February 28, 2023

Tuesday - Sunny and warmish

I woke up this morning when F was getting dressed in our room. I made a trip downstairs and then came back to the room and went back to bed. I woke up next when my alarm went off to remind me to take my medicine…at 11 o’clock! Yikes!  I sat up in bed and immediately the room started spinning. Oh, dear.

I made my way downstairs and then came back upstairs with my breakfast. I was feeling much better by then. I ate and decided to get stuck into my column.  I actually got it done and sent in as well. Hurray! It took most of the afternoon to get it done though.

I watched the news and then a bit after F called, went downstairs to start dinner. Tonight I made a pork stir-fry and basically just served that with rice and a salad. Oh, and some instant soup I found. It actually was a pretty good meal. All of it disappeared!

I did the dishes and listened to quite a few podcasts tonight before I was done. I checked the fridge and also grabbed the trays to be recycled by the store.

We went to Mina, the closest grocery store. F took care of the recyclables and I did the shopping. Unfortunately, they didn’t have some of the stuff that we needed, so F and I went to another grocery store. I managed to get something for K’s and F’s breakfasts for the next couple of days, so that was good.

We came back to the house and I put the groceries away.  I went upstairs and read a bit of my novel. I started a novel on the train back to Tsuruoka on Saturday and got it done just after midnight tonight. It was by Felix Francis, writing in the style of his father Dick. I liked the novel but didn’t love it.

I watched my FBI show and then turned off the TV and watched a bunch of YouTube videos. No big deal really. 

Tomorrow I hope I wake up on time! I also should do some laundry tomorrow. I haven’t done any in a while. Come back later if you like and find out about my day. Until tomorrow….

February 27, 2023

Monday - Sunny and warm

I didn’t want to get up this morning when my alarm went off, but I did. I got up and went downstairs with the kerosene tank, filled up the tank, and then came back to watch the news.  As usual, I snoozed after the news.

I got up a bit later and grabbed my breakfast. I was on my computer and doing a few things and then I realized I hadn’t eaten my breakfast yet! It had been sitting there for more than an hour. Oh, dear.

I heard K bopping around downstairs at times today, but we never actually ran into each other. I went downstairs around 2 to make my lunch and then came back upstairs and ate. I also decided to work on my column and not watch any TV until the news came on. I powered on and finished writing about last week’s actress and then wrote about one more. I finished just as F called to say that he was coming back to the house. I did a little bit more editing, but hopefully, I can write my intro and out-tro tomorrow and get it sent off. 

I went downstairs to start dinner. I didn’t do a lot of prep today as I had bought many of the ingredients yesterday. I prepared some potato salad with some baked chicken, a salad and then I made some pasta penne to serve with it. I had told F that dinner was being put on the table earlier, but he’d gone upstairs to change. Everything was on the table and I called him from downstairs. No answer. I went upstairs, opened the door and found him watching TikTok (what else?) with earphones on and it took about 10 seconds of me calling him loudly before he even noticed I was at the door. He came down a few minutes later.

Dinner was quite good and a lot of the food was eaten. I made a plate for K so I hope that she eats it tomorrow.

I did the dishes and listened to the Canadian news and also a new for me podcast. It was quite interesting. I’ll try and finish it tomorrow.

After the dishes, I did up the plastic garbage for F to go out tomorrow. I went upstairs after that. I watched New Amsterdam tonight since I wasn’t sure that the DVR caught it all last week. I did a little crochet during that too, so it was nice and relaxing.  

I went and took a shower downstairs when the show was over. It was nice, but after two days in a hotel in Tokyo, it was a bit sad to have to be cold before and after my shower.

I came back upstairs and started working on my blog and watching a little YouTube too. And, that’s about it for my day.

Tomorrow I have to finish my column and decide if I should send it in or wait one more day to make revisions. I’m also on dinner duty again. Oh yay. Come back later if you can and read all about my day. Until tomorrow…. 

February 26, 2023

Sunday - Snowy and cold

I’m back!  I had a fabulous time in Tokyo visiting with my friends. We ate some fabulous food, visited a few different areas of the city and more importantly, talked up a storm. During the three days that I was in Tokyo, I walked well over 10,000 steps a day. WELL over 10,000 steps! My feet are still sore.

My trip back to Tsuruoka went well. The trains weren’t crowded but the odd thing is that the cars on the train I was on from Niigata to Tsuruoka didn’t have working washrooms! I didn’t check the whole train, but I did go through three or four cars and the two washrooms I found were closed and marked with Out of Order signs. 

When F picked me up at the station he was a bit odd. He’d texted me that he was at the bus stop…a few years ago he’d texted me that he was at the bus station so I assumed he was joking…he wasn’t. He had to go around the station to where I was so he was annoyed. He had his bloomin’ TikTok crap blaring away in the car and he was in a bad mood because I told him not to honk the car horn at me. 

He wanted to go out to eat. I didn’t really need to as I’d had a lovely bento on the train, but whatever. We went to a gyudon shop as it was the only place still open. F kept listening to his TikTok. At no point did he ask me anything about my trip. We hadn’t spoken on Friday night as he had a party that he was supposed to go to. However, the party was cancelled…and he didn’t tell me. I didn’t phone him because he was at a party, don’t know why he didn’t text me at least to say he wasn’t there.

I went to bed fairly early for me last night. I was falling asleep at my computer so I couldn’t blog. I went to bed around 2 and didn’t get up until after 11 am this morning. I slept very well and hardly woke up at all.

F and I went out for lunch. We were going to go to Cocos but when we went there the parking lot was full. We ended up going to Gusto instead. We had a pretty decent meal.

