October 20, 2020

Tuesday - Clear but cool, rain in the morning

I got up a bit early today, but F had already left. I went downstairs and then came back up. I set up my water pot and turned on the TV to watch the news. I did have a bit of a snooze, but nothing too egregious today. 

Around 10:30 I went downstairs to grab breakfast. Except I had forgotten to take it with me! I’d kept my spare bag of cereal upstairs, and forgotten to bring it down with me. I got it and then put out my breakfast. I brought it back upstairs to eat. 

In the early afternoon I decided to watch a movie that I’d DVR’d last night. I was a little surprised when the buildings in the film had Korean signs. I was even more puzzled when the cast names were written in Korean. I had thought I recorded an American film but had actually caught the one after the one I wanted to see…a Korean movie. I guess my reading of Katakana isn’t that good after all. 

I tried to watch another movie, Anger Management. I’d heard it was good. However, a combination of Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson was not what I wanted to see, so I packed it in after 15 minutes. I loathe Jack Nicholson and am not terribly fond of Adam Sandler. No regrets!

I finished my little duster mitt for my sister today too. In the morning I finished the crocheting and then I joined the sides. I think it looks rather nice. I hope I didn’t waste my time. My sister doesn’t always like the things I make for her.  (She does sometimes though, so I’m willing to try.)

I went downstairs to start dinner a little early as I was going to try making lentils tonight. I used to use them to make soup once upon a time, but haven’t actually cooked them to eat on their own before. I got them going on the stove and F arrived fairly soon afterwards. He’d called me when he was most of the way back, rather than from the parking lot of his office. 

Dinner tonight was fairly fast and easy. We had brown lentils with sausages, leftover pumpkin and tuna salad, salad, and a little leftover eggplant stir-fry. I didn’t provide rice cause I didn’t think anyone really needed it. F complained that the lentils were salty, so he would have preferred rice. However, I think he could just go to the kitchen and get his own damn rice if he wanted! No one wanted seconds, which was sad. I had some in the kitchen before I put the rest away!

I did the dishes and then went upstairs. I relaxed for a bit. F asked if I wanted to go out and I wavered a bit, and then decided I’d like to get out of the house. 

We went to the grocery store first and I picked up a few things for tomorrow’s lunch. F thinks he might take off Thursday, so I didn’t get anything for dinner on Thursday. 

After buying groceries we went to the nearby McDonald and I had a drink. F had a chocolate pie and an order of fries. It was a coupon thing on the app. We sat in the restaurant for a while and played on our phones. I was so glad to be out of the house for a little while.

We left before the restaurant closed and made it back quickly to the house. Unfortunately, K was up and yelled at F for being out so late. We were back before 11pm.  Yes, he has to work tomorrow, but we weren’t doing anything terrible! She said that she’d tried to phone him. I think she’s a bit daft honestly. We aren’t teenagers who stay out partying all night, we’re responsible 50-somethings who need a little break from the house. 

After she went to bed, I took a shower and then watched the first episode of season 3 of The Handmaid’s Tale. It was scary good. F took a shower sometime during the programme, I didn’t notice too much!

Tomorrow night we are supposed to be taking K out to a nice local restaurant for her birthday. She’s 84 or something tomorrow. I’m looking forward to not having to cook or do dishes tomorrow night! I also hope she isn’t going to try to tear a strip off me tomorrow for leading poor innocent sonny astray.  I’ll keep you posted if she does. 

And that’s it. Come back later if you like and hear all about Wednesday. Until tomorrow….

October 19, 2020

Monday - Cloudy and cool, rainy at night

I woke up quite early because I was cold, and then went back to sleep.  I got up when my alarm went off and did a few things. I watched the news and then did some laundry.  Today was towels and my bedcover.  I live an exciting life.  I decided to use my quilt tonight, so I washed the bedcover. It’s not dry yet. 

