December 31, 2021

Friday - Snowy and cold. Brrr…

I went to bed very late last night and I seem to be on the same track tonight too. Sigh. Still, the day wasn’t too bad, so that was good.

I always face the last day of the year with a bit of worry. It doesn’t usually go that well for me. However, this year it was fine. It wasn’t fabulous, but more importantly, it wasn’t terrible!

I slept in fairly late this morning. I went downstairs and F was just going to wash the toilet room floor. Luckily I was able to get in there before he did. I went back to sleep for a while and then when I got up, went downstairs again. F was quite cranky for a few minutes so I scarpered back upstairs and out of his way.

A little later F came up and was cheerful and happy. He asked if I wanted to go out for lunch. Of course, the answer was yes. I suggested going to Gusto since I wasn’t sure what was open. F said it was okay so I was rather surprised when we ended up at Coco’s! However, I do like it better anyway, so that was good. We had a nice meal with a coupon for cheap drink bar.  At the end of our meal, when we were about to go for groceries, F got a call from the doctor.

Earlier in the day, F had tried to take his mother to the holiday doctor, but they didn’t get in in time. He called and talked to someone and they said that they would try to have someone see her in the afternoon. We were finished our meal when they called, so F paid and we drove back to the house. 

F took K off to the doctor’s office and I stayed at the house. I shovelled quite a bit of snow so that F would have an easier time parking on the way back. I also cleared off the steps too. 

I had a nice relaxing hour or so at the house. When they came back, F and I got ready to go out to the grocery store.

We did a little shopping. F drove me crazy because I would ask him what meal he was planning for the items that he picked, but he wouldn’t or couldn’t tell me. I really wanted to have some kind of plan for the meals for the next couple of days. However, I didn’t really get any! I decided to try and let him do his thing.

We came back to the house and a bit later F got cooking. I came upstairs and left him to it. He called me down a bit later to heat up some of the food that we bought today. There was a bunch of tempura and other fried foods, so I used my air fryer to heat it up. It worked rather well, so that was good.

F had made some soba so we had soba and the stuff from the store and had a nice meal together. I even had more soba, F made the soba into a kind of stew and that was nice. 

F washed the dishes and I dried them. After he finished his, I washed my air fryer, made some more tea and cleaned the stove off. He’d left it in a mess.

I came upstairs and watched some AppleTV. F was going to watch TV up here but he was going to use the big TV which would put me in the middle. He decided to watch downstairs. Thank you, dear!

We had talked about walking to the shrine at midnight, and I had planned to take a shower too. However, I decided that with the hot water still being a bit shaky that I wouldn’t shower tonight. The walk to the shrine is off too. It’s only -3 outside, but there is a strong wind which is making it feel a lot colder. My weather app said it feels like -10, so I made the decision to not go tonight. 

Just before midnight, F and I went downstairs and got ourselves something alcoholic to drink, brought it upstairs and wished each other a happy new year! 

It was a pretty low-key evening, but a nice one. I’d rather have a low-key evening, than a bad one, so there’s that!  I’m not sure what we’re going to do tomorrow, but we are having sushi for dinner tomorrow night. We ordered it last weekend. Yum!

Come back later if you like and hear all about my new year in the new year! Until tomorrow….

December 30, 2021

 Thursday - Rainy then clearing, cold at night

I woke up without any alarms this morning. I probably wouldn’t have woken up when I did if F hadn’t come back into the room and into bed. He said that he had tried to take his mother to the doctor, but the doctor was closed today. Of course he was. 

We went out fairly soon after noon. F asked where I’d like to go so I suggested Arpeggio as I knew it was open today. We went there and had a nice lunch. I had soboro and F had the ten plate lunch. 

After lunch we went to S-Mall. I wanted to go to the hundred yen shop.  We went there, I got some stuff and then F and I tried to go to Doutor. Unfortunately, it was really busy, as was the whole mall today, so we just decided to leave the mall. I suggested that we go to the grocery store and get a bento for K for later in the day. He liked the idea so off we went. We did stop once at a bakery, but they were sold out of most of their goods, so we left without buying anything.

At the grocery store, F picked up a few things for tomorrow and a bento for his mother. We picked up some kind of cool things for us, like a pizza and some nikuman.  We can enjoy those either tomorrow or on New Years Day. F got himself some beer, and I got a sparkling water for mixing my drink. 

We came back to the house and relaxed for about an hour.  I made us some tea or cafe mocha and we just enjoyed being at the house. Finally, we left a bit after 4:30.  Oh, before we left, F gave K her bento. We wanted to make sure that she would eat something.

We drove out to the mall and then parked. There were a lot of cars outside the mall, but F found us a pretty good parking spot. We went in and bought the movie tickets for The King’s Man.  We used our tickets to get free drinks with our bibinba in the food court. We both had the same one, the pork and kimchee bibinba. I like it a lot as I like spicy food these days. 

I had a hard time getting F to get moving to go to the movie. He seemed confused when I told him we only had ten minutes to buy our popcorn and drinks and do the washroom thing before the movie. He moved like molasses in December getting to the cinema. We did make it though, so that was good. 