We did some grocery shopping. Well, strictly speaking, I did the shopping. I went to Gyomu Supa and got a few staples for our freezer. I went to the regular grocery store to get some of the usual things I need for meal-making over the next few days. After that, we came back to the house. I put the groceries away and then came upstairs. 

I relaxed, F either snoozed or TikTok’d all afternoon. It was a quiet afternoon and basically just what I needed after the last few days.

We decided to go out for dinner around 7 pm. We picked one place, but sad to say, it was closed when we got there. We decided to go to Cocos and had a pretty good meal there. I had my standby dish there, the mustard cream sauce burger and shared an order of fries with F. Dinner was pretty good. 

We came back to the house immediately after dinner. F had his TikTok blaring in the car. I was not impressed. F still hasn’t asked me anything about my trip. We had spoken on the first day, but not the second or third so I’m rather surprised but not in a good way.

I had a quiet evening. I wore headphones and watched a lot of YouTube so I wouldn’t hear his racket. I think he did wear earphones after a while though. We weren’t arguing, but just both being quiet. I’m very tired from my trip still. 

I had a great time, but it was expensive and we did so much moving around that we were all quite tired at the end. Still, I did get to see a few friends and that was wonderful! 

So, I’m back and tomorrow I have to buckle down and work on my column. It has to be finished soon. 

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

February 21, 2023

 Tuesday - Snowy and colder

I woke up around 8 this morning. The building of the new house close to our house starts early and goes on most of the day. It is so noisy. I can hear the men shout at each other too and it isn’t fun to hear that all day.

Anyhoo, I got up, went downstairs, got dressed and watched the news.  I took a bit of a snooze afterwards but got up and grabbed breakfast. I ate and watched a few videos on YouTube. I realized that I was falling asleep though so I went back to bed for a few minutes. 

Around 2 pm I went outside and shovelled a bit of snow. There wasn’t a lot, but I moved it out of the way. I tend to go outside without my glasses because they fog up and I can’t see, so I saw something in the garden and I wasn’t sure what it was. I refocused my eyes and realized that it was a bird. It sat there for the next few minutes while I finished up and was still there when I went inside. I was worried that it was injured and unable to move, but later in the evening when we went out it seemed to be gone.

There's a little bird there, probably a wild pigeon according to F.

When I came inside again, I made my lunch. I saw K for a minute and offered her the lunch in the fridge but she said maybe later. Okay then.

I went upstairs and watched an episode of The Great British Sewing Bee while I ate. After that, I watched the news and realized that I hadn’t done any work on my column, so I worked on that too. I got about halfway through the career of the actress that I planned to write about. 

I noticed that it was after 6 so I went downstairs and got started on dinner. Tonight I did sautéed spinach again and also cooked some mushrooms from last night. I baked some chicken in the toaster oven and served all of that with some rice for K and F and salad for all of us. Now, of course, F was late again. He didn’t get back to his office until 7 pm and then had to run some errands when he got back to Tsuruoka. He said the roads were really bad too.

K and I ate and a few minutes later, F arrived. I got him to take his food and then I warmed it up for him in the microwave. He ate while I went into the kitchen and did the dishes. It took a while again, but I did finish a few minutes earlier than I did last night. 

We had to go over to MaxValu to pick up a few groceries.  We drove over there and on the way, F asked me how much money I’d like to take with me! That’s an odd question. I’d like a million yen, but I’m not holding my breath for it!

At the grocery store, F gave me money for the groceries and then I went over to the store. I heard a car honk and kept going. Then some young women told me that it was my car. Grr. I went back to the car…remember this was on snow-covered roads and F wanted to take back the amount of money he had given me for groceries and give me less. What the heck? I already told him that I’d give him the change back, why would he want me to come back to give me less money when I could slip and fall?

I swapped his money and wasn’t too pleased with him. Honestly. I went back to the store and did some shopping. There wasn’t a ton of stuff that I wanted tonight, but there wasn’t a ton of stuff that I needed.

I paid at the checkout machine and left. We came back to the house and put the groceries away. For a change, F didn’t go to the toilet and spend hours while I did all the work. He took his stuff and went upstairs.

When I got upstairs with my stuff I came back downstairs and filled up the kerosene tank for our heater, then I came upstairs and started the heater. At 11 I watched my FBI show and then turned off the TV afterwards. I decided to try to update my little iPod, but it doesn’t seem to be working. I can’t get my latest cd to show up on it. Sigh. Maybe it is too old now?

Anyway, I need to toddle off to bed now.  However, I should mention that I will not be updating for a few days. I leave very early on Thursday morning and won’t be back until late on Saturday night. I probably will miss posting until Sunday night if I’m honest. Nobody miss me too much okay? I’m just going to visit some of my friends and explore the big city a bit!

Until next time….

February 20, 2023

 Monday - Cooler and a bit windy. 

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off.  F was long gone, poor thing. I snoozed a little longer, but finally got up and dressed. I considered joining a Zoom meeting but decided I’d rather snooze instead. 

I got up a bit later and went downstairs. I took F’s clothes out of the washing machine and hung them up in our bedroom. He’s been doing that a lot lately. I took some of my clothes downstairs and did a couple of loads of laundry today. That was good for me. I was going to grab my breakfast, but K was in the kitchen and I decided to just let it go. I went down later and got it and while I was in the kitchen, the doorbell rang. My birthday present from my BFF had arrived! What a lovely surprise. I took it upstairs and opened it a bit later. She sent me a personalized mug and the means to go out for coffee on her. 

I had a fairly quiet afternoon. I was a bit late going to get my lunch. When I came back upstairs I watched an episode of Bake-Off and then the news. 

