December 31, 2020

Thursday - Cold and snowy

We slept in this morning, although I did rustle myself out of bed around 10 to go downstairs. While I was there, I turned on the heater in the kitchen and set it to start working in an hour. I did go back to bed for a couple more hours, but actually got up and dressed then.

I went downstairs and made brunch for us all. It was just pancakes and bacon, made with lovely pancake mix from Costco, and a nice little salad of local baby leaf lettuces, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. I also made some coffee that wasn’t great, but also wasn’t terrible. I made all the mix into pancakes so we can even have some tomorrow if we like!

After the clean up, which I’m happy to say F helped with, we went out to pick up a few things. We first went to the liquor shop and got a bottle for my New Year, some snacks and also some alfredo sauce.  

We hit up the grocery store next for things for dinner. F was in charge of that, so he did most of the shopping. 

We came back to the house and F got into action immediately. I offered to help him, but he didn’t want me to, so I went upstairs and relaxed.  When he called me down, he was already at the table with his mother, but there were no drinks on the table, no cheese that he’d asked me to put out, and basically I had to do all that running around to put it out.

The first soba wasn’t great. Despite it being really expensive stuff, it had all broken and there were big knots of it in the bowl. F also served it with a cold dipping sauce which is not my favourite style. It was okay, but a bit meh. As usual, F had given me far too many noodles. The bowl was overflowing. I kept asking him about things that he’d bought so he had to run to the kitchen to put some of them out!

Next thing I knew, he presented us all with another type of soba with moroheya in it…it was green and hot, with chicken. Now we’re talking. I far preferred this stuff. 

When we finished, I did most of the table clearing. I was going to wash the dishes too, but F started. He got about half done and then disappeared. No word, nothing. He just left the kitchen. 

I finished drying the dishes that were already done and then tried to phone him to see where he was. No answer. I checked the toilet, but there was no light. I was quite ticked off at this stage. I thought he probably bugged off to bed because he had a stomach ache all day. I ended up doing the rest of the dishes and then cleaning the stove which was in a horrendous mess. I’d already cleaned it after I cooked this am, so wasn’t happy about having to do it again.

I finally finished and thought I’d say goodnight to K. I poked my head in the living room and there was F watching kickboxing or whatever martial art garbage was on TV. He’d all of a sudden decided to deliver a clipboard to the neighbour and then decided that he didn’t have to do anything else in the kitchen. I was royally annoyed. 

I went upstairs and spent some time amusing myself on my computer. F didn’t come back up so I decided I’d take a shower. I took my stuff down and told him that was what I was going to do. He asked me to leave on the water heater afterwards for him.

I showered and then went back upstairs. He was upstairs by now and asked if I’d like to go to the shrine. It wasn’t midnight yet and my hair was still wet, so the answer was not yet. He took his shower and he kept asking me. 

After midnight, I changed into going out in the snow clothes and we walked over to the shrine. There was nobody around and the streets were quiet. I don’t think one car even passed us and we were walking on a usually busy road. There was nobody at the shrine so we did our stuff and then left. As we were leaving, another couple came in and they were the only people we saw. Everyone was masked, so it wasn’t a scary thing!

We came back to the house and got our drinks out. I was rather annoyed because F kept telling me how to make my drink and I kept telling him that the bottle said I could drink it straight. I probably could, but I wanted to mix it. He was so annoying I almost gave him the bottle back to get it refunded, but I didn’t. 

We had a not very friendly drink and snack upstairs. F went to bed almost immediately afterwards and I am still up of course. We have no plans for tomorrow. Usually we go to Yamagata on the first and stay in a hotel, then go to Costco on the second, but F didn’t want to do that this year. It sucks to be honest, but it is really cold and it’s probably not a good idea to leave his mother alone right now.

So that was my very downbeat New Years Eve. I hope that 2021 will be better for everyone. Come back later if you want to, and hear all about the first day of the year. Until tomorrow….

December 30, 2020

Wednesday - Clear and then snowy and cold.

I went to bed really late again last night so couldn’t drag myself out of bed at a decent time. However, I did get up before F. I had requested that we go to a restaurant that was closing today and was a favourite of mine. He said it was fine and then  proceeded to cook for his mother. He brought me up a bowl of noodles and I wasn’t a happy camper at all. It turns out that he’d reheated the nabe and just added the noodles, but he could have said that. I grudgingly ate most of the bowl, but I didn’t enjoy it at all. 

Of course, by the time all this was finished, there was no time left to go to the restaurant. I was rather annoyed with him. We left the house and he wanted to know where to go so I told him either of the two family restaurants that don’t close after lunch. We don’t get a choice when someone wastes my time.

We ended up at Cocos and I was rather happy about that. I like it better than the other one, although it isn’t cheap. I had a hamburg, F had fish on rice and we shared an order of sweet potatoes and bacon that was interesting. We had a lot of drink bar and stayed quite a while.

We went to the grocery store across the road and while we were there F noticed he’d left his toque in the restaurant. 

We went into the grocery store and got a few things for dinner tonight. F was being his usual weird self. He picked up some soba for tomorrow night and then we both decided on some gyoza, tonkatsu and harumaki for dinner tonight. I picked up a few vegetables to make another stick salad for us. 

F popped back into the restaurant and retrieved his hat. He was happy!