The movie was okay. It had some good parts and some things I wasn’t too impressed with. It was nice to see Ralph Fiennes in an action role. In his role in the Bond films, he’s not much for action.  Or… was he in the beginning?

After the movie F kept wanting to go to the grocery store to buy some plates of food for tomorrow, but I got him talked into going to the grocery store TOMORROW to get them. I’m not sure if we were going to eat them tomorrow or on Saturday, so I’d rather have them as fresh as possible. However, I’m sure the grocery store will be a zoo tomorrow. Sigh. 

We came back to the house and just basically relaxed this evening. I caught up on a couple of things on my computer, but F went to bed with his computer. He’s been asleep for a while. 

And really, that’s it for me. I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. We may go and get some food, we may go to the temple after midnight, depending on the weather. 

I’m not sure if I will blog tomorrow night! I think it depends on what I get up to during the day and evening. Come back later and see if I do!  Until tomorrow…?

December 29, 2021

Wednesday - Sunny, Warmer, then Rain and Thunder

I didn’t go to bed until terribly late this morning, but I had set my alarm for 9:30, so woke up then. I went downstairs and after a few minutes I checked outside. There wasn’t much snow, but the snowplough had been through overnight and had left a small wall at the road. I knew that F would be back soonish, so I wanted to clear it for him. 

I dressed to go out and then as I was putting on my boots, K came along and told me I didn’t need to shovel snow. Just then F FaceTimed me so I told him I was going out to shovel snow. He was  leaving Sakata on his way back. 

I went outside into the sun. It was the warmest that it has been in days, up around 0.  Yay. It actually was quite nice to clear snow this morning. 

When I was done, I went inside again and a little later F came back. He didn’t feel like going out, he took to his bed and basically stayed there for hours. I was rather disappointed. I had hoped to go out or do something but he was in bad shape from the night before. He slept for a while.

I grabbed some lunch around 2 pm because F basically refused to go out. He had made his mother some food, but I was on my own. Oh well. I had lunch and liked it, and then I took a bit of a nap too. 

Later on, F got a couple of visitors. His family from the farm came and dropped off something, and then his brother in law came to see about the hot water tank. F says he’s going to get a new one. 

In the afternoon I spent some time on Amazon looking for things to go in my air fryer. Most people in my air fryer group suggest using silicon mats or little baskets for some kinds of food, so I put them on my wishlist. I’ve never done that before! I sent my wishlist to F and told him that I would like to get these items. I didn’t think he’d buy them right away, but he did! Yay.

I reminded him that K would need some food soon, and so would I.  We decided to go and get her a bento and then decide where we’d like to go. I got dressed to go out and then we headed out. 

We got a few things at the local grocery store and then came back to the house to give it to K. I put my purchases away and then F and I headed towards the car. It was raining so I was rushing. I slipped on a piece of slate that is on the ground and ended up on my knees in the mud and slush.  I had to go back inside and change my trousers as mine were soaked. Bah humbug. My knees aren’t too happy and I have a big bruise coming in on my leg. 

Finally back downstairs, I put my boots back on and went out a lot more carefully to the car. F and I went to an udon restaurant. It’s kind of a fast food place but it isn’t too bad. I had Niku Udon which is meat udon, plus a couple of pieces of tempura. F had a plainer udon and some tempura too.  The food was good and we enjoyed our meal. 

After we ate we drove to Komeda Coffee and had a cup of coffee. I just didn’t want to go back to the house yet. We stayed for a while with our decaf and then came back to the house. 

F went to bed almost immediately. I stayed up and even took a shower. For some reason, the hot water is working again. I didn’t want to stress the heater out, so I took a fast shower and even stopped the water while I was lathering my hair. 

I spent the rest of the evening writing email and blogging. There were a few YouTube videos too!

Not sure what we’re going to get up to tomorrow. I’ve asked that we go to a movie, but no idea if F will be up to it. 

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

December 28, 2021

Tuesday - Warmer with snow

I woke up this morning to a quiet and empty room. F had left for work already and he didn’t wake me up this morning. Yay.

I got up, went downstairs and then got back under the covers for a few minutes. I did watch the news and then read a little off my phone. I did fall asleep for a bit too.

I went downstairs, grabbed my late breakfast and then came back upstairs with it. I had bumped into K in the kitchen, was glad to see her up and getting herself some food.

I waited a while until I went outside and shovelled a bit of snow. There hadn’t been all that much since yesterday, hurray.

I came into the house again and started to make my lunch. K got up and passed through the kitchen, so I offered her some lunch. She accepted, so I gave her some of the leftovers from the fridge, the same leftovers that I was eating by the way.

She got her food, I took mine upstairs to eat. 

I had a quiet afternoon. I cleared a couple of programmes off the DVR, did some computer stuff and even talked to F for a little. I went downstairs close to 6 pm.

I turned on the outside light and did my dishes from the day. I boiled some water so I was able to use some hot water to save my hands. The living room was really cold, so I turned on the heater and the light, so that K would be warm when she got up.  She got up a bit later and I tried to tell her that we were waiting for delivery donburi.  The guy was a few minutes late, but it is winter after all.

