October 7, 2019

Monday - Cloudy and cool

Today was an odd day. F didn’t feel well in the morning and took the day off work. He spent most of the day in bed, sleeping or playing with his computer. I sat in the room at my desk on my computer for the most part.

I went downstairs to start dinner. I ended up changing around my dinner plans but it worked rather well. We had bought a few things at Costco that we don’t often have, so I had to prepare them for dinner.  I also tried a new thing for us, Sea Asparagus, so if you have any recipes for me to try, please let me know!  We had blueberries for dessert, baby leaf lettuce with radishes and mini-tomatoes and sea asparagus, plus some oven-baked chicken with a yuzu-pepper coating. It was pretty nice. F and his mother had rice with theirs, I didn’t.

F manned up today and helped me by washing the dishes. I had a bit of a whine with him today and told him that I am feeling a bit of a kitchen skivvy these days. I prepare dinner, set the table, clear the table and often do all of the dishes afterwards and no one lifts a finger to help me. He wasn’t too happy with me at the time but did help tonight.  It doesn’t have to be a ton of help, someone getting up and bringing me the table’s dirty dishes to the kitchen door would be huge…anything so I don’t have to take my slippers off all the time.  Or even blooming ASKING if I need help. They just sit there and wait to be served. 

After dishes, I changed a bit and F and I went off to the onsen. He had a bath, I sat in the lobby. I didn’t do any crochet or reading tonight.  Sigh. 

We went and had a coffee at Komeda coffee and then bought a few groceries at the shop nearby. We got a few things and came back to the house. 

I watched a little bit of TV and had some tea. F played with his computer until he went to bed. He’s complaining about feeling bad again. Sigh. I feel bad for him, I do, but I don’t know how to help him.

That’s it for today. Now, a few words about my time in Yamagata!

On Wednesday I went down by bus. I got F to order a taxi for me the day before. It came on time and I was at the station in lots of time. The bus ride itself was pleasant. The bus was nearly empty and so I snoozed and listened to podcasts. 

In Yamagata, I made my way over to my hotel hoping they’d let me leave my suitcase there. They did, and they also let me check in a bit early. Yay them!

I checked in, rested for a bit and then went out in search of shopping and maybe lunch. I found some lunch and did a little bit of the other, so that was good. I came back to the hotel around 8:30 or so and got a movie card. I watched The Equalizer 2 and thought it was okay.  I had dinner in my room, I’d gone to a nearby grocery store and picked up a few yummy things.

On Thursday, I caught a bus to Sendai and went shopping and tea drinking in Sendai. I had earlier thought of going to have lunch in Ikea but changed my mind. I had lunch in a Big Boy in a department store. It was nice. I didn’t buy a lot of anything except tea, but I did find some foreign foods that I got. I was tired so I came back to Yamagata a bit early and came by train. The train was very crowded at first, but I managed to get a seat after a few stops. Unfortunately, it was in the priority seating, but it looked like I was the oldest person around and there were no other candidates for the seat.  There were a few other spots on the priority seating open too.

Back in Yamagata, I came back to my hotel via a convenience store. I bought myself some dinner there, ate it in my room.  I went downstairs to the lounge and had a few of their nice beverages and read my book.  I didn’t want to put it down, so I went back to my room, ran myself a nice warm bath and finished my book in the bath. Love doing that and I never get to do it where I live. It was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and I adored it.

On Friday morning I checked out of my hotel and walked myself and my bags over to my next hotel. It was really hot (around 28 or so) and it was quite far.  I don’t know why I didn’t take a taxi!  I couldn’t check in yet, but I left my bags at the desk and took myself off to see a movie.

I went to see Joker and I really didn’t like it. I don’t like the type of films that it was riffing off anyway, so I wasn’t surprised. I did like Joaquin Phoenix in the role, just didn’t like the character at all. 

After the movie I did a little window shopping/looking for lunch and then checked into the hotel. I stayed there for a while waiting for F.

Poor F was supposed to drive to Yamagata after his work. That was hard enough, but the problem was he had driven someone to Yamagata on Friday. He had to take them back to our area, finish work and then pick up his clothes at his house and come and join me.  He got back to Yamagata city sometime around 10 pm.  