I had a a quiet day. I watched some of the TV I taped from the weekend, later on I rewatched Joker. I hated it just as much as I did when I first saw it. Just wanted to get that out there.

I went down to cook dinner a bit late and got busy. I made some kabocha/tuna salad, did a stir-fry of eggplant and mushrooms and sautéed some chicken. Hey, I guess I was busy eh?  Guess how much help I got taking things to the table?  F carried two things for me then sat down so I couldn’t ask him to do more. Hmm. 

After dinner, which was pretty good, I did the dishes. I listened to a few podcasts so the time was enjoyable. Yay me.

I came upstairs and started a new mini-project with some leftover yarn. I’m trying to use up some of my yarn, I have such a lot of little bits and pieces. I can’t buy any more for a while. Wait, what am I saying?  I can, I just really shouldn’t!

F came upstairs too, but went to bed almost immediately. It’s a bit sad. I keep hoping that he’ll want to watch a movie with me or something, but there’s something about YouTube that keeps him entertained.

And really, that’s about it. Tomorrow I’ll be cooking dinner again and will hopefully get a couple of things done. I did look at my column a little today, tomorrow I might even write something! 

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

October 18, 2020

Sunday - Sunny and warm

I slept in this morning and it was nice! I did get up around 11 and planned to have a quiet morning.  However, F wanted to go out for lunch and had an idea where to go, so off we went!  He suggested going for yakiniku to a  place that has a decent lunch set.

We went out for lunch and it was okay. We had a couple of lunch sets and then added on a couple of extra dishes. Over lunch I asked F what he wanted to do next. At first he talked about going back to the house and repairing the shoji (paper screens) and then started to suggest going to the salmon ladder and finally to a cafe near Mt. Chokai.  

We drove off to points unknown and found the salmon ladder/breeding place. It was quite crowded today and there were lots of people around. We walked up the trail a bit to see the Maru-Ike Pond. It’s supposed to be a Power Spot. I don’t know about that, but it is beautiful and usually a calm and quiet place.

If you look carefully, there's a salmon in the middle of the picture.

We drove from there to the little cafe, and found it closed. Of course. It was around 4:30 or so and it is getting on in the season. We looked at some of the artwork posted in the nearby trees and then came back to civilization!

She began to run in the rain.

Beautiful view, and flat land!

F asked me if I’d like to go to the mall and go shopping, I thought he meant for bentos for dinner and said it was okay. Until he turned the opposite way to the mall at the main road. I finally asked him if we were still going to the mall and he had completely forgotten about it.  We did go to the mall, but took the long way round!  After hitting the washrooms, we went to the grocery store and picked up food for the next couple of days. F picked out a bento for K and we drove back to the house. 

At the house, F put some of the stuff away and then I did the rest. He heated up K’s bento and the two of us headed out again. We had noticed in the morning that there was a new Indian Restaurant in Tsuruoka and we decided to see if we could go there.

We went in and the table we were directed to was still grubby from other customers so asked if that was where we were supposed to sit. It was, and to be fair, they did clean it off very soon.

We had a lovely meal. I had a chicken and spinach curry with naan. It came with salad and some chicken tikka and garlic tikka and a drink. I had a mango lassi, F had a regular lassi. His curry was pork and had naan with that. It was all really good, except maybe not quite spicy enough. I had asked for medium and it was on the mild side.  We asked for and received some extra naan too.  When we got up to go, they said that because it was a “Pre-Open” event, it was free!  Holy moly!  We had a 3000 yen dinner for free.  F was really pleased, I was pleased too, but we both felt a bit guilty. 

We came back to the house, but then F remembered he was supposed to get kerosene, so he went off alone and I stayed here and relaxed. It really was a good day and we both enjoyed ourselves.  

I’m not sure what Monday will bring this week. I should do laundry and I have a column due at the end of this month. 

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

October 17, 2020

Saturday - Rainy at times

Today turned out fine actually, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it could be.