We came back to the house, and put away the food. Neither of us wanted to eat yet, so I set the heater’s timer to come on in an hour and then we went upstairs to relax.  

After a couple of hours we went downstairs and started to prepare dinner. F did the microwaving, I made the stick salad, and things got done. He also popped out to get some sauce which is apparently a vital thing to have with tonkatsu. [Eyeroll] It was good on it, but honestly…. I supplied the nice mustard, and I made myself some couscous. F and K had rice and we had a nice meal. K really went to town on the veggie sticks, so all of them got eaten tonight. 

I started to clear the table then went to the washroom. When I came out, F had almost cleared the table and was washing the dishes too. Woot! I gave him a hand with the dishes and also with wrapping leftovers and putting things away. I did up the garbage tonight too. There isn’t pick-up this week now, but the bag in the kitchen was nearly full.

We went upstairs when we were done and relaxed for a bit. F found the bill that earlier today that I  wondered if he’d paid, and he hadn’t. He decided to go to the convenience store and pay it and I tagged along. We drove over there and paid the bill. I looked for a drink for tonight but couldn’t find one suitable and then picked up some cookies and a bit of chocolate.  

Back at the house, we came back upstairs and had some tea. I shared the cookies with F and they were nice. I watched a bit of YouTube. I’ve been watching a series on YouTube from Curiosity Incorporated.  They are a family from Edmonton who run an antique store. Right now the store’s owner is emptying a hoarder house and finding a lot of cool things. 

Around 1:45 I stopped watching videos so that I could blog. F and I have been discussing whether or not we should turn off the water overnight. Probably we should as it is supposed to hit -4 tonight. Bah. 

And, that was my day. I think I’ll try and get to bed a tad earlier tonight as I’ve stupidly volunteered to make pancakes for brunch tomorrow. When will I learn?  Hopefully it’ll go well. 

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

December 29, 2020

Tuesday - Clear and warmish

I slept in terribly late this morning. I woke up once, went downstairs and then came back to bed and went back to sleep. I woke up after 12 in an empty room. F had gone downstairs to give K some food. Yay for him.

I got up and got dressed. We discussed where to go for lunch and I asked for one of the Indian restaurants. F grudgingly said okay and chose the older one.  We went out and tried to run a few errands first. 

We wanted to order sushi from a place nearby for New Year’s Day, but they were already fully booked. Sigh. We went over to the older Indian restaurant and it was closed for New Years. We stopped into another sushi shop, the one that F’s friend runs, and did order sushi for New Year. It’s expensive but I think it is worth it not to have to do piles of dishes on the day. We went to the other Indian restaurant which was open and had very few customers. Bonus. 

We had a pretty good meal. I had chicken curry in medium heat and liked it, F had pork curry in hot and thought it was too hot. (I warned him, but he wouldn’t listen!) We had the curries with naan, salad, soup and a drink. It was quite nice and I also had a discount coupon so that was good too.

After lunch we did a little grocery shopping. We went to our regular place for some food for dinner. I had talked F into cooking a nabe tonight. We got the stuff for that. I also asked that we go to the Gyomu Super as I wanted to replace a few things that I had used up lately. I picked up a few things there and then we came back to the house. 

On the way, F asked if I wanted to go and look at the lights out by the airport. I said sure, but that we should take the food to the house first, since some of it was frozen.  We did that. K was in bed and we let her sleep on.  

F and I drove out to the airport, parked the car and went and walked in and around the decorations. They were nice. I know there are better places with more lights, but this was special and it was not crowded at all. In fact, we only saw three other people and a dog the whole time we were there!

I tried to take a selfie and only got one shot. Oops.

We drove into Sakata after this, no real reason, just F being silly. It was fun though. We considered going into the mall, but we didn’t, just came back to the house.

At the house, F got busy on the nabe. I helped by setting the table and getting things ready on the table. Basically, I did the things that I wished he’d help me with. Stuff like getting out the glasses and tea bottle for our drinks, the eating bowls, our chopsticks, that sort of thing. The nabe was quite nice. I added a bit or sriracha to mine, which took it from okay to good. F’s soups never have any taste, in my opinion. 

We did have a discussion over which kind of food was best. F of course thought that Japanese food was the best and I said that it was logical to think that as we get older, we’d each think our cultures food was better. Then I pointed out that I really don’t like Japanese food all that much, but love French, Italian, Indian and many others. It isn’t that I don’t like Japanese food, it is just that I don’t like the same things that F does. I like sushi, but the things that I love like yakiniku, yakitori and such are things that F doesn’t or can’t eat very much anymore. I’m from a landlocked part of the world, if I ate fish once a month I was doing something good! I can’t and don’t want to eat it every day. And so much of Japanese food literally stinks. It reeks. When F cooks it I want to open windows and get fresh air in. 

Anyway, we ate and I did offer to give F a hand with the dishes, but he turned me down. However, I did help clear the table, again, doing much more than he ever does to help me! 

I went upstairs and watched some YouTube and waited for him to come. I went downstairs at 10:30 and he was still watching TV! 

I took a shower and by that time he was finished downstairs. He took a shower too and then we had a very quiet evening in the room. I don’t think I’ve even turned on the TV all day up here. 

We have no plans for tomorrow, but we’ll have to go out and get something to eat for dinner. I don’t mind cooking, I just don’t want to panic at the last moment or get stuck doing everything like usual. 