K and I had tuna donburi with chawanmushi and clear soup. It was very nice. K seemed very happy. I was happy I had asked for disposable dishes because I wouldn’t have felt good about giving back dishes washed in cold water.  After dinner, I did the dishes and then said good night to K. She stayed up for a surprising amount of time tonight.  I think she was half waiting up for F, but of course, he isn’t coming back here tonight.

I went upstairs and watched The Golden Child, the old Eddie Murphy movie. I’d watched part of it a couple of days ago and enjoyed it, so watched it again. It was always one of my favourite of his films. I still enjoyed it, it was a little dated, but it was fun. At 11 pm I watched Prodigal Son. It’s off for a while as WOWOW will be running something else.  I think it was the end of the season episode anyway. 

A few minutes ago, as I was blogging, F called me from his hotel. He’s quite drunk but seems happy. He’s worried about the hangover he might get tomorrow. I, on the other hand, am worried that he might be grumpy when he shows up here.

And then, for added fun, I just did a video chat with my sister in Canada. I got to see my nephew too, so that was nice. I haven’t talked to her in a while so I was glad that I had suggested it to her yesterday.

Well, it is late now and I’m tired! Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

December 27, 2021

Monday - Snowy, windy & cold

I woke up this morning when F was getting ready for work. I tried to snooze through his leaving and managed a bit, but did wake up and got up a bit after 7:30. F had left his breakfast behind so I took it downstairs to see if he was still around. He wasn’t. I went back upstairs and tried to snooze for a while. I didn’t really manage.

I woke up and watched the last half of the news and then after a bit I got up. I did a load of laundry and when it was in the machine I looked out the window. The snowplough had gone through and left us a big wall between us and the road. Oh yay. 

I got dressed to go out and I went out and shovelled snow for 45 minutes or so. I did manage to clear the entrance to the parking space, but it took a lot of effort. There were some huge boulders of snow that I managed to move, but it was hard. I got the parking area looking good so I went back into the house. 

My laundry was done by now, so I went upstairs with it and hung it up. I went back downstairs to get my breakfast and brought it back upstairs.  

F had told me that he was expecting a delivery so I had to stay awake! I was really tired and wanted to take a nap, but I gritted my teeth and stayed awake. The delivery didn’t come. 

I went downstairs to prepare my lunch. The kitchen was freezing. I turned on the heater and boiled some water to make some hot water for washing dishes. I made my lunch and even put a plate in the fridge for K. 

I went back upstairs and ate. I watched the news from early on and then went outside again and shovelled even more snow! It hadn’t quite filled in the snow that I had moved before, but you couldn’t see the ground anymore.  I cleared away a lot of snow and then went back to the house. 

I went upstairs and watched the news and used my computer for a while. I was looking for a recipe for chicken wings. I didn’t find one until I went downstairs. I got one and put together the ingredients. 

F called to say he was on his way but didn’t know how long it would take. The roads were bad because of the weather. 

He arrived finally and I got stuck further into cooking. It was difficult because I didn’t have hot water. Boo! 

I made the chicken wings, got them in the air fryer and then started cooking some of my other foods.  Tonight I made mushrooms, Brussel Sprouts, chicken wings and added salad. F added in rice for him and K and then we had a nice dinner. The wings were good, although I stopped them a little early. They might have been more crispy if I had left them. Of course, they might have burned too!

Surprisingly, F did the dishes without me asking him to. He did a bunch of things that I wouldn’t have done, like wait until the end to wash the glasses and he didn’t use the hot water that I had boiled so we could use warm soapy water, but they got done. Yay. I wasn’t too happy with him, but I didn’t say too much about it. Washed dishes by someone else is a gift, I should accept it I think. 

After we did the dishes, I went upstairs and got ready to go out. Earlier I had asked F if we could go to the onsen so I could have a shower/bath.  I needed a bath, what with all the snow shovelling and no hot water in the house. 

We drove out to Yupoka, the Mt. Haguro onsen. It wasn’t too busy on my side and I was able to have a nice bath and shower. 

We came back to the house and I made some decaf coffee for us both before I watched The Good Wife. It is off for a few weeks now. Boo! I love that show. 

And that was my day. It turned out rather well. 

Tomorrow, F has an overnight party with his friends in Sakata so I have a night to myself. Woot. That would be nice for me, but with the bad weather I am worried about the water in the house. It would be awful if we lost the cold water too. 

I don’t have to cook dinner as we have ordered in dinner for K and I. That will be a nice treat. 

As always, come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

December 26, 2021

Sunday - Cold and snowy

I woke up before my alarm this morning, went downstairs then had a snuggle with F for a bit. We finally got up around 11. 

I thought we were going to have leftovers from yesterday for lunch so I even went down. Then when I got there, F and K were eating something in a bowl. I was rather upset because I assumed they were going to wait for me, and eat leftovers. But, F was sitting in my space at the table and they were both eating something noodle-y. I asked F to move so I could sit there but he complained about my slowness and then said that he wouldn’t eat any of the leftovers anyway. I took back all the things I’d put on the table already, made myself a plate in the kitchen and took it upstairs to eat. 

When F came back upstairs he was rather a jerk to me and then went back to bed. I wasn’t sure why, but because he had health problems he feels he is entitled to be a jerk to me. I stayed up for a while, but then went to bed for a nap too. I woke up somewhere around 4 pm and it was dark outside. I suggested that we go out because we needed groceries and kerosene. F was incredibly grumpy but agreed to go. 