I got up a bit before 10 am and had breakfast. F was in bed and didn’t get up until 10:30 or so. His Uncle and Aunt came over and he went downstairs to be friendly to them. I didn’t!

Finally we got ready to go and arrived a little early at the doctor’s office. It went quite well, but because I had the blood test first, I wasn’t able to read as much of my book as I hoped to. Oh well. We got our flu shots as well, and that was fine. My arm is now a little sore and red, but it isn’t too bad.

After picking up our meds we went off for lunch. Today I suggested going to a place I went to with a friend in March. We drove over there and there was no parking.  F suggested parking nearby and walking back, so we did that. We had to wait a while to get in, but it was nice to be outside. 

F had an “ebi pilaf” and I had a kabocha doria. Mine was great. It was Japanese Kabocha sauce on rice with some cheese. I liked it a lot. There was a salad and soup with it too. F complained to me that the shrimp in his were too small and too few…He ate it all though. We both had dessert and F was surprised when it arrived. They were huge! I had a chocolate parfait, F had an azuki one I think. 

We left the restaurant, hit up the nearby Yamaya for a few things and then came back to the house for a bit. Oh, yes, F bought a  I spent a bit of time on my computer and then ended up taking a long nap. I often feel that way after I get my flu shot so nothing to worry about.

When I woke up, F started to discuss dinner. He suggested Kintaro Sushi, but I asked if we could go to another sushi place. I wanted to go to Kula Sushi. That’s where we went. We had to wait a few minutes but got in. Our meal was fine. The fries were a little greasy today, as were the onion rings, and the sushi was only okay. F is a snob and doesn’t like their sushi at all. I don’t mind some of their ideas personally. 

We finished our meal and left. We were halfway back to the house before F asked if I wanted to go somewhere else. I suggested going to Starbucks, and that’s what we ended up doing. F had a drip coffee and I had a Frappuccino without coffee. It was good and hopefully not a ton of caffeine in it. F and I sat there for a while. It was really nice to just chill out and be out in public. The Starbucks was pretty quiet and they have social distancing done there so it should be fairly safe.  F and I were both spending time on our phones and finally I looked up and realized that we were the only customers left in the place and it closed in five minutes.  Oops. F and I left, but I think it was fine. We weren’t messy or noisy so hopefully they didn’t hate us!

We came back to the house. F went to bed fairly soon, but hasn’t been sleeping much. I took a shower and then have been on my computer and YouTubing for a bit. 

Oh, and did I mention there were fireworks tonight? Around 6:30 we heard them and could see them from our bedroom window. F’s sister called him and told him. It was lovely to see them because all of the fireworks were cancelled this year.

That’s about it. I’m nearly done. Come back later if you like and hear all about Sunday. Until tomorrow….

October 16, 2020

Friday - Sunny but cool

F overslept this morning, my first wake up was him scrambling to get ready for work. I don’t know if he made it or not.

I got up at my usual time and did my usual stuff.  News, snooze, and even watching a few seconds of an Austin Powers movie. I got up and grabbed breakfast, then watched a movie from the DVR. First up I watched Enhanced which was a little made in Canada flick about people with superpowers being chased. It wasn’t too bad, had a few interesting scenes.  Later in the day I watched another Canadian film, this one was Look Away. It was a horror film, but the top three actors were okay and the story was sort of a Carrie meets Us kind of thing. 

Around 5:30 I went downstairs and started on dinner. Tonight I did pasta but didn’t use my usual type of packet sauce. I used a pasta oil from the store and mixed it with some bacon, shimegi mushrooms and spinach.  It got good reviews. F offered to bring dessert when he called tonight so we all had some ice cream. Since he brought vanilla, I broke out the chocolate orange syrup that was in the fridge and we had that too.

I did the dishes while F prepared for the Insurance Agent to come by again. He took a shower, which I thought was really silly. She arrived just as he finished. 