We went out for a quick dinner at a Yatai (old style food stalls) near the hotel.  He picked the Shonai Fish stall. I was quite annoyed. We live in Shonai, why on earth couldn’t he have picked another type of food.  I had stomach problems for the entire trip, so when F said he wanted sashimi made sure he knew that I wouldn’t be having any. He ordered himself a huge sashimi plate that ran around 1500 yen.  I had a cooked fish (hokke) that he got to eat about half of. I wasn’t too thrilled with him, to be honest.  

We went back to the hotel and ended up going to sleep. It took a while, but we did sleep.

On Saturday, we had breakfast in the hotel and then went out. We drove to a nearby city with a big mall and did a little shopping. F was looking for a jacket for himself…he’s trying to replace one that he had before I met him and wanted an unlined all-season jacket…Autumn is not the time to shop for that!  After a few shops, we did find him something that he liked in H & M so he got that.  We had lunch at a bread buffet Italian restaurant. It was very nice and I was surprised that it was!   We also went to see a movie, Peppermint with Jennifer Garner. It was terrible too, but we didn’t have to pay for it as our stamp cards were full. Hurray. I love Jennifer Garner, but the movie wasn’t good.

We drove back to the hotel and even though I suggested finding a good place along the way, F drove by any interesting place or turned the wrong way or whatever. I wasn’t impressed.

In the hotel room dropping off stuff I told him that there was no way I was going back to the Yatai place. I didn’t want convenience store food either.  

We went walking down the road and by chance found a place down a side road. It was a yakitori-ya and turned out to be very good! We had a very nice dinner there! Yay.

We came back to the hotel, F rushed off to take a bath and I started to set up for bed. I was leaning over the bed when I noticed that there was a bloodstain on F’s pillow.  The bed had been freshly made by the maid that day so it wasn’t from him from the night before. When F came back, I told him and he complained to the front desk. They did switch the pillow out for him, but yuck. It was visible too, I don’t know how the cleaning staff missed it.

We had breakfast the next morning and then checked out. Although we planned a Costco run later on, I suggested doing something else for a while. We went to the Prefectural Museum and spent a couple of hours there. It was quite nice really. The museum needs a bit of updating, but the exhibits were all about how Yamagata came to be geographically. I know I saw them before and was bored, but this time I was quite interested.

After the museum and a short walk we took around the castle grounds, we drove out to Costco. We did a bit of shopping, but nothing like we normally do, since we were just there two weeks ago. 

F didn’t want to leave for Tsuruoka yet, so I suggested shopping at a hundred yen shop we passed earlier. We did that and I got a few cool things for the house.

For dinner, I suggested going back to the food court at the Tendo Mall. It was close to the way we were going back so not a big deal to make a detour.  We did that too.  F had some noodle thing that he wasn’t too keen on, I had a steak with rice that I really did like.  

We drove back to Tsuruoka, hit up a grocery store for a few essentials and then came back to the house. We had a fairly quiet evening. F wasn’t feeling well by then and was talking about taking Monday off if he didn’t feel better in the morning. And the rest you know.

Are you still with me? It was a fun 5 days off for me, I would do it more often if I had the money for it!

Come back later to hear all about Tuesday’s happenings. Until tomorrow….

September 23, 2019

Monday - cloudy and rainy and super windy

I got up this morning at my usual time, 8:00 am.  I watched some news from the bed and F brought me up a piece of his freshly baked bread, so that was lovely. We had a fairly relaxing morning around here. I watched the last episode of Pretty Little Liars for the second time. After a while, Fumihiko and I went out for lunch.

I wasn’t too fussy today and suggested gyudon. I had their latest special, sort of an okonomiyaki thing with shaved beef and a raw egg.  I broke the raw egg and used their separator, but the yolk fell threw into the bowl too. F got all huffy at me, but I told him to relax.  It really didn’t matter to me at all. Anyway, the whole meal was pretty gross and I’m quite sorry that I chose that particular dish. I did like the shijimi soup though.  F seemed to like his, he had a basic gyudon. When we got up to pay there was a slight problem. F had left his wallet at the house! Luckily I had money, so I paid. (He did pay me back later, never fear.)

