January 31, 2014

Friday - Clear with a skiff of snow

A good day.

I overslept a bit this morning…sigh.  However, I got up and then I had breakfast while watching Ghost Whisperer.  I had a nice quiet day.  I did some laundry,and I tidied up the kitchen a little.  

In the afternoon I made myself a great lunch.  I had  the leftover boiled new potatoes and some chicken sliced up and sauteed until the potatoes were crispy, then I added a little cheese and finally put a fried egg over it all.  If I could have served it in an iron skillet like they do in Canada it would have been just an extra touch.  It was seriously awesome!

Later on, I watched The Goonies and did a little bit on the dinner prep.  I prepared the garlic butter for the garlic toast.  I also put wrapped the toast up in tin foil.  I took out the steaks to come up to room temperature.  

When F came home from the doctor…he'd stopped home for a few minutes earlier…I got dinner started.  I set the table and cooked the fries in the oven, and then got the steaks underway.

Everything worked out quite well and I'm happy to say that dinner was really good.  F did the dishes and then we settled in for a nice quiet evening. I did some stuff on my computer, I did a little bit of crochet and then more computer stuff!

I should get myself off to bed soon. I have semi-promised to make breakfast tomorrow morning and if I'm asleep I won't be able to!  Wish me luck with that.  I have to go.  Night!

January 30, 2014

Thursday - Rainy and warmish

A good day.  I got up early again and spent some time on the couch sleeping.  It was nice though to be able to sleep a little longer as I didn't sleep well last night.

I had breakfast during Ghost Whisperer and read a couple of newspapers.  Then, I took a shower and watched some of Charlie's Angels. It was a quiet day really.  I watched some TV, I did a little bit of laundry and prepared a report for my meeting next week.  Just little stuff like that.

In the evening, F came home and I suggested going out fairly soon afterwards.  I wanted to hit the mall for a smaller crochet hook.  The sad thing was that they didn't have any in the right size.  Oh well.  I'll work on something else until the weekend.  

We had dinner at Nambayashkieri, the soba chain.  It was fine.  Mine was a chicken soup soba, I had to dip the noodles in the soup. I was surprised because it was spicier than I expected, but not as hot temperature wise as I like.  F had soba and katsudon or something.  It looked okay.  

After our meal we went to a grocery store that we don't usually go to.  We picked up a few things for dinner tomorrow, including steaks.  It wasn't my idea really!  I'll do a little research to remind myself how to cook them properly!

We came home and had a quiet evening.  We spent a bit of time together and then watched a bit of TV.  F watched some okay stuff for a bit and then it was time for Once Upon a Time.  It was good tonight.  I did a bit of crochet for my convention project. 

F went to bed a bit after midnight and I'm hoping to go soon too.  I'm a tad tired and would like to get a good night's sleep.  Wish me luck with that hey? Tomorrow I think I'm going to do laundry and pack my suitcase for next week.  That way, if I need something washed, there's still time to get it dry.  That's it for me.  Night.

January 29, 2014

Wednesday - Cold, then warmer and clear.

A good day.

I got up a bit late this morning and then watched my TV show.  I had a nice quiet morning.  I had toast, tea and yogurt.

I did the things that I usually do and then I decided to go out.  Yep.  It wasn't snowy, the sidewalks were mostly clear, so I just went out.  I did a little banking and then I went to the craft store.  I bought a couple of balls of yarn for a project I'm making, then left the store.

I went to Kappa Sushi for a quick and late lunch, then came back home.  F called me tonight but said he was going to his mother's for a bit.  I started dinner.  I didn't peel potatoes, but I did thoroughly wash them and cut them up.  

When F arrived home I started dinner.  We had chicken wings, salad and new potatoes.  I think at first F was a bit surprised to just have potatoes boiled, but they were really good!  Part of them being new potatoes I think.  

After dinner, F took a rest from the dishes for a while and we both spent time on our computers.  F put on Die Hard…the last one that takes place in Russia  and I watched it again, well, with one eye!  At 11 I went over to the couch to watch Private Practice, but didn't do any crochet. I'm thinking about restarting the project for my sister...I'd like to make it smaller and tighter. I think it'll look better.  The only problem?  I don't have the right size of hook.  If only I'd thought about it before I went to the craft shop today, I could have bought a new one!

