February 29, 2020

Saturday - Sunny and warm, rainy at night

Today turned out to be a decent day, happily enough. We slept in a little. F didn’t get up and go to the onsen this morning, which was okay.

We got ready in the morning and went to the doctor’s office. Things were fine there. It was surprisingly not that busy today. There was hardly anyone there. We were in and out in about an hour, which was pretty fast for that place. I did some crochet while I was there, that was relaxing!

After we finished, we went on the search for lunch. It was a bit of a search today! The first two or three places we tried were quite busy, didn’t have parking, or didn’t have food for me!  We ended up going to Youme-Shokudo and had a nice meal. I had chicken steak and it had yellow curry on the side. The only thing was they didn’t give me a way to eat the curry!  I ended up dipping my chicken in it, it sort of worked. 

After lunch, we headed out to the car dealership where F completed his Shakken payment. We had a nice cup of coffee there on the dealership. 

After all of that, we went back to the house and relaxed for a bit.

Later on, we had to think about dinner. I suggested that F go to the grocery store and get a few things. I would stay behind and prepare some of the radishes and the Brussel sprouts that were in the fridge, and maybe even heat up some fried rice that was in the freezer.  He liked that idea, so he went off to the store, and I went to the kitchen. 

After a bit, F came back with the main parts of our dinner. I got him to wake his mother up and start heating the living room for us, and between the two of us, we got dinner on the table. It was quite nice. The Brussel sprouts disappeared as did the radishes, so I’m glad I made them. The fried rice was good, and the things that F brought were nice too. He’d picked up some gyoza, some saba sashimi and at my request, some chicken. It was nice to do a little bit of cooking, but not all of the work of dinner, and by sending F to the store, I knew that he’d get something that he’d want to eat!

We did dishes after dinner and went upstairs briefly. In a few minutes, we went out to a few drugstores looking for masks. I’ve found out that I have to wear a mask to teach next month, so I tried to find some. We went to two drugstores and they both had signs on the door saying they were sold out!

We went to the cinema after that and bought our tickets for Marriage Story.  We had a bit of extra time so sat in the lobby and chatted. I had noticed that the cinema sold masks for people who have colds when watching a movie, so F bought us a couple!  He handed them over to me and I hid them in my purse! We only bought two, so it isn’t like we are hoarding them, unlike most of the people in Japan!

We got our popcorn and drinks and then went into the cinema.  We were the only people watching the movie tonight. Oh no!  And, Marriage Story was good. It was sad, well-acted, and well-written. I liked it a lot, and so did F. 

After the movie we just came back to the house. I would have gone somewhere, but to be honest, it was late, and it wasn’t a big deal.  I watched a bit of TV, which was a good thing. I didn’t realize that there were two episodes of The Blacklist on tonight, I’d only set the DVR for one of them. 

And that’s about it for me. It was a nice day, which really surprised me. Tomorrow I’m having lunch with a friend and a friend of hers…hopefully! She wanted to go to a place that when I checked is closed on Sundays, so I’m not sure what we’ll do instead.  Come back later and find out.  Until tomorrow….

February 28, 2020

Friday - Snowy in the morning, clear at night

F did wake me up a little this morning before he went to work, but I managed not to wake up completely. I got up at my usual time, did my usual things today too. I did a couple of loads of laundry today and got it all hung up to dry.

I had a very quiet day and didn’t see K at all for most of the day. I heard her occasionally, but we didn’t meet up until later.

I had a clear out of the fridge lunch and then did my dishes later on. I came downstairs to wait for the delivery of our dinner around 5:30, but it took a while before it arrived. I paid and then served it for K and I. F was originally going to go to a party tonight, but he cancelled at the last moment as usual. He called to say he was done work and I suggested that he go and have a dinner that he would like, so he did. It was ramen of course, but he did like it, so that was good.

K and I had donburi with tuna. The company included some clear soup powder, so I made it up, plus a chawanmushi each. That was very nice.  We had our meals and enjoyed them a lot. I did the dishes afterwards, and while I was drying the dishes, F came back. 

I was hoping he’d like to go out, but he didn’t want to. He’d worked all day, so I do understand it. I had been in all day and really wanted to get out of the house so I went for a walk in the dark! I went over to the park and walked around the soccer field they have there. I didn’t do the full walking course, but it was late and dark and I was by myself, so I didn’t feel it was a good idea. I only saw one person the whole time I was there and he was jogging. 

I came back to the house with the cobwebs gone and feeling much better.  F and I watched a video off the DVR, A Simple Favor. It was quite good and we both enjoyed it. I’d been looking forward to watching it for a while. It didn’t play in the cinema up here. I watched and did some crochet, F fed me snacks during the movie. 

After that, F went to bed. I took a shower and then came onto my computer. I also watched a couple of shows off the DVR. I won’t have as much time next month for TV. 

And that, dear reader, was my day. It turned out okay generally.  Tomorrow we have a doctor’s appointment and then I’m not sure what we’ll get up to.  You’ll just have to come back and see. Until tomorrow….

February 27, 2020

Thursday - Rainy and a bit snowy

The first thing I remember from this morning is that F said he wasn’t going to go to work. He said he didn’t feel well and would take the day off. Sigh.

I did my usual stuff, except that I had to get dressed early to take out the garbage because F was still in bed. Took two minutes, no big deal.

