August 31, 2019

Saturday - Rainy, sunny, cooler

It’s so very late right now that I should skip the blog, but that would make me sad so here’s the short version of the day.

F and I couldn’t sleep last night. I went to bed somewhere around 5 am…serves me right for drinking that Starbucks Nitro coffee in the evening. F couldn’t sleep due to his back again. 

I did get up finally after 11 and got dressed. F wanted to go out for lunch and suggested an okay place today, so we went there. We had a good lunch, we both had steak, although this time we had smaller steaks than the one F had the first time he went there.

After lunch, we went to the museum to see the exhibit. It wasn’t a really interesting one for me, mostly writing stuff, but there was a fascinating map in the room.  While we were in the exhibit room, it rained torrentially.  We were surprised when we left the building how wet it was.  We did our usual thing of checking out the garden…lovely…and then I asked that we visit the corner of the museum with the sashiko examples.  We did that and as always, they were very cool to see.  The tiny stitching and it was sooo straight. How did they do it?

We went back to the car and I got in. A few seconds later I felt something wet underneath me and pulled it out.  F, dear F, had left the windows open when we went into the museum and the rain had come in my side and soaked my cushion. ARGH. 

We went to the craft store next. I had wanted to see if I needed to renew my membership, but when we got near the cash register, it was quite busy. There were 4 people in line and I didn’t want to wait. F got a bit mad at me, probably because when he suggested I get the app for the craft store I told him that I had asked him to help me with it before but he hadn’t bothered. It’s the story of my life, to be honest. I can ask him to help me with computer things, he says he will and I never see him again. 

We had a nice glass of iced tea and a cake at the kissaten that F likes and then bought his mother a bento for her dinner.  F was taking his own sweet time in the store and I needed the ladies room, so was trying to hurry him up.  I made it back to the house just in time. 

We gave K the bento and then drove out to Mikawa.  We had dinner first but split for that. F wanted udon and I wanted pasta. I had cold pasta with cold carbonara sauce at the restaurant and it was good!  After dinner, F and I met up again and went to the new hundred yen shop in the mall, Seria. We had a good snoop around the store. It has lots of stuff, but I didn’t buy much.  

We went up to the cinema, got our drinks and popcorn and went to see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the new Quentin Tarantino film.  I really liked it. It wasn’t perfect at all, but I found it quite enjoyable. If you are going to watch two people for almost three hours, it doesn’t hurt if they are Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt! I liked it, but the ending was rather over the top.  

We came back to Tsuruoka and the house after the film.  We had a quiet evening. I caught the last bit of Deadpool 2 on WOWOW and howled at it as always. 

Not sure yet what we’ll get up to tomorrow. There are a few things we are thinking about, come back later and see what we end up doing.  Until tomorrow….

August 30, 2019

Friday - Rainy, cloudy, and cooler

F woke me up again this morning when he left for work. I wasn’t best pleased. I tried not to be angry about it.  I went back to sleep and of course, completely overslept again.

I had a quiet morning. I forgot to do laundry again. I’m glad I did a bunch earlier in the week. I did see K a couple of times during the day, so better than yesterday!

F called me tonight to say he was on his way. I went downstairs and started to pull dinner together. When he arrived I was ready to go.  We just had pasta with a bought sauce, shrimp and salad, but it was nice. K brought out her edamame which is fine but didn’t really fit with the rest.  

After dinner, I cleared the table and washed and dried the dishes. F showed up as I was about to wash the last thing, the frypan.  I left him to it. I told him where it was supposed to go after he finished it and left him to it. It might have been a tad childish, but I’m getting really annoyed.  When we lived in our apartment, one person cooked and the other person cleaned up afterwards.  Well, here, I’m cooking AND cleaning up afterwards and F seems to think I should be honoured if he comes in at the end to “help”. Right then.  I’m starting to feel more like a kitchen maid than a wife.

I went upstairs and F came up a few minutes later. He started complaining about being itchy from bug bites.  We decided to go to a drug store to get something to put on the bites…I suggested the drugstore near Starbucks as we could kill two birds with one stone so to speak. That’s what we did.

We went to the drugstore and picked up a few things, then put them in the car. We went over to Starbucks and F had his usual frappuccino and I had a nitro-brewed cold coffee with sweet vanilla.  It didn’t really taste like it had sweet vanilla in it for me, so maybe it didn’t? It was good, but I was very wired for a few minutes and it is 3 in the morning and I’m not sleepy yet! I should have had a decaf coffee. Sigh.

We came back to the house around 11 and I watched a bit of TV. I tried the new to us programme Rush Hour and didn’t really like it. I wouldn’t DVR it at this stage.  I re-watched the last episode of The Night Manager and again fell for Tom Hiddleston…and into admiration for Olivia Cole. She’s amazing.

And that’s about it. Not a really exciting day at all. I did take a couple of pictures of my scarf and a picture of the shawl that I started. I’m not sure if I’ll continue it though. If I do, I’ll have to unravel something that it has taken me 3 or 4 years to knit, so I’m debating the whole thing.  