F didn’t call tonight so I went downstairs to start getting ready for dinner. I washed the dishes and then started cutting up the ingredients for our pizzas.  Since F wasn’t back yet, I started with my choice, Hawaiian. I drained some pineapple, cut it into smaller chunks, cut up a bit of ham, etc, and I also made a chicken doria. That was fairly easy, it’s just a rice-bake thing with chicken sauce and some cheese on top. I had the ingredients in a packet. 

After 7 pm I texted F to see if he was going to be a lot longer and he said that he’d just arrived back at his office. He had to wash the car as he was going out again tomorrow early. I decided that I really should feed K so I baked the doria and prepared the pizza too. 

K and I had some of the Hawaiian pizza (oh, so good!) and some of the doria and salad. She seemed really pleased with the pizza and even asked for more! F called to say he was on his way, so I started to think about the pizza he had requested. He’d wanted bacon and cheese, so I had already fried some mushrooms and cut up a few slices of red onion.  When he arrived, I made a pizza for him, after giving him some of my pizza and other dishes.

Dinner was good, but I didn’t even start the dishes until almost 9 pm so I was really late finishing. When I went upstairs I needed to relax for a bit. I asked F to take his shower first and he did. I went downstairs for mine around 11:30. Yikes! That was so late. 

That’s about it for my day. The pizzas were pretty good and K seemed to enjoy them. I’m glad as I’m not sure if she’s eaten much Italian-style food before I moved in!

Tomorrow I need to work on my column again. I did work on it today and covered another actress AND picked who the next one will be that I’m looking at. Hurray for that. 

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

February 19, 2023

Sunday - Cloudy and rainy, but warm

I woke up without an alarm this morning so that was unusual! I got up and quickly got dressed.  F and I left nearly on time and he left me off at S-Mall.

I went into the mall. I did a quick tour of the grocery store to see if I needed anything (no) and then I went upstairs to the hundred yen shop. I was strong and didn’t buy yarn. I nearly did, I picked up a ball of black yarn, but I put it back! What I did get was a travel toothbrush, some insoles for my shoes and a new vase for the house. When F brought back flowers for Valentine’s day, there was nothing to put them in! 

Rather than wandering more around the mall, I decided to go and have a sandwich and a cup of something nice in Doutor.  I decided what I wanted and then went in and ordered. I got a hot tuna and cheddar sandwich and it was really good! I relaxed for a while, texted my friends, and when F was finished, he called me from the car. We decided to go out and have lunch.  

We went to Fu-do for soba and tempura. I had not 100% soba, but I liked it a lot and enjoyed it. F had more soba but I couldn’t. I had already had a sandwich beforehand. 

We went grocery shopping next up and then came back to the house and I put away the groceries. I came upstairs afterwards and F was already in bed! He’d turned on the heater too, but apart from that, he didn’t do anything. I gave him the food he wanted and put away my stuff too. 

I spent the next couple of hours on my computer watching YouTube. I may have snoozed through a couple of videos, and I did a few rows of crochet, but apart from that, it was okay. 

Around 7 pm, I went downstairs to use the loo. When I came back up, I woke F up and suggested that we go out for dinner. Since K was in bed and didn’t seem to be desperate for dinner, we could have our meal and get some takeout for her. F liked the idea.

We got ready and left. We went over to Cocos and had a pretty good meal. F had a noodle dish with a starchy seafood sauce on it, and I had a Caribbean chicken dish that was a bit spicy. We both enjoyed our meals. We had drink bar too, so I kept us plied with nice drinks. We ordered a good hamburger dish for K and when it arrived we were nearly ready to leave.

We came back to the house and F woke his mother up and gave her the meal. I heard she was happy with it.

F and I came upstairs. I had to fill up the kerosene tank, so did that. The good thing is I don’t have to do it tomorrow! Yay. 

I had a quiet evening for the most part until I put a movie on a bit later. It was on WOWOW and had a great title…Gunpowder Milkshake. It was a very violent movie about female assassins and the male gangsters who were out for revenge against them. It had some great action scenes, but was ultra violent and not quite in the zone, but two of the supporting actresses were very good. It starred Karen Gillan (aka Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy) and had Lena Headey, Carla Gugino and Paul Giamatti in it. It also had Angela Bassett and Michelle Yeoh in it! Both of them are Academy Award-nominated actresses this year. Too cool. The movie was okay, but as I said, the action scenes were over the top.

When the movie finished, I turned off the TV. F finally went to bed. He’s got an early morning for the next couple of days.  I watched more YouTube and now I’m up to date.

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

February 18, 2023

Saturday - Warm but rainy

I woke up this morning around 9 am and got up a few minutes later. I got dressed and was ready to go to the doctor’s office at 10 which is when F said that we’d leave. 10:25 we finally drove out of the yard!

It was raining so F let me out at the door and I went in. The visit to the doctor was fine today. It wasn’t as busy as it has been lately and instead of waiting an hour to see the doctor, it was only half an hour! I even managed to finish the book I've been reading in the doctor's office for the last year plus! We picked up our meds and then went to a grocery store to pick up food for K. The original plan was just to get her stuff for one meal, but I suggested to F that we get her two meals' worth of food so we don’t have to go shopping twice. He saw the point in that so we did that.

We brought the food back to the house and F got K up. I took our medicine upstairs and a few minutes later we were off again.

F and I had lunch at The Grand El Sun today. It was very nice. I had salmon today and F had the pork. He doesn’t like salmon but I do! 

We came back to the house for a while and relaxed. F snoozed for a while since he was in a lot of pain and not feeling well. I did a lot of crochet and finally took a short nap. I didn’t really sleep, but I did relax so that was nice. 