I watched the news from the bed and then got up and redressed. F called my dentist’s office and I went downstairs to do laundry after telling him that I wasn’t able to do it yesterday because someone (him) left stuff in the washing machine. I had too much to leave it for another day. I came back and what I understood was we could pop into the dental clinic at any time to get the temporary crown put back on.

I had a fairly normal morning except F and I kept rubbing each other the wrong way. He was supposed to be at work today, and away tomorrow night. He cancelled his attendance at the party he was going to and is coming back to the house after work. 

I got very sleepy around noon, so took a nap and then had my lunch. F went downstairs to get his lunch and then I came back to the room. I ate and then went downstairs and washed my dishes and came back to the room to get dressed.  The next thing I knew was F started yelling at me about taking too long and being late for my appointment…the one that I didn’t know he’d made. Apparently, he’d made a two o’clock appointment for me at the dentist’s office without telling me. I kept telling him that I didn’t know he made an appointment and he yelled at me that he told me. He didn’t. 

All the way to the dentist’s office he yelled at me for being late and rude and at one point ordered me out of the car. I started yelling back that I didn’t know I had an appointment and that he didn’t tell me.  He could have said something at 1:30 when it was obvious that I wasn’t getting ready to go out, but nope. He didn’t. 

He tried to just dump me at the dentist’s office but I demanded that he give me some money as I didn’t have any. He then basically asked me what I spent the money on for my Niigata trip. It was quite bad. He finally said that he had to go to the bank and left me. 

I went into the dentist’s office and apologized for being late. I like my dentist and since she was doing me the favour of seeing me on such short notice, I obviously would never knowingly be late for an appointment.

Anyway, for the next hour and a half or so I was worked on. Instead of just replacing the temporary crown, she put the permanent crown on. It wasn’t just her, it was one of her assistants that did the majority of the work. I was quite numbed up, so a little bit groggy when I was finished. F had calmed down quite a bit (being around other people seems to do that) and we went back to the house for a while.

I watched the 4 pm news and then climbed into bed for a nap.  I got up an hour later. K was eating downstairs, I think she had made something for herself. A few minutes later F asked me if I wanted to go out for dinner and I said it was okay if it was something soft like pasta or udon. Most of the freezing was gone, but my mouth was still a bit tender.  I also asked if we could go by the post office to mail something to my sister.

We went to Udon-ichi and had a very nice simple meal of udon. I had mine with a steamed rice dish, F had tempura and udon.  

After we ate, we went to the post office…and they had just closed. But, the lady came out of the office and took my package.  She came back and told me how much it was…I paid and off it went. Yay!  It was just after the After Hours window closed, so she really didn’t have to serve me. It was very nice of her.

We did some shopping at the grocery store, and came back to the house. We stayed in tonight. Things have gradually become more friendly, but I just don’t understand why F thinks I would purposely be late for an appointment. That isn’t my kind of thing. 

I’m also quite annoyed and saddened that F isn’t going to his party. He does this over and over again. I know that there is the dread virus out and about, but that really has nothing to do with him not going. He just doesn’t want to. I think I get to have a nice quiet night to myself and instead, I get to share it with him. I probably will have a quiet night, after all, he spends all of his waking time with YouTube these days, so I shouldn’t worry.

Come back later if you feel up to it and find out what happens on Friday. Until tomorrow….

February 26, 2020

Wednesday - Rainy and a bit snowy

Will I ever stop writing 2019?  Every time I write the date, it flies from my fingers as 2019 and not 2020.  Sigh.

I got up this morning after F left for work. I woke up when he was leaving, but managed to stay mostly asleep. I had quite a quiet morning. I had planned to do some laundry, but when I got my stuff down to the machine, it had some stuff from somebody else. I thought it was my mil’s at first, but then I realized it was my husband’s. I left it where it was. 

I had a pretty quiet day in the afternoon too. I had a smaller, lighter lunch than usual as I was having a big dinner, or I thought I was.  

Just before 4 I got dressed and went outside to meet my friend. Of course, I could have waited inside, but I wanted to get out of the house. My friend showed up about 2 minutes later, so it was good timing!

We went off to Pisolino and had an okay meal. It’s an Italian buffet restaurant, so we both had an order of pasta and shared a pizza.  My friend is a little constrained by what she’s able to eat and I’m not able to have anything too hard or with tomato sauce in it, so there was a bunch of stuff I couldn’t have. There was quite a bit on my plate surprisingly.  

We had a nice meal and got to talking. The upshot is that I will be teaching some of her classes for her next month.  She’s trying to use up her holidays and needs someone to cover for her. I think it’ll be interesting and good for me to get out of the house.

Around 9 pm we left the restaurant. Unbelievably, there were people who had been in the restaurant even longer than we had!  She dropped me off at the house and I went in.

F was downstairs and we had a nice reunion. He didn’t want to go out as he was tired, so we came back upstairs. I talked about the times of the classes, I think things will be okay, as long as I don’t get that stupid virus (Covid-19).  Apparently, I do have to wear a mask in some of my classes. I don’t mind too much, it is just that my glasses fog up when I do.

I watched a bit of TV tonight, the news I taped earlier and the hospital drama I’m watching. Both were fine.  

Not sure what I’m going to do tomorrow, but it will probably involve making soup and doing laundry!

F may contact my dentist for me, so there’s a faint chance I’ll have to run off to see her too. 

So that was my day. A little different than it has been for a while. Come back later and see what tomorrow brings. Until tomorrow….