We got dressed and went outside. We had to shovel a bit of snow but then we went to the grocery store. As usual, we did not get on well at the store. I picked up some chicken wings for tomorrow, F said he didn’t like them. He asked me if I would eat some pickled fish stuff, I said no, but to get it for him and his mother…that kind of thing. Finally we got some stuff. We picked up some kerosene and some gasoline…the gas warning light was on in the car. Why does he do that?

We came back to the house but we hadn’t got anything for dinner yet. We unpacked the groceries and then F wanted to go to a drugstore too. I suggested going to the new one just up the street. 

We got back in the car and drove up to the new drugstore. We tried to go in but the door wasn’t opening. Apparently, there was a sign on the door saying to open the door with our hands, but F couldn’t read it. I have an excuse, no idea what his is. The drugstore was nice and new. F found some stuff, I found a couple of things I wanted and we left the store with our stuff.

We talked about dinner. I suggested bentos but F didn’t want that. I suggested getting gyoza from a new shop that opened near us and cooking them at the house. F liked that idea, but wanted me to use my air fryer to cook them. I told him that I would try it, but I thought that it wouldn’t be that good as frozen gyoza aren’t wet, so it would dry out. 

We got a few more things from the nearby grocery store and then came back to the house. We got busy. We kept getting in the way of each other. I tried to use my air fryer to cook the gyoza, but as I expected, it wasn’t great. I had tried to get F to boil them first so they were damp at least, but he didn’t want to. They cooked okay, and the inside was great, but the gyoza skins were really crispy and almost burnt. Sigh. 

Dinner was okay. F cooked us gindara, a fish I actually like, but it had tons of bones and didn’t do much for me. We had a few of the things from our Christmas dinner too and they were nice. We had a good dinner. 

F washed most of the dishes and I dried them. He also did the fish grill, which is the thing I really cared about. After he left the kitchen, I washed the air fryer. Apparently, I’m too slow when I left the table. I wasn’t really finished yet and as F took K’s dishes away, I mentioned that she wasn’t finished either. She kept eating after I left, so no, she really wasn’t. However, I’m very slow so I shouldn’t pay attention to things like manners apparently.

I cleared the table and put away the food and wrapped the things that needed wrapping. 

I went upstairs and spent time on my computer. At first, F was going to take a shower but then he decided to go to bed. He has to work in the morning. 

I went downstairs to take a shower, I turned up the water heater and stripped down in the cold, cold bathroom.  I turned on the water and only cold water came out. Brrr.  I did not take a shower.  I got out of the shower, dried my cold feet, got dressed again and then went back upstairs. There was a bit of a burning smell from the water heater outside, so I was worried that something was going on. 

F didn’t care much when I came upstairs so I went back to my computer and that’s pretty much where I have stayed. 

So that’s it for me. I really wish that I hadn’t stayed here this year for Christmas. Two years ago I was with my family in Canada so I would have been with nice people and family. Even though the temperature in Edmonton is low, the house would have been warm. And the water would most likely be working properly. 

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

December 25, 2021

Saturday - Snowy and cold. Merry Christmas! Brr!

I woke up a little later this morning. F was on his way downstairs. I followed him a few minutes later. He made his mother brunch, I watched the news back in our room. I tried to go back to sleep but didn’t manage.

F came back to the room and started demanding that I tell him when I want to have sushi at New Year and which dish I wanted to eat it. There were a few things in one of the sushi assortments that I don’t eat. I told F that I wouldn’t mind if he would swap a few things with me as I don’t like some of the fish. He started talking about catching one of the things and making me eat it when it was fresh. I’ve explained that I’ve had the item fresh but he doesn’t believe me. I’m never in favour of being force fed things. My mother tried that when I was a child and I still don’t eat sunny side up fried eggs. 

Anyway, he was all angry and nasty with me for a while so I was quite unhappy. He later said that he had a headache, so I understand being grumpy, but not taking it out on me.

He had a chance to rest for a few minutes and I got dressed, I started working on the rest of my nengajo. I got all the ones that I printed up written and I put my address labels on them too. 

I asked F if we could go out to Coco’s and have lunch. He was okay with that. I suggested that after lunch we could go to a couple of food shops, hit up the post office to mail my nengajo and then come back to the house and rest before dinner.

He was okay with that. 

We drove to Coco’s and had the same thing. We had Caribbean Chicken each, shared an order of fries (they have the best fries!), drink bar (we had a coupon) and dessert. Their dessert was on half price with a coupon from their app. I wanted it, but I hoped F would share it with me. 

The chicken was spicy but good and the fries were awesome.  We enjoyed our lunch. I went off to the washroom and when I came back F and I both had desserts!  We hadn’t ordered two. I asked F if he wanted to send one back, but he didn’t! They did look good. They were quite good. 

After we finished our meals we paid and drove down the road. We ordered sushi for New Years Day and something for the night when F is away. We picked up a bottle of sparkling grape juice to have with dinner in one shop, then went to the grocery store. We picked up a few things for tonight and tomorrow as well, then left the store.  We drove over to the main post office. The snow was really coming down by now and the roads were quite slippery.  At the post office it was quite busy as everyone else was dropping off their New Year Cards too. There was a woman standing at the entrance to the parking lot with a sign saying that we should give her our nengajo.  F rolled down my window and I handed them over. I felt so sorry for her. It was miserable out there and I was in a warm car. I didn’t even get cold handing the cards over. 