At 5:30 we left the house and went out to Mikawa. F was having a dozy day and kept missing turnoffs. He didn’t go the usual route, but that was okay.  We went to see Don Quihote and picked up a few things. I got a new long i-cord for my phone and F got some mochi and ramen. Eye roll.

We went over to the mall. I suggested to F that we go and park out back behind Aeon so we could go there first. He started driving quite far from the door but I made him go back. F can barely walk and he’s making things even more difficult for himself. He parked and then we went into the store. I tried to find a good packet of masks to take on my trip, but they are really cutting back on masks. I couldn’t find what I wanted. We did get our usual masks for the house though, and I told F that I wanted to go upstairs and look for socks. He went off to get money and a coffee!  

I was able to find a few pairs of socks that I think would work for me, and happily, for me, they were on sale. Yay! I bought them and then went downstairs and met up with F. He was having a coffee from Mr Donut. We stayed there for a few minutes before we left and went out to the car. F drove around to the front of the mall and parked near the cinema.

We went in, bought our tickets and then went and got our dinner. We had bibinba again and it was quite good. It wasn’t quite hot enough for either of us, but really we enjoyed the meal.

After we ate, F didn’t want to move. I went over to the washroom and when I went into a stall, I knocked something off a shelf. Someone had left their phone. I took it out to the sink area, but the lady I asked said it wasn’t hers. I left it on the shelf above the sink and when I came out, it was gone. I’m guessing the person came back for it?

F and I went over to the cinema and got some popcorn and drinks, then went in to see Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. It was okay. I wouldn’t say it was as good as the last Ant-Man film, but I didn’t mind it at all. There were a few characters that I would like to see more from.

After the movie, we left Mikawa and drove back to Tsuruoka. We came back to the house and just relaxed. F went to bed a couple of hours ago, but I don’t really think that he slept much. I’m still up of course, but that’s me. 

Tomorrow, I think F has a morning massage so I’ll probably get up and go to the mall. I’ll get him to drop me off and then I can do a little bit of shopping. Will I pick up more yarn? Unknown!

So, that’s about it for me for now. I’ll be back tomorrow night and fill you in on all the things we get up to. Come back later and find out. Until tomorrow….

February 17, 2023

Friday - Sunny and warmer, some rain

I let myself sleep in a little this morning as F wasn’t going to work. It was only a little! I got up, went downstairs and then got back into bed! F had to get up and go off to see the doctor.

After he left, I got up and dressed, then did my snoozing in bed bit. It was very nice. F called to say that he was coming back to the house, so I suggested he bring something for his mother. He did.

He came back, gave his mother a bento he bought her and then we talked about where to go. Since the roads were good today, I suggested going for yakiniku in Amarume. F liked that idea so off we went.

We had a nice lunch except F spent all his time listening to and watching his phone. It gets lonely to be with him sometimes. I had hoped we’d go to the mall and see a movie or do some shopping, but F wanted to go back to the house. 

We drove back to Tsuruoka and just before the Starbucks on the corner, F asked if I’d like to go in. Of course, I would, so in we went. It was busy, so we had to get the barista to help us find a seat. She did, and we drank our frappuccinos and relaxed for a bit. 

We came back to the house for a while. F snoozed as he wanted to do, and I crocheted! I think I did 4 or 5 rows today. Yay me. I watched some YouTube and enjoyed myself.

F went out a bit later to get another bento for his mother. When he came back, he suggested going to a ramen shop that served donburi. I wasn’t too excited about that since most places that have donburi and ramen aren’t that great. However, I know that he doesn’t get to have ramen all that often out of the house. He showed me a picture and they looked okay.

We got to the ramen shop and F ordered his ramen and I got a bacon don that had slimy potato on it too. The picture showed big pieces of bacon. I got 4 tiny pieces of bacon and a whole lot of slimy potato. It wasn’t good. We shared a colossal order of gyoza and they were okay, but again, not great. 

I don’t want to go there again. Ever.

We came back to the house and I did a little research on my column by watching a movie on YouTube. It was Penelope with Christina Ricci and James McAvoy. I liked it, for what it was. It was a sweet little romantic fairy tale where the heroine learns to like herself. 

I took a shower tonight and rolled up a couple more balls of yarn for the blanket. I’ve decided that I’m really going to try and use up what I have in my bag before I buy more yarn. I’m not sure how long that will last though as the stores will probably stop selling it soon! 

Anyway, that’s about it. I had a decent day, marred only by a not-very-good dinner that I’m trying hard not to complain about too much to F as I wanted him to enjoy his. 

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

February 16, 2023

Thursday - Cold and a little snowy

I slept until my alarm went off this morning and then got up and went downstairs. I came back upstairs and watched the news. It was my usual morning, including some snoozing time. The only thing I did differently was I sorted my laundry before I snoozed! 

When I woke up, I took my laundry downstairs and was surprised to hear that F’s sister was downstairs with his mother. I started my laundry and very nicely took F’s semi-wet clothes out of the washing machine, brought them upstairs and hung them up. I grabbed my breakfast and then came upstairs to eat.

I had a fairly quiet morning. I was surprised that K didn’t spend most of the day in bed. It is so much better for her, but to be honest, not great for me! I did a couple of loads of laundry and hung it all up in my room. 

In the afternoon, I went outside and shovelled a bit of snow. There wasn’t too much out there, but there was a bit on the steps. I neatened up the yard, then came inside and made my lunch.

I went upstairs to eat. Today I watched an episode of Bake-Off and that was fun of course. I watched the news and F phoned me to say that he might be late. Oh, dear.