February 25, 2020

Tuesday - Cloudy…didn’t go out

F didn’t sleep very well last night. When I went to bed he was still on his computer, said he couldn’t sleep. I was asleep very soon after.

I had a quiet morning here. I didn’t see K for a lot of the day, I heard her a few times. I think because she can’t hear well, she doesn’t have any concept of how much noise she makes!

I had my breakfast as usual and also lunch later on. When I prepared some chicken for myself, I let K know that there was some she could have. Nope, not preparing things for her.

When F came back tonight I was already in the kitchen getting things ready. I had the Brussel sprouts prepped to go in the microwave, I had the salad on the table in our bowls, the radishes were cut and on ice, and the pancake mix was made. When he arrived I got the bacon in the pan and the pancakes in another one.  And…F disappeared! I had to really yell for him. I wanted him and K to start eating as soon as they could because cold pancakes aren’t fun. 

We had quite a nice meal. There were a lot of different things, but it seemed to work. We had dessert too, the last of the blackberries we got at Costco. 

After dinner, I cooked the last of the pancake batter (also from Costco!) and dried dishes. I helped quite a bit with the cleanup. When we finished, F went upstairs to his bed, where he stayed the rest of the night. I know he was tired from last night but I really wish he’d been able to spend some time with me! 

I watched some TV and was treating myself to a piece of chocolate when I felt something give in my mouth. Yes, my temporary crown fell off/out. Ack! I told F and he said he’d try and contact the dentist tomorrow. However, I checked her website and she’s closed tomorrow. My next appointment isn’t for a week, so I’m not sure what I’ll do. Hopefully, I’ll be able to see her before then…but she’s very busy.

That’s about it for me though. It was a good day for the most part except I didn’t go outside and my teeth fell out! Sort of. Tomorrow I am meeting a friend for dinner, so K and F will just have to manage without me. I pointed out to F that he can have ramen or the all natto meal if he wants, but he looked kind of whiny at the thought.  

This is also the anniversary of the day my Mum died. I thought about her a lot at different parts of the day. I wonder what she would have made of Japan. Although, if she’d lived, she’d be turning 95 this year, so who knows.  

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

February 24, 2020

Monday - Rainy and gloomy

We slept in quite late today as it was a holiday. Somewhere around 10:30, F got up and took his mother out to the onsen. I stayed here and took care of a couple of personal things, no big whoop.

When F and K came back, he made some lunch for her and a little for himself. Then, around 1:00pm, the two of us headed over to his car dealership. Today was the dreaded Shakken.  As always when we spend time in the car place, they offer us a nice beverage and we are put at a nice table where we can view the car. We told them that we were going to go and have lunch, and a few minutes later we were able to leave.

We went to Cocos which is just across the parking lot. I had a fairly decent meal, I had the beef and avocado jambalaya, F had the keisen-don which he complained about. Honestly, you shouldn’t expect the best fish at a family restaurant. I don’t know what he was thinking. He does it all the time though! Not that I needed it, but I found a coupon on my app for a birthday dessert this month and decided to use it.  I requested it from the waitress. I thought it would be something small like a scoop of ice cream but, it wasn’t! It was a chocolate parfait with brownies, chocolate pudding, cream, chocolate and vanilla ice cream and granola in the middle. It was quite good!

After lunch F and I went back to the car dealership. He paid most of the Shakken fee. We then ran a couple of errands. We booked dinner for K and myself on Friday, then bought me some new shoelaces. That was more difficult than you’d think. 

We went for a drink to Komeda coffee and as usual were there for quite a while. I had an iced soy latte, F had a blend coffee. 

We picked up a few groceries from the store. I suggested doing dinner at home, we still had that chicken, but we could also pick up a few things to supplement it. F agreed and that’s what we did. I also got a couple of things for my lunches this week. 

We came back to the house and I heated up some of the food, sliced some chicken, and helped set the table. F helped a bit, he checked through the blackberries and put them in bowls.  We had quite a nice little meal and I think we all enjoyed it. The blackberries were great. 

As F and I did the dishes I asked him what he wanted to do tonight and the answer was what I expected, nothing. So, we had a quiet night in. I watched some TV, F watched YouTube and made a whole lot of noise.  I spent most of Bake-Off making a new ball of yarn to continue working on my shawl. I’ll need more yarn, but for now, I’ll be good. 

And so that was my day. It’s actually been a pretty good weekend. F and I didn’t have any major fights and we ate at the house quite a bit, so his mother had company. I got to go to Costco, so even though I didn’t get all that I wanted to buy there, I got enough. 

Come back tomorrow if you dare and see how things go. I’m planning to make pancakes for dinner tomorrow night. It is Pancake Day after all.  Until tomorrow….

February 23, 2020

Sunday - Rainy and cold

F and I slept in a bit this morning. I was out of bed before him, however. It’s not a competition I know, I do think it is funny when it happens.

We talked about where to go for lunch but then I suggested that maybe we should just eat here. We still had bread, chicken and leftovers, so why not?  F liked that idea, so I went downstairs and got lunch started. We ended up having mushroom soup, roast chicken, the last of the stew/pasta bake, bread and cheese toast.  Most of the food vanished. It was good for clearing out leftovers from the fridge too. Yay us. 