I quite like this scarf now that it is done, but I didn't enjoy the knitting of it. It  took forever and was quite boring.

Small Talk Shawl

I am enjoying the crochet, but not sure if I like the yarn for this.  I might rip it down (carefully) and use it for something else.

Come back later if you will and see what I get up to on Saturday. Will we see the new Tarantino?  No idea.  Until tomorrow….

August 29, 2019

Thursday - Cloudy, rainy, humid, cooler

I woke up when F got ready for work this morning. He had to get up early and unfortunately for me, isn’t a quiet person.  I went back to bed after he left and of course I overslept.  

I got up before 9 and got dressed. I watched my show, had breakfast, watched the next show too and then took a nap. Sigh. I tried not to, but I was tired this morning too.  I even had a bottle of a sports drink today as I was feeling a bit run-down. I think I needed a nap!

In the afternoon I spent time on the ‘net, but I’d be hard-pressed to tell you what I was doing.  No idea.  I had lunch and went down a little early to wash my dishes.  I barely saw K all day. I didn’t even say hi to her as her door is mostly shut and she snoozed a lot of the day.  

In the early evening before F called I watched a vlog that a friend had done and while I was doing it thought I’d crochet a bit. I didn’t find my crochet project, but I did find a knitting project that just needed the ends of wool darned in. I did that. Yay!  Another project done.  I’ll try and photograph it tomorrow in the daytime light.

F called me around 7 and got back a bit after that. He wanted to know about dinner and I suggested getting bentos. We did that. I had gapao beef (quite spicy), F had a mixed bento and K got chicken nanban. We all seemed pleased.

After dinner F had wanted to go to the onsen but would have to rush to go. On the way there, he changed his mind and we went for coffee instead. My stomach wasn’t too happy with me so I just had a cup of iced decaf, while F had a mini strawberry kakigori. It looked nice, and still plenty big enough. 

We went over to the grocery store and picked up a few things for dinner tomorrow night. We’re going to have pasta with shrimp. I think it’ll be nice, at least I hope so!

I watched my show but stopped it halfway through so I could spend a little bit of time with F.  I think I’ve been neglecting him a bit. Personally, I think it is a two-way street, but he does seem happy to spend a little bit of snuggle time with me. So that’s good. 

I suggested going to see the new Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood this weekend. It’s playing at Mikawa and I’d like to see it. It’s almost 3 hours long though. Ack. Still, I’d like to see it. I’m hoping it’ll be better than Hateful Eight. It almost has to be!

And….that’s about it for my day. Come back later if you are up to it and see what happens. Until tomorrow….

August 28, 2019

Wednesday - Hot and muggy, cloudy with rain

I woke up this morning to an empty room. I got up and spent the next little while watching the news that I recorded overnight.  I watched my dramas and then I went downstairs for some breakfast.  

During my drama, I started to get really sleepy. I was so sleepy that I didn’t really have an idea of what happened in the show I watched.  I decided to take a quick nap and did.  I woke up a bit later and felt better. I rewatched the show and understood it this time!

I don’t often take naps in the afternoon, but I was seriously tired today. It was a case of not being able to keep my eyes open.

In the afternoon I did a bunch of my usual looking at sites and lunch. F called to say that he’d be late tonight, as he just got a driving assignment.  

Around 4 pm I went downstairs and washed my dishes. I started prepping for dinner too. I made a pea salad and marinated some meat for later.  I told K that F would be late, but I would come and cook before 7 pm.

I went upstairs and relaxed for a while. Even though today was a lot cooler, it was so humid that I was covered in sweat. It’s hot in that kitchen too.

Downstairs again around 7:00pm and I started cooking.  I cooked the garlic pork and finished the cold pea salad that I had half prepped earlier.  I heated up some rice for K and put everything on the table. She was surprised that we were eating now, but honestly, I’m not going to make her wait until F comes home if I can help it.  Dinner was quite good and I really liked it.  K said she did too. 

After we finished, I cleared the table and started on the dishes. I got them almost done when F called to say he was on his way.  I let K know that he was coming too. 

F was quite tired, but it was okay. I set out the food in the kitchen and I put stuff on the table for him.  F had garlic pork, salad, cold pea salad, rice and miso soup.  Yay me!

I did the rest of the dishes when F finished and he went upstairs and rested.  Luckily there wasn’t much to do this time. Again, I was all sweaty, so I went upstairs to veg for a bit.

A little after 10 pm I came downstairs again to put out the garbage for tomorrow.  I have a system so it wasn’t too bad. After that, I took a shower.

When I came upstairs I spent a few minutes with F and then sat down to watch Grey’s Anatomy. Tonight was a good one with Amelia’s sisters and mother.

It was nice not to fight with my husband over where to eat tonight. I think the meal I made was okay for him, I hope so anyway. Tomorrow if he’s late, the only thing I can make is pasta, so I hope he’s not too late!  

Come back later if you like and see what I get up to.  Hopefully, Thursday will be another exciting day.  Until tomorrow….