We came back to the house and I started getting ready for dinner. I changed my clothes and turned on the heater in the kitchen. 

I got to work. I wasn’t cooking anything, but I had to do a lot of plating and arranging. This year I used a lot of disposable plates and platters. I just didn’t want to spend ALL of Christmas in the kitchen. I prepped some raw vegetables and put out quite a lot of food on the table. F made some cream cheese dish with smoked and pickled daikon, I also made some coffee for later too. Everything got put out on the table and then it was dinner time!

Dinner was good! We had a lot of different foods on crackers or buns. There was cheese, cold meats, some duck. We had smoked oysters, some fish pate that was delicious and we washed it down with some sparkling grape juice. 

For dessert, we had mincemeat tarts and some ice cream. It made a nice ending to the meal. Oh we had coffee with it too. 

Of course, I did the dishes tonight, but because of the disposable things it didn’t take as much time as it could have. We were at the table for a long time tonight, so I didn’t finish until after 9pm.  I went upstairs and had a rest!  

F and I had a quiet evening in. He went to bed around midnight, I’m still up. Not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow, hopefully it’ll be nice.  Today didn’t start that well, but all in all, it was a nice day. It turned out quite well.

Oh, and before I forget, here’s the final Advent Calendar picture. Thanks for visiting to see the village being built. 

The final addition to the village is the lovely Christmas tree in the centre of the picture.

Merry Christmas everyone! 

Until tomorrow….

December 24, 2021

Friday - Rainy and cold

I woke up this morning, dragged myself out of bed and went downstairs. I did my usual watching of the news from under the covers after that. I got a text from a friend but for some reason, after I read it, I ended up trying to video chat her. Sleepy fingers. Yikes.  I wasn’t fully dressed at that point so I didn’t want to chat with her, especially because she was at work. In a school!

I had a quiet day. I did a couple of loads of laundry, I wrote a couple of nengajo, but not enough. I went downstairs to get my lunch and decided that I’d make K lunch’s too. I heated up the curry and checked that she would like some. She would. I had to wake her up though, it was around 2 pm then. She had her curry on rice, I had mine on pasta that I quickly boiled. I took mine upstairs to eat and it was good.

I had a quiet rest of afternoon. F called when he finished work to say that he was on his way to the doctor. I went downstairs after a while and then started getting things ready for dinner. F got back a bit after 6 pm. He wanted to book a massage for himself for either tonight or tomorrow sometime. I didn’t want him off on Christmas Day, especially since it seemed that he was thinking about going at mealtimes.

Tonight’s dinner was pasta with chicken tatsuta. We got the chicken pre-cooked at the store so I just had to reheat it in the air fryer. It did a pretty good job really. Dinner was good, but since I’d had a big lunch, I wasn’t that hungry!

After dinner I did the dishes and headed upstairs. F came up soon after. He still wanted to go for his massage so I told him it was fine. He could only get in at 11pm. Sigh. He took a shower…for some reason our hot water heater isn’t working well. It isn’t all that hot. Boo! 

He left a little after 10 pm and then I took my shower. It was quite cold. I’m not like F, I don’t like my showers scalding, but it was cold for me too!

When I came back upstairs I wrote some of my nengajo and then I printed the rest of the ones I had. I’ve written just over half of them, but I have to do more. I’m supposed to mail them tomorrow. Yikes. Cutting it close.

When F came back it was after midnight. He brought us back a couple of treats and then he gave me back my Christmas Presents. He hadn’t taken the price tags off them. I had done that for his presents though! I gave him the presents that he knew about first, and then gave him the extra ones that he didn’t know about. It was quite funny. When he came back tonight from the convenience store, he’d brought me a box of Melty Kiss. I had bought him a box of Melty Kiss so he half thought I regifted it to him! As if I’d do that. We each have a box of Melty Kiss. Yay.

F is off to sleep now. I’m not sure what he’s going to do in the morning. I’m up really late again. Between the nengajo and regular blogging, I didn’t get to bed at a reasonable time again. Sigh. 

So, that’s about it for me for tonight. It was a decent day. Tomorrow is Christmas. I’m doing a Nibbles Buffet meal for us but I’m not sure if it will be lunch or dinner. Probably dinner. Our weather is supposed to get very bad overnight with lots of snow, so they are recommending that we don’t travel unnecessarily. Boo! 

Oh, here’s the second last update to the Advent Calendar.  The December 24th building is in the middle of the picture. Can you see it?

It's the big building in the centre of the picture.
Only one more to go!

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

December 23, 2021

Thursday - Rainy and snowy

I woke up this morning, and did my usual watching of news from the bed. After it was over I relaxed for a bit too long. However, I did eventually get up and I did a load of laundry. 

I had a fairly quiet morning and then afternoon. I had breakfast and later on lunch. I wrote a couple of my nengajo as well. Yay me. 