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

December 28, 2020

Monday - Cold and rainy

I woke up around 8 am, went downstairs and then I’m afraid I came back upstairs and got back into bed. For a while I read things on my phone, then I put my head down and went to sleep! I got up a bit later, went downstairs and grabbed breakfast.

I had a fairly quiet day. I watched the third John Wick film. It was okay. I liked some of the “surprise” actors in it, but boy was it violent. I don’t know if I enjoyed it or not!

I had lunch and then around 6 or so I went downstairs and put dinner together for K and I.  I basically just did leftovers from Saturday night, plus a can of smoked oysters and some cream of mushroom soup. K ate so much, I was a bit shocked. Later I realized that she probably hadn’t eaten earlier in the day, so was hungry. The thing is, she stays in bed all day. There is food in the kitchen if she wants it, but she doesn’t get up and heat it up or make it.

Anyway, we had a nice meal and then I cleaned up and went upstairs again. F called me about 20 minutes later to say that he was on his way back so I went downstairs and turned on the lights for him and got the cheeses back out of the fridge. When he made it back to the house, he had a bento that he’d been given. He heated it up and then we went upstairs with some cold meat for him.  He ate and then basically went to bed right afterwards. He’s sleeping now.

I’m still up and I’m watching videos on YouTube. I’ll try and get to bed soon. I’m not sure what I’ll be getting up to tomorrow. I hope that it’ll be a good day. Come back later and find out!

Until tomorrow….

December 27, 2020

Sunday - Clear and cold

Because last night was another late night, I didn’t get up until 11 am today. I’m hoping to get to bed a bit sooner tonight, so I will hopefully finish this quickly!

F and I discussed lunch. I could offer leftovers from last night or we could go out. F chose to go out, and that was fine. We went to Arpeggio again. It wasn’t very busy today and we were able to have a nice lunch. I had the bacon donburi which is really like having bacon and eggs on rice in my opinion. K had fish and F had the 10 dish assortment. F paid using the Premium coupons that he had bought before.

We were walking back to the car when K tripped over a hose that was down in the parking lot. Lots of places use hoses to melt the snow. They run water through them and they work well, if a bit soggy, and well, a waste of water. Anyway, K. She tripped over the hose and went down fairly hard. She was quite stunned I think and needed a minute to get back up.  F and I helped her up. She seemed okay, but I was worried about her. 

When we got back to the house, I suggested to F that he make his mother an ice bag for her knees. He asked her, but she turned him down. Sigh. 

F and I went out again and went to the grocery store. We got bentos for later on for all of us and a few groceries here and there. We came back to the house then.  

F had a little rest and then got up and dressed and went off to work.

I went upstairs and relaxed for a bit. I tried out my Apple TV and watched a few episodes of Ted Lasso, which I really enjoyed. I’m planning to watch more soon. It might be the kind of thing to watch when F is sleeping or doing something else. 

Around 6:30 I went down to the washroom and to see about dinner. Fortunately for me, K got up to use the washroom too, so I asked her if she’d like to eat. She said yes, so I put together a little dinner for us.  We each had our bentos plus we had some of the leftover veggies from yesterday with some of the dips. It was nice.

Afterwards, I did the dishes and came back upstairs. I did say good night to her. 

I vegged around for a bit and then had a late shower. I turned the water down and came back upstairs. I started watching the second John Wick film. It is interesting.  I got about an hour into the film and F called. He’d finished work and was on his way back. Hurray. 

F arrived back at the house around 1:30 or so. He had his bento and is trying to relax. I hope he goes to bed soon as he has to get up early to go to work. Officially it is the last day of his work year, but he may have to do this emergency stuff all through New Years, we just don’t know yet. Yikes.

Well, that’s about it for me. Tomorrow I have a couple of things to get done and then I’m hoping to watch the rest of my movie, and maybe even start the second one. Come back later if you like and hear all about my Monday. Until tomorrow….

December 26, 2020

Saturday - Cold and rainy at night

Well, F and I didn’t go to bed until 5 this morning, so we slept in very late. I stayed in bed until 11, F stayed in bed until 3 pm-ish. When he finally dragged himself out of bed, I suggested going out. 

We got some gas for the car, then went over to the MaxValu area. We went to Komeda Coffee and had a light lunch, then we split up. F picked up the cake and I went to the grocery store and started grabbing a few things for dinner. We met up again in the store and F added a few things to the basket. Sadly, there weren’t any chickens, and I couldn’t find too much that looked interesting. I got a chicken steak thing that was okay, but not nearly as impressive as a chicken would be.

We came back to the house and I got to work. I asked F if he wanted to help but he ran away, so I did most of the stuff myself. He did come in at the end and helped a bit, but really I did most of the work.

I plated a bunch of crackers, cheese, cold meats, pates and cut up a bunch of vegetables to have as a “stick salad”. I put some miso and some hummus on each plate to dip them in.  I heated up the chicken and took everything through to the living room.  We had a lovely little feast. 

When we had finished our main part of the meal, I cleared the table and then F was on.  He had made coffee earlier for us, so he served that, and cut the cake. Watching him cut the cake was quite funny. He was so precise…he measured out where he was going to cut and didn’t quite understand when I said that he just had to give me half of it and then him and his mother could share the other half! I had to tell him I was joking!