We went back to the house to pick up his wallet and use the washroom, then zoomed over to our usual place to do the laundry. Yes, we finally took our bedding in to be washed in hot water. The place was really quiet for a change. Hurray for that. I started reading a book that I am really enjoying, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It’s an epistolary novel and there aren’t that many of them these days. 

We folded up the laundry when it was done and took it back to the house via Coopia.  We needed washrooms and I wanted to check out the hundred yen shop there. It’s huge and so nice. 

We decided to pick up something for K’s dinner on the way back to the house as it was around 5 pm. We got a few things for tonight and tomorrow as well.

Back at the house we made our bed and revelled in that particular joy.  K ate her food I think and F and I relaxed for a bit.

F and I went out after 7:30…I wasn’t the one dragging my feet this time. I suggested the real okonomiyaki place for dinner and F agreed. However, when we got there, they were already closed. I made F check just to be sure and they were closed. Sigh.

Hubs suggested going for Indian food. I was a bit worried about his stomach, but he said it was okay. We went and had a really nice meal. We were the only customers there. The storm overhead was noisy and not many people were out anyway.

After we left the restaurant, they shut the door and turned off the lights. They’re having an early night too.

We came back to the house and relaxed.  We took showers and have agreed that we’re going to go to Yamagata tomorrow. We’re planning a Costco run, but I’m not sure what we’ll buy! We do need to renew our membership again, and I’m hoping to do something else in Yamagata city too.

F is feeling a bit under the weather, so I’m not sure if we will go or not. I think it depends on how he feels tomorrow. Fingers crossed he’ll be okay. In any case, F wants to leave (if we go) early, so I have promised to be up and ready to go around 9:00am. Ack. I’d better get to bed soon then.

Come back later if you will and see if we make the trip to Yamagata and if the typhoon is a factor in our decision.  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….

July 30, 2019

Tuesday - Hot, muggy, then sunny

I had a quiet morning. I had my breakfast, watched a bit of TV. Around 12 I got a message from my friend that she was on her way. I had to get busy! I still wasn’t dressed for going out.  I found some clothes to wear and went downstairs to wait for her.  I was just saying hello to K when I saw my friend’s vehicle outside.

After a brief discussion about where to eat, we went to Pisolino.  We both had the same main dish and were able to have some nice food and some great conversations!  After a couple of hours, we left and visited the glasses shop nearby.  I showed her the new frames I got at the shop and we looked at frames for her child and also for her. 

We left and she drove us to S-Mall.  At S-Mall, we did a little window shopping but then it was time for her to leave.  We both felt so much better for having seen each other.

I went up to the hundred yen shop and did a little shopping. I got a few types of material for the next project I will work on for F’s third pair of jeans. I won’t be starting that for a while though.

I was feeling really hot as the second floor of the mall is much hotter than the first, so I went to Baskin Robbins and had a lot of ice cream! It was good. 

I followed that up by a visit to Doutor where F joined me when he finished work. He wasn’t as late as he thought he’d be. I was rather glad for him. I finished a book that I'd been reading on my phone too. It was about a woman who pretends to be a psychic financial advisor. In this one, she got mixed up with other psychics, one real and one a charlatan. 

We decided after our drinks to get a bento for K and then us go out. We went to Izmo and picked up a few things besides the bento. After that, we went back to the house to put food away, and feed K. 

F and I went to Sashimiya tonight and it was busy. It took rather a long time for our food to come to us. We were having sashimi, so that was a bit of a mystery.

After dinner, F didn’t want to do anything or go anywhere, so we just came back to the house. It was fine with me, but I wanted to watch a bit of TV anyway.  

F snoozed and I watched a couple of shows.  We turned on the AC because it was really hot up here.  

Tomorrow I’m going to cook dinner again so wish me luck. I’m a tad worried, in case it is as hot as it was today, but hopefully I’ll be okay!

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

June 27, 2019

Thursday - Rainy and cloudy all day

I woke up quite early this morning, but F was already gone.  I took a trip downstairs and then came back and dozed a little bit more. I woke up around 8 properly and watched the news.  This morning was the ER Retrospective, so they had some of the actors on the show talking about what ER meant to them.  It was really good and quite touching too. 