When F called me to say he was on the way to the bakery to pick up the Christmas cake, I went down to the kitchen. I heated up the curry and combined two bags of salad to make one interesting salad. I took things out to the living room after a while because I needed the space on my table. F came back to the house and put the cake in a cool room, and after he went upstairs.  

I got dinner ready, finally turned on the heater in the living room and turned on the light too. K got up a few minutes later. Finally, the curry was hot and the rice was cooked. I plated the curry and took it out to the table. I called F a couple of times but there was no answer. I went upstairs a few minutes later and F was in bed watching videos. He was surprised to see me and asked if I had called him. Umm, yes.

We had a nice dinner. The curry was good today too and we all enjoyed it. Because there was cake, we didn’t have seconds. I cleared the table and F brought the cake in. He wanted to cut it. I suggested to cut it in half and then cut one half into three pieces. He took off some of the strawberries and then cut it into 6 pieces. Oh well. 

The cake was fine. It was a typical Japanese Christmas cake. It was chocolate, but not very chocolate. It was light, but not the best cake I’ve had. Sorry F. Anyway, we ate the whole thing! K was very happy to see the cake!

I wish it was as good as it looked!

I did the clean up as usual but that was okay. I didn’t have a lot of washing up to do today. When I finished I went upstairs and got changed to go out.

F and I went to the grocery store and bought a few foods for Christmas day and also for tomorrow’s dinner. When we finished, the grocery store was closing. Oops. Next up was the gas station for some kerosene for the house. F did all the work there and then we came back to the house. F took care of the kerosene and I unpacked the groceries.

We had a quiet night tonight. F went to bed fairly early. I watched The Rookie. It was quite cute tonight as two of the Castle cast members were on  the show too. 

That’s really about it for tonight. Not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I have to print and write more nengajo, and then there’s making dinner. Oh how exciting.  

But…here’s the December 23 update to the Advent Calendar.  Only two more after today.

The latest building is the big red Tudor-style in the front of the picture.  It is right on the corner at the bottom of the picture. 

Until tomorrow…. 

December 22, 2021

Wednesday - Clear for the most part I think. I didn’t go out!

I woke up this morning and was surprised that I slept through the night. First time in a couple of days. Yay. I got up, watched the news from the bed and then snoozed a bit. I tried to watch My Super Ex-Girlfriend but I kept falling asleep on it. Proof that it wasn’t a very good film I think!

I had a pretty good, but quiet day today. I didn’t do any laundry, but I cleared a show off the DVR and I gave K something to eat for lunch. I had my own lunch and it was good. 

I did a bit of paperwork for my employer and sent it  in too. I realized that I’ll likely have to do a little planning over the holiday. Just a little bit hopefully.

I tried to go downstairs a little early to start dinner. I didn’t quite manage, but I was down a little earlier than I have been lately. I made my usual curry tonight and it went well. We all sat down to eat around 7:20 I think…not too bad. I had managed to keep up with the dishes as I worked, so clean up afterwards wasn’t too bad. I made some cafe latte with a coffee concentrate that we had and that was nice too. It was decaf, I wouldn’t serve regular coffee in the evening.  

The curry was great. F had two big bowls with two rice helpings. I had a second helping too but skipped the second rice. There should still be enough curry for dinner tomorrow night too. Cook once, eat twice is something I believe in deeply!

After I finished, I came upstairs. F took a shower first and was really quick. I took a shower after him and then watched the season opener of New Amsterdam. It was really good.  While it was on, I wrote up a couple of nengajo, so that was good. They have to be in the mail on Christmas day I think. 

And, that’s just about it for my day. Tomorrow I have to do some laundry and write some more nengajo. 

Oh, before I go, here’s the Advent Calendar for today. Enjoy the update!

Today's update is in the back. It's a tiny little house all by itself. It is on the right side, on the hill. Can you spot it?

Until tomorrow….

December 21, 2021

Tuesday - Clear, Warm and Torrential Rain in the Middle of the Day

I woke up in the middle of the night last night. I’m not sure why. I might have been woken by thunder, or just me. Anyway, I went downstairs and then came back to bed. I got snuggles for a little while before I fell back asleep.

In the morning F was gone when I woke up. I snoozed a little long but then went downstairs. I vegged back in the room for a while, I watched parts of Brassed Off which I haven’t seen in yonks.

I went downstairs after a while and got myself some lunch. I did offer something to K but she’d helped herself to a cup noodle of some kind. 

I went upstairs, ate, and then took a few minutes to get myself ready for work. I came downstairs to wait by the door and then it was like the sky opened up.  It was pouring. I grabbed an umbrella and then put it back for another one! The taxi arrived soon afterwards and the driver very nicely came to the door with an umbrella and walked me to his car. Unfortunately, he had parked in a puddle and I had to walk through it to get in the car. I almost dived into the car! 

That’s about all that I can tell you about my work today, except when I was diving into the taxi, I must have lost my cellphone out of my pocket. I realized it was gone at work.  However, this being Japan and most people being honest, I got it back. Big thanks to everyone involved!

I came back to the house after work and came inside. I went upstairs and played a game for a little while to relax while I watched the US news. I got messages from F saying that he had tried to call me but it wouldn’t go through. Of course not, I was at work!! He called me again and let me know that he had ordered us a Christmas Cake, but since the 25th was all booked out, he ordered one for December 23rd! 