We finished the cake for the most part tonight. We were supposed to pick it up last night and they are supposed to be eaten within two days, so we kind of had to eat it all. K couldn’t finish her piece, so I put it in the fridge for her. 

I did the dishes and then came upstairs. F, to do him credit, had washed a few dishes earlier and I had also used paper plates for some of our things, so I didn’t have to wash them. I rarely use paper plates so I don’t feel guilty.

We had a quiet evening in. I watched Bull and then later on watched another programme and I put on You’ve Got Mail. I put it on in the background, but I’ve been sucked into it. 

Well, that’s my day. Tomorrow poor F has to work in the evening, so he’ll leave here before 3 pm and won’t get back until 3 am. Then, he’ll have to go back to work on Monday morning. It doesn’t seem fair to me.

We finally had our Christmas meal, just a little late. It was still very nice, so I’m quite happy about it. 

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

December 25, 2020

Friday - Cold and snowy

This was an odd Christmas! F and I exchanged our presents last night, just after midnight. That was very nice and I’m glad we did that. 

This morning I woke up before my alarm, went downstairs and then came back and snoozed a little longer. I watched the news and then joined in a Zoom meeting for Christmas that my women’s group was having. That was really nice. 

I had a very quiet day. I watched Two Weeks Notice with Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock. It was about as not good as I remembered and Donald Trump was in it. Major eye rolls happening while I watched that. It was an okay rom-com, but not a particularly brilliant one.

During the day I got a message from F that he had to work really late. He had to go to a place near Mt. Gassan and stay there until 1 am. Yikes. He wouldn’t be able to come back for dinner and obviously wouldn’t be able to pick up our cake or chicken for dinner. Sigh. He called the companies, the chicken was no problem, but the cake we’ll have to get tomorrow. 

I spent the day quite quietly. I watched a bit of TV, I went downstairs at 5:30 to start cooking dinner for K and I. I decided not to have the nice Christmassy food tonight, but rather keep it for tomorrow. I took some of the frozen food out of the freezer and heated that up instead. I keep the food there for just this kind of thing. 

Dinner was ready fairly quickly and it was decent. The burgers had a nice sauce, the pasta was good and the pilaf was delicious too. Doing dishes was fast and I enjoyed the podcasts I was listening to. 

I came back upstairs and watched John Wick for a bit, took a shower then watched The Good Wife. After it finished, I watched the rest of John Wick. It was okay. I’d seen it before. I had a nice FaceTime visit with my sister and her family in Canada. It was lovely to see everyone.

Around 2 K called me downstairs to find out if I’d heard from F. I hadn’t at that stage. I wasn’t worried about him, I knew it would take a long time to get back here.  Apparently, she called him after talking to me. 

F arrived here after 3 am. He was tired and a bit hungry. We hugged, chatted for a bit and he’s off making himself some ramen. I can’t really blame him. It’s late and I’m not going to cook a meal now. I did offer to help him heat up some of the leftovers, but he hasn’t wanted them so far.

I’m not sure what will happen tomorrow, but I’m hoping we’ll have our Nibbly Buffet for dinner tomorrow. Come back and see if we do. 

Until tomorrow….

December 24, 2020

Thursday - Warm with thunder and rain at night

I woke up early this morning, as in before my alarm, then went back to sleep and overslept. Sigh. I got up eventually, did a load of laundry and grabbed breakfast. I had a fairly quiet day except I did finish writing my nengajo. I got a bunch done early in the day and then finished the rest in the evening, but I’m getting ahead again.

I got a couple of lovely Christmas cards in the mail today from ladies in Japan. That was a nice surprise.

I didn’t watch anything off the DVR today. I should  have, but didn’t. I watched quite a bit of Youtube instead. Oh well.

I went downstairs to heat up dinner after F called me. I just reheated the curry from last night. I like to do it slowly so that it doesn’t burn. It works fairly well that way too. Anyway, dinner went over well tonight and both F and I had seconds. I didn’t have rice the second time. We had more of the spice cake from the store, it was still dry. It’s a bit of a shame since it really does taste quite good. 

I did all the dishes and of course, listened to some podcasts. When I finished, I went upstairs and changed for going out.

F came upstairs a little later and we went to the post office first and dropped off my first batch of nengajo.  Then, we hit up the grocery store.

I got a few things for tomorrow’s dinner and also my lunch tomorrow. Poor F may have to work on Sunday so I got stuff that could last until Sunday for me.  

We came back to the house and put away all of the food.  I watched The Rookie at 11:00. I was going to watch John Wick too, but decided not to get into it tonight. I have already seen the first one, but it was a while ago.

After midnight F and I exchanged our presents! I got the things I tried on at the store on Sunday, plus a new handbag. It isn’t one that is great quality, so it might not last long, but it is a backpack style purse. It is cute. I’m hoping it’ll let me take my usual purse to the repair shop and get it fixed. 

I gave him some ramen, some chocolate and some socks. I also gave him a pyjama top and a pair of sweatpants to wear as pyjamas. The store didn’t have a matching set in his size. He seems to like what I got him. Yay.

And that’s about it. Tomorrow I hope to have a quiet daytime and then I’ll be busy bringing my Nibbles Buffet to the table. I asked F to ask his mother to clear the table for me but he did it! Yay him.  I have a nice dinner planned, hopefully it’ll go well. 