I had a quiet evening in. I watched a bit of TV and watched a YouTube video, but nothing too exciting. Oh, I forgot, F and I went over a medical questionnaire. We’re getting our flu shots tomorrow and we had to fill it out. Of course, they are in Japanese so F had to translate all of the questions. I went through the same thing last year, so I appreciate his hard work, but sometimes he’ll happily tell me what a word means in English, but I have no idea what he means! I was an English major, not a med student.

So, tomorrow, flu shots are on the horizon, plus a blood test for me at the doctor. Not looking forward to that!

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

October 15, 2020

Thursday - Cloudy and a bit cooler

I woke up before my alarm this morning which threw off my whole morning, strangely! I watched the news and then a bit of one of the Terminator movies, not one of the good ones.  Later on, I did watch Terminator: Dark Fate again. I enjoyed watching it again, it was lovely to see Linda Hamilton on the screen…she can still kick butt!

I had a quiet day today. I didn’t see too much of K. I didn’t go out during the day, I had thought about it but didn’t. I really should go out sometime though!

I went downstairs to start cooking dinner around 5:40 or so. Tonight I did rather a lot of vegetables and a frozen fish thing from the grocery store. It was quite good though. We had eggplant, cabbage, leftover carrots, mushrooms and the fish stir-fry which also had veggies. K and F got rice and I had couscous again…it was nice.

After dinner, I did the dishes and listened to a couple of podcasts which helped the time go pleasantly. 

F and I went out to get groceries and stuff from the drugstore after 9 pm. Tomorrow I’m going to make pasta again, it’s a pasta that I have to “cook” more than just pour a sauce on the pasta. I think it’ll be good. It was before.

We came back to the house and put away the dishes. After that, I took a shower and watched The Rookie. For some reason, F picked this particular hour to talk to me. I mean, most of the time I don’t have the TV on, but when it is on, he needs to talk to me. Funny guy.

So, I’m just kicking back and watching YouTube videos. I skipped through one again tonight. Still worrying if I should get my Old Fogey Card.

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

October 14, 2020

Wednesday - Cloudy and rainy at night

I had a fairly decent day considering that I just stayed in the house all day. In the morning I got up and watched the news, then did a couple of loads of laundry. I also watched parts of a couple of Terminator movies. I recorded number 2, haven’t got around to watching it yet. 

While I was hanging up my laundry I started watching the last part of The Affair. I really enjoyed that show, and the final episode was really good. I was surprised to see that there had been some trouble on set and the “Alison” actress Ruth Wilson quit because of she felt the nudity was gratuitous and the studio didn’t protect the actresses privacy. It was a surprise to read that. It’s possibly a good thing I didn’t read it before I watched the episode. 

I had a quiet day today. I went downstairs around 3:30 to make a marinade for the pork for dinner. I did my dishes then too which was good so I didn’t have to do them later!

Around 5:45 I went downstairs and made dinner. I knew that F would be late tonight, so I made dinner for K and I. I made it for all of us really, I just made a plate for F. We had steamed carrots, an eggplant dish, salad and garlic pork. K had rice and I had some of my leftover couscous. It was pretty good if I say so myself.

I did all the dishes afterwards and was just about finished when F called to say he was done and on his way back. I waited until he came back and then I’m afraid I went upstairs and just vegged. What usually happens is I do all the dishes from the main meal and then get stuck doing clean up from F’s meal too. I am tired of it all. I’ve basically asked F to try and bring things from the table to me at the door to the kitchen. I’m sure he won’t but honestly, I am not a kitchen maid and I am definitely feeling like one these days.

I came upstairs and tried to relax for a bit. I then had to go downstairs and prepare the garbage for going out. I didn’t go through the stuff in the fridge and I probably should have, but I couldn’t be bothered tonight. 

So, that’s about it. I watched New Amsterdam tonight and a few things on YouTube. I’m now listening to videos of the Top 40. I had to skip through a couple because they were horrible. I feel really old just typing that!

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