I went downstairs before 6 pm and discovered that dear K had spent time in the kitchen and left the door wide open. We keep trying to get her to close the door at night and I had the heater on because it was a bit cold today. Sigh. 

Tonight, I got started on dinner and it went quite well. I did sautéed spinach, basil and garlic pork, shrimp pilaf and salad. It turned out quite well. F came down fairly soon and K was already up, but wouldn’t eat until F sat down. Dinner was good, I thought.

After dinner, I did the dishes of course. I listened to some podcasts and enjoyed them, perhaps a little too much as it took me a long time to get done!

When I finished, I came upstairs and the heater’s red light was blinking. It was out of kerosene. F was lying in bed. I grabbed the empty kerosene tank and went downstairs and filled it. I wasn’t too pleased with F. I suggested that he look at the DVR tonight since I had moved the stuff from in front of the machine when I hung up my laundry. He didn’t even look at it. Sigh. The DVR isn’t working properly and I’m frustrated. It’s worse than not having one at all because I think it’ll record things and then it doesn’t. I set the DVR a few days ago to record two films and it recorded 17 minutes of one, and the other started recording something in the middle of the movie. This is not good!

I had a fairly quiet evening up here. I watched the TV version of Sewing Bee and a little later New Amsterdam. In between, I got Alexa to play some Canadian music. It was great, except for all of the Celine Dion they tried to play! 

And that’s about it. I’ve been watching YouTube a bit too much tonight. I didn’t do any crochet tonight, but I did make a ball of mixed yarn so I can just sit and crochet sometime. 

So, come back later if you like and hear all about my Friday. Until tomorrow…. 

February 15, 2023

Wednesday - Cold, snowy and windy

I woke up this morning before F left the house. He came back into the room after I woke up. Not sure why I woke up, not blaming him!

I went downstairs, came back and watched the news. After the news was finished, I’m afraid I did something a little bad. I went back to bed for an hour. I didn’t do the napping at the bottom of the bed, I went up to the top of the bed and went back to sleep.

I got up at my usual time, went downstairs and grabbed breakfast and then came upstairs to eat. I watched some YouTube and relaxed a bit.  While I was downstairs, I noticed that there was quite a bit of snow outside. Boo! 

Before I made my lunch, I decided to go outside and shovel some snow. When I went out first it was snowing and windy, but it stopped snowing soon after. I cleared the steps and the area around the steps. I moved the snow that was between the parking area and the street and got it out of the way. When I finished, It looked pretty good.

I went back in the house and made my lunch. I had a few leftovers from Monday, so I had them plus my usual stuff. When I took everything upstairs I watched an episode of The Great British Sewing Bee. It was a good one. They had to make kilts! I can barely imagine.

I watched the news and after a bit F called. I went downstairs to get started on dinner. F kept calling me to give me updates! It was a bit annoying as my hands were wet or I was cutting things and the timing was off, but whatever. I appreciated his calls on one level. 

Tonight I did the spicy tofu dish from Aaron and Clare and also made a stir-fry. I had to make two different sauces so it was a bit of a scramble as usual, but it worked out. F got back just a bit before 7 and I hadn’t started cooking yet. I was almost ready though.  

I baked the tofu in my air fryer and stir-fried the veggies and meat on the stove. I was bouncing around the kitchen! I also got the table started. Happily, I had started the heater in the living room early today so it was almost warm when we had dinner. I got everyone downstairs or out of bed and we had dinner. F said the stir fry was very good, and since he doesn’t usually say anything about my cooking, pleased me a lot! 

I did the clean-up afterwards, which seemed to take a long time, but really wasn’t long. I listened to three different movie podcasts tonight, plus the news, so maybe it did take a while!  When I was done with the dishes, I did up the garbage. I sneakily threw out a few older items from the fridge. We still had eggs from last year in the fridge…I wouldn’t eat them or cook with them now, so why keep them? F doesn’t like to waste food, and neither do I, but I’d rather throw out outdated food than risk food poisoning. 

I went upstairs and changed into my pyjamas. I rested for a bit and then went downstairs and took a shower. The water was running too hot for me tonight, I don’t like that. I went back upstairs and watched an episode of The Red Green Show which was silly and funny and Canadian so it made me smile! I got to do a bit of crochet too until I ran out of one of my balls of yarn. No biggie really.

So that was about it for my day. F took his shower later and is in bed now. he’s been wearing his headphones tonight. I am glad as I dislike the sound from his cellphone, but it feels…unfriendly. He wore them at dinner too, which was odd but whatever.

I did work on my column a little bit today and wrote a bit about one actress. I hope that I will have some time tomorrow to do a bit more, but I also have to do some laundry. It might be my last time before my trip next week. F will be off work on Friday, so not much chance to do it then.

Well, I think I’m done. I’m not sure what I’m going to make for dinner tomorrow night, well, not completely anyway. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

February 14, 2023

Monday - Cold and snowy and windy.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I slept through the night last night and it was great. I woke up when my alarm went off this morning. I got up and went downstairs and then came back and watched the news from the bed. It was nice to actually see the news this morning. It feels like it has been a while.

I snoozed for a bit and then got up and grabbed breakfast and did my usual stuff. I composed an email and sent it off to my ex-employer. I was rather stressed about the whole thing, but better that I did it I think.

In the afternoon I did a video chat with a friend that I’m meeting up with next week. I’m looking forward to seeing her, but it was lovely to just chat. She showed me her new knitting project, I showed her my blanket!

After we switched off, I went downstairs and grabbed my lunch. I was glad to see that K had already eaten so that was good. I took my lunch upstairs and ate. I didn’t have time to watch anything, so I didn’t. The news came on at 4 pm and I watched that. F called me while it was on and said that he was still in Yamagata city so would probably be late tonight. 

