good as mine though! 

We came back to the house and had a quiet evening in. I went back on my computer and started blogging and watching some YouTube videos. 

And that’s about it for me. I enjoyed getting away for a night, I just wish that we had a better time together. I think F forgot that this was supposed to be a fun trip to help us celebrate Canada Day. 

Anyway, tomorrow morning, F is going to be busy again. He’s got his usual doctor’s visit and then he’s planned a massage for himself. I’m hoping that we’ll go and see Elvis tomorrow. I’m not a fan at all, but I like Baz Luhrmann’s films. Strictly Ballroom is still one of my top ten films of all time!

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

June 29, 2022

 Wednesday - Hot and mostly sunny

Oh, before I get into the update proper, I won’t be updating tomorrow night as I’m going out of town. F and I are going to go to Yamagata and make a Costco run. We’ll leave after he finishes work tomorrow and return on Friday. Please don’t worry too much about me. I should be back on Friday night!

I woke up properly this morning when my alarm went off. Yes, I did wake up a little bit when F left, but did fall back asleep again. I went downstairs and K and I did a bit of a dance about going to the toilet first! I got there first, but did try to get myself out faster than usual!

I had a quiet morning. The building was going on next door and was a bit noisy, and it was so darn hot. The temperature was about 27 in here when I got up, it went up to 30 quickly. I managed not to turn on the AC for a long time. 

I had breakfast and later lunch. I realized I had forgotten to buy myself some cold meat for my sandwiches, but that was okay. I used nut butter instead. 

While I ate I watched the last episode of James May in Japan. It was okay, but I’m glad that they stopped at one series. 

I watched the news and then went downstairs a little early to start dinner. While I was in the kitchen, F called to say he’d be a bit late! I wanted to be downstairs early to catch the delivery that F had arranged to be redelivered. It arrived, but K was the person who received it. Oh well, at least one of us was able to get the door.

For dinner tonight I made a chicken stir fry out of some chicken with onion, zucchini and mushrooms. It was rather nice. We also had some leftovers from the last few days too. Dinner was nice and there were a few leftovers for K’s lunch tomorrow…and maybe mine too!

I was cleaning up after dinner and did the dishes. After the dishes were done, I did up the garbage. I asked F about a couple of things in the fridge, with an eye to throwing them out. He wanted to eat them. Say what?  He ate some noodles from the weekend and some pork that was over a week old. Okay. He started to come in the kitchen and wanted stuff to accompany his food and was getting in my way while I was trying to do up the garbage for the week. It was so annoying. He was yelling at me for getting in his way…but the thing was if he had waited 10 minutes at the most I would have been finished and he could have had the kitchen to himself. Argh! I’d also like to point out that he’d just eaten a complete meal that I cooked especially and needed old noodles and gross meat. Okay fine.

I went upstairs and left him to whatever he was doing. I thought about taking a shower and when F came up he was fine. We talked about what we’d do on this long weekend and I pointed out that I would like to do a Costco run, so F suggested that we go this weekend. We also talked about staying in a hotel, so I said that I would look into it. I took my shower and when I came back upstairs did. F took his shower and I looked for a hotel while I watched Grey’s Anatomy.

When he came back he said that he couldn’t go on Friday night as he has to go to the doctor’s office on Saturday. So, I checked and we were able to get a decent room for tomorrow night in Yamagata city. I’m hoping that we’ll have a good time!

And that’s about it for me. F is sleeping and I should get some sleep soon. I’m going to have to do a lot of laundry tomorrow and also pack a suitcase. I hope that this little impromptu trip goes well. 

So, I’ll most likely talk to you again on Friday night. Until Friday….

June 28, 2022

Tuesday - Hot, sunny and muggy

I woke up again this morning when F got up. He is a very noisy person. I love him dearly, but he makes so much noise sometimes. After I heard the car leave I got up and then came back to bed. I actually turned off my alarms for a bit and slept quite a bit later than usual. However, I got up earlier than I have been lately, so that was good.

I did a load of towels and hung them up in our room. I also watched a movie today, Reminiscence, a fairly recent one with Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson. It wasn’t good, but it reminded me of a film that I loved, Strange Days. That was a good one but has a lot of scenes that make it difficult for people to watch.

After lunch I watched an episode of The Mentalist and…..Patrick John found Red John! It was quite an exciting episode. There’s a few more episodes to go, but I’m pumped because so often with these kinds of shows they don’t solve the big mystery.

It was so hot in our room up here today. It was 32°C. I probably should have turned on the AC, but didn’t want to do it quite yet. 

I watched the news and then waited for F to call. The thing was, he didn’t! I had given up and gone down to the kitchen to get started on dinner. I’m not sure why he couldn’t call when he left work, he called me from Tsuruoka. Didn’t make sense to me.

I got a late start on dinner, but happily it didn’t take too long. I did the spicy tofu in my air fryer again and also made gapao rice. F had set the rice cooker for me last night, so we all could have fresh rice with the meal. I even got the eggs pretty close to perfect for the top of the rice and meat, so that was good. We had gapao rice, tofu and salad. I had forgotten to put out the bean salad leftovers. Oops.

After I got everything cooked, we had a nice meal. It was pretty darn good and K said it was good. Yay. I was worried the tofu might be too spicy for her.

I did the dishes after the meal and it didn’t take as long as usual. I kept the door to the living room on and we had been using the AC in there, so the kitchen was a tiny bit cool too. 

After dinner I wanted to go out and get a few groceries. F needed a break first, so I waited upstairs for him. He texted me when he was ready to go and I went downstairs. We drove over to our usual grocery store and did our shopping. We picked up a few things. I’m going to do a stir-fry with chicken tomorrow night and then something with shrimp on Thursday night. I told F that I’m not cooking on Friday night as it is Canada Day and a national holiday for me, so….

We came back to the house, I put the groceries away, and then went upstairs. We had a pretty good evening. I watched FBI: Most Wanted and then turned off the TV. Yes, I could have watched The Handmaid’s Tale, but I’d rather not stay up too too late! That is what DVR’s are for!

And that’s about it. I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow, so you’ll have to check back and find out.