I had breakfast and thought about taking a nap but didn’t until I absolutely had to. I didn’t actually nap that much, but I did feel more rested.  F told me later that I snored last night (Just what I wanted to hear-snort) so I might not have slept that well. 

In the afternoon I prepared a card for a friend with an upcoming birthday then did some Postcrossing. I got three odd ones today, well two of them were.  One was to a person who hadn’t filled out her profile at all, and one was to a person who sends the same card to everyone. I looked at his sent cards and 90% were one picture only. I asked him about it on the card. I personally take great care to pick a card that will suit the person I’m sending it to, and I rarely send the same card twice in a short time.

  

F called around 6 and I went down and started dinner. It was a simple one tonight, pasta with pesto and a side salad.  I served a sausage each on the pasta.  Things disappeared so I think people liked it. The best part is I have leftovers for lunch.

I did the dishes, both washing and drying again. At one point F was going to take over, but he all of a sudden left the room.  Okay, dude…whatever. Good thing it was a simple meal tonight. 

I went upstairs and he wanted to go out soon. No worries.  We went to the onsen and F took a bath. This was the earliest time we’ve been in a while so it was busier but fine really. I started reading “Y is for Yesterday” by Sue Grafton. It’s a little bittersweet starting it as it is her last book. I’ve loved reading Grafton over the years. Kinsey Millhone is one of my literary heroines.

When F came out of the bath he sat with me and he used the wifi for a bit. We left soon after and went to Komeda Coffee.  I asked that we not be there too long, but F starts watching videos and forgets the time. I’m sure we were there an hour but did finally leave.  

Our next destination was a gas station to buy some kerosene. The water heater in F’s house runs on kerosene so he picked some up for us.  We came back to the house and after a few minutes, I took a shower.  

At midnight I watched Forever because Ioan Gruffudd is pretty darn hot! 

That’s about it for my day.  I didn’t buy food for dinner tomorrow night so I hope F comes up with a plan. I’ve basically done all the cooking and clean up for the 3 days that I’ve cooked this week and I’m just a tad tired of it. He’s supposed to help.

Come back later and see what we get up to. Will it be good?  I hope so. Until tomorrow….

June 10, 2019

Monday - Cloudy and cool

F did wake me up this morning when he went to work, but I really think it was accidental this morning. I was able to sleep in a little longer.  I dragged myself out of bed later so that I could make the bed and have some tea.

I had a quiet morning and afternoon. I did a load of laundry and had more tea. A lot of tea was drunk today. I didn’t see K at all. I heard her once in the afternoon, and then when I went downstairs to wash my lunch dishes I heard her in the living room. She was getting dressed in front of the window.  Honestly, I don’t think she even thought about the fact that other people might see her.  

F called around 4 to say he’d be late and then later called to say he was most of the way here. I popped down to the kitchen to get dinner started. It wasn’t a very difficult dinner tonight, we had retort packs of taco meat.  F heated up some rice, I spread it around and then covered it with the taco stuff.  I added cheese and lettuce.  We had everything with some tortilla chips and salsa too, plus a spicy cucumber marinade thing that we all like.  Dinner did get good reviews, so hurray for that.

As I was starting to clear the table, the thumb on my right hand started to go wonky. It feels like it has popped out of the joint, but it hadn’t as far as I know.  I had a really hard time carrying stuff to the kitchen as I couldn’t trust my thumb would work properly. I took small loads and everything got where it was supposed to do.  

I started doing the dishes and got around half of them done.  The warmth of the hot water seemed to be easing my thumb so when F came in and announced he’d take over and wash the rest I wasn’t too pleased. I was even less pleased when after I suggested he grab a towel and dry dishes, he buggered off to the toilet.  He was gone just long enough for me to wash the remaining dishes and dry them too. Funny how that works.  Big help.

He knew that I wanted to go out to the grocery shop so later asked to go to the onsen. I agreed to go there tonight but said I might not go again this week. Sitting in the lobby of an onsen isn’t exactly fun, even though they have free wifi. We went, he bathed and I finished my book, The Break by Marian Keyes. I really liked it. I like most of her books though. 

After the onsen closed, we went and had a coffee in the coffee shop. We were the last customers in the cafe when we left. Sigh. We didn’t get to the grocery store until 11 and then it was almost midnight when we got back to the house. So annoying really. 

Back at the house, we unpacked the groceries and put them away of course. I got the plastic garbage ready to go out and took it to the genkan. And that’s about it for my day. It was quiet.  

Tomorrow I’m going to make dinner and maybe something else if I can remember! I might even get a start on the sashiko project I’m doing on F’s pants. He wants me to sew it in orange thread. I think he’s a little crazy, but that’s his choice so we’ll see.

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

May 9, 2019

Thursday - Cool but sunny

I woke up and then got up quite early this morning. I got up at 7:30, which is early for me. I stayed awake too, which is really odd.  I watched the news and then ER.  

I had a good if fairly quiet morning.  In the early afternoon, I did a bit of work on F’s pants. I tacked on the big patch and did a little bit of stitching. I have a long way to go on that one. I watched quite a bit of stuff off the DVR today too, so that was good. 

For lunch today, I had some of the leftover guacamole on toasted baguette, plus half of the leftover pasta from yesterday. I gave the other half to K.  Lunch was good.  

Tonight F came back at a reasonable time and we talked about dinner. He wanted to go to the onsen so he bought K a nice bento and then we went out. We went to Foodever for dinner. They undercharged us for our meal, I noticed after F paid, but didn’t know what to do about it. We both had the same thing, gapao rice and it was good!

We drove out to the onsen and F went in the bath and I stayed in the lobby. I bought a drink and then read some of my book. My friend had given me a couple of Patricia Briggs novels when she visited last month…one done.  Yay.  This was a Charles and Anna novel, Burn Bright. I liked it.

F and I drove back to Tsuruoka and went to the grocery store for supplies. We’re going to try Taco Rice tomorrow night. We got the base at Costco last month, we needed to add some cheese and lettuce too. I hope we all like it!  We bought ourselves a bit of ice cream too.  

When we got back to the house, F went upstairs and I made us some more guacamole toast. I cut up the rest of the baguette and toasted it, then added the last of the guac.  It was really good!  

I watched a bit of telly and then finished my book before writing this.  

I’m not sure what I’m going to get up to tomorrow. I’d really like to do some Postcrossing, but I also want to get F’s pants finished. I might be able to do a little bit of both I suppose.  

Come back later and see what happens on my Friday. Until tomorrow….

April 27, 2019

Saturday - Rainy

I woke up this morning to an empty house. F had taken his mother off to the onsen. I got up but did the lady of leisure thing instead of stuff I should have done! 

I had my breakfast and got my clothes together for going out. I got half dressed too.  F came back and cooked some noodles for his mother, then it was time for the two of us to leave.

The doctor visit went well and we don’t have to go back for 6 weeks. Yay.  I also finished reading The Girl Who Takes An Eye for An Eye today and enjoyed it. It isn’t the best book ever, but it was okay.  I didn’t realize until I finished that it was the fifth book in the series, not the fourth. Oops. 

F and I went to Bistrot des Ponts in Mikawa for lunch. It was as good as ever. For a change, we both had steak. Our whole meal was the same, except I had bread and he had rice. 

We visited the grocery store quickly and then came back to the house. F gave his mother some extra food and then we headed upstairs. He took a nap, I spent time on my computer.  Around 5:15 we headed out to the local cinema and saw The Favourite.  I really liked it, although I’m not completely sure what the ending meant! Olivia Colman was great, but in actual fact, all three of the actresses were.  

After the movie, I wasn’t ready for dinner. F was all set to go back to the house and make himself ramen for dinner. Grr. I suggested going for coffee first, so we headed off to Komeda coffee.  We had a cup of decaf there and then since we still weren’t famished decided to go to the grocery store. At MaxValu I got myself some bread with bacon in it and a small chicken namban. That was good.

We came back to the house, put away the groceries and came upstairs. I was on my computer for a bit until I remembered that I had to take a shower tonight. Oops.  I did that and came back upstairs.

That’s about it for me for today. Not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. I’m hoping to see Avengers: Endgame soon, but not sure if tomorrow will be the day or not. Come back later on and see?! Until tomorrow….