After lunch and the dishes, I asked F to take me to S-Mall. I’ve been having problems with charging my phone. It has a loose connection when I charge it and it makes quite a noise as it connects and disconnects. We took it over to the iPhone Doctor and the guy grabbed a pair of tweezers and took out a pile of gunk from the inside of the connection port. It was embarrassing how much stuff was in there. Anyway, it works just fine now and he didn’t charge me for it. I was prepared to pay, after all, he did us a service.  

After that, we left the mall to go to a movie. We arrived at Machikine and discovered that I’d got the time of the movie wrong. It didn’t start for 40 minutes. F wanted a coffee, so we tried Starbucks, but it was too busy to park, and ended up back at the mall again and went to Doutors. We had a quick but nice cup of coffee or glass of decaf latte and then left again for the theatre. 

We went to see Brightburn and I have to say it was bad. Really bad. The idea was great, but the execution wasn’t there. I also found that the boy in the story was so annoying that it didn’t help the conflict. So, a big thumbs down for that one.

After the movie, we bought a bento for K from the store and delivered it. While she ate, we sat with her in the living room. F had wanted to have a massage tonight, but when he checked the website of the place, he didn’t know the people working and decided not to go for it. 

We went out for our dinner. We’d bought K sushi and while she was eating there was a show on TV about making sushi, so we naturally decided on sushi.  We went to our usual Kintaro sushi. It was busy, but not too busy and we got in after a few minutes. Dinner was good, we both had some nice things to eat. We like a lot of the same things, so that makes it easy for us. 

After sushi, we hit up a drugstore for a few essentials and then came back to the house. I had asked F to watch a video with me off the DVR and he’d chosen Aquaman.  I had seen it in Canada, but since he likes Nicole Kidman, thought he might like it too. We watched it, it was silly and fun. 

I did some crochet during the movie but ran out of yarn. I’m going to have to cut up some of the balls of yarn that I am trying to use up.  I think it is okay as I would never start a new project with these balls of yarn.  There’s nothing wrong with them, I just prefer to have all the same dye lot when I start a project. These are remnants of old projects.

And that was my day. After the movie, I took a shower and F went to bed with his computer. I got a bit of indigestion this evening, maybe the sushi isn’t sitting that well? 

Tomorrow F is off work due to the national holiday. He’s taking the car in to do the shaken (Roadworthy test) and might take his mother to the onsen in the morning. Come back later if you like and see what happens. Until tomorrow….

February 22, 2020

Saturday - Rainy with some hail

We did it!  We got up around 7:30 and got dressed. F took out the bread that he had baked overnight and sliced some of it for his mother. He woke his mother up and explained that we were going to Yamagata city and would be back later on. We left her lots of food in the kitchen. 

We had a quick and pretty nice breakfast at Gusto, then got on the road. I’m afraid that I did snooze a little, but woke up when F took us into the road stop at Sagae. 

We made it to Costco and found parking fairly easily. We went into the store and did a little shopping. Okay, a lot of shopping!  We mostly got food, although I did pick up some sponges for the kitchen and a couple of battery packs for our cellphones. We got some Brussel Sprouts, some blackberries, some radishes, avocados, and of course a few things that weren’t so healthy.  We went through the checkout and took stuff to the car. We came back in and went to do a little more shopping. F got himself some t-shirts and some snacks. Next up, he wanted to check the pre-paid card so he could buy gasoline and went to that machine.  He was taking care of that and I was trying to decide what to have for lunch when I heard my name!

My friend from Sakata was in Costco with her family! It was her first time going there and she just signed up today.  We hugged and had a brief little chat and a couple of pictures.  She had to go take care of family business and we had to go and have lunch!

We did bump into each other again on the way out. We’d even parked in the same area of the parking garage. It was a crazy coincidence.  F and I had originally planned to go to Costco on Sunday but the weather forecast was bad, so switched the day around. Neat hey?

F and I had our lunch. I had the Chicken Caesar Salad and F had the hotdog with soda. I had soda on the side (which was actually oolong tea for me) and we both had the cacao mixed soft ice cream.  It was good!

We left Costco finally and filled up the car with gas, then drove off. As we didn’t have to stop anywhere else in Yamagata, we just headed out. F took us rather a crazy way, but since he wanted to do that and it is his car, I didn’t object! 

We got back to the house somewhere around 5 pm I think. We unpacked the car and put things in the fridge, freezer and wherever we could. 

We had a quick and rather yummy dinner of rotisserie chicken and bagels or toast. I prepped a few radishes for the side of our plates and they all vanished. 

F and I did dishes then came upstairs for a bit of recovery. We made the decision not to go to a movie tonight. F had asked me on the way back if I wanted to, and I said that it would depend on how we both felt. I was worried that after sitting in the car for 6 hours, we probably wouldn’t want to sit still for a couple more to watch a film.  F didn’t really feel up to a movie tonight and that was fine with me.

We did go out for a bit tonight. We went to Starbucks and had lattes. F had a hot one and I had a cold one. It wasn’t too busy tonight so we could relax for a bit.

We came back to the house and had a quiet evening. I watched a little TV, F watched YouTube and we seemed to enjoy ourselves.  Just now, we had a very loud hailstorm. It really made a loud noise outside.

I’m not sure what we’re going to get up to tomorrow. I hope that we get to enjoy ourselves!  I do have a couple of errands that I’d like to run and I’ll see if F has something that he needs to do. 