I went downstairs to get a start on dinner and decided not to do the meal I had planned. F would be late, so I decided to do something simple. I had bought chicken nuggets a couple of weeks ago but hadn’t cooked them yet, so I decided that tonight was the night. I also did some french fries in my air fryer, and I made a Japanese-style side dish with carrots called Kinpira. We had a salad as well.  

I got everything on the table just after 7 pm. K was up making a washroom run, so I turned on the lights in the living room and tried to explain that F was still at work. I have no way of knowing if she understood. Sometimes she doesn’t.

We had a fairly nice meal. I was a little irked that K took an extra nugget because I was saving them from F but that’s her.  We ate quite a bit. 

After we finished, I cleared the table and started washing the dishes. F phoned to say he was on the way back to the house, so I heated up the leftover nuggets and fries for him. When he came back, he sat at the table and ate. Instead of being nice about the Kinpira, he said I should make it with gobo instead. Umm…I’ve NEVER cooked with gobo and we don’t have any anyway. That was rather rude of him I thought.

I finished washing up and even washed his dishes when he was finished eating. Then I reminded him we had to go shopping tonight and I went upstairs.

I didn’t see F for quite a while so I finally texted him to remind him that we had to go out. I was less than pleased when he came upstairs at close to 10 pm. That meant we could only go to MaxValu. I don’t really like the place. It’s big, but they don’t have the brands I’d like to buy generally. Sometimes they do!

We drove over there and I went in with F’s money. I did the shopping and even used the self-service checkout tonight. That was fun. I didn’t have any problems with it so that was good. 

I asked F if we could hit up the drugstore across the road as I wanted to get some dishwashing liquid and the grocery store didn’t have the right kind for me. I went into the drugstore and got detergent and a bag of cereal. I used points to pay for the items so they didn’t cost any money! 

We came back to the house and F just went upstairs. I had asked for his help with something but he didn’t remember or something. I put away the majority of the groceries and then I went upstairs too. I gave him some of the things that I bought for him, but I had left his beer on the steps downstairs. I next changed into my pjs and went downstairs and filled up the kerosene tank again. I brought it back up and turned on the machine. F looked at me and said, “Oh, is there kerosene? I’m sorry, I was going to fill it.” Well, considering I’d just walked past him twice with the kerosene tank in my hands, I didn’t see how he could miss what I was doing. 

We had a quiet evening in. I missed the first half of my show tonight, so I watched something else on AppleTV+. Tonight I watched Mythic Quest and a lot of previews! I think I like previews more than real programmes!

Well, that was about it for my Valentine’s Day. I noticed tonight that all of the chocolate that F gave me has alcohol in it. It was written right on the front of the boxes so I don’t know how he missed it. 4 boxes of alcoholic chocolate. Is he trying to tell me something?

That’s it for me for today. Tomorrow I’m not sure what I’ll get up to. I hope to finally work on my column, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to. Come back later if you will and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

February 13, 2023

Monday - Cloudy and a bit cooler

I went to bed a little late last night and had a hard time falling asleep. F was snoring something awful. I finally fell asleep but then F woke up around 4:15. He went downstairs and of course, I woke up. I did manage to fall asleep afterwards.  

F got up around 7 am and I woke up then too. Sigh. I had to go downstairs, I did and then I went back to sleep after F left. I didn’t want to go back to bed while he was here, I thought it would be too sad for him to do that! Of course, I ended up oversleeping. Sigh.

I got up and had a quiet day around the house. I got an envelope in the mail. A friend had sent me a packet of tea which sounds really nice. I had a late breakfast and later on, I ate lunch. I never really saw K at all during the day.

I discovered that I wasn’t able to record the movie last night that I had set the DVR for. F still hasn’t looked at it and it’s been more than a month. I am not very happy with him if I’m honest. 

I went downstairs around 5:30 to get started on dinner. I had to clean the kitchen first. K and F left it in a terrible mess. There were dirty dishes everywhere and no one had put the clean dishes away either. And the stove. Why can’t F just wipe the stove? I got started on peeling potatoes and of course, F came back to the house. He sat out in his car for ages, probably 15 minutes or so and then came in with some flowers. He needed a vase to put the flowers in, but it was hard to find one. The poor flowers really needed some water, so I found a vase and F cut the flowers so they could drink. He put them by the door.

I got on with dinner but between the flowers and the boiling of the potatoes and making gravy, dinner was a bit late. I got things on the table around 7:30 and I called F and K.  By the time I got to sit down, everything was cold, so I wasn’t too happy. F complained that I gave him too much, so I took back some of his mashed potatoes. The meal was bangers and mash, so you should expect potatoes. F was listening to TikTok and K had the TV on and my brain wasn’t functioning. I asked F to turn off his phone and he did. I don’t like asking him to do things like that, but honestly, two sources of Japanese in the room that was loud are two too many. I’d rather have the TV off while I eat downstairs. When I’m alone, it’s different.

I did dishes after dinner and it took a while. It was after 9:30 before I finished. I also did up the plastic garbage to go out. I put it in the genkan. 

I went upstairs and relaxed for an hour or so. F was wearing headphones and so was I! After 10 I went downstairs to take a shower. I did that and then came back upstairs. I wanted to do a little crochet, so I watched an episode of Shakespeare and Hathaway and did a row or more of my blanket. It’s leaping along.

During the evening, I’ve been texting a friend in Tokyo about the trips that we’re going to go on. Most of it was about how to get back to Tokyo from here. She was thinking about taking the train, but flying may be more convenient.