April 23, 2019

Tuesday - Sunny but cool

F woke me up again today. It wasn’t quite as bad as yesterday, today he was knocking things off his table. Then, after he left, something else fell off and that woke me up completely.

I nearly didn’t go for a walk today, I just wanted to stay in bed. I did get up and go out though, so that was good. I only did once around the park again…it felt enough.

I had a pretty quiet day. I did work on my column a little bit but didn’t finish what I wanted to do. There is still time. When I went down for lunch I decided to make some tuna salad and made an extra sandwich for K.  She seemed happy but didn’t eat it all.  I thought it was great, the tuna salad I mean.

F was a bit late tonight and when he came back to the house wanted to have something easy to digest. We ended up going for udon. I had udon with tempura and rice, which was a bit too stodgy but tasted okay. After we finished we came back to the house. We waited for K to go to bed, but she wasn’t asleep yet. Oh dear. 

We drove out to the onsen, F took his bath and I read some of my book. I’m supposed to be about 90% done but I’m enjoying it and have a lot to find out first. On the way to the onsen, I got several texts from a friend and we’ve decided to meet up for lunch on Friday. That should be rather fun. I haven’t seen this friend in a while.

We came back to the house and took a shower then watched some of my TV. F went to bed fairly early and seems to be snoozing away. He has a medical test tomorrow so will be off work. He’s promised to take me to the Art Museum to see the William Morris exhibition. I can’t wait!

It’s been quite hot in our room today. At a couple of points today it was 24°C, which is rather warm.  A little preview of what is to come. Bleck!

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

April 14, 2019

Sunday - Sunny then a bit cloudy

F and I slept in a bit, but not too much. He got up around 9 and took his mother to the onsen. That was fine with me. I slept a little longer and then got up and took care of a couple of things I needed to.

F got back around 12:00 I think and we talked about going out for lunch. Then he said that he wasn’t feeling that well. I suggested he have a rest for a few minutes before we went out, and that’s what he did. 

We stripped the bed before we left so that we could go to the laundromat with our bedding.

We went to the Indian Restaurant. They just reopened after their holiday. We both had their Akawari Naan set, free refills on naan with one of 5 curries. It’s quite good value and we almost always want more naan.  It’s so good. Today was no exception. I had the chicken curry, F had the pork curry and it was all good stuff. We did order extra naan, but poor F had a bit of a mishap. His denture plate broke during the meal. It’s been broken for a while, he fixes it himself, and well, it broke again. 

We made a quick stop over at the Pal shopping area and I was rather surprised to see a whole bunch of female foreigners in the store. They got on a charter bus with from our area so I wonder if it was a tour or something. I’ll never know!

We tried one new laundromat today but it was a bit too poncey for us. We had to take our shoes off at the door and they only had one big washing machine and not too many smaller ones.  They did have lots of dryers though.  We decided to go to our usual place and it was fine. No waiting for machines, we used two of the big ones for all of our bedding and then had two big dryers afterwards for them. 

We headed back to the house with our clean bedding, but F asked if I’d like a drink or something. I was fine with that, but he proceeded to pass every single interesting place with drinks. He said that he was going to the 7-11 after I questioned him. We detoured to Komeda coffee where we had ice coffees.  The bad thing is that they seem to have a lot of sugar in their regular iced coffee. It was yucky. I took a mouthful and wasn’t happy. F switched with me, but I worried about him having all that sugar.  

We left the coffee shop and went over to the nearby grocery store. I had suggested getting something for our dinner tonight and once I was in the store found something for making tomorrow night’s dinner too. 

We came back to the house, unloaded the car, and F got the bentos on the table. I took some of the bedding upstairs and came down to eat.  Dinner was fine. I had a chicken bento, F and K had rice based bentos. Everyone seemed pleased.  F washed the dishes, I dried afterwards and then we went upstairs. 

We remade our bed with our nice clean and more spring-like bedding. We had fuzzy warm sheets and I was starting to get a bit too hot in bed. Hopefully, I’ll be okay now.

We watched a bit of Castle Rock from the DVR and I did some knitting.  After that, I took a shower and F watched some TV. F went to bed fairly early as he has an early driving assignment tomorrow morning so has to go to work earlier than usual. 

That’s about it for me. I did read quite a bit of The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye at the laundromat which was good. I’m not quite done, but I’m getting there. 

Come back later and find out how my day goes. Until tomorrow….

March 23, 2019

Saturday - Sunny but cool with a strong wind

Before I went to bed last night, I looked outside and noticed that the world was white. Yes, it had snowed last night. Egads. This morning, there was still a bit of snow, but it wasn’t anything serious as the roads were clear.

I woke up this morning when F came into the bedroom. He’d left the ryokan early so that he could go to the first of his doctors he wanted to see today. I managed to stay in bed and sleep a little longer. I got up at 9, turned on the water-pot and the heater then went back to sleep for a bit. I dragged myself out of bed at 10. 

F was back around then and had turned on the TV while I was out of the room. I really didn’t want to listen to J-TV, but tried not to get annoyed. We left the house about 20 after 11 and got to the doctor’s office soon after. I took The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye with me and got a good start on it. Our appointments went fine and that was that.

After we finished I suggested going to Naa for lunch. F liked that idea so we invited K along too. We went over to Naa and were able to get in right away. We had a nice lunch there and for a change, it wasn’t busy at all. 

After lunch, we came back to the house and I asked F to call and make the reservations for my mini-con for me. He was a star and did them all. Whew! One thing off my list. Or three, depending on how you look at it! 

To say thank you, I offered to take him out for a coffee and did. We went to Komeda and had coffee and wifi time. We left around 5 pm, went to the grocery store and bought a bento for K’s dinner. We delivered it and then F and I drove out to Mikawa.

There was only one new to us English movie in the area and it was Bumblebee. Although I like Hailee Steinfeld, I didn’t want to see it. The Transformers bore me and the last few films were horrible. F said he wanted to see it and since I always pick our films thought fair was fair!  

We got our tickets and then had dinner. We both had Bibinba at the food court. They were good but so hot. I realized that we only had 10 minutes before the movie started and I was only halfway done mine!  I sent F off to get drinks and popcorn then finished mine and put away the dishes. I joined F and we went in to see the movie. And, you know what?  I actually enjoyed it. It wasn’t the best movie ever, but it was fun and I didn’t feel stupid for watching it. I wonder if it had something to do with the fact it was written by a woman? It was a bit of a coming of age movie and I personally liked the tributes to The Breakfast Club!

After the movie it was too late to go to Aeon for socks for me, so F suggested going to Don Qihote. I did get a pair of socks, and also a lightning cord, a drink and a cushion for my chair. I didn’t get cereal though. Sigh.

We came back to the house. F headed to bed quite quickly and I’m still up but plan to get some sleep soon. I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. F suggested going to Yamagata, but I don’t think we should do that. I have a few more pre-convention things to prepare so if I can, I’ll ask if we can do that instead.

Come back later and see how our Sunday goes. Until tomorrow…

February 15, 2019

Friday - Clear and cool

I woke up this morning to an empty room. I went downstairs to use the ‘loo and F was still here. We said hello and goodbye and when I finished he was gone. I came back upstairs and watched the news and then ER. I think I snoozed a little but got up for the last half of ER.

I had quite a good day today. I finished the cull of my women’s group members and then did another group’s members for good measure. I spent quite a bit of time on my computer and also did some reading in the afternoon. I’ve been re-reading a novel I read 5 years ago and I’ve just been enjoying it so much. Lately, I just haven’t been reading and that worries me a lot.

I had lunch and breakfast and never did bump into K today. I think she slept in, but then again, we had her out quite late yesterday.  

Around 5:50 or so I went downstairs and started working on dinner. It wasn’t a stressful one or anything, but it was the first time I’d used the toaster oven to cook meat at the house. I made some roasted chicken with a herb coating, steamed broccoli, shrimp pilaf and a salad. I had just put the meat in the oven to cook when F called to say he was on his way. I knew he’d be late, so I was planning to feed his mother. We were able to all sit down together and enjoy our meal. I cooked more of the pilaf and put out extra of the chicken and it almost all disappeared. I had thought that I’d leave some of the rice and chicken for K’s lunch on Saturday but it all vanished, except for 1 piece of chicken!  She can have it if she wants! 