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

February 21, 2020

Friday - Warmer and sunny then cloudy

A good day. F had the day off so he slept in a bit and then went to his doctor. I did my usual stuff and then he called around 11 inviting me to lunch. The first place he picked was closed today, but the second was fine.  The three of us had a nice lunch near Pal Shopping Center and then did a hack of the hundred yen shop nearby. K doesn’t get out much, I thought she might like to look around. 

We came back to the house and relaxed. I took a nap but got up after a while. Around 5, F and I went to the grocery store and picked up some things from the deli, then came back and had a little feast with K.  It was very nice, and low fuss since we didn’t have to do any cooking!

We did the dishes, came upstairs for a bit of a rest, then went out again. We drove to Mikawa, F & I, and bought some food for K’s meals tomorrow. Then, we went to see Bombshell at the cinema. We’d been 5 or 6 times, so we were able to get tonight’s film for free. Woot. It was good, but not great. I do think that Charlize Theron really did deserve her Oscar nomination, but then again, the other main actresses were very good.

We came back to the house. F set up the bread maker for tomorrow, I took a shower. That’s it. The two of us are planning to get up early tomorrow morning, have breakfast and then head to Yamagata to go to Costco. We originally thought we’d go on Sunday, but the weather should be better tomorrow. Sunday there’s a snow forecast.

Hopefully, I’ll be back tomorrow night early enough to update, so I’ll write at you all then. Until tomorrow….

February 20, 2020

Thursday - Sunny and warmer, cool at night

I got up this morning, did my usual things and had a good morning basically. I tried a new type of cereal today and it was very nice.

Today was an odd day. K was in bed for a lot of the day and I was upstairs, so I didn’t really see her at all.  

I went downstairs around 5:30 and started on dinner. I converted yesterday’s stew into a casserole with pasta. It actually worked surprisingly well. I topped it with some of my precious Havarti cheese and some crushed up crackers. We had it with a nice salad on the side and some miso soup.  I wasn’t sure that F and K really liked it until I saw F offering his mother a third helping and then both of them taking one! It was good.

F wasn’t feeling well before dinner or afterwards, so I did the dishes. I had done all of the early ones anyway, so it wasn’t a huge deal anyway. I went upstairs before he did. I was hoping we’d go out somewhere, but F came upstairs and got into his pyjamas. This was at 8 pm. I was quite disappointed.

I hoped that he’d rest for a while and then we might be able to go out, but…. He asked me at 10 pm if I’d like to go out. I almost said yes, but really, by the time he got dressed, it would be too late to go anywhere.  I said it was okay. It sort of was anyway. 

We chatted a bit later, shared some snacks and now it sounds like he’s off asleep again.  He’s taken tomorrow off work and I think he plans to see his doctor. I hope the doctor can help him.

I’m not sure what we’ll end up doing this weekend. Monday is a national holiday, so really F has 4 days off in a row. I’m hoping that we’ll make a trip to Costco this weekend as we really need to restock some necessities. It really depends on how F is though.

Come back later if you like and see what happens on Friday. Until tomorrow….

February 19, 2020

Wednesday - Sunny and warmer, rainy at night

I didn’t sleep very well last night. I finally got to bed around 3 and couldn’t fall asleep. My jaw was hurting a bit and my brain wouldn’t turn off. I did fall asleep eventually as I woke up around 5 and had to make a trip downstairs. Of course, I ended up oversleeping a bit later on, but no matter really.

I got up, did my usual morning tea and breakfast thing. I had oatmeal again for breakfast and it was nice. I put a teaspoon of my rhubarb compote in it which gave it a little bit of a difference.

Today was a quiet day, but K was up early and stayed up. She made quite a bit of noise downstairs.  When I went down for my lunch I shared the leftovers from Monday, the Gapao rice with her. Well, she had rice, I had mine on toast! 

Around 5:30 I went downstairs and got dinner underway. I made a stew and it turned out well. I wanted it to be fast so I used two pans today and that was a good idea. I browned the meat in my fry pan and put the veggies in my stew pan.  F called me while I was making it, so I knew he was on the way. He asked if he should bring something since he was going to the store area anyway. I asked for something with crunch. 

When F arrived I was more than halfway through the process of making the stew.  I sent him off to change and when he came back, got him to do the rice.  I had most things set up and he helped take things to the table. That was really helpful.  It all came together and we had stew on rice with pickles on the side. F had brought two types of pickles and as we were eating one type he said that maybe I was supposed to rinse off the mustard sauce. I had no idea and he hadn’t mentioned it, so no worries. It was quite spicy though!

We all seemed to enjoy dinner. Afterwards, F washed the dishes and I dried them and put them away. I also put the leftovers away for tomorrow’s dinner. When F rinsed off my stew pan, he dropped it back into the bowl of soapy water. The kitchen got a bath! I narrowly missed getting soaked. We spent a couple of minutes trying to clean it up. I think we managed.

 F was feeling not great again, so I reminded him that the onsen is closed tomorrow, but open tonight. He thought it was a good idea to go and he said he’d ask his mother. Then he asked if I wanted to go. I did, but not to take a bath.  

We piled in the car and drove out to the onsen. K and F headed into the baths, I headed to the seats. I listened to a podcast and did a little crochet before they came out to join me.  We drove K back to the house and got her settled in. I checked the fridge and the kitchen for things I needed and then we went out to the grocery store.