After a little bit, I went downstairs and got a start on dinner. Tonight I made quite a few things, but not many from scratch. We had some salad, some seaweed salad, some French Fries, some baked lemon pepper chicken and some soup risotto. F was late coming to the table and complained about the soup risotto. Apparently, the rice wasn’t Japanese. Whatever. It was an instant packet, he should be grateful I gave him anything to eat!

Most of the food got eaten, although there was a bit of chicken left over. 

I did the dishes, listened to a podcast and then when I finished, I went upstairs. F and I left very soon afterwards for the grocery store. We needed to get a few things. I’m going to make curry for dinner tomorrow, hoping that it’ll last us for two meals. It’s a bit of work, so I want it to last for a bit!

We had a quiet evening in again. I watched Prodigal Son. That show seems to be jumping the shark. I like it, but parts of it are such a soap opera. Oh well. Tomorrow night New Amsterdam comes back and I’m looking forward to that. 

Well, that’s about it for me. Tomorrow I have to write some of my nengajo, finish up my paperwork for school and contact my employer for a couple of things. I also have to make curry in the evening. Wish me luck with that!

Oh, and before I forget, here’s the latest Advent Calendar building for December 21st.  Enjoy!

Today's building is quite central, but on the right side. It is a brick building
with two chimneys and has "Books" on the side.

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

December 20, 2021

Monday - Sunny but clear. Thunderstorms at night.

I woke up early this morning, went downstairs and went back to sleep. I ended up oversleeping of course but did drag myself out of bed eventually.  I had breakfast and got on with my day. I watched some TV from the weekend and decided that I really should start printing my nengajo. Of course, it took a while to get started. 

It was lunchtime before I was ready to start printing, so I grabbed my lunch and came back upstairs. After I finished eating, I printed a few cards, somewhere around 10 I would say. 

I watched the news and then a bit after it was over, went downstairs to start dinner. You’d think that because I went down before F called I’d be prepared and ready. I wasn’t! Earlier in the day, I had prepared a marinade for the pork, so that was fine, but I decided to follow a recipe I found online for roasted veggies. I cut up two potatoes, a carrot and an onion, mixed a little olive oil with them, and a few herbs and roasted them in my air fryer. I may have overcrowded them because they took ages to cook and didn’t get as crispy as I had hoped. Still, they were good!

We didn’t really eat until just before 8pm. I felt bad because I wanted to be earlier, but the veggies just weren’t ready. Everything was good though and most of it disappeared. I had to take the food off the table or K would have eaten it all. I wouldn’t have minded, but I planned to keep some for her lunch the next day.

I did the dishes and put everything away. I cleaned up the stove too. F and his mother make messes all weekend and never clean it up. When F makes his ramen, he lets the pan boil over and again, never cleans it up. I don’t know what he is thinking. 

F and I went out briefly tonight. The battery in my mouse had run down and we couldn’t find any more to replace it. We went to the closest grocery store and got some, plus some food for him and his mother.

Soon after we got back, I took my shower and then he took his. I watched The Good Wife which is going at a cracking pace now and is really funny at times. F went to bed after his shower.  He thinks there is something wrong with the water heater as our showers weren’t very hot tonight. Even I wanted it hotter which is a bit odd. 

And that’s about it for now. I addressed and stamped a couple of Christmas cards for people in Japan. F has a mailbox outside his office, I’ve asked him to drop the cards in the box for me. 

Tomorrow I have work, but I haven’t as yet sorted out what I’m going to wear to go there, but since I don’t have a lot of choices, it’ll work itself out!

Oh, and here is the Advent Calendar for today. Our little town is nearly full! Only 5 more days…

The latest building is on the right side. It's quite large, about halfway up the picture near the side edge and is a Tudor-style building.

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

December 19, 2021

Sunday - Snowy, sunny and beautiful

We got up this morning to a world of white. We had had quite a bit of snow overnight, but for the most part today the weather was gorgeous.

F gave his mother something to eat and then we went out. However, we had to clear some snow first. F did most as he was outside before me, but I did a little bit too. While I was out there, I was under the tree that hangs over the car. Of course, I ended up getting dumped on by the tree. It went right down my neck and I screamed! F did actually check on me but he didn’t seem as upset about it as I did!

F had to go to Amarume (now Shonai-Machi) to pick something up for work, but I needed some lunch. I suggested going for curry to Coco Ichibanya. He was okay with that. I had their soup curry with roasted chicken which was good, but…it wasn’t hot. I don’t mean spicy hot, that was mostly okay, it wasn’t temperature hot. I was quite disappointed really. I enjoyed my meal but would have liked it more if it was really hot. F had a half order of curry because he’d eaten earlier. 

We drove out to Shonai-Machi and it was gorgeous on the way. The snow made everything look clean and fresh and then the sky was blue…it was just lovely. I do live in a gorgeous area of Japan and today it was brought home to me.

We finally found the place, F got the stuff that he needed and we headed back into Tsuruoka. We did a little shopping. We picked up a bento for K and delivered it then did some shopping. We picked up some food at the drugstore…they have some good sales on noodles for K and F. After the drugstore, we drove out to Kushibiki and went to the Chinese restaurant out there. 