August 27, 2019

Tuesday - Cool but muggy, rain at night

I woke up and got up when my alarm went off this morning. I think I woke up when F left, but I won’t swear to it. I had a quiet morning for a while but ended up doing 3 loads of laundry. I’m starting to wash some of my fall/winter stuff so it is ready for me when the cold weather gets here.  I watched a bit of TV this morning too.

F called again about the financial stuff, but this was an easy one. No big deal. He even said that he’d look them up online. Yay.

I never really saw much of K during the day. I heard her at times, but she had the living room blocked off for a change.  

F called me around 4 to say that he was going to be late and to browbeat me about what restaurant I wanted to go to. I told him I had no idea and he hung up on me.  I was quite annoyed with him for that. While I was watching the news, I made a list of restaurants in Tsuruoka that I’d be happy to go to. It wasn’t a short list. 

I went downstairs to do my dishes, grabbed a drink and came back upstairs. I had planned to offer K a drink, but it looked like she was sleeping.

It got to be around 7 pm and F still hadn’t come back so K started yelling for me.  I, of course, yelled back, but she’s so deaf that she couldn’t hear me. She wanted to know about F, so I told her I didn’t know. I didn’t.  I said he was driving which I think he was. 

Of course, he came back about 20 minutes later and was quite grouchy. The first thing he wanted to know was about the restaurant I picked. I suggested Coco Curry House and he said it was okay. He didn’t seem too grumpy after that.

We went with K to the restaurant and we all had different things. Both K and F had more seafood-y types of things, I had chicken with seasonal vegetables and scrambled eggs. It was great.  We paid and brought K back to the house.

After a few minutes of waiting at the house, F and I went to buy groceries. We went to MaxValu.  I got stuff for tomorrow night, but they were completely out of salad for me so I was a tad annoyed. I’m going to do a bit of cooking tomorrow if all goes well.  

We came back to the house and relaxed for a bit. I watched some telly but after midnight I turned off the TV and spent a bit of time with the mister. (All very PG!)

And that’s about it. F is sleeping on the bottom of the bed, so I’m not sure what he’s going to do when I got to bed in a few minutes!  I’ll have to put my legs on top of his or something shocking!

Come back later and see if cooking goes well or not.  Until tomorrow….

August 26, 2019

Monday - Warm and sunny

I got up this morning when my alarm went off and stayed up.  I was a tad insulted when F called after 9 and asked if he woke me up….no he didn’t. He wanted financial information. Oh well.

I did a load of laundry and before lunch, I went through some of my mounds of clothes. I put a few in the discard pile, I put some in the winter pile and I also tried on a couple of pairs of pants for work next month. Happily, I have a bit of a choice, so I’ll have to see which is most business-like on the day.  

I just finished putting all the stuff away when F called to say that he was coming by for a bit of a break in his day.  I got my lunch, he brought us some ice cream!  I had mine later on.

K was hawking her edamame today. I’m sorry, but there’s just too darn many of them around. I see the shells of them everywhere and it kind of grosses me out. She wanted me to have some but I politely told her I didn’t want any. 

I started doing the dinner prep around 6 when F called me. He called me from inside Tsuruoka, so it wasn’t as much warning as I had hoped.  It was quite a nice meal really. We had yuzu and pepper flavoured chicken, salad, veggies, and potato wedges that I did myself.  I followed the directions on a spice packet but didn’t use the packet. I served the potatoes with some dipping sauces and that went over quite well. K even had extra sweet chilli sauce tonight!

F wanted to go to the onsen so we did the dishes together.  He washed, I dried.  After he finished, I redid the frypan as he missed a spot, then cleaned the stove and sink area.  

F was in a horrid mood tonight before the onsen.  His arm was having problems and that probably didn’t help it, but he was being so nasty that I asked him if he’d like to go by himself.  He was quieter after that.

At the onsen, I got a chair and some coffee and listened to a couple of podcasts. I enjoyed that.  I did a bit of crochet and tried to relax.

F came back and sat with me for a bit before we headed back to Tsuruoka. I was going to ask him if he’d like to go for coffee when he turned to go to the coffee shop. Great minds think alike.

We had our decaf coffee and some coffee jelly, which was a bit silly as the coffee jelly wasn’t decaf, but it was nice! Afterwards, I asked F if he’d like to get shopping for tomorrow’s dinner or if he’d rather go out or buy something tomorrow. He voted to think about it tomorrow, which was fine with me.

We came back to the house. I had a shower right away and he vegged. I did up the financial stuff for him but he had already fallen asleep. I’m quite ticked about the whole thing, to be honest as I had already given him this information earlier this year. I know that it is for taxes and such, but why do they need to know when I taught classes?  Do they think I’m trying to game the system?  Whatever…

And that’s about it. I had a quiet evening.  I've got a lot on my mind these days and I’m thinking of many odd things.  I’ll have to see what happens! 

Come back later if you like and see what I get up to on Tuesday. Until tomorrow….