I hope that you have a lovely Christmas if you celebrate it, or a fabulous day if you don’t. I’ll most likely be back tomorrow night but if I’m not, don’t wait up!

Until tomorrow….

December 23, 2020

 Wednesday - Sunny and warmish, some rain

I woke up earlier this morning and went downstairs. I came back upstairs, turned on the water pot and the TV, watched the news and snoozed a little bit. 

I got up and started a load of laundry downstairs. I decided to make myself breakfast too, so went into the kitchen. F came back to the house for a few minutes. I made myself some very yummy porridge in the microwave. It’s easy to do, but I have to pay careful attention to it so it doesn’t boil over. I’ve had that happen and it is hard to clean up afterwards!

While I ate, there was a kerfuffle on Facebook in my women’s group. I won’t go into details, but feelings had been hurt and some of us complained and suggested that the moderators get involved.

I did another load of laundry and then watched a bit of TV. I went downstairs to get my lunch, then I came back upstairs and ate. I put on last night’s movie, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Even though it was quite an old film, I hadn’t seen it before! I’m not really sure why. It was a basic rom-com, but it was quite cute. Afterwards, I switched over to the news.

F called around 5:30 and then I went downstairs to get started on dinner. I was making curry tonight, so I got stuck in on it. I had almost all of the vegetables cut up before F came back. He woke his mother up and made her get up.  I tried to make the curry quickly.

Finally, things were ready. I put the salad and the curry and rice out on the table and called F. He took a long time to come down. I had everything ready and then we had a nice meal. The curry was pretty good and there is oodles left for tomorrow night. I even gave us dessert tonight. I had bought a spice cake a few weeks ago and served up a couple of pieces of it. It was a little dry, so we put a dab of milk on it.

F and K went off to the onsen tonight so of course, I got to do the dishes. I listened to a couple of podcasts and got it done by taking my time.

I went upstairs and relaxed for a bit. When F came back I went downstairs and did up the garbage to go out tomorrow morning and emptied out some of the food from the fridge. K had put a lot of food in there on Saturday but hadn’t eaten it yet. I threw it out. It was bento food, so I had no idea how old it was and I don’t think it would be very good yet.

I took a shower and then came back upstairs and watched New Amsterdam. 

And that was my day. I was fairly busy, especially in the evening. Tomorrow I have to finish my nengajo as I need to get them in the mail by Friday. I’d prefer tomorrow night personally.

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

December 22, 2020

Tuesday - Warmer, with a bit of rain

I had my usual sort of morning today. I woke up long after F went to work and just couldn’t get out of bed. Finally I did drag myself out, went downstairs and came back up. The TV went on and so did the water pot. I watched the news and even had a few minute snooze. 

I got up and on with my day. It was fairly quiet. I didn’t watch any TV during the day, but put it on for the news in the afternoon. I have things to watch on my DVR and I really do want to watch them, but I feel like I have the attention span of a flea at the moment.

I filled up the kerosene tank early in the afternoon, then grabbed my lunch early for a change. I barely heard K today. I didn’t see her until dinnertime.

I got a call from F at 5:30 or so and went downstairs after that to cook dinner. I got a lot of things ready, but didn’t know what I should make. In the end I did mini-eggy-pancake things with a bit of duck in them, along with the pork sauté, salad and veggies from the freezer. I waited until F was here before I cooked most of it.

We had quite a nice dinner, the three of us. Everyone seemed to have a healthy appetite and most of the food disappeared. I did the dishes afterwards and then went upstairs.  

I changed my clothes and had a bit of an upset when my earphone fell out of my ear and vanished on my floor somewhere. I think the moral of that tale is to take the earphones out before I take off my shirt! I did find the earpiece, but it took a few minutes.

F and I went to the grocery store and picked up a few things for tomorrow’s dinner. I’m making curry so that I don’t have to do too much prep on Thursday night. Hopefully it’ll be enough to last for two days. I had already bought the meat because it was available in the shop on Sunday night, but needed a curry roux pack and some other vegetables, and yogurt for breakfast. Then, we went to a convenience store so that F could send off a parcel to a friend of his. F’s friend sent him some sweet potatoes, which K had been very carefully steaming and then gorging on. Sorry, for me, sweet potatoes are part of a meal, for F and K, sweet potatoes are a decadent snack. 

We came back to the house where I decided not to take a shower tonight as I didn’t have enough time before my show started. I might have managed it, but no big deal. 

And that’s about it. I watched my usual Tuesday night stuff, Prodigal Son and The Handmaid’s Tale, then turned off the TV and started blogging, more or less.  I did write a couple of nengajo tonight, but I really need to buckle down and do more of them. I have 16 more cards to write.  

Come back later if you like and hear all about how I made curry or how many nengajo I wrote!  Until tomorrow….

December 21, 2020

Monday - Clear, sunny, snowy and rainy and warmer…

Today was an okay day. I wasn’t sure what it would be like when I got up in the morning, but it turned out okay. Fumihiko had to get up quite early and didn’t go to sleep until late so I was worried about him. However, when I woke up he was already gone.

I had my usual snoozy, quiet morning, except, once I was awake, I didn’t fall asleep again. I got up around 10, grabbed my breakfast and came upstairs again. I made a quick list of things I wanted to do during the day and actually managed to check everything off, so that was good.