That's about it for today. It was really lovely to get out of the apartment on my own steam today, and on my own terms.  I could spend hours in the craft shop, if I wanted.  I didn't…but I could have!

Oh, just before I go, I'll attach a photo of my corner to corner lap-rug that I just finished.  It's very thick and warm. 

Close-up of stitches

It's about 60X90 cm I think

Talk to you tomorrow.  Night!

January 28, 2014

Tuesday - Rainy and cold

A good day.

I woke up before my alarms today and rather than go back to bed I decided to get up and sleep on the couch.  My reasoning was that it would be less comfortable and I probably wouldn't sleep in quite as long.  Umm…didn't work!

I woke up, watched my show and had some breakfast, then got back to my postcards.  Today I wrote a couple more, then scanned them.  It took a while.  The weather was rainy so I decided to wait and see if the weather would improve before I went to the post office.  It didn't, so I didn't!  I did find another interesting movie on TV today.  It wasn't as high quality as yesterday's, but it was fun.  It was Wild Target with Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt and Rupert Grint. It was a silly piece about hitmen, but it was amusing.  

F was a little late, but not a lot. We didn't have food in the apartment, so we talked about going out.  For once, F made a suggestion and I didn't hate it, so we went to his restaurant.  We went to Hana, a fish restaurant.  It was pretty good tonight. I had Teriyaki Buri.  I liked it, but I wasn't a big fan of the teriyaki.  Still, the fish itself was good.  F had saba(mackerel) and cod soup.  We were both pleased with our meals.

We drove off and went and had a look at my ex-apartment/school. We couldn't tell if someone was in there or not.  It was only 7:30 and no lights were on.  Anyway, we went to the drugstore, the grocery store, the main post office to mail my cards and then back to the gas station.  F was going to let it slide till tomorrow, but I reminded him of what happened after the earthquake…no gas available.  I think it's better to get some before we run out.  

We came home and had a quiet evening.  I finished darning in the ends of my lap-rug finally.  It looks good. I'll try to photograph it tomorrow. 

That's about it for me for tonight.  If the weather holds tomorrow I'm going to try and go out.  I have a few errands that I'd like to get done.  Wish me well with that!  Night.

January 27, 2014

Monday - Sunny then cloudy with snow

A good day.

I got up at my first alarm and came through to the living room.  I turned on the heater and my computer, spent a few minutes in front of one then took my shower.

During Ghost Whisperer I made myself a couple of chicken salad sandwiches.  That was rather dumb as I was planning to go out for lunch! I got dressed and when the time came, went outside to meet my friend.  My cellphone rang and it was my husband!  He was inviting me out for lunch today.  I reminded him that I had a date, and asked for a raincheck.  

My friend and I had a nice, casual lunch at Subway, then some nice ice cream from Baskin-Robbins.  After that, we went for a drive out to Mikawa of all places.  We were looking for winter gear for her and her family.  We found some, but not all of what she wanted.  

She drove me back into Tsuruoka and left me off at my apartment.  It was a great time!

At home, I watched some TV, and then decided to get the table cleared off for dinner.  I did some dishes too, and made the kitchen look half decent again.  I was watching a movie that I found on WOWOW called Trust.  It was about a family whose daughter had a relationship with an on-line predator.  I had heard of it before, but it surprised me with how good it actually was.  Biggest surprise?  The director was David Schwimmer, also known as Ross from Friends!  

F didn't come home until well after 6 pm.  He was exhausted, poor thing.  I suggested he relax for a while, but he wanted to get dinner underway soon.  He prepped a bunch of the vegetables and soon we were able to eat.  We had a duck nabe and it was nice.  I enjoyed it.

I did the dishes and then settled in front of my computer for a bit.  F watched boxing and I ignored it as best I could!  When 10 pm came I watched Elementary and F took his bath.  At 11 I went over to the couch to darn in some ends on my lap-rug, but F came back into the living room and made so much noise.  I was really a bit upset with him. It was the last show of the season and a lot of things were happening that I couldn't hear.  Still, I didn't say anything and he finally went off to bed.

I've written a couple of postcards tonight and I've watched a bit of TV.  It's been quite a nice night really.  

Tomorrow, if the weather is nice I might go out to the bank machine or grab a tea out somewhere.  That might be fun.  Come back and see what I get up to.  Night.

January 26, 2014

Sunday - snowy and cold

Not a great day.

I got up this morning because I heard my husband making a noise.  I thought he'd already left, so I checked it out, but he was just in the process of leaving.  I said goodbye and then stayed up.  

I watched The Gilmore Girls and had a bagel, I spent a little time on my computer, I read the newspaper, and when I was nearly finished, F came back.  Sigh.  

I got dressed and a few minutes later he was demanding to know where I wanted to eat.  I had no idea, didn't really want to eat all that much anyway and so he started to make himself ramen.  I pulled one of his tricks.  I went into the bedroom, closed the door and went back to bed. I slept for a couple of hours, actually more like 3.  

When I got up later we were both quiet to each other, but not angry, just not anything really.  After 7:30 or so I suggested going to a couple of pasta places.  He said okay.  We went out and went to the one I didn't really want to go to, but didn't care enough to object.

We were at Moku-Moku and it was fine.  We both had their pasta set, and it was quite nice.  I had a shrimp and pea-pod genovase sauced spaghetti that I rather liked.  

After dinner we went to MaxValu for tomorrow's dinner ingredients.  We're going to have nabe again. It's going to be mostly hauksai and duck.  

We came home again and at 11 I turned on the TV for Smash.  It was a sad episode…but good.  I am rather sad the show was cancelled as I quite like it.  Then, Lost was on.  I finished crocheting my corner to corner lap-rug during it.  I have to darn in a lot of ends, but it looks good and I'm sure it will be nice and warm at my meeting.  

That's about it really for my day.  Tomorrow I have lunch plans if the weather is okay, and then a nabe for dinner.  I'll keep my fingers crossed that the rest of the day is better than today. Wish me luck with that!  Night.

January 25, 2014

Saturday - rainy and warm and very foggy

An okay day.

I went to bed a little before F this morning, but he was still up before me.  I had turned off the alarms so I woke up when I woke up!

I showered and then we went out for lunch.  It was Grado today and was quite nice.  We both had chicken fricassee and enjoyed it a lot.  After that we drove out to Mikawa to pick something up for F.  I checked out the wool shop, but didn't buy anything.  I was thinking about something, but changed my mind at the last minute.  

We had a doughnut each (using our coupons) and a drink, and a spat, so headed back into Tsuruoka.  F suggested going to the Internet Cafe, and it was fine with me.  We made a stop at home to pick up my bag of goodies and then went.  We had talked about going to karaoke, but didn't go after all.  I enjoyed most of my time there and I made a base for a project that I'll be doing in the middle of the year.  Woot!  I didn't quite finish, but I'm nearly done.  

After the internet cafe we went for dinner at Bikkuri Donkey.  It was nice to go somewhere casual again.  I enjoyed it and I think F did too. 

We bought a few groceries and came home.  I have watched a few things on the telly, I've been enjoying myself really.  

No idea what I'll get up to tomorrow.  But wait…one more thing…today is/was Robert Burns day…Did you have a good one?  Did you have any haggis?  I didn't.  Don't think Tsuruoka has any! 

Talk to you tomorrow.  Night!

January 24, 2014

Friday - warmish and sunny

An okay day.

I got up early this morning and had to fill up the kerosene tank right away.  That was not so much fun.  After that, I came through to the living room and watched my shows and for some reason, fell asleep at my computer.  I fell asleep and woke up just before 12:20.  I took myself over to the couch and fell asleep properly for a while.  

When I woke up I had my second wind and got busy.  I went out into the lobby of the apartment building and swept both floors, then came back in to our apartment.  I vacuumed and got a few spots that I don't usually bother doing.  I was quite pleased with myself.

F came home tonight around 6:30 and vegged for a bit. I started talking about dinner, but he didn't know what he wanted.  I watched the BBC news and then Friends and when I looked up, he had gone.  He sneaked into the bedroom and closed the door.  

I didn't see him again until after midnight.

I wanted to go out, but I didn't want to wake him up, so I did some crochet and surfed the net.  Finally, around midnight I decided to make some food.  I grabbed something out of the freezer, heated it and ate it. 

I had carbonara, and it was quite nice.  Soon after, F got up and was surprised to see that it was so late.  He had some food and then stayed up.  

I'm probably going to go to bed soon. I'm a tad tired and really need my beauty sleep!  No ideas what I'll get up to tomorrow.  Come back and see!  Got to go.  Night.

January 23, 2014

Thursday - Cool, but not too bad.

A goodish day.

I got up this morning and was disappointed to see that the bread that F tried to make last night didn't work.  It looked rather paperweight like.  It was heavy and was only 2 inches high!  

I had some breakfast, toast and yogurt.  Luckily there was still some of Wednesday's bread around!  While I was eating, F called to tell me a strange story.  Apparently the police had called him at 7:00 am to tell him that my bicycle had shown up somewhere and was probably stolen.  The odd thing is, MY bicycle is still in the bike shed. We are thinking that it might be my old bike that I turned in to the bike shop…stolen from there, or possibly stolen from F's garage.  But it is locked most of the time so we're not sure.  I have no idea what is going to happen with all of this.  Hopefully nothing.

F showed up around 12:15 with some bagels.  What a nice guy.  They're getting hard to find again.

In the afternoon I scanned my postcards, both outgoing and received, then I got dinner started.

I did a lot of prep-work tonight. I cut up half a cabbage, some mushrooms, some carrots and a couple of onions.  F came home when I was just about finished.  That meant that I was able to get dinner underway really quickly.  We had stir-fry tonight, pork stir-fry and it was good.  F liked it, and there's even some leftovers for my lunch tomorrow. Yes!

In the evening we went out for a mini-date!  We went to Mr Donut and had tea or coffee and a doughnut.  It was rather nice.  It was so quiet in there, but the parking lot was full.  

We came home afterwards and relaxed.  I watched Once Upon a Time and crocheted through it.  I'm now decreasing my lapghan as I'm down to 5 balls of yarn.  Well, less than that now.  It'll be a slight rectangle.  I love the colours.  Really love them.

I've spent the last couple of hours staring at Pinterest looking for crafting ideas for my presentation and then I started to think about my old tea-pot and went looking for it on the net.  I found one like it, plus a bunch of stuff from the shop we used to buy from near Stavanger, the Figgjo Flint factory.  It was a real memory lane.  I even saw an auction where the same salt and pepper shakers that we had went for something like $78.  Wow!

Anyway, I have to get myself off to sleep. No plans for tomorrow…a few things I have to start preparing for my trip though.  Wish me luck with that!  Night!

January 22, 2014

Wednesday - Cool but clear for most of the day

A good day!

I slept in today.  F was at home and I don't know why I just didn't get up. I meant to.  Still, I was up in time for Ghost Whisperer and to eat some lovely home made bread.  

I had a busy morning at my computer.  I worked on the cull of the on-line group, but haven't finished quite yet. I needed a little more info from another club member first.

F went to the chiropractor today while I stayed at home. I didn't mind, I had work to do.  I took a shower while he was gone and watched Heartland, so I was quite happy!

When he came home we were both hungry, so we took a trip to the mall and went to Doutors for sandwiches.  We had the new pepper-beef with cheese and it was nice.  That tided us over nicely until dinner.  

We went over to Hard-Off for me to buy some t-shirts for a project I'm doing this summer.  I got a few, but they were actually quite nice, and a little more expensive than I had planned.  Oh well.  It took a while to find them all though.

We decided to have dinner after this and although our first choice was closed, we decided to go to the special chicken yakitori restaurant/izakaya.  We were the only people there for a long time so it was nice.  We had quite a bit of chicken, but also had a couple of veggie based dishes to lighten it.  The price was quite reasonable and we both enjoyed ourselves.  

We bought a few groceries and then came home.  I'm planning a stir-fry tomorrow, so had to get supplies for it.  

I had a quiet evening in front of my computer. I wrote a few Postcrossing cards, then went over to the couch to do a little crochet work during my show.  

F is back to work tomorrow and I'm going to finish up the cull and then it should be done for another year. Yes!

That's it for me.  I had a good day, better than I expected with my husband being off work.  Tomorrow, I have a busy day, so I'd best get some sleep now.  Wish me luck!  Night.

January 21, 2014

Tuesday - Snowy?  Didn't go out again.

An okay day.

I went to bed before 3 last night.  F stayed up late too, which I really wish he wouldn't. Anyway, I got up a bit late this morning.  Lately I've been waking up just after 8 and then going back to sleep until 9:30 or so.  I really wish I wouldn't wake up early!

I got up, got dressed and got on with my day.  I was eating a late breakfast around noon when F called and asked if I'd like to have lunch.  Well, no!  I told him I was still on breakfast and apologized to him.  

I had a quiet day in my apartment. I did a little research for something I might be working on later in the year, and watched a bit of TV.  

F came home on time tonight so I got dinner started quite early.  I think I did rather well tonight!  I reheated the stew and cooked some pasta.  We had last night's stew on top of pasta, and it was nice.  It was lovely not having to make a whole meal from scratch!

After dinner F did the dishes and we relaxed.  He watched a bunch of stuff on TV that wasn't too annoying for a change and then at 9 I took over and watched my stuff.  F wasn't feeling great so he went to bed before midnight tonight.  He has taken tomorrow off work so I'm not really sure how our day will turn out.  I need to finish up something from my women's group and I have told him that I must do it tomorrow.  

Well, that's it for me.  Today was nice, I just hope that tomorrow will be too.  Wish me luck.  Night!

January 20, 2014

Monday - Cold and snowy…didn't go out

A pretty good day really.

I got up this morning and felt a tad odd.  I was tired and so I caught an extra few winks on the couch, but did wake up in time to watch The Ghost Whisperer and have some breakfast.  

I took a shower and then worked on my computer for a bit. I threw in a small load of laundry too. No biggie.  

When it was getting close to 2:30 I went into the kitchen and started putting dinner together.  I prepped all the veggies first…peeled potatoes, carrots, cleaned a bit of kabocha and then the mushrooms and onions.  When I was finished all of that, I smashed a couple of garlic cloves up and cooked them in a little olive oil in my big pan.  Then I added in a little bacon I stole from F's stash…took out the bacon and the garlic pieces which were nicely brown.  

Anyway, I made stew!  I was quite worried because it was started so late in the day, but it worked really well.  When F came home he vegged a little while I put the dumpling mix together and then cooked them on the top of the stew.  We had a nice dinner.  I did chicken stew and it was the first time that I've ever done that.  I would like to make it again and follow a recipe more, but honestly, mine  was quite nice!  F and I both had seconds and there's enough for dinner tomorrow too.  Yay!

F did the dishes, but there weren't really that many.  We just used one bowl each and I had cleaned as I worked so it was okay.

We had a fairly quiet evening.  F was watching some bad J-TV and I was ignoring it.  At 11:00 I went over to the couch for some Scandal and some crochet.  Both were fun!

After midnight, F took his bath and we're both still up, way too late really.  I'll be posting this soon and then hopefully getting to bed before long.  

No idea what I'll get up to tomorrow.  Wish me luck with that eh?  Night!

January 19, 2014

Sunday - Warm but snowy

A good, relaxing day.

I slept in rather late this morning…or should I say early this afternoon? I woke up but kept sleeping longer.  I got up and F started to talk about going out for lunch right away, but I didn't want to!  I checked the TV schedule and there was a Daniel Radcliffe film on WOWOW in a little bit, going out to lunch would make me miss it.  I reminded F that we had talked about ordering in sushi, so we did that.  

It was a nice idea as the fish was good and it was a low key sort of meal.  We both got to relax longer and we enjoyed our meal.  F took a bit of a nap and I watched the movie and made pom-poms.  It was very creepy and didn't quite end the way I thought it would.  I'm glad I saw it in the daylight.  It was The Woman in Black in case you are looking out for it. 

After it was over we talked about going out and finally decided that it was a good idea.  First we went to the bank machine and then…yes, you guessed it, the Internet Cafe.  We were able to get chairs right away.  I did a whole lot of crochet and then watched The Incredible Journey.  At the end of the movie there were tears just streaming down my face.  I'd seen it before, but the gorgeous Siamese running down the hill was so much like our Siamese cat, and then poor old Bodger, the old Bull Terrier that everyone had given up on and…..sob… I'd been waiting for that film for the whole month, ever since I saw that it would be on.  

I wouldn't leave the Internet Cafe when our 3 hours were up.  I wanted to stay longer and do some reading.  We stayed another hour and I got a couple of newspapers read, so I was quite pleased.  

We bought a few groceries so I can make dinner for tomorrow night and then came home.  We had a good and quiet night at home.  I sewed the pompoms onto my hat's cord and then asked F to take more pictures.  I'll post them below!  I also took some photos of my lapghan to post onto Ravelry.  

Co-ordinates with my coat!

The no pom-pom look.  Boring!

With pom-poms.  Much better!

My corner to corner lap afghan. 

And that was my day.  It was quite nice actually. It was nice not to race around and argue about where to eat.  It was rather relaxing and I definitely needed that!  Got to go.  Night.

January 18, 2014

Saturday - Coldish and snowy

A good day.

I got up this morning and F was up already.  He got up around 7 I think.  He'd slept for so long I couldn't believe it.  

I vegged in front of my computer and then watched Nigel Slater.  One of the things he made today was a great sandwich, actually, he made two of them.  I wanted a sandwich, so when F asked me where I'd like to have lunch today, I said Subway!  It's kind of a win-win because I love Subway sandwiches, and F loves ramen.  There's a ramen shop upstairs in the mall.  So, we went to the mall and he went upstairs and I went downstairs  I had one of the flatbread sandwiches and it was okay.  I honestly would prefer the sandwich to be hotter in temperature, but it wasn't bad.  I also had a drink and their oven fries.  

After lunch, F and I reunited, did a little shopping in the hundred yen shop, and then came home for a couple of minutes.  He needed medicine and I wanted a cd.  We took care of our wants and needs and then set off into the wilds around Tsuruoka!  We ended up at the ski hill.  We walked around the non-skiing area but it was snowing and cold and slippery so we didn't stay long.  We stayed longer in the car trying to get out of the parking lot than we did at the ski hill!

We came back home for a little and vegged or used our computers.  At 6 we headed over to Jiro for dinner.  We both had the same thing, beef stew with butter rice.  I really liked it, F not so much.  

After that, we drove over to Machi-kine, the theatre and went to see A Late Quartet.  It was really good.  It was more of a character piece than a story piece, but it was very enjoyable.  It was also a bit hard to complain about the music!  It was great.

When the movie was finished we left the theatre, and went to the grocery store.  We got a few things and then came home.  We spent a quiet evening at home.  I did a bit of crochet and blogging, F relaxed for a while and then went to bed.  This weather is tough on his back. 

That's about it for today.  I'm not sure what we'll get up to tomorrow.  I'm hoping more crochet time for me, but I'd also like to do some reading as I haven't done enough for a while.  Come back and find out just what I get up to!  Night.

January 17, 2014

Friday - Snowy but clear, not too cold

A good day!

I got up a little late this morning and then proceeded to fall asleep on the couch.  I woke up a lot later a little disoriented.  I had a lot of things to do today, so I was rather annoyed at myself.  

I had some breakfast, checked my email, dealt with my email and then did a bit of laundry.  In the afternoon I also scanned some cards.  Correction, I scanned A LOT of cards!  This week I received a lot of cards in the mail and I wanted to get them all scanned before the weekend.

Around 4:30 I decided that I had better go to the post office as I had to mail some cards, and send off a swap that I was doing.  I dressed and raced off.  I was quite surprised how quickly I managed to get there, but it wasn't too good for my beleaguered lungs.  I got to the post office, mailed my cards, and headed back home, a little slower.  

Back at the apartment, I shovelled a little bit of snow from in front of the apartment building and also from F's parking space.  Then, I went back into the apartment and hung up another load of laundry.  

F came home around his usual time, or perhaps a few minutes later.  Soon after he arrived, I got started on dinner.  Tonight we had spinach fettuccine with mushroom alfredo sauce (from a jar, very yum), plus sautéed salmon and salad.  It all worked out and was quite nice.  However, F had a beer with dinner, after checking that I didn't need/want to go out. As soon as dinner was over, he went to bed!  He didn't even do the dishes.  I haven't seen him since 7:45 and it's well past 2 am now.  

I spent the evening working on my hat and I'm glad to say that I have finished it.  I love it!  I'm debating putting pom-poms on the ends of the cord because, well, POM-POMS! I did all the darning in of ends and crocheted it together.  I like it a lot.  It's a little heavy, but very warm. I'll try and get a picture of it up in the next couple of days.

And that's about it.  I've spent a quiet evening in the living room by myself. I watched a lot of TV, but I've enjoyed myself to be honest. I'll talk to you tomorrow most likely.  Night.

  

January 16, 2014

Thursday - Cold and a little snowy

A good day.

I got up this morning and checked my email.  After that, I had to deal with some email from all my work yesterday.  It took a while, and when F called me around 11:30 I was still in my PJs. He was inviting me out for lunch.  Woot!

I changed and got ready to meet him.  We went to the nearby Chinese restaurant and had a nice meal.  I came home afterwards and went back on my computer.  After a while I couldn't keep my eyes open, so I took a nap on the couch.  It helped a lot.  It didn't last that long.

F was a little late tonight as he had to do some driving for work.  I took the chance of trying something new while he was away.  I tried out the Corner to Corner afghan stitch.  I had bought some special yarn for it, so I gave it a try.  It went really well and is quite easy, which I like.  I will try to make myself a lap blanket as I'm a little cold at night at my computer. I have some leftover baby yarn that might make a cute baby-ghan too.  Oh the possibilities!

We had dinner at Kintaro Sushi tonight, after driving around to several restaurants looking for good places to go.  It was so empty when we went in.  It is so sad.  I worry that a lot of people are going to Kappa Sushi instead.  

We bought some groceries after dinner.  I'm going to do pasta again tomorrow night to finish up the pasta sauce.  It is too nice to waste.  We'll have spinach fettuccine and salmon with alfredo sauce.  It sounds nice, doesn't it?!

We came home and watched TV.  F watched skating for a bit and then at 11 I watched Once Upon a Time.  I did a bit of crochet then too and I think I may have finished the length I need for my hat.  I'll check it tomorrow and see how it goes.  

And that was really about that.  It was a pretty good day. Tomorrow I have to go to the post office and mail off some cards, and I might even get to finish up my hat.  I hope so!  Wish me luck!  Night.

January 15, 2014

Wednesday - Sunny and warmish in the morning

A pretty good day.

I got up a little late this morning and went and registered for the convention for my women's group.  Then, I raced off to the post office to pay for it.  It was fun trying to use the post office's machine to do it, but I managed.  For some reason, I can't do it in English…obviously, English speaking people would NEVER transfer money from their own account…snort…but I muddled through the Japanese and got it done!

I came home, had a spot of breakfast/lunch and then got stuck into The Cull….Ominous music in background….Every year we have to check that the members in our on-line groups are really members and that they haven't lapsed.  Of course, many people are listed by email addresses rather than their names, so it gets a little complicated!  It usually takes an entire day just to match everyone up.  Ack.  Still, I managed to finish the first step just after midnight!  I hope.

F cooked dinner tonight for us.  It was a nabe, so he probably would have done it for us anyway.  Earlier I had taken out and washed the nabe, and after dinner, I also did the dishes and made tea for us.  

I received a lot of postcards today.  Some are really gorgeous ones that you'll see eventually on my blog.  I think you'll like them! I know I do.

 I did up the garbage at midnight, and put it out for F.  I watched my Wednesday night TV and enjoyed it…That's it really.  

Tomorrow I have a few things that I need to do, and I'll check in on the cull and how things are going.  Talk to you tomorrow night!  Sweet dreams!

January 14, 2014

Tuesday - Sunny, with a bit of snow along the way

A good day!

I woke up when F popped back in from work, but I fell back asleep.  I woke up next when my alarm went off.  I had a few minutes before my bread was ready.  I got up and in a few minutes had some lovely smelling bread.  Which I never ate!

I had an early breakfast and took a shower, then watched the final Ugly Betty episode.  I really liked that show.  It was lightweight in some respects, but had some things that I admire it for.  

I got ready for going out and just before 1 pm I went outside and waited for my friend.  She picked me up and we had a lovely lunch in The Grand El Son.  I had pork with apple sauce, she had fish.  Both our meals were nice. 

After lunch we went to find a coffee shop, but it wasn't open when we got there. Instead, we went to McDonald and had some tea or coffee and chatted.  I got something serious off my chest and we had a really good discussion.

Too soon, she dropped me off back at my apartment and then was on her way.  I went into my apartment and then got busy!  I changed and went into the lobby and did some sweeping, as it is our turn to keep the common areas clean.  I hadn't done it earlier, but it wasn't bad really.  Then, I grabbed one of the snow "dumps" and took it out to F's parking space.  There wasn't a lot of snow there, but I wanted to get it out of the way.  Unfortunately, while I was handling the dump, I twisted my right thumb strangely and now it is really painful.  It's not easy to move it.

I went back in to the apartment when I finished and worked on my computer until F came home.  When he did he was a lot more cheerful than he'd been in weeks.  He was tired, but not so down in the dumps.  

We talked about dinner and he suggested Coco Ichibanya.  That was fine with me, and so we went there.  I had pork cutlet and veggies with my curry, F had chicken stew and spinach.  Mine was really good!

We bought a few groceries after dinner for tomorrow…it's going to be nabe!  The first time in ages that we've agreed on something to eat.  We came home and had a quiet evening in.  We didn't even turn on the TV until 11 for Criminal Minds.  

I did managed to do a little crochet during Criminal Minds, but not as much as I normally would.  It's surprising to me how much it actually hurts.  I'll have to rest up…I wonder if it will get me out of any jobs I don't like?

Tomorrow I have to book myself a place at the convention and then race to the post office to send the money!  Hopefully all will go well with that!  Wish me luck.  Got to go.  Night!

January 13, 2014

Monday - Snowy and cold

An okay day.

I got up this morning a bit late, but not too bad.  I was up, talking to F.  We watched Ugly Betty, but he went back to bed before it was over.  

I went back to bed too, and fell asleep.  When I woke up it was the afternoon and F was up again!  We decided to go out for lunch, we went to Pisolino.  It was good actually.  Of course, we ate too much again, but I didn't do too badly really!  I had a plan this time and I walked all around the food first to choose what I wanted, rather than grabbing a bit of everything.  I should try and do that more often.

We hit up the drugstore on the way home and then came home.  We stayed here the rest of the night.  

We had a fairly decent evening.  F watched that horrid TV programme where they send a poor kid off on their own and then follow them with a camera.  Oh the hilarity!  Child abuse in my mind.  If my sister had done that with either of her kids I would have reported her. Then again, my sister wouldn't.  She has sense.  

I watched Scandal, then during White Collar I set up the bread machine for myself.  I set the timer to come off a little before I usually get up.  I have to get up early tomorrow, so I hope having a reason will work!

Now I'm watching a Jason Statham movie, so all is right with the world.  Not with his world you understand, he's fighting and shooting, but it's quite good.  The only bad thing is the baddies are Russian and Chinese so they keep talking in their languages and it is only subtitled in Japanese. Sigh.  

Tomorrow I have a lunch date and I am looking forward to it.  I need a bit of girl talk.  Actually, I need a lot of girl talk!  Come back tomorrow and I'll let you know what happens…maybe!  Night.  

January 12, 2014

Sunday - Snowy then clearing in the evening

An okay day

I got up a bit late today, but before noon so I was pleased with myself!  F had gone out and cleared snow, so he was tired and achy.  He asked if we could go to the internet cafe for some massaging chair action, so I said it was fine. 

We went, and were both able to get chairs.  We had lunch there too. I had baked curry with chicken and French fries and they were both good.  I watched the end of the Alistair Maclean movie from the other day and did a lot of crochet.  Yay me.  My hat is about half done.

When it was time to leave we went to the mall.  We checked the movie schedule time and had only 5 minutes if we wanted to go and see Escape Plan, the new Stallone/Schwarzenegger film.  We hemmed and hawed for a minute and then decided to go for it.  F got the tickets (we had coupons for free movies today…yay!) and I got the popcorn & drinks.  

We both enjoyed the movie. It wasn't "great" but it was fun and honestly, it was a happy thing to see Arnie and Sly on the big screen again! 

After the movie we hacked around the mall a little.  We bought some non-perishables in the grocery store, then had 2 free donuts plus drinks at Mr. Donut, then went back to the grocery store to get something for dinner.  

We drove home and at home unloaded the bags of stuff we bought.  I had chicken and salad, F had sashimi and fried oysters and other stuff.  We watched some TV and had a fairly quiet night.  I've been answering some email…some fairly weighty stuff that took a lot of thought to write, so I haven't done a lot of other things.  

Tomorrow I may be out with my husband, I'm just not sure.  We haven't made plans yet.  That's it for me.  Talk to you tomorrow.  Night!