We were able to get a table quickly and both had noodle dishes. Yes, me too! I had mabo-yakisoba and F had another yakisoba dish. He had one that he hadn’t tried before and said he liked it. I liked mine, it was spicy, but not that spicy. Probably perfect for me!

We drove back to Tsuruoka. We hit up the grocery store next. I got a few things for the next couple of days and I replaced some staples. 

We came back to the house and F stormed into the kitchen first to put away the groceries. I mean, why does he bother? He always puts my things in weird places and it drives me nuts. I have to hide a lot of things from K or she steals them. I said something tactless as usual and off he went. I was mad at myself for spoiling our nice day, but later when I went upstairs he wasn’t mad anymore. 

We had a quiet evening in. I only turned on the TV later to check the programming for tomorrow morning. I turned it off as soon as I was done. It wasn’t on yesterday I think. 

So, it’s the last week before Christmas. I’ve sent most of my cards, but I might send a couple more in Japan. I also have to do my nengajo this week. Wish me luck with that!

Before I forget, here’s the latest update to the Advent Calendar. Are you enjoying this as much as I am?

The Advent Calendar for December 19th. The latest building is the big white one on the left of the picture. It had Dover Toys on the side. (Click on the picture to see it bigger)

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

December 18, 2021

Saturday - Cold and snowy

We woke up to a world of white this morning!  Yuck. It snowed a lot overnight. F went out this morning with his mother to an onsen. Thankfully, he went to the nearby one, but K lost track of time!

Meanwhile, I got up around 10 am and got dressed while I warmed up the bedroom. I had gone downstairs around 10:45 and then went outside and found my boots in the garage. K always hides them in spring. As I was going back into the house, F called to say he was on the way and was I ready yet. Umm, yeah.  Just waiting on him!

F and K rocked up around 11, which is when F and I were supposed to be at the doctor’s office. Oh well. At least we didn’t have far to go. We got over to the doctor’s office and went in. It turned out that my regular doctor wasn’t there so I couldn't have the little chat with him that I planned to. Oh well. The replacement doctor was very, very young. Afterwards, when I was talking to F about him, I mentioned that the doctor was really young and said that it just proved that I am getting old that I think it is worth discussing. Wah! 

After we picked up our meds, we discussed where to go. I suggested getting a bento for K and maybe picking up some of the nice cheeses or cold meat in the closest grocery store. I pointed out that he could cash in some of the points that he’s accumulated on the store’s loyalty card and it wouldn’t cost much that way. The meats and cheese would be for Christmas dinner of course. 

We went to the grocery, picked up some stuff and then cashed in some of his points. We got a nice discount.  F got some stuff that he wants to send to his friend as well, so that was good. 

We came back to the house and dropped off the food for K. She had eaten earlier, so took the small thing we bought and kept the other bento for her later meal. I put away the perishables and then F and I got ready to go out.

F had suggested going for yakiniku for lunch and since we were late, there was only one place we could go! We went to Aliante. It was quite busy today with lots of loud and noisy guys. We had some pretty good food and were quite full when we left. 

I had suggested going for coffee or a drink after our meal, so we went down to Komeda Coffee. We had the cake set and relaxed for a while. 

I asked that we go to the hundred yen shop nearby and we did. We got some packing stuff for F and I got a couple of crafty things. After that, we headed to the big mall.

We drove out to Mikawa Mall. The parking lot was a bit busy, but it was around 5:30 pm so we knew it would empty out soon. We went into the mall and bought our movie tickets. Then, we went shopping. Since it is hard for F to buy stuff for me, we went together and he picked out a few things and I picked out a few things and then I tried them on. F got me a few things there. After that, I returned the favour and took him over to the men’s department and bought him a few things. He didn’t get as many things as I did, but he did okay. After that, I gave him the stuff, told him to put it all in the car and that I’d meet him in a few minutes for dinner. 

I went downstairs and picked up a few extra things for F that I think will make him happy. I got a few things for myself too! I bagged them and even double bagged them so he couldn’t see them through the bag!  I met him at the mall doors and asked him to put that bag in the car too! He did.

We went upstairs to have dinner. F had yakisoba and I had bibinba as usual. It was so good!  As I had my movie ticket, I got a free drink. Yay.  I shared it with F today. I don’t usually, but I didn’t need the whole drink for myself. 

We went to see The Matrix Resurrections tonight. I quite enjoyed it. It wasn’t perfect and I would have liked more action, but I thought it was rather cool. 

After the movie, F and I drove back to Tsuruoka. F’s car was the last one in our section of the parking lot. Oops! On the way back, there were snowploughs ahead of us, so it took us a while to get back to the city. Still, it made driving on the road a bit safer so it was fine. 

At the house, it was freezing! Our room had gone down to 4 degrees and it took ages to warm up. It is still only 19 degrees at the moment. 

It is now quite late and I really should get myself off to bed soon. I haven’t got much idea what is going to happen tomorrow…you’ll have to come back and find out soon!

And…before I forget, here’s the Advent Calendar picture for today…

December 18th's new building is a white house on the right side of the picture.

 It is white with big yellow windows. It is across the street from the little white and blue house.

Until tomorrow….