Around 1pm I stuck my head out the front door to see how it was outside and I was crushed. The snowplough had been by the house and had completely blocked our parking space. I knew that F would be tired when he came home and I knew that going out at 4 or 5 pm as usual wouldn’t be enough time, so I got into my jacket, grabbed warm gloves and a hat and got busy. 

Before

After

It took me a long while to do, but I finally got the entrance, steps to the house and most of the parking space cleared out. The snow was already so high that I didn’t know what to do with it. I had to try and stack it on top of a waist-high pile. After an hour and a bit I got most of the snow cleared. I had taken a before picture so I took an after one as well just for proof that I had been busy!

I went in the house, hung up my coat to dry, and then went downstairs to get lunch. I brought it upstairs to eat. I was already really late, so I never did watch anything off the DVR today. Around 4 I watched the news, then went downstairs to fix dinner around 5:45. K was nowhere to be seen.

F had texted me during the day to say he’d be late so I thought I’d be eating with K. I didn’t know whether to cook for her or not, so just hung around the kitchen. A little after 7 I saw her sneak back from the washroom. Instead of coming in the kitchen and saying hello, she went into her room via another door!

F didn’t get back to the house until almost 9 pm. He didn’t seem too enthusiastic about dinner, but I pointed out that I hadn’t eaten either, so gave me the go ahead to start cooking. F and I ate in the living room, but there wasn’t a lot of conversation. He was tired and his feet were cramping up. I was tired and a tad annoyed that instead of saying thank you for shovelling all that snow, was given a request to do more next time so it would be easier for him to get out of the yard. Harrumph! That is why I rarely do good deeds for him, he always has some “thing” I can improve on for him.

I got to do the dishes, but luckily there weren’t too many, and only two of everything to wash. I listened to a couple of podcasts with my earphones on and then went upstairs when I was done.

F was already in bed and the heater was on when I came into the room. I told him I was going to watch something off the DVR and a few minutes later I heard sleeping noises from that side of the room! I’ve heard them most of the night, so I’m really glad.

I watched Friday’s The Good Wife and then Suicide Squad. I just finished watching Easter Parade on NHK, they must be doing a Judy Garland event as there’s another of her movies on tomorrow too. 

I’m a bit tired so I would like to get to bed fairly soon. Snow shovelling is hard work! I’m glad I did it early when the snow was still soft and fairly easy to move. Later on it would have frozen hard and would have been much more difficult.  

Oh, and I also wrote a couple of my nengajo. Not a lot, but at least they are started!

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

December 20, 2020

Sunday - Cold, windy and snowy

I slept quite late this morning, but then again, F didn’t. He woke up early, but stayed in bed! I finally roused myself, went downstairs, then came back to the room and got dressed. F wanted to go to our usual Japanese place for lunch, but I begged off. He wasn’t too happy with me, but I suggested trying Naa, the farmer’s restaurant. He actually liked the idea and I made him call to check if they were open and if we could go there today. He did and we could. Woot.

The two of us got ready to go out. F warmed up the car and then while he was doing something inside, I went outside and cleared a bit of snow from the front steps. After that, we headed out.

We had a nice lunch at Naa. We both had the same kind of pork, a sesame flavoured one, then different fish. I had cod and F had salmon. He doesn’t like cod except for the insides in horrible soup in January! We did have a happening while we were there, the power went out! It was probably a case of too many heaters and air conditioners going at once. In any case, a couple of minutes later, the lights were back on!

We left and I suggested going out to Mikawa to get Christmas presents for each other and maybe to see about a new quilt for F. He’s been using a summer weight quilt and it isn’t warm enough for him, he says, so he also uses a blanket and a towelket.

We drove off towards the mall I thought except F didn’t turn when he should. Then, he started to reach down near his feet. He’d dropped his glasses while he was driving down an icy road. Yikes. He turned into a shop’s parking lot, stopped, grabbed his glasses and then we turned back and went towards the mall.  On way to the mall, F suddenly turned down another road. I asked him what he was doing! It turned out that he’d gone into autopilot and turned like he was going to work! We ended up doing a turnaround and finally we got to the mall! 

F found a good parking place and we went in and started shopping. We looked at quilts first. We didn’t make up our mind but did look at them.  After that, we separated and went looking for possible presents for each other. I had picked up a few things and then F was next to me asking if I’d come and try on a few things for him!  I was going to pay for my stuff, but there was a long line, so I put it in a basket and went to the large size area.  F was there and he showed me a few things, that were actually good. One thing he suggested was something I’d tried on in Tendo last weekend, but everything else as interesting. I tried on a few things. I decided to buy myself one of them, and the other good things, F got for me! I think, he hasn’t given them to me yet!

After that, I sent him off again and I went looking for something for him. I didn’t get exactly what I wanted, but I cobbled a couple of things together and hopefully they’ll do. I went down to the grocery store and picked up some other things too. Some of them are for F, some are for me!!

After that, I called myself done and I texted F to see where he was. He was waiting for me outside Doutor.  We went in and had a cup of something nice and then called our Christmas shopping done. On the way towards the door, I asked F if he’d decided about the quilt or not. He said he hadn’t and then he said he would buy one after all. He got a double-sized quilt and then we left the mall. 

We drove back to Tsuruoka and then got even busier! We went to the drugstore and bought a few things, then went back to the grocery store. I got a few things for dinner tomorrow and Tuesday night AND Wednesday night too. I do have to go back on Tuesday and get something else too.