August 25, 2019

Sunday - Cloudy, sunny, warm, rainy

I went to bed terribly late last night but had set my alarm to wake up quite early. F had talked about taking his mother out to the onsen in the morning. While they are out, I have time to take care of some personal things, so I wanted to be awake when they left.  They left, and I got up around 9:30.  I did my deed and then prepared some breakfast for myself. 

I ate and a while later they came back.  F immediately demanded I tell him where I wanted to eat. I got a budget out of him of 1000 yen per person, but when I snorted at that, he bumped it up to 1500 yen.  Still pretty damn low, but doable.  I couldn’t think of any place. Last week he was such an ass about one of my favourite places that I just didn’t want to go anywhere with him.  He left the room for a while, I went back to the bed and when he came back he was really angry at me.  I was waiting for him…not sure why he was so mad. I finally suggested having a picnic. One of the grocery stores has great sandwiches, we could get a couple and go somewhere nice to eat them. 

He really didn’t want to do that, and we had stupid words about the fact that I didn’t want to go anywhere with him.  We did end up going out but when he missed the turn-off to the store I asked him where he was going. S-Mall he said. The mall that doesn’t have a sandwich shop and at this moment doesn’t have a grocery shop? No!

We re-routed and got some food. Now, I went straight to the food area, grabbed a lovely camembert sandwich on a chewy long bun, got a couple of other things and looked for F. He’d disappeared. I looked all through the store for him, even tried texting him. No answer. About 15 minutes later I finally called him. He had been indisposed, so to speak. I asked if he wanted food, he said no. I asked if he wanted a drink and he said he would. So, he came over, grabbed a couple of drinks for himself and then went to the food area and got an onigiri.

I had first suggested the beach but then changed my mind to the nature centre in Oyama. He drove us there. We did try to go up the trail on the mountain, but it was blocked off. We parked by the nature centre and there were picnic tables outside. We sat and ate and drank. Things gradually got a little less frosty between us.

We walked along the path by the big pond. We saw a few interesting birds and there were some lovely lotus flowers too. We went back to the car and then F asked if I wanted to go to the ocean. I did.

Lovely lotus flower

Both Lotus flowers from a distance

The pond and some scary clouds in the background.

We drove to the ocean, down near the Aquarium, and visited Rainbow Beach, a man-made beach there. It was a little busy, but when we arrived, people started to leave! Just as we were walking back to the car, it began to rain, so we hurried a little. Good timing on our part.

We had iced coffee and a bit of a cake in a bakery on the way back to Tsuruoka. I suggested getting K a bento from the grocery store and then us going to the movie.  We could get us a bento too if there were any nice ones going. He suggested a good bento shop instead, and that’s what we did.

We went to the bento shop, ordered, and when the bentos were done, took them back to the house.  We had a nice meal. F ordered K a mixed bento, I had yakiniku and he had a tonkatsu one that he said was too thin.  F and I both did some of the dishes afterwards.  

He suggested going to get groceries for tomorrow at 7 pm. It worried me as the movie was at 8:05 and I didn’t want to miss it. He said it could be done, and it was!  We zoomed over to the store, got a few things…he was pretty cranky in the store and refused to discuss food at all, so I decided to just buy what I like. Chicken it is then.

We got back in the car with our groceries and F asked if we had to go back to the house. Of course! It isn’t 30 above today, but I’m not risking food poisoning by leaving food in the car. We drove back to the house and quickly put everything away.  

F drove us to Machi-Kinema and when we went in asked for tickets to the Kim Jong Un story. He really did. Of course, he meant Rocketman.  We got drinks and popcorn too and went in to see the film.

I liked it a lot, but I wouldn’t say that I loved it.  I think Taron Egerton was great. His singing was excellent and there was so much that was good…yet I keep comparing it to Bohemian Rhapsody. (Same director*….Dexter Fletcher) It just didn’t grab me the same way the other film did. Not sure if it was the base music…but honestly, I’ve liked Elton John longer than Queen. It’s just different.  

It was pouring with rain after the film, so F drove the car near to the movie door for me and I ran in!  Silly guy. It was nice of him though.

We stopped at a conbini on the way back to the house and then came in. F went to bed fairly soon after we arrived. He’s had a bad day with his back and his stomach, but he’s been pretty rough on me today too.  There was really no need for most of his tantrums.  

Anyway, I’m supposed to be cooking dinner tomorrow night.  If you come back later you might be able to read all about it. 

And, for the first time ever I think, I didn’t realize it was the anniversary of my dad’s death today, until it had passed.  Not sure if that is a good thing or progress or what. 

Until tomorrow….

*Although Bryan Singer maintained his director's credit on Bohemian Rhapsody, it is generally believed that Dexter Fletcher finished the film after Singer was fired.

August 24, 2019

Saturday - Rainy, clearing, and blessedly cooler

I slept in this morning. Oh, I woke up a couple of times, when F came back from his doctor’s office, and when he left to go back, and when the rain came in the window by my head and gave me a shower….but, I slept in. It was lovely!