After midnight, F presented me with a bag of goodies for my Valentine’s Day present. It’s rather sweet as I didn’t think he would get me anything. The flowers were a surprise earlier…not sure if they were for me or his mother, or both! Chocolates are nice, but most of them have alcohol in them. I’d rather not have alcoholic chocolates, but if I can get him to help eat them, it’ll be okay. I gave him the box of chocolates I bought for him. I gave him an assortment of Ferraro Rocher chocolates. The box has three different types. He seemed to like it!

So that’s it for me. I’m still up a bit late, I hope I can get to sleep soon as I’m really tired. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

February 12, 2023

Sunday - Warmer and rainy

I went to bed terribly late last night and didn’t set an alarm for myself this morning. F slept in too so we both stayed in bed quite late. I finally got up around 1 pm, but F was still in bed for a little longer. 

We went out around 3 pm to have lunch. We decided to go for sushi and went to Kula Sushi for a change. It wasn’t great, but it was okay. F ordered so much food. I got to the point where I just said that I couldn’t eat anymore and I didn’t.

After lunch, we picked up some groceries…I picked them up, and F waited in the car. The shop didn’t have that much for breakfasts for K and F, so I asked F if we could go elsewhere to get stuff. We then picked up some kerosene and brought it back to the house. I put away the groceries and discovered that someone had finished the milk and hadn’t told me. Ack! I don’t drink the stuff, how would I know?

We went out again a few minutes later to another grocery shop. I was able to find the stuff I needed, plus milk and the yogurt for me that I had forgotten to buy. Oops! I came back out to the car with the second lot of groceries and we came back to the house. 

F gave his mother the food I had bought for her. She got nice sushi and a sweet potato side dish that looked good. F and I relaxed a bit upstairs for a while. Our late lunch left us quite full for a long time. 

I wasn’t really hungry around 8pm when we talked about going out, but eating much later isn’t good for us and there aren’t many places to eat then anyway, so off we went. I had suggested Gusto and F went along with my idea.

We had a fairly decent dinner at Gusto. We each got a type of nabe, F’s was fish based, mine was beef and ginger and tofu. We swapped a bit to try the other person's. I think I actually liked F’s more than mine, but his had udon in it and I didn’t want noodles tonight. 

We came back to the house after we finished. F got a bit ready for work tomorrow, I did a little crochet and also watched some YouTube on my computer. My blanket is growing! I’m in love with it.

I love the wacky colours and how they blend. 

That’s about it for us. Tomorrow I’m back to the old grind of trying to get dinner on the table at a reasonable time and also I need to start working on my next column. I’ve only got a couple of weeks left to get it ready. Yikes. I hope I can do it. 

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

February 11, 2023

Saturday - Sunny and warmer

We slept in this morning and it was lovely! In fact, we slept in a little too long and weren’t able to go out for lunch together. We were still in bed around noon and F had a massage booked for after one pm.  I got dressed and leaned on F to get dressed too. He took a shower and then dressed.  He drove me to the mall where I got out and he went off to the massage place. 

I did a little “window” shopping in the mall. I didn’t buy anything today. I did make a quick run through Daiso, but since I visited one last night, I didn’t buy anything. I know it is unusual!

I checked out the grocery store but then decided that I’d go and have a drink and a sandwich at Doutor.  I think it was a good call. I ordered and took my tray to a table. I had a nice sandwich and a glass of rooibos tea. F joined me when he finished his massage so we had a drink together. 

We went over to the station next to see about getting my tickets for my trip. I was hoping that there was a special or something to make it a bit cheaper. Happily, there was! I managed to get a special that covers the trains and some of the trains in Tokyo. Yay! 

Next up we talked about our late, late lunch. F wanted to go to the izakaya in the old Mr Donut shop. I didn’t want to go but didn’t say too much. We both had donburi and they were fine. The service there is terrible, but the food is okay. While we were there, I suggested getting takeout for K’s dinner and F liked the idea. He ordered a bento for her and it was ready a few minutes later.

We came back to the house for a few minutes and then left again for the mall. We went to the mall and I got the tickets for the movie. I used our movie points so we got to see Babylon for free today. That was good. We got our dinner/dinner which tonight was bibinba. Yum. 

After we ate we went to see the movie. We got some popcorn and drinks and then went into the cinema. How was the movie? I’m not sure…I didn’t like it that much. I didn’t hate it the way I hated Avatar 2. I thought that Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie were great, but overall the movie let them down. 

We came back to Tsuruoka. F wanted to eat something else but the only things open were gyudon shops, so that’s where we ended up. F had a plate of rice with chicken and some gyudon on it. I had a chicken salad which was surprisingly good. 

We came back to the house and relaxed a bit. I wrote an email to my BFF and about 90 seconds after I sent it, I got one back from her! It was funny.

And that’s about it. It is now terribly late, so I’m going to go to bed and get some sleep. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

February 10, 2023

 Friday - Snowy and colder

My alarm went off this morning and of course, F was still in bed. The odd thing was that he slept through my alarms and even through the noise from the TV when I watched the news. I half-snoozed after the news, but F did get up and went out. He finally went to see the doctor. He checked up on some tests he had last year (OK) and checked on his condition now. Mostly okay.

F came back to the house but brought his mother something to eat. He got something for himself too. He made himself some ramen and enjoyed that. I had my lunch a bit later and had my usual sort of thing. Sadly, F had eaten my leftover salad for his lunch! The nerve!

I watched an episode of The Great British Sewing Bee which was lots of fun again. I am really enjoying this show. I know it is a reality show, but the people seem real!