I picked up a couple of things for tomorrow night’s dinner and we picked up a few other things for us and the house.  We paid and left. As we were leaving the grocery store parking lot, F asked if I wanted to go somewhere, but I had to remind him that most places would have called last order already. He doesn’t seem to understand that if he wants to go somewhere we have to go there before we go for groceries. No worries.

Back at the house, we put away the groceries. F went upstairs, I stayed downstairs and took care of the kitchen garbage. I tossed the sponges tonight for good measure. We bought cheap ones at the hundred yen shop last time but they were too cheap. They fall apart much too quickly. 

After that, I came upstairs and watched a bit of TV and tried to relax. F tried to relax too. He didn’t sleep that well last night either. I probably woke him up without meaning to. Oh dear.

And that’s it for me, mostly. I did change the commenting today. I think you need to have a Google account to comment now.

Come back later if you like and see what Thursday brings. Until tomorrow….

February 18, 2020

Tuesday - Rainy and windy and cold

Reading back through my blogs as I do before I start writing the synopsis of my day, I discovered this paragraph from last year,

“Just reading back in my blog, it was a year ago I announced that I was going to have to move.  A lot has happened in that year, and even though the move is over, I still don’t feel “settled in” and don’t think I will for the foreseeable future.  I feel like I have had to give up too much of my independence and autonomy. I am slowly getting used to things here, but that is still a long way from being at home here.”

Yup. Still holds true. I think this will be our third year here and I still hate it. Nothing has been done to make this place better and I don’t think it ever will. I still refuse to call this my home. 

Anyhoo…I got up this morning and watched the news. I dragged myself out of bed afterwards and got dressed.  I did have a different breakfast for myself. I made oatmeal, or as I like to call it, porridge!  I did it in the microwave and it was great. It didn’t boil over which did surprise me.  It was quite nice having a warm breakfast for a change.

After breakfast and some of my dramas on the telly, I vacuumed the heater. It’s been needing it.  I did a few areas in the room that needed it too but didn’t do an all-over, thorough job of it. 

In the later part of the afternoon I decided to scan the postcards I wrote yesterday. I also had to scan the postcards I had received this year, did that, and also wrote a couple of entries for my Postcrossing blog.  Whew!

Of course, I wasn’t planning to cook dinner tonight because there wasn’t any food in the house. Not really, I probably could have scraped something together, but we didn’t go shopping last night and we did need a re-stock anyway.

F came back to the house around 6 pm and actually suggested a few restaurants that I  was thinking about too. We decided to go to Coco Ichibanya again for the Grandmother’s Curry. We took K with us too. We had a pretty nice meal, if a little quiet. I’ve found that since my dental appointment my jaw is a little sore and I’m not really that sure why.

We brought K back to the house after dinner and then went out again. We bought some groceries for the next couple of days. I’m going to make a cream stew tomorrow. Hopefully, it’ll last for a couple of days so Thursday’s meal is sorted too. Woot! After that, we picked up a couple of tanks of kerosene for the heater.

We came back to the house and I filled up our kerosene tank in the room upstairs. I also put away the groceries and brought some water upstairs for myself. Later on I took a shower and watched a little TV off the DVR. Tonight was a big recording night on TV, so I wanted to clear off a few things.

And that brings you up to date really. It’s sad that I feel much more at home in my sister’s house which is 3000 miles away than I do here in the place where I live. I think it has a lot to do with being tucked away on the second floor. I feel a bit like Mrs. Rochester or something. The scary family secret!

Anyway, that’s me for today. Join me tomorrow if you like and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

February 17, 2020

Monday - Rainy and snowy

I had a fairly quiet day today, and not in a good way.  I got up when I should and found a mess downstairs that I had to clean up. I wasn’t pleased about that.

I came back upstairs and did my watching of news from the bed, then finally got up and watched other stuff. I grabbed my breakfast around 10 and I also did a couple of loads of laundry today. Yay for me.  I didn’t see much of K until the afternoon. I heard the TV occasionally, so she got up for a while, but I’m not sure what she’s doing. I think she’s trying to save money by staying in bed.  Whatever. I grabbed F's jeans again and did one last line of stitches. When I looked at the pictures I had taken of the repair, it really bothered me that my last line was missing. I did a short line across and I feel better about the mending!

I did a couple of Postcrossing cards in the late afternoon. In fact, it was really too late to start, but I decided to do it anyway. F called around 5:30 to say he was on his way back, so I went downstairs and started to get dinner ready. 

I was making Gapao Rice for the first time. I’d bought the ground chicken yesterday and had a spice packet from a few months ago. It went together fairly well, but I waited for F to arrive before I really did any cooking. It was quite easy really.

I was supposed to fry eggs for the top of the meat, and I did. However, one of them I cracked on the stove and it didn’t make it into the pan. It glopped all over the stove of course and I had to clean it up. F was no help at all, in fact, he left the room. Probably a wise choice.  Finally, everything came together and F came back. We took the food out to the living room and all of us ate. It was nice.

F helped by doing the dishes, but he used his own methods to do it. I don’t approve of his methods, to put it nicely. He washed glasses and spoons first, but then put the metal part from the stove in the water before washing other dishes. He even left me one of the pans when he vanished near the end of his helping me. 

I went upstairs when I finished in the kitchen and F was in bed. He said he was dizzy and couldn’t go out. That’s fine except we don’t have food for tomorrow night and we don’t have kerosene either.  He may or may not be going to work tomorrow. Honestly, I don’t want him to drive or go to work if he’s feeling under the weather, but I really want him to talk to one of his many doctors about this. It is not a good thing.