I got up for good around 10:30 and went downstairs to grab breakfast.  It stank in the house, someone had cooked the most horrible smelling fish ever…Bleck. The someone was F, he’d come back from the doctor and had cooked for his mother. Good for him for doing that, but why did it have to be stinky fish?

He came upstairs, asked me about going out for lunch and promptly fell asleep. I came back to bed for a nap too. I woke up a couple of hours later, F slept on. He didn’t really wake up again until 2:30 and of course all the good lunch places were closed. Still, we needed to eat, so I suggested a family restaurant.

The two of us went to Gusto and had a fairly decent meal. I had chicken with spicy sauce and F had his mother’s usual meal, grilled mackerel. He didn’t seem to hate it! Win!  He ordered a take out dish from Gusto for his mother, so we took it back to the house and dropped it off for her. Then, we headed out to the aquarium.

We went to the Kamo Aquarium again. There was a concert on tonight and since we are passport holders it was free for us. We got to see the fish and the lovely jellyfish before the concert without the crowds, so that was great too.  

The concert was good, but not great. I think the performers needed a little more polish, but musically they were fine.  I think they needed to up their showmanship.  

After the concert, F and I drove back to Tsuruoka. He suggested going to a favourite late night place, if it was open. He drove there and we checked it out. It wasn’t open yet. He phoned their other restaurant to see if the one in Tsuruoka would open tonight. It would-be but it wouldn’t be for another couple of hours. Sadly for them, we decided to go somewhere else. 

I suggested going to a place on Ginza Dori.  We’ve always talked about going there for a meal, rather than just a late night snack, so that’s what we did. We found parking and then went to The Good Luck Cafe.  We had quite a few nice dishes. We ordered some french fries (really good), shrimp ajillo, gorgonzola penne and ginger pork.  That was F’s idea.  Everything was good. We didn’t drink, F was driving, and I don’t usually so it wasn’t too expensive either.

After our yummy meal, we came back to the car and drove to the house.  Our lovely evening was over.  I took a shower and spent much too much time on my computer. F went to bed and is sleeping away, I should get some sleep soon too.  

I was surprised what a nice day it was. I wasn’t sure if it would be or not.

Tomorrow, F might go to the onsen in the morning with K, and we might go and see a movie in the afternoon. I’m not sure yet. Fingers crossed and all that! 

And now for something completely different...jellyfish pictures!! Click on them if you'd like to see them bigger.

Come back later if you are interested and see what we get up to. Until tomorrow….

August 23, 2019

Friday - Cooler, rainy and cloudy

It was so lovely not to have to use the AC today. It was cooler from the moment I opened the windows in the morning. I enjoyed it so much.

I didn’t feel all that great in the morning. I felt a bit “pre-cold” so just decided to take things easy on my own. I felt better after a while.

I had a quiet day and barely even saw K today. She was around, and sometimes she was sleeping, so I didn’t want to wake her up.

I wrote up 3 more postcards for Postcrossing today. I also scanned them and got them ready to mail. Yay me. I had zero travelling before this.

F called and said he was coming back to the house after his work finished. He took a long time and called me again in case I was worried…I wasn’t! He wasn’t feeling good tonight, his stomach is acting up again.  I gave him a few options for food and we went with Kintaro Sushi for dinner.  

We went over with K and had a nice if slightly small dinner. We didn’t have to wait long to sit down and we had some nice fish as well. 

On the way back to the house, we made a pit stop at the drugstore. I used the time to get a few household things like hand soap, K & F used the washrooms! We mailed my cards at the post box in front of the Chido Museum. F pulled over so that I could drop them in.

We came back to the house, unpacked the shopping and then came upstairs. F really didn’t feel well, so he basically relaxed as much as he could.

I booked myself and then us a mini-vaycay in October. I’ll have a couple of nights alone in Yamagata, then F will join me for a couple more days. I hope we think of something to do together!

That’s really about it. It’s been a quiet day and I should have been in bed an hour or more ago.  Oh dear.  Come back later and see what I get up to then. Until tomorrow….

August 22, 2019

Thursday - Humid, a little cooler but hot.

I got up this morning at my usual time and tried to watch the news. I got some of it so that was good. I had a very quiet morning today. I opened my big bag of chocolate granola this morning and also did a load of laundry. No big deal really.

Today was quite quiet. I didn’t use the air conditioner until lunchtime I think. It was so humid more than anything. Bleck.  

I barely saw K at all today. I did see her in the morning when she tried to give me a letter I’d received in the mail. However, I was in the middle of washing my hands so she just put it down. Honestly, she seemed to want me to grab it with wet hands!

When F called in the early evening, I went downstairs and started to get dinner ready. There wasn’t really enough food, I probably should have bought more. K put out some of her edamame, which kind of annoyed me. F said that they weren’t as old as I thought, which was good, but I still didn’t have any.  

I was a puddle of sweat cooking dinner tonight. It wasn’t even that hot in the kitchen, but it was humid. I soaked through my t-shirt, my underwear and my towel that I’d brought down.  Did anyone think to turn on the AC for me? Nope.  Of course not.  Dinner was a fish stir-fry and some pilaf from the store. It was okay. I added in a cut-up beet and some miso soup. Nobody seemed too enthusiastic about dinner though. Sigh. 

F did help by washing the dishes and I dried them. He wanted to go to the onsen and I had said I’d go if he helped with the dishes.  Yay him.

We got to the onsen and went in. The seating was busy so I took a chair in the corner. F usually takes an hour so I was looking forward to some me-time, but he came back out in about 40 minutes. I wanted to tell him to go back in!

We came back into Tsuruoka and went to Komeda Coffee.  We both had kakigori again. I had the coffee one and F had the strawberry one. Mine was good, he said he liked his.  We didn’t buy groceries afterwards. I’m not cooking tomorrow night.

When we got back to the house, I shared a bottle of Aquarius Zero with F. Since dinner, I had just felt really drained. I honestly sweated so much that it was a bit scary for me. I felt better afterwards.  

I took a shower and then came back upstairs and watched a bit of TV. I also did up a postcard while I was doing that. I had no cards travelling at the moment. I have one going off to Germany now, so that’s nice!

I have no idea what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I hope that I’ll do another card or two and I hope that I’ll maybe get a chance to tidy up a bit. Come back later on and see what happens. Until tomorrow….

August 21, 2019

Wednesday - Overcast but hot

I woke up in a start this morning. It was late! I’d forgotten to set my alarms last night, so overslept by about 45 minutes. It wasn’t too bad as I didn’t have a lot planned for this morning.  I skipped breakfast and got ready to go out and meet my friend.  

She picked me up a bit after 11 and we went off to the Hotel adjoining the mall.  It was very nice there. The atmosphere is good and the food is too, so we were both happy.  We talked for a long time about this and that, our lives in Japan, our families, the whole thing.  We did a little window shopping too, walked around the mall and even had some ice cream and a drink.  Sadly, she had to leave and we hugged goodbye.

I decided that I’d walk to the post office near the station and renew my membership at their machine. I got halfway there and remembered that I could have done that in the mall at their post office machine. Gah!  Still, I went to the post office, did it myself and then bought some nice stamps so not a bad thing overall.

I toured through Foodever tonight, thinking that I’d have something to drink at the coffee shop. However, it was closed. Boo! I went back to S-Mall. I did a bit of shopping for myself. I got a few things in the hundred yen shop, and some socks for myself over in the clothing shop. I hope they fit okay. 

I didn’t want to go straight to Doutors so I had a churro in the bakery’s cafe. Last night, Bake-Off had the bakers making churros so they were on my mind!

After that, and a little walk around the place, I went to Doutor again!  I had an iced drink and waited for F to finish work.

He called me about 20 minutes later and said he’d be 20 minutes. He didn’t take very long at all.  

We picked up some groceries and a bento for K at the grocery store. We took them back to the house, gave K her food, put the other food in the fridge and then went out again. 

F was doing his annoying, “you pick the restaurant” thing, so I asked him for his budget. He gave me one and then I listed off a few restaurants that we could eat at. He picked one that we haven’t been to in a while, To-en.  I usually call it the Chinese restaurant on the other side of Komagihara park! It was quite good tonight and we ate very well. I ordered a vegetable stir-fry which actually didn’t have meat in it, F had his yakisoba with a starchy sauce, and we also had some fried chicken and some spring rolls.  It was all good.  F paid and we came back to the house. We were slightly over budget, but not by too much, so yay.

I watched a bit of TV tonight, but before I did, I did up the garbage. I emptied a few things out of the fridge before closing up the bag for the night. 

I came back upstairs and tried to catch up on my TV schedule. I didn’t manage!

Basically, that’s it for tonight. It was a pretty good day, but we’ll see if anything happens later on.  Come back soon to see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

August 20, 2019

Tuesday - Rainy and cooler. Yay!

I woke up this morning at my alarm time and got up grudgingly.  I didn’t want to get up at all. I snoozed for the next while in and on the bed. It was quite dark out because of the bad weather.

I did a load of laundry in the morning and eventually hung it up. I got a lot of my telly watched today too. 

I didn’t see too much of K, a little in the morning just after she heated up some spaghetti for herself in a metallic curry dish. In my microwave. Yikes.  I don’t know what she was thinking. 

It was so lovely today to be cooler. It was still 27 or 28 most of the day, but in comparison to the 33 or 34 we’ve had lately, it was wonderful.

F called me around 5:30 and said he was on his way. I went downstairs and started to get dinner ready. It was a fairly easy one tonight, we had sausages, potato fingers, vegetables, beets and some miso soup.  It didn’t get any rave reviews, but I liked it. I didn’t get any help with the dishes tonight, which rather annoyed me. Good thing I didn’t use a ton of them tonight.

After dinner, I went upstairs and F came up ages later. He wasn’t feeling well again. We stayed in tonight. I could have done with a trip out of the house, but it didn’t really matter since I’m going to be out most of Wednesday.

I watched a couple of TV shows tonight, no big deal. A little after midnight we had a fairly big aftershock that startled us both. It wasn’t too big, supposedly it was a one here, but it felt bigger. Probably due to being on the second floor.

And that’s about it for the day. It was very quiet, but that is rather nice for a change.  

Come back later if you like and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

  

August 19, 2019

Monday - Hot and rainy, sunny too

I got up this morning when F left. I did go back to bed for a bit, but I don’t think I slept. I was up again around 8 checking for news and then watched the news and other stuff for a while.  

I did a load of laundry this morning, actually, I did two. They weren’t that big, but it was good to get them done. 

I had a quiet day really. I didn’t see too much of K. She sleeps a lot in the afternoon, I don’t mind, when I’m in my eighties, I’ll probably want to do that too. 

F called in the afternoon to say he’d be working very late tonight. Oh dear.  Poor thing. I needed to make dinner tonight since I’d already bought ingredients for it, or so I thought.  Yesterday, F’s sister brought over some pasta that they had extra of and F asked me to do something with it. I found a recipe to make a spaghetti frittata and thought that might be fun. However, when I looked at the pasta today I discovered a couple of things. It wasn’t just plain pasta like I thought and K had taken it out of the bowl that her daughter brought it over in, and had put it in a random plastic bag. Argh!  There are nice food-safe bags all over the kitchen, and she put it in something that looked like a store bag. I don’t want to cook with it at all then. I’ll make the recipe using some of my own pasta.

Freezer to the rescue. About a year ago, I had bought a few things to keep in the freezer for cases like this where F is working late and I need to provide a meal for K.  Tonight, I used up some hamburg patties with a mushroom sauce on them, plus half a packet of pilaf from a few weeks ago.  We had lettuce as well in the fridge, so we shared that.

Dinner was okay. I’m not sure if K liked it a lot or not, but she did eat it all! I cooked the third hamburg and will have that for my lunch tomorrow.  After dinner, I washed and dried all the dishes. It wasn’t a big deal as I hadn’t used all that many!

F came back to the house after 9 pm. He wanted to go out fairly soon afterward. His mother had waited up for him and I told him to at least say hello to her. F and I went out to Komeda Coffee and had kakigori. We both had kiwi-flavoured kakigori and they were very nice.

After our treat, we went to the grocery store. I got a few things for dinner tomorrow and F got a few things for his dinner tonight.

We came back to the house where F started to be a bit of a pain. He put away the groceries, which I hate when he does it. He never puts them in the right places. For instance, he puts my stuff on K’s level. If she sees it, she eats it. I have to hide some of the portable/small items.  I like to put my stuff in the freezer so I can find them, he buries things in the bottom. Not a big deal really, we sorted things out later.

On his way to the room, F spilled his soy sauce and then yelled at me when I moved towards the mess on the floor. I didn’t realize what he said and he got mad at me for not wanting to leave the door open.  It makes no sense.

Anyway, I should go. I did laundry today, but not a lot else. I should really try a Postcrossing tomorrow or doing something productive. We’ll see.  Come back later if you like and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

August 18, 2019

Sunday - Hot and Sunny

Last night before bed I finished reading Y is for Yesterday, the last finished Sue Grafton novel. I really enjoyed it and it is so sad that there won't be anymore. That woman could write good stories.

I slept in a bit this morning. F got up early and worked on the internet stuff, didn’t fix it though.

He came up to see if I wanted to go out for lunch and I did. I was a tad nervous though, this weekend he’s been so fussy about food.  We planned for a couple of places, but they both were quite busy. Finally I suggested a yakiniku place near the electric shop where we were going. We got in after a few minute wait and had a lovely lunch. We both had yakiniku, although F had a big rice and gave me some of his meat. He could have had a noodle dish there, or a rice dish, so he wasn’t forced to have yakiniku. It also didn’t cost very much as we had some discount coupons from our last visit and we got a new point card, so they increased the discount by the old points.  Yay us.

We went into the electric shop and I showed F the kind of thing I wanted to buy, a base station that would help spread the wifi in the house. He didn’t want to buy it so we didn’t. Sigh. We went over to the light section and ended up getting me a brand new light for the bedroom. It’s a little old fashioned like a traditional Japanese light in a house, but it has a remote control. The nice thing is I don’t have to turn it off and then walk across the floor in the dark! I can wait until I’m in bed if I want and turn it off then. I can also use it to dim the lights! Woot.

We came back to the house and I had the bright idea to buy some cold drinks for us at a convenience store. I got us 3 cafe lattes, and then made them from the machine in the store. It was fun.  

We brought them back to the house, gave K hers and we sat in the living room, turned on the AC and enjoyed the drinks and the cool. 

While F worked on the light upstairs, I worked on the internet situation. I started by coiling up the cords. The cords that were there were so tangled and mixed up it looked like spaghetti. It was bad. When I had finished, I took everything apart and got F to help me start all over again. We did.  I got internet with my computer tethered to the router, and then I managed to get it switched over to the Airport Extreme. I was worried that it was too old, but it seemed to work. Our cellphones work, my computer works! Woot.  The only thing, and it is a bit of a problem, is that our wifi isn’t very strong on the second floor. Our old apartment was one level and the wifi was fine. Here, it isn’t great upstairs. Still, we have internet and wifi. Woot!

We relaxed for a while and then I suggested that we get K something to eat. It was almost 7 pm.  F and I got her a bento and then went out for our dinner. I had suggested Foodever, but when we got there, the soba/udon place had closed. F seemed disappointed so I said that we didn’t have to stay there. He wanted another udon place, so we drove there. It was closed.

We ended up going to the good Korean place near the house. We had three dishes, and each of us were given a starter dish too.  We had chapchae, chichimi and some watery gyoza. Everything was lovely and we waddled out.

We bought a few things at Mina, the big grocery store. I needed some fancy cheese, so got that, and then just some regular stuff for lunches, etc.

We came back to the house and relaxed for a bit. I took a shower and then F did. I watched The Mentalist and enjoyed it.  The usual Sunday night stuff.

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I probably should do a bit of laundry and maybe even have a bit of a tidy up. Or, I might just decide to do some Postcrossing!  We’ll just have to see. Come back later and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

August 17, 2019

Saturday - Rainy, hot and humid

What a day!  It wasn't great, to be honest. F got up early and went to the doctor, I slept in a bit.  When he came back, we decided to go out for a fairly early lunch. I suggested Futaba, just up the road and I thought F was okay with it. He did whine a little about ramen though.  Anyway, we got there just before they opened, so we waited and then went in after the doors opened. 

He sat down and announced to me that he wasn't going to eat anything. He said the food was terrible and it was too expensive.  This lovely little restaurant isn't expensive at all. There are quite a few entrees that cost just 1000 yen, they are all delicious and the atmosphere is very casual but adult. Plus the staff is really nice to us when we come in. I was really upset with him.  I had the quiche plate…the waitress knows I like it and came over as we sat down to say they only had one serving left.  Of course, I ordered it, and it was lovely.  F had coffee and spent lunchtime on his phone, what else.  

After I finished we left and I asked him to take me back to the house. However, he didn't. He took me to a ramen restaurant. He paid for ramen at the machine and then had to wait for 5 minutes for a table. We sat down, he got his ramen and then we left. I didn't bother talking to him because he was on his phone so what would have been the point?

We get back to the house after lunch and guys for the internet were already at the house. It wasn't even 1 pm yet. So annoying. They did whatever they were supposed to do…F lambasted one guy about the lies they told about changing the appointment time…we'd booked the time months ago and yesterday they tried to get us to change it to earlier this morning.

The men did their stuff which wasn't much and they left. F and I spent the next 5 hours trying to make the internet work.  Of course, he didn't do anything sensible like photograph the old set up so we could go back to that if it didn't work out…He had done zero research on hooking up the systems and hadn't even opened the boxes until this afternoon. I am so annoyed with him about that.

Poor old K was in the room most of the afternoon with us. She napped for a bit and to be honest, so did I. I've been feeling really run-down all day. I think I sweated too much yesterday and today…just felt blah.  We got bits working. We did get our phones working for a while, but they don't right now. My computer worked when it was physically connected, but I'm bloody well not going to use my computer in the living room. 

Around 6 pm, I put my foot down and said we all needed some food. It was the fireworks night and it would be better for us to go out earlier rather than later. Later on, all the places would be busy when people went after the fireworks.  F agreed with me and despite wanting to go for ramen again, agreed to go to Gusto. 

We had a fairly decent meal there. K had her usual fish dinner but asked that we have an order of fries with it. Yay her!  F had a noodle dish and I had a chicken dish with a spicy sauce. The food was okay. I liked mine, F said his was okay and K ate everything on her tray.  We shared the fries and I contributed my sweet chili sauce from my dish. It was a really good dip for the fries. We all had drink bar too as we had a cheap coupon for it. Yay us.

We came back to the house and F and I worked on the set up again. We almost had it, then we unplugged something or moved something and it was gone again. I'm thinking we need a new something, we might go shopping again tomorrow. We chucked it in around 10:30. It was late and we weren't having much luck.  K had gone to bed after F yelled at her for interfering. I tried to clean up a bit of the mess that we'd left, but it was pretty bad. There is a huge tangle of cords in the living room. It looks awful. I told F that we should wind up some of the cords tomorrow because we can't leave it like that. K is very house proud and even I wouldn't be happy with that mess. 

After we came upstairs I took a break and watched a little TV, F tried to work on the internet again. When he came back upstairs I gave him a hug. He did try really hard today, it's just that he always underestimates how difficult these things are. 

I asked F to ask at the electric shop if there is a person they know who would come out to the house and connect us properly. I'm not sure if there is such a person, but because my computer is in English and the information is in Japanese and F doesn't understand it and I don't understand it, it is difficult to get set up properly.

So, if you are reading this, it is due to me posting this via my phone. It's all quite complicated, but it will hopefully work. 

Come back later if you dare and see if I'm back online properly.  Until tomorrow (I hope)….