In the afternoon, F had a snooze for a bit and I watched the US news. He woke up and wanted to think about dinner. At first, it was hard to get him to suggest anything, but I asked a few questions and finally suggested a place we go to sometimes. They have decent food and aren’t expensive, but…they close early. I wasn’t sure if we could make it. F heated up the bento for his mother, and I went outside and shovelled a bit of snow. It was light so it wasn’t too hard to do. We left and drove to the restaurant. We were able to get in, so that was good. I had my usual, Chicken Namban. They changed it a little, they added harissa rather than sweet chilli sauce so it was nicer than it usually was. F had a nabe that he said was good. He also had three bowls of rice…I thought that was a lot and told him so! (Spoiler…he complained the rest of the night about eating too much!)

Over dinner, I had asked if we could go to a Daiso tonight because I wanted to get another crochet hook. I was lucky yesterday that I had a spare. We drove over to the MaxValu area and went to the Daiso. I went in and did a little shopping. I picked up 2 crochet hooks. They are plastic and don’t always last like a metal one does, obviously. I bought quite a bit of yarn too. I got a few new colours that I haven’t used before. Yay!

We came back to the house as F didn’t feel that great again. He relaxed and so did I in our room. After a while, I took a shower and then came back upstairs and watched another episode of The Scottish Play. It’s so close to being funny, but it is just a little cable TV drama-style. 

And that’s about it. It was a good but quiet day. Tomorrow, F has booked a massage for himself and I’m hoping that we can go and see a movie tomorrow night. There is finally a new movie in the mall in English. Well, truth be told, there are two as Titanic is back in theatres. However, I hated it the first time, so don’t want to subject myself to it again!

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

February 9, 2023

Thursday - Clear in the morning, snowy at night, colder.

I got up this morning, went downstairs and watched the news from the bed. I took a long snooze after the news finished. When I woke up, I went downstairs, grabbed my breakfast and came back upstairs to eat.

I watched a little TV, and some YouTube and did a little crochet too. My blanket is growing in leaps and bounds.

I had a fairly quiet afternoon. I did a little texting with friends about our trip this month. I grabbed lunch and then came upstairs to eat. I watched an episode of Bake-Off and rather enjoyed that. I’ve only seen this season once I think, so it was nice to see it again. 

I watched the news at 4 pm and a little afterwards F called to say he was on his way back. I went downstairs to start dinner. 

Tonight I did a new to me recipe, an Asian-style stirfry and I added mushrooms to it. It turned out really well, so I was pleased. I also did some roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes in the air fryer. For a change, I left them bigger and half-boiled them first. That meant that they were nearly cooked when I put them in, so it didn’t take too long. I was a bit late getting dinner on the table but it came together. I texted F to come down if he was feeling up to it, and I woke up K. She came out to the table, and F came down too. Dinner was good. There was a little leftover so I put it away in the fridge. I hope that I can have some for my lunch tomorrow, maybe!

Speaking of which, F is taking tomorrow off. He isn’t feeling that well. I hope that he goes to the doctor tomorrow. He doesn’t have a temperature, so I don’t think it is anything too serious. 

I had a fairly quiet evening. F was listening to something on his phone so it was loud and annoying. I watched something on TV and then a little YouTube, and then back to TV for New Amsterdam. Tonight I worked on my blanket. I made a couple of balls of yarn from other yarn and I crocheted a couple of rows, maybe even three rows. It’s getting quite a bit bigger. Sadly, I broke my crochet hook tonight. I’ve been using a plastic one from the hundred yen shop. Luckily, I had a spare one, so I’ll have to go back and get another one as a spare. 

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

February 8, 2023

Wednesday - Cooler and a bit cloudy

I think F woke me up this morning, but I managed to fall back asleep afterwards. I felt bad for him as he couldn’t fall asleep last night. I had no trouble.

This morning I had my bog-standard usual thing. I watched the news and then napped. I woke up and decided to do laundry. I took some clothes downstairs and did the first of two loads of laundry. I also had breakfast in there somewhere too. 

Later on, I made a hotel reservation for something coming up later this month. It was a tad difficult as I was doing it in Japanese. However, I persevered. 

A bit later I grabbed my lunch. I had a pretty good one and I finished up some of the food from the fridge. I didn’t have time to watch any of the shows I wanted to today, so I just watched the news as normal. 

F called a little early tonight and said he was on the way back. I went downstairs and started dinner. Tonight I made baked chicken and bibinba rice. I also cooked some broccoli and served it all with a salad. When F came back from work, he said he wasn’t feeling well, but would try to eat later on. He also opened up a box of food that he brought back from the funeral yesterday. I don’t know why he didn’t tell me about it YESTERDAY! 

I got dinner on the table and woke K up. I yelled for F to come done and he said okay. However, I got a text from him a couple of seconds later that said he couldn’t eat. Oh, dear. Well, he let me know at least. I grabbed his plate and glass and put them away. No point in leaving them on the table. 

K and I ate our meal and it was fine. She did ask about F, but I told her that he was having stomach trouble. He sort of was I think. After dinner, I did the dishes and texted F to ask if he’d like me to leave him a plate of leftovers. He said yes, so I did.

When I finished washing dishes and then putting them away, I had to do the garbage for tomorrow morning. I got the kitchen garbage sorted and then went upstairs to do the garbage in the bedroom. I relaxed for a bit and then F had his dinner. He liked the food I set aside for him so that was good.

I took a shower after watching some YouTube and then came back upstairs and watched an episode of Mythic Quest on AppleTV+. It was the Christmas one so it felt a bit strange seeing it in February!

I turned off the TV when it was over and then got started on this blog entry. It’s been quite a good day, but I didn’t get a lot done, but on the other hand, I did fight with a couple of Japanese websites and won, so that was a lot!

I’m done for tonight. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow…