September 2, 2025

Tuesday - Hot, sunny, humid, thunder and lightning now (late at night!)

I woke up this morning while F was getting ready for work. I went downstairs and then sat on the bed and chatted with him while he got ready.  I wished him a good day and off he went. I went back to bed!  I watched some videos and then dozed off. I woke up a bit later and then dragged myself out of bed and dressed. I took a couple of loads of laundry downstairs and started washing the first one.

I had a fairly quiet afternoon. I ate my breakfast and watched a lot of YouTube today. I also did a second load of laundry. They both got hung up in my room.

I had lunch around the usual time and while I was eating I watched The Great British Sewing Bee. It was a lot of fun today as they were doing fashion related to movies. It was challenging as it was the semi-final too.

I only got about 10 minutes of the news so that was fine. No worries. After that, I turned off the TV. F called later and said he was on the way.

I headed downstairs and started to get things ready for dinner. F was late again as traffic was bad, but I did quite a lot of prep today. Today we had some pickled cucumbers, hamburgers, French fries with seasoning, salad and some steamed vegetables. Dinner was actually quite good.

I did the dishes after dinner and then went upstairs to change my clothes. F and I went over to Mina and I bought a few groceries. I’m going to make sandwiches for dinner tomorrow night. I’m hoping to be done early enough to attend an online thing at 8pm tomorrow night.

After we came back to the house, I put away the groceries and then came upstairs. At 11pm I watched FBI: Most Wanted. It was nice to see it again. 

Oh, and before I go, I should mention something sad. Canadian actor Graham Greene died yesterday. I think I first saw him in Dances with Wolves, but I saw him in quite a few movies after that. I always admired his work and thought that he was very talented. He was always worth watching. 

Since midnight we have been having major thunder and lightning. There’s been a lot of rain too. It’s exciting and a little scary!

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

February 27, 2025

Thursday - Clear and sunny, warmer

F was rather noisy this morning and was in and out of the room looking for his wallet and whatever he couldn’t find. I ended up waking up and going downstairs a few minutes after he left.  I did my usual thing when I came back to the room of watching videos before going back to sleep. Today, one of the videos was on repeat on my phone as I kept falling asleep on it!

I woke up a bit later, dressed and went downstairs to get my breakfast. I brought it upstairs to eat. I had a quiet morning and early afternoon. I did look over my column and listened to the computer read it. It was okay. I’ll do a final polish of it tomorrow and send it in. Whew!

During my lunch time, I watched The Walking Dead again. The cable channel is running 4 episodes a week and it is a little hard to keep up. I’m not sure why they are running so much of it a week. 

I went downstairs to start on dinner before 6pm. Tonight I made mini-hamburgers (from the store), a cabbage pickle/salad thing, potato salad and roasted veggies. Dinner was pretty good and almost all of the food disappeared. That was good! 

After dinner, I did the dishes and then went upstairs with a can of root beer. It was nice to have. F came upstairs a little later and we had a quiet evening in. I watched the second episode of Doc, the new show on cable. It was good. 

While I was listening to the news in the kitchen I heard that Gene Hackman and his wife had died. I wasn’t a diehard Gene Hackman fan, but I did appreciate his work. He was always good in whatever movie he was in. One of my favourite films of his is The Quick and the Dead with Sharon Stone, Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio. He was the villain of the piece and he was terrific! I know that he had retired a few years ago, but I missed seeing him in films. 

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

February 1, 2025

Saturday - Sunny and warm

Today was a good day for me, but also a sad day. I found out that a woman that I had never met died a few days ago.  She was another foreign wife from my hometown. She returned to Edmonton a few years ago with her children and that’s about all I know. She loved books and at one point wrote a blog about children’s books that was very good. We communicated a few times on Facebook and some other sites because we’re from the same place. I’m sorry that she’s gone. 

This morning I woke up at a crazy time…it was 6:30. I had no need to wake up then. F was awake though, in the bed beside me on his computer. It could have been the light from his computer, even though I wear an eye mask it does slip at times. It might have been K downstairs. I went downstairs to the washroom and the living room lights were on. She was up in the living room watching TV rather loudly. When I went back upstairs to go back to bed, I told F that his mother was up. He went downstairs to check on her. He had told her yesterday that she had daycare today, so she might have got up too early to be ready!

He made her some cup ramen and then he went back to bed. I’m not sure if she did. I slept on and on and got up somewhere around 10:30. I went to talk to F and of course, he wanted to know about lunch. Eye roll. I made a couple of suggestions and he picked Arpeggio.

I got dressed and then we took off and parked in the parking area. We walked to the restaurant and there was a sign on the door saying they were busy. F asked if I wanted them to call us back when they had a table and I said sure. We returned to the car to get F’s phone and then walked up the street. We’d only got to the next block when the restaurant called us back. 

We didn’t get a table, but we sat at the counter. It was fine. F had my recent usual, Sasame chicken which looked great, and I had Soboro-don. I enjoyed mine, and F enjoyed his.

After our lunch, I suggested going to Starbucks. My best friend sent me some money to be used for going out for coffee. It’s a lovely gift and I really enjoy using it. I wish it could be with her, but I go out with friends and dear hubby at times. F had his favourite Frappucino and I had an amazing Chocola Latte. It was a kind of hot chocolate with chocolate cream on it and it was delicious. I enjoyed it so much. While I was scrolling on Facebook, I saw the news about the woman I wrote about at the top of this entry. I really couldn’t believe it. 

F wanted to come back to the house so we did. He spent most of his time downstairs and I spent most of the time upstairs! Later on, F came upstairs to ask me where I wanted to go for dinner but I reminded him that he wanted to cook tonight. He wanted to make a nabe. He wanted to go out and buy the ingredients. He asked if I wanted to go too. I said yes.  

He also called some restaurants for later this week to see if we could make a reservation. My first choice was closed on Wednesday, so that’s a bummer. My second choice didn’t take reservations for groups under 4 people. What? Okay, well if we change our minds at the last moment, they’ll never know!

We went out to Izmo and F did his shopping. He did get quite annoying at one point and wouldn’t let me help him. No worries. I went off and got stuff that I needed for the house. 

After the grocery store, we went to Gyomu Supa. I picked up a few things for the house and for me too. We returned to the house and then I got to put the groceries away and take F’s stuff upstairs. I let him do the prep work for dinner and I didn’t help. I also didn’t offer to help after the meal either. If he helped me, I might have, but…. His nabe was okay tonight. It had some good ingredients, but it wasn’t the best nabe ever!

I came upstairs and watched some YouTube then spent some time making up a wishlist for my sister! I sent it to her.

A little after 10pm I went downstairs and took a shower. I came back upstairs to the room and I watched FBI. It was an okay episode as usual. I like the show but one of the characters is off right now. 

I also finished crocheting another dishcloth today. I still have to darn in the ends, but it is mostly done. Woot. This one has blue and grey stripes. 

And that’s about it. I’m not sure what we’ll do tomorrow. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

December 9, 2024

Monday - Rainy, cloudy and cold

I woke up quite early this morning, it was somewhere around 6:30. I think that F probably left around then. I went downstairs and then went back to bed. I slept on for quite a while. I got up before I often do, so that was good!

I dressed, went downstairs to make my breakfast and then returned to eat it. I watched some YouTube videos and some of the news. I had a quiet afternoon. I wrote some Christmas cards for my exchange and then went downstairs to get my lunch. 

I ate lunch while watching FBI from the weekend. It was a good episode but I worry that one of the characters is getting broody. I do hope not! 

I relaxed for a while, watched the news and then a little YouTube before F called to say he was on the way. I went downstairs a little early as I was planning to bake some potatoes and that takes a bit of time.

I went downstairs and instead of doing dishes as usual, I scrubbed the potatoes and got them ready to bake. I got them in the air fryer and got on with other work. I washed my dishes and prepared the chicken to cook. I washed salad and cooked some spinach too. I was organized, but two of the potatoes took too long to cook and I had to give them extra time. 

Dinner was good. Most of the food disappeared and we even had some Bocca puddings for dessert. That was very nice. 

I did the dishes after dinner and then went upstairs and relaxed for a bit. F was upstairs chilling as well. His mother tonight asked him for an electric blanket for her bed. She asked him at 8 pm after the shops were all closed! I suggested that she turn on the heater in her room, but she doesn’t like that idea. I also suggested opening the door into the living room so some of the warm air there could warm her bedroom up. F thought it was a good idea, but when I said goodnight to K the doors were closed again. Sigh. She doesn’t get it. 

F has ordered a blanket for her online. I suggested he pick one up after work for her but he preferred online shopping. It should arrive on Saturday…that’s a long time to wait if you ask me!

A bit after 10pm I went downstairs and took a shower. It didn’t take too long and then came back upstairs. F went down to make some rice for dinner tomorrow and I watched another episode of The Devil’s Hour. It is really getting intriguing. I think I have one more part to watch. 

And that’s about it. I’ve been watching YouTube for a while. For some reason, my favourite vloggers seem to be doing massive videos. They are interesting, but I sometimes prefer shorter videos so I can watch more!

I’m not sure what I’m going to get up to tomorrow. I have a couple more Christmas cards to write, I’ll have to make a marinade for tomorrow’s dinner and I need to do some laundry. I still haven’t got down the Christmas Tree, so if I feel up to it, I might do that. 

I’m a little blue if I’m honest. I found out on Friday that an old friend from high school had Parkinson’s. As his condition was progressing to the point where he needed to be in constant care, he decided to take advantage of MAiD, or Medical Assistance in Dying. While I completely understand what he did, I didn’t have enough time to even get used to the idea that he was ill, let alone that he was so close to the end. He died over the weekend. 

Now, I wasn’t a close friend of his, but we chatted from time to time on Facebook and in high school he was a good guy, so I’m sad that he’s gone. I am glad for him that it was on his own terms, however. 

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

 

July 24, 2024

Wednesday - Hot and muggy, rainy too

I woke up around 8 am to the news that I have been dreading.  My sister texted that our brother in Hawaii had died. He’s been fighting cancer since last year.  I sent F a text and let him know as he was at work already. He told me that he would take the day off to be with me. I was glad that he did that.

He came back to the house and I think he told his mother what happened. I was basically in bed and he came in the room and we talked and hugged. I fell asleep for a while. 

I woke up around noon and we talked about having lunch somewhere. We went out to the little restaurant in Kushibiki and were able to get a table. We both had variations of mapo-dofu. I had mine on yakisoba and F had a set of a mini-ramen and mapo-dofu and rice. He thought the lunch was a little salty, I think it was too, but it didn’t bother me that much. 

After lunch we went to Starbucks and had a drink there. F had his usual Frappuccino, I had a new hoji-cha drink but it was so sweet that I didn’t like it at all. 

We came back to the house and spent some time in the house.  We relaxed for a bit.  It had rained so the temperature was cooler. I watched the news at 4 pm and they featured a bit about Jasper being evacuated. That is terrible. F and I went to Jasper on our honeymoon. 

F asked me if I’d like to go to the temple with him. He hadn’t gone to his father’s grave in a while, so wanted to do that. He picked up some flowers at a grocery store and then we went to the shrine or temple, I can never remember which it is. We went over to the grave and F put the flowers out and then cleaned the grave. I told him I would have done it the other way around, but I don’t think it matters!

We went to a grocery store again and picked up something for F’s breakfast tomorrow. We also got dinner for K.  We brought the food back to the house and F gave it to his mother. 

A few minutes later, F and I went out for our dinner. I had suggested going to F’s favourite fish restaurant for dinner and he was okay with that! We were able to get in and to get a table and chairs. Yes! F had a donburi with some raw fish and sesame oil, I had a grilled sea bream set meal. It was very good, a lot of bones but it was okay. 

We came back to the house after dinner. I came upstairs and relaxed. I watched a lot of YouTube too. I went downstairs and took a shower after 10:30 and then came back to the room. I decided not to watch something on TV, so I turned to YouTube again. 

So, F will go back to work tomorrow as he has a driving assignment. I’ll stay here and try to catch up with the things I need to do to like laundry and cooking and possibly cleaning up!

I’m sad, but I know that my brother was tired of fighting. I wasn’t as close with him as I wish I could have been. He lived in Hawaii for many years so I wasn’t able to see him. We didn’t grow up together as he was from my father’s first marriage. He was the only one of my half-siblings that treated my mother well, the others were quite horrible to her. I will miss him. 

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

June 21, 2024

Friday - Hot, sunny, and muggy

I managed to get to bed this morning without waking F up. Recently he’s been waking up when I come to bed. On the other hand, I didn’t wake up when he got up this morning, so that was good. I did wake up before my alarm though. I made my trip downstairs and then I came back to the room. I went back to bed and to sleep for a bit longer. 

I got up a bit later, got dressed and went downstairs to get my breakfast. I planned to do some laundry, but F had done laundry last night and hadn’t emptied the washing machine so I didn’t. I was quite tired anyway so I didn’t want to do it!

I had a quiet morning and early afternoon. I ate my breakfast and even watched the news from the bed. I just got quite tired and wanted to lie down. It was very humid today, which really made things hard for me.

A bit later I went downstairs and grabbed my lunch. K had eaten hers, and she was even up and dressed today. That was a really good thing. Recently she hasn’t bothered to get dressed.

Of course, I watched an episode of The Closer while I ate. Yay me. 

I had a fairly quiet afternoon and then after F called to say he was finished work, I went downstairs to start dinner. Tonight I was busy. The kitchen was really hot too. Urgh.  I did a snow peas sauté, pasta, salad, cucumber pickle and sausages. It turned out really well. Most of the food got eaten too. Hurray!

I did the dishes afterwards and then went upstairs with a bottle of sports drink. It did help me feel better today. Later on, I took a shower and then watched an episode of Loot. 

Tomorrow, we might have a busy day. F has to take his mother to the daycare, we have a doctor’s appointment and I’m sort of hoping there’ll be a movie in the evening. If not, I’ll be taking myself to the mall again next week. 

Anyway, that’s about it for today. Just before I went to bed last night, I read on the net that Donald Sutherland had died. I always enjoyed his performances and I’m a bit sad about it. It does sound like he had a good life though. 

Until tomorrow….

October 29, 2023

Sunday - rainy and cloudy and cold

I slept in today on purpose but woke up a couple of times in the morning. F got up fairly early and made breakfast for his mother. He’s a good guy.

After I got up, I waited for F to come back and talk about lunch. However, he didn’t come back to the room until 2 p.m. I assumed that he’d eaten with his mother, but he hadn’t. When he did come upstairs, I suggested that he drop me off at the Indian restaurant and then he go off and get his hair cut. He didn’t seem too happy at my suggestion. It turned out that he’d been outside doing some work on the tires. Oh dear. 

Well, we went out for lunch and he dropped me off at the Indian restaurant. I went in and he went off and had ramen somewhere. At least we both got what we wanted. My food was only okay. I ordered my curry to be a medium and it was a very mild mild. It was a bit disappointing. The naan and the salad were good at least. 

After my meal, I went over to the drugstore across the parking lot and picked up a few things. I had texted F that I was going there, so he joined me for a minute and put something in my basket. I paid a few minutes later and went out to the car. 

We did some grocery shopping next, well, I did anyway. I think I’ll be back to cooking dinner tomorrow night so I needed stuff for dinner and something for K’s dinner and lunch tomorrow. I bought groceries and then came back to the car.

We came back to the house and relaxed for a bit. I gave K her bento and she seemed to be happy. I came upstairs and watched YouTube for a bit. F wanted to go for dinner early, but it was too early for me. We waited until a little after 7 p.m. and then went out.

We made a quick stop at Yamaya to pick up some stuff and then went to Cocos. F had fried oysters and I had a hamburger with a baked potato. We shared their Halloween dessert and it was really nice. It wasn’t that rich or anything so it was quite light. 

The "o-bakke" dessert...for Halloween

We came back to the house after dinner and relaxed some more. F took a shower and got ready for work tomorrow. Yep, he’s back to work tomorrow. 

And really, that’s it for today for me. However, I just wanted to mention that Matthew Perry died today. I found out, as I often do, via Facebook. He was always my favourite “Friend”. I’ve watched him in a few movies and enjoyed his performances, I booed him on The Good Wife. It’s sad he had so many personal problems. 

Until tomorrow….

September 11, 2023

Monday - Hot, sunny and oh so humid

We slept in this morning. I decided to not get up early in the morning to watch the news. I didn’t think that 11 minutes of British news was worth it. It wasn’t today anyway.

I slept until a bit late today, but we had no plans so no big deal! F went downstairs and made his mother lunch and then it was our town. We went out. I had suggested going to Arpeggio and F was okay with that. We went there and got in right away. We both had soboro don and it was very nice. 

After lunch we visited a drugstore and I picked up a few last minute things for the trip and also for the next few days. It was more expensive than I thought it would be!

We came back to the house and relaxed for a while.  I watched YouTube and then went over to the bed for a bit of a nap. I didn’t actually nap though, I read a book that I have been reading for a few days. 

F made his mother some dinner and then we talked about going out. We waited until 8 pm and then just went to Gusto. It was boring and quiet, but that’s not a bad thing really. We both had side dishes as main dishes, plus the drink bar as well. 

We came back to the house after dinner. We took the plastic garbage out to the gomi station. Finally I got rid of my plastic bottles. Whew!  After that, I walked to the local temple. Today would have been my mother’s birthday and I just wanted to pay tribute. It was also my father’s birthday last month and the anniversary of his death so I had a lot of reasons to go. I walked to the temple, did my thing and then came back.

I noticed that I had left a light on in the car, but F had locked it, so I called him and asked him to unlock the car from upstairs and I’d turn off the light. He did, and then I did! I went into the house and then watered the plants outside.

I went upstairs and after a little rest I took a shower. I really needed it! For the rest of the evening I rested and watched YouTube. Today sadly, I didn’t do very much to get ready for my trip. Tomorrow, F is going to go out in the afternoon and I’ll use some of that time to get my suitcase ready and maybe even packed! Or laundry. My mind boggles! I really need to get some of this stuff done soon.

Anyway, that’s about it for me. Not sure what will happen tomorrow so come back later and find out. Until tomorrow….