We came back to the house via the gas station to get more kerosene. With the sudden change in weather, we are going through a lot of kerosene. 

We got back to the house. I brought the shopping in the house, F did the kerosene.  We put things away and then I came upstairs for a while. F told me that he was eating with his mother in the living room, so I went downstairs and had my bento (a bibinba). He knew that I had an area Zoom meeting so when I said I was done he offered to wash my bowl for me. Woot!  I went upstairs and managed to join my meeting. 

I chatted with 4 other ladies from my area and it was lovely. Some people had been on for ages already, so left and around 9 pm we called an end to the meet-up.  

I had a mostly quiet evening. F and I chatted, we put the new quilt on his side of the bed, I watched the end of my top film this year (Motherless Brooklyn) and then turned off the TV. I had a quiet little evening.  

We did have a small earthquake a few minutes ago, but it was small here. It was a low five in the area where it hit, but the affected area was quite a bit of Japan.  I don’t think it was a bad one. I hope it was a delayed aftershock rather than a harbinger of things to come. Fingers crossed.

So that was my day. It was a jam-packed good’un  and I almost need a holiday to recover from my busy day!  Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

December 19, 2020

Saturday - Cold and Snowy

I heard F leave this morning, but I didn’t really wake up when he left. I woke up around 10:30 and got up in a cold room. The heater must have turned itself off. Poor me.

I got up, dressed, went downstairs and grabbed my breakfast. I came back upstairs, watched the news and then got dressed up for going outside.  I went out and shovelled snow for a while. I cleared off the house steps and also the entrance to the house’s parking space. It took a while and the snow was icy and heavy. Still, I thought I did a good job. 

I came into the house and then swept the stairs all the way to the first floor. I do the top bit when K is around, but I did the rest today too. It looked a lot better. 

I went upstairs to relax and did so until F came back. He came back a bit after 1 pm. The funeral thing went okay, but he said the priest kept changing his mind about different things! Oh, dear. We had the option to eat the bentos he brought back or go out, so we went out. We went to Kintaro Sushi and had some nice sushi and miso soup. After that, we went shopping!

We went to a grocery store and I picked up some yummy stuff for our Christmas dinner. We went over to the MaxValu area and ordered a cooked chicken from a restaurant. Then, we went to the coffee shop and had a cake set each. 

After a while, we left and went to the nearby bakery. F has spoken for years about having a Japanese Christmas cake and I’ve always talked him out of it because I have Christmas Pudding and Mincemeat tarts. Unfortunately, I can’t get them this year, so I told F that we could get a cake his style!  We ordered one, a chocolate cake, which he’ll pick up on his way back from work on Friday.

We visited Yamaya and Daiso too. I got a few pretty napkins for Christmas dinner and some paper plates so I don’t have to do quite as many dishes on Christmas day. 

We came back to the house after that. We’d been out quite a while. F wanted to eat right away, so he ate a bunch out of one of the bentos. I let him have the kitchen and when he had done I went downstairs and did my dinner. I had a couple of pieces of toast and some of the leftover taco meat. I had it with some tortilla chips.

I watched the end of Suicide Squad and then Harley Quinn after that. I enjoyed the second one, even though I’ve seen it 3 times now. 

F went to bed. I made the executive decision not to take a shower. It’s really cold and it’ll be marginally warmer tomorrow night. It was actually colder here in Tsuruoka than it was in Edmonton at one time!

I went downstairs and washed my dishes and made some cold tea for tomorrow. I came back upstairs and watched Bull. It was a good episode.

And that really is my day. I have no idea what we’ll get up to tomorrow. I’d like to do a little shopping or maybe go to the museum, I’m not sure. 

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

December 18, 2020

 Friday - Rainy, slightly warmer.

Well, yesterday ended badly if you remember, today started okay. When I woke up in the morning I talked to F, he talked to me, things were fine. 

He invited me out for lunch and I went. It was to his favourite fish restaurant in Tsuruoka, we got a decent room, one with table and chairs so I was fine there. I don’t really like their lunch specials but always feel I have to order them since the things I prefer are quite expensive! 

Over lunch, I asked F to check a FB update from a restaurant I like to see if I was right that they are closing. He told me I was. Then, I told him that he must be happy about it. He asked me why and I reminded him that he hated the restaurant and never wanted to go there. He got angry at me. In retrospect, it wasn’t a great thing for me to say, but I do think it was true. He doesn’t like it when I accuse him of “hating” something because he thinks it is childish. It may be, but I have a lot of strong feelings about things and he doesn’t respect them at all. He told me that he wished I wasn’t there anymore and the rest of our meal was in silence. 

He ran a couple of errands after lunch and then we went back to the house. I had received a notice to renew my My Number card before my birthday and I had asked him to take me to City Hall “someday” before then. He wanted to go immediately. I was not really sure about it because 1) we usually fight at city hall and 2) it can be really crowded and takes forever. I had a hair appointment at 4:30 and I didn’t want to be late for it.

We did go to City Hall and wonder of wonders…it wasn’t busy, we didn’t fight and it took about 10 minutes to do everything! Woot.

I needed a drink, so F suggested finding a new cafe we’d read about. We tried to find it, but didn’t. I then suggested going to Doutor in the mall. We did that and we both had drinks. I had a hot rooibos tea, F had coffee.