I did the dishes but that wasn’t a big deal really. F was tired from work and I don’t like the way that K does them so I’d rather anyway.  Everyone did enjoy dinner, so that was really good. Yay.

F asked if I’d like to go out and I would. I did tell him that if he was too tired, I wouldn’t push it. We ended up going to Starbucks for a bit of wifi and relaxation. We both had the drip coffee and I had a cinnamon bun because I had wanted more pilaf but F gave it to K! He didn’t know and I didn’t say anything. 

We spent a bit over an hour in Starbucks and then came back to the house. I took a shower when it warmed up a bit and then watched Forever. It was a good one tonight. It’s too bad that the show was cancelled. I like Ioan Griffiths a lot. 

I finished my book when I really should have been blogging, so I’m a bit behind. I’m not sure what we’re going to do tomorrow. There aren’t any movies and F and I haven’t made plans. I suggested watching a DVR film or two, we’ll see if F likes that idea tomorrow night. Come back later and see what happens. Until tomorrow….

January 19, 2019

Saturday - Sunny and clear

I got up this morning long before F did. He had told me last night that he was going to go to the onsen this morning, but he didn’t. I got up around 9:30 and he didn’t really roll out of bed until close to 10:30. That normally would be fine, except we had an appointment at 11.  We didn’t actually leave here until 11 am so we were a little late. It didn’t matter too much, however. 

While I was waiting at the appointment, I finished reading a book that I’ve been reading for the last two and a half years! It’s the kind of book that you can’t really read straight through, it’s a book of mini-biographies of weird and wonderful people in history. I liked it a lot, but couldn’t spend a lot of time at a time on it. It was called "The Book of the Dead - Lives of the Justly Famous and the Undeservedly Obscure" by John Lloyd & John Mitchinson.

After our appointment was finished, we went to a bank machine and then back to the house. We picked up K and went to Naa for lunch. It’s the farmer’s restaurant that we go to sometimes. It was really good today and not very busy at all. That made it nice and our food was quicker than usual. Hurray for that! I suggested Naa because I know that K and F like it and our meal wouldn’t have a lot of meat in it. K didn’t have any at all, and F only had a little, as did I.

We visited a farmers market after, but I didn’t get anything, K did. We came back to the house via a gas station to pick up kerosene.

F and I went out around 4 pm which was soon after we got back to the house. I suggested going to a hardware store for a new towel rack. I broke the one in the kitchen a couple of days ago by accident. We found one, I got a couple of hooks for here in the bedroom, and F picked up a thing to help him charge his phone. 

We each had a cream cafe au lait at Komeda Coffee. That was a big tall glass of milky coffee with soft ice cream on the top. I liked the ice cream, but the coffee wasn’t too memorable. Probably next time (!) I’d have plain iced coffee with ice cream.  I had only wanted to stay for an hour max, but F wanted to stay longer.

Although I had suggested going to the curry restaurant for dinner, we decided to check the nearby grocery store for bentos for dinner.  F picked up a couple of raw fish ones for himself and K, I couldn’t bear another helping of rice today so got some bifun noodles and some pepper chicken.  We had our bentos with some iced tea and then some stollen for dessert. K really likes it!  I’m a bit amused at how much she likes the things I contribute to dinner. 

As there weren’t any movies in Tsuruoka for me this week (there were some new ones that F could have seen, but he rarely goes without me), I suggested that we stay in and watch a couple from the DVR.  So, we had a double shot of Paddington!  We rewatched Paddington and then I made a bit of popcorn and we watched Paddington 2. They were both terrific.  Hugh Grant was in the second one and was so funny.  For me, it is rare to watch a family movie that the main character is so positive and I still like it! I admit that I was rather verklempt at the end of the second film (and maybe the first if I’m really honest.) F enjoyed them too and I think it was fun for us to stay in and not spend a huge amount of money tonight!

That’s about it for today. F says he might go to the onsen in the morning with his mother, and after that, I’m not sure what we’ll get up to. I’m hoping that it will be good.  Come back later if you choose and find out. Until tomorrow….