Since there wasn’t going to be a trip out of the house for me tonight, I decided to do more Postcrossings. I requested three more names, so wrote out three cards, making it a total of five for the day. I’ll scan them tomorrow, hopefully, I’ll be able to mail them too. 

F had a cup of tea from me, but went to bed and is snoozing away. I’m glad as he stays up a bit late at times. 

I’ve watched some TV and I did the postcards so I kept myself busy today. I also prepared the plastic garbage to go out in case he does go to work tomorrow.  

And that’s it. It was a quiet day. I’m hoping that F will feel better in the morning. Come back later if you like and see what happens. Until tomorrow….

February 16, 2020

Sunday - Rainy

I woke up this morning and F was already awake. He was supposed to get up and take his mother to the onsen but said that his stomach was sore and he didn’t feel like going. Oh, dear. I went back to sleep for a bit but dragged myself out of bed around 11.  He went downstairs to make food for his mother and then we decided what to do. He wanted me to “pick a place” but with my jaw still a little sore, I wanted something softish. I didn’t want rice either since I’d had it twice yesterday. 

Finally, I decided that since I couldn’t think of a place that would make him happy, I’d make me happy. I suggested going to the Pizza Hut Express in the mall. He could either have pasta, pizza or a Doria with me or could go upstairs by himself and have ramen. We got to the mall, found parking and went in. The restaurant area was a little busy, but we found a table and ordered. I had my pasta, a pepperoncino with bacon and grilled vegetables plus a drink, then F decided he’d have a bulgogi Doria (it’s a rice dish). We came in under budget and the food was pretty good, so I count that as a win.

From the food area, we moved over to Doutors and had a drink each. I have a prepaid card so we weren’t spending “new” money. We had our drinks and used the free wifi for a bit. F went off to use the washroom and I watched in amazement as he set off confidently in the wrong direction. I don’t know how he does it!

We bought groceries in the mall too. We haven’t really bought a lot of stuff there before, but their meat section looked good and they had a lot of ground chicken. I decided that I’ll make gapao rice for dinner tomorrow…I think it sounds rather nice. I have a spice packet so I will use that.

We brought the food back to the house and F gave his mother her bento. We piled back in the car and went to the Tsuruoka Aquarium. We got there just before they closed. We were planning to go to a concert.  We toured the place and oohed and ahhed over the squid, jellyfish and especially for me, the octopus. At first, there was a little kid in front of the tank with his parents. He was scared but also entranced by it. I know how he felt! I just wanted him to move so I could film it and take pictures but had to wait for later.

The concert was a jazz duo and they were great. We’d seen them at the aquarium once before and liked them so much we bought the trumpeter’s cd. I was hoping to buy a new one, but unfortunately, there weren’t any CDs. Oh no! F and I did have a bit of a spat over seating. He had a specific place he wanted to sit and plunked himself down. Unfortunately, it was at the start of a row and the two of us are big people. No one else would have been able to get past us as the chairs are terribly close together. He thought it was okay, I didn’t. Also, I didn’t tell him this, but there was a vent in the floor under where he wanted me to sit so I would have been freezing. I’ve told him I can’t sit on or near the vents. 

We moved down the row he wanted and up into the next row. I got him to move up one spot and I had a fab seat. Unfortunately, F didn’t. I really should have traded places with him, and I would have if there’d been a chance in the show. There wasn’t. Oops. It was a great concert though.

Before the concert, F had said that he’d take his mother to the onsen after the concert. I suggested that we might like to have dinner first. After the concert, he said he wouldn’t take his mother!  We had to go back to the house to pick up F’s towels, so I said that we could go to the onsen and eat there. They have a fairly decent little cafe. 

F picked up his towels, I picked up my crochet, and we headed off to the onsen.  We paid the machine for the food and went in. Inside, F started talking to a woman who turned out to be one of my old students. We ended up joining her and had our meals together. I felt bad for her as her father has been quite ill recently and she has been under a lot of stress. 

After he finished eating, F went to take his bath. I kept talking to the woman. Then, when we were done, she went to take another bath, and I went to do some crochet and listen to podcasts.

She came back out to say a quick goodbye and then left. A few minutes later, F came out. We talked about going for coffee, but then I reconsidered. Since this is a “lean” month, I’d rather go out for coffee on another night, when I haven’t been out of the house all day. I’ll need it more then. 

We came back to F’s house and had a quiet evening in. I took a shower and F is trying to sleep.  I don’t know if he’s succeeding yet!

Not sure what I’m going to get up to tomorrow. I have to cook dinner, but I might want to do some Postcrossing or something since I haven’t done any this year yet. Egads!

Come back later if you like and see what happens. Until tomorrow….

February 15, 2020

Saturday - Gloomy and cloudy

F and I slept in quite late this morning. I had set my alarm for earlyish but slept through them. I did get up around 11 though. F stayed in bed. He wasn’t sleeping, he was watching videos on his computer.

Around 11:30 I started to get a bit annoyed that he wasn’t up, so encouraged him to get moving. My dental appointment was at 2 and I needed lunch before then. I suggested a restaurant, F liked it, and he invited his mother. We were all in the car around 12:15 or so and got to the nearly empty restaurant.  

We had a lovely meal there. F had the 10 small dishes lunch, K had the Ham Cutlet lunch, and I had Chicken Soboro lunch. That’s ground chicken with a small amount of spice on rice. It’s quite nice and I usually have it there.

We drove K back to the house after lunch. I brushed my teeth and then F and I headed out to the dentist’s office.  After a very brief wait, I was shown to the office and she did….actually, I have no idea what the purpose of today’s visit was. They were making moulds of my teeth…but I thought they did that last time.  She gave me anesthetic and drilled somewhere in my mouth, but I don’t really know why! Anyway, we were out of there in an hour and that was fine with me.

Since I couldn’t eat or drink yet, and we didn’t have any plans, we decided to go to the Chido Museum for a while.  We went in and had a nice little tour. Their new display was a bunch of miniatures, probably for the Hina Matsuri, but they didn’t seem as old.  It was fine really. We visited the garden and one of the other buildings today too.

This is a panorama view of the pond from outside.

From one of the buildings looking out the window.

F taking a panorama view of the garden, captured by me!
The sign does say it is okay to take photos, but even if it wasn't, I was taking a pic of him!

After our tour of the museum, we decided to hit an early show at Mikawa, so we needed to get K a bento or something. We went to the grocery store and picked up a few things. After that, we delivered them and F heated them up for her.  She said she was going to eat them right away, at 4ish, but F got a little mad when she didn’t start to eat! 

We drove off to the mall. My mouth and jaw were still quite frozen and I wasn’t sure if and what I could eat. F wanted food from the food court so I was limited to either bibinba or udon. I chose bibinba.  He had yakisoba and okonomiyaki. His looked so small, I was worried that he didn’t eat enough. Of course, I could only take tiny bites at first, so I couldn’t eat very fast at all. By the time I got to the end of my meal though, most of the freezing was gone. I debated having popcorn too but decided against it.

We went to see 1917 and it was really good. I’m not a war movie fan, but the last two movies I have seen have been about wars, and I’ve liked them both! They are John Wayne movies, that’s for sure. F seemed to like the film too.

After the movie, we drove back to Tsuruoka and to the house. I suggested that we walk to the local temple since we hadn't made our Hatsumode yet this year. It was a nice night for a walk. We got there, did our thing and then came back to the house. We came up to the room, I had to refill the kerosene tank, but no big deal.  We’ve had a quiet evening. I watched a little TV, F went to bed. He’s saying if he gets up he’ll take his mother to the onsen in the morning. I hope he does, but if it is too early, I’m not getting up!

And…that’s it basically. I’m not sure what we’ll do tomorrow. F wants to go to the onsen and we’re planning to go to the Aquarium for the free concert in the late afternoon. This performer is really good and we saw him last year, or two years ago.  I hope we manage not to argue this time!

Come back later and see what we get up to. Until tomorrow….

February 14, 2020

Friday - Clear then rainy

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. I got up and did my usual morning things. I think I snoozed a bit on NCIS though. Oh well. 

I did hear K bopping around this morning. That was good, but we didn’t ever cross paths. Just the way I like it! 

Somewhere in the morning, I got the bright idea that I should fix F’s jeans again. One of the pairs that I fixed the pocket has developed a rip on the left thigh. I decided that I could probably fix it today.  So, I did.  It took a while and it isn’t perfect, but it’ll keep out the cold air and hopefully last until he gets new jeans!

It took about 3 hours to do it all. I also did something a little bit funny I think. I used some novelty cloth that I had to make the patch. F likes a cartoon series in Japan called “Ge ge ge no Kitaro” and I had a piece of cloth with animated characters from the show. I cut the patch so that his favourite character is in the middle and it looks like he is peeking out of the hole!

The character looks like an eyeball, and the hole makes it look like an eye in his jeans! Or does it?

F got back from work a bit late and was really tired. He gave me some chocolate and some cookies that he picked up for my Valentine’s Day present. Yay! I gave him the rest of the chocolate that I had bought for him. 

He didn’t want to do anything for a while and didn’t change his clothes either. I didn’t want to tell him what I’d done, so I just let him get dressed in his own time. He threw on his jeans finally and we went down to make dinner. It wasn’t until we were getting ready to eat that he noticed the patch on the jeans!  I think he liked it, but I’m not sure!

We had nabe again for dinner. I used consommé cubes for the soup and F raved about it. He always uses some Japanese stuff and it has no taste to me, this is better. He’ll probably have forgotten about it all next time though.

Most of the nabe disappeared. It was quite nice. I cleared the table and put away the leftovers for K’s lunch tomorrow or whenever, and dried the dishes. F was washing them again.

After dinner, I was hoping to go out for a little, even just for coffee, but F wasn’t interested in going. I watched some TV, some YouTube and then before 10 pm I checked to see if he wanted to go out. The answer was still no, so I changed into my pyjamas so that I could go downstairs and take a shower. Then, F started to ask if I wanted to go out. Honestly. I just rolled my eyes at him.  

I took my shower and then came back upstairs. We had a very quiet night. F went to bed early, he might even be sleeping. I watched The Walking Dead tonight and even watched one episode this afternoon. That means that I have seen 3 episodes today, which feels a bit much! I love the show but it is a bit gruesome.

Anyway, that’s it, Valentine’s Day is over for another year. I’ll be eating my chocolate for a day or two, probably! Tomorrow could be a busy day. I have another dental appointment and I hope that we can go to a movie in the evening if I’m up to it. Come back later if you will and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….