Around 5:20 we left the mall and F drove me to my hairdresser’s salon. I did offer to walk as it was only a couple of blocks, but it was raining so I’m glad I didn’t. I went in, and while she did have a customer at the time, after she left, we were basically alone in the shop. We both kept our masks on, although I had to hold mine on when she cut my hair around my ears! I got my hair cut very short again and I love it.

F picked me up at the shop an hour later and we went back to the house. It was dark. It was only 5:30 or so, much too early in my opinion to go to bed! F checked on his mother to see if she wanted dinner, but she didn’t. We went upstairs for a bit. 

Sensing that things were much better between us, I asked F if he’d like to go to the late movie at the mall in Mikawa and he said he would.  We decided to eat in the mall too if things were open.

We drove out there and got our movie tickets first. That meant we could get free drinks with our bibinbas. Yay. We both had the pork one with kimchi. I really liked mine, F not so much. During our meal, he got a call from his uncle and found out that the funeral ceremony he thought was on Sunday was actually on Saturday, or tomorrow! Oops. He’ll have to leave early in the morning with his mother to go. 

We went to see WW84 or Wonder Woman 1984 as I think it is called. I really enjoyed it! I don’t want to give out any spoilers, but I thought they got the era well, without hitting anyone over the head with the fact that it was the 80’s. The story worked for me and I liked everything up until the big fight near the end. It was done in the dark and it was really hard to see who was doing what to whom. Still, it was a small beef for me, but overall, a good film.

We drove back to Tsuruoka and the house. We came upstairs. F went to bed quite soon, and I went on my computer then remembered my TV programs are on tonight and watched them. 

I’m not sure what the daily plan will be for tomorrow. F and K have the funeral ceremony in the morning, not sure how long that will go. I’ll be here at the house and might have some time to do personal stuff, at least I hope so. 

We ended the evening in a much better place than the middle of the day, so that’s a good thing. 

It makes me a bit sad to say that last year on this day I was on my way back to Canada. I’m not even sure when I can go back to Canada next, so I’m feeling a tad weepy/emotional about it. Sigh. 

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

December 17, 2020

Thursday - Cold and snowy

Well, today was a crap day, but it didn’t start that way. I got up, had a quiet morning and afternoon, for the most part. 

I got up early and went downstairs for a moment, then came back and went back to bed. I slept a little late, and then turned on the big heater, watched the news and didn’t snooze. Yay. I got up and then did a load of laundry. I hung it up in my room and put the old load of clean laundry on my bed to fold later.

I was deciding what to do with myself when I got a text from F saying that he had taken the afternoon off. I was happy about it. 

F came back and I expected that he’d ask if I’d had lunch or not. I expected he’d talk to me like a normal person. He got into bed and basically said that he either wanted to go to bed or get a massage. Since he got into bed, I realized that he wasn’t interested in me or having lunch, so I went downstairs and made my lunch.

I brought it back upstairs to eat and then he announced that he was going to take his mother to the onsen and then go and have a massage. He said this a couple of times, which I heard, but figured that I wasn’t invited since I hadn’t been invited. I put on a movie and watched that.

He left with his mother and I continued watching my movie. I heard her come back sometime around 4, which is about the time that my heater in the kitchen was due to come on.  She kept leaving the kitchen and leaving the door open. I kept running down and closing it.  It was difficult!

Around 5:30 I went downstairs to get dinner ready. I chopped a few vegetables, open cans, got things ready to go. Around 6:30, F still hadn’t come back. I didn’t know where he was. He did get back somewhere around 7 pm.  And that’s when things went downhill.

He came in and I asked him how he was. He said he felt good from the massage and he asked me how I was. I said quite honestly that I was fine now, but was upset earlier. He wanted to know why. I told him that I had wanted to go out and maybe have lunch with him, but he didn’t bring it up. He didn’t even talk to me.  He told me that he did talk to me but I didn’t listen. I did listen, I just didn’t hear anything that sounded like, “what would you like to do?” or anything to do with me.  Of course, he refused to eat dinner with me. 

I cooked dinner and had to go upstairs for the tortilla chips so tried to ask F again if he’d join us. He wasn’t polite in his refusal.

I didn’t want to open the package of tortilla shells for just me, so I decided to make taco rice for myself and for K. I heated up the rice, made the plates and took everything through to the living room. 

K told me that she’d eaten too many sweet potatoes during the day and she didn’t want to eat anything. She asked if she could have the meal tomorrow. I said it was okay, I grabbed my plate and took it back to the kitchen, then I got some of the cling wrap and went to wrap her plate with it, but she said she’d eat it. So, she sat in the living room and ate the whole thing, while I sat in the kitchen and shovelled my food into my mouth so quickly that I didn’t even taste it. I’m quite sad about it. 

I did the dishes, even did K’s dishes and then went upstairs. I basically got ignored, which is fine.  I did some printing, I did print some of the nengajo tonight. Then, I scanned a bunch of the Postcrossing cards that I haven’t blogged or scanned before. I didn’t do the Gotochi Cards I should yet, but maybe I will soon. Hopefully.

I took a shower and then came back upstairs and watched The Rookie. It was a good episode tonight.

So, here I am, the week before Christmas and my husband and I are at odds again. Sigh. Last year at this time I was getting ready to go to Canada. This year, not so much. 

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