January 31, 2017

Tuesday - Snowy and cold

A good day.

I got up this morning and watched Nikita while drinking tea that I made for us and eating my breakfast.  A bit later, F asked if I would like to go out for breakfast.  He was surprised when I said I’d already eaten.  I was surprised because I was sitting next to him when I did! Why didn’t he notice? 

We did go out for lunch however, and went to a very nice French restaurant.  I had the same thing I had last time, suzuki with bread and F had hamburger.  It wasn’t the North American style hamburger, it was a hamburger patty with rice, veggies and gravy. It looked good.

After lunch we tried to have coffee, but the first place we went to was closed, so went to Aomoriya for coffee and cake.  It was quite good today, much better than last time.  We both had the same dish there.

We came home afterwards and I swept the lobby (last time…woot!) and then hung up my laundry.  I did some computer stuff and watched the news at 4 pm.  It made me angry again.  I’d like to throw things at the TV.  Well, not AT my TV, through my TV, but only if they’d hit the idiot on the other side.  You know, the orange one.  

Anyway, we discussed going out for dinner tonight and I suggested Cocos.  We drove there and had a pretty decent meal.  I had the ethnic chicken with yogurt dressing and roasted potatoes.  It was good.  F had the jambalaya with beef.  Afterwards, we bought some kerosene and then came home.

At home, I unpinned my poncho panel and cleaned up my craft stuff in the room.  I was on my computer for a while, doing some Postcrossings until 11 when I watched Criminal Minds on the couch and actually sewed 4 squares together.  Yay me! I’m sure I’ll get faster as I go along.  I still have some to crochet, but I am thinking that I’ll likely take my yarn and hook away with me, since taking sewn squares is a bit more difficult.  

And that’s about it.  We’ve been chilling out for a while.  I’ve blogged and also Postcrossed, although I really should have scanned them tonight, will have to do it tomorrow.  

I am not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow.  You’ll just hopefully have to come back on the first day of the new month and find out.  Until tomorrow….

January 30, 2017

Monday - Rainy but clearing at night

An okay day.

I got up this morning and made some tea and had cereal.  I had to scoot F off my side of the couch so that I could watch Nikita.  He had breakfast too and then went back to bed for a bit.  After my shows finished, I went back to bed and slept for ages.  It was almost two when I got up again.

I made myself some lunch, offered parts of it to F for his, but he wasn’t hungry.  That was too bad for him.  I had some avocado on English Muffin and some cheese on another side of the muffin.  Yum. I washed the dishes too.

In the afternoon I did a tad bit of tidying up around my computer desk and after a bit suggested we go out for dinner.  I was getting hungry!

I was hoping for a Gusto or a Cocos dinner, but F wanted noodles.  He suggested going to an udon chain restaurant. I wasn’t best pleased, but thought that he really needed to eat something he likes.  He is the sick one at the moment.  

We went to the restaurant, which thankfully wasn’t very busy.  I had the meat udon which was okay, and made better by the hot mustard I added.  F didn’t like his dish at all!  Quelle surprise!

We bought a few groceries and then came home.  Since it was almost 9:00 pm and time for Pretty Little Liars, I demanded the TV and watched my show.  I also made us some tea and did some crochet, so it wasn’t a bad thing.  I think.  F drank his tea and then went to bed.  

I went back into the tatami room and measured my crochet panel for the poncho I’m making.  Unfortunately, I didn’t do that before I blocked it!  I had one side off a lot.  Sigh.  I unpinned it and then blocked the other side.  This time I did measure and used a lot of pins so I’m hoping it’ll be good when it is cool and dry. 

I had a quiet evening watching a bit of telly and preparing to blog.  I’m not sure what I’m going to get up to tomorrow, I think you’ll just have to come back and find out.  Until tomorrow then….!

January 29, 2017

Sunday - Cloudy, bit of rain later on

An okay day.

I slept in this morning, even later than I usually do.  F was in the living room watching boxing on the TV in the dark, so I had no reason to get up.  My excuse anyway!

When I did get up, I asked if F would like some brunch and then made some scrambled eggs on English Muffin.  It came together fairly well, except for one little thing.  I was adding some salt to the eggs and completely forgot that the top of the salt shaker is loose.  It came off in my hand and I didn’t notice until after a big dollop of salt went in the eggs.  Yikes!  F actually was pretty smart about the whole thing.  He poured off the eggs into another bowl and we left what was in the bottom of the first bowl there.  When we ate the eggs they weren’t too bad.  A little bit saltier than I would like, but definitely edible.  

F liked breakfast so I was happy. I did the dishes too.  He didn’t seem like he wanted to move at all, so around 3 pm I went for a long walk.  I didn’t really have a plan and so I ended up walking a huge distance!  I stopped in at a bakery for a few treats, then came back via a road that I’d never been by before.  I even discovered a couple of churches in Tsuruoka that I didn’t know existed!  I stopped in at McDonald and had an iced coffee and an orange/chocolate McFlurry.  I used the coupons on the app I have and I saved a few yen.  When I got the McFlurry to my seat I was surprised that it didn’t look like the one on the poster.  I couldn’t taste the orange either.  My receipt said Orange Chocolate, but this wasn’t.  I took it back to the counter when they weren’t busy and asked.  They gave me another one. It took a while for them to find the ingredients, I wonder if that’s why I didn’t get the one I wanted first?  Still, yay me.  I was nice, the guy was nice, so no big deal, but as my Japanese is pretty pathetic, I was a bit nervous about doing it.  

After a while I started towards home.  I realized when I was going to turn off the main road, that I could finally go to the little clothing and housewares shop on the corner.  I’ve been putting it off for a while.  I went in and had a little look around.  I wanted to get F a new pillow case, but I couldn’t remember the size of his pillow.  I tried texting him, but it didn’t go through.  I decided not to get one just in case.  

I walked home.  I’d walked a couple of miles all told.  Yay me.

When I got home, F was watching Hook in Japanese and relaxing, as he should be.  I checked on the pillow and the pillow cases in the store were too small.  Good thing I didn’t buy one!

We had a quiet time for a while and then around 7 went out.  F picked a restaurant that serves fish, so we went there.  I ordered, but I couldn’t have the dish I wanted.  I ended up ordering Chicken Tatsuta again.  It was….okay.  Moral of this story is don’t order meat in a fish restaurant!

We had bought a few things at the drugstore nearby before we ate, and F didn’t want to go to the grocery store afterwards, so we just came home.  

I had a quiet time and then decided to block one side of my poncho that I was working on a few months ago.  I stretched it out a bit and it looks amazing.  I hope the other side looks equally as good.  It is sitting on the ironing board cooling and drying.  

After that, it was Downton Abbey and it was a cracking great show tonight.  What am I going to do when it is all over? 

And that is my day.  F has gone to bed, not sure how well he is sleeping though.  Tomorrow I’m just not sure what I’ll get up to.  Come back tomorrow and see!  

January 28, 2017

Saturday - Clear and warm

A very odd day!

I went to bed very late last night, so I couldn’t get up at my usual time today.  I slept in, but got up a touch before 11.  I got a text from F to say that he did in fact have the flu and would be off work until Thursday. 

He came home and I heated up the remains of last night’s dinner for our lunch.  We ate and it was okay.  I don’t know if F liked it or not.  He didn’t eat a lot.

Instead of going to bed like a normal person who felt sick and didn’t want to get their significant other sick too, he stayed up and watched YouTube and TV.  

It was such a nice day outside that I decided to go for a walk.  I walked over to Cafe Cinq and had a soy latte and then walked back home again.  

F was still up, so I sat at my computer and ended up watching a bit of a war movie. F suggested going out for dinner, but I countered with a suggestion of getting take-out instead.  He called and ordered some food, he said it would take an hour to be ready.

We left the apartment after a bit and went to the grocery store and then to the take-out bento shop.  Of course, our stuff was waiting for us even though we were early.  I sort of had a feeling that would happen despite F swearing that they always took a long time!

We came home and ate and then F watched TV all night.  I basically demanded the TV at 11:00pm and got it, and he finally went to bed!

I watched How to Get Away with Murder and then the Project Runway double shot finale.  I enjoyed that one a lot.  I suppose that means no more Project Runway for a bit.  Sigh.  

I’m worried that I’ll get the flu too.  At the end of next week we’re supposed to be going away for a day or two and if I’m sick with flu I should probably cancel.  Sigh.  What to do? 

On Sunday I’m not sure what I’ll get up to with my husband.  You’ll just have to come back and see!  Until tomorrow….

January 27, 2017

Friday - Warmer and rainy

A good day.

I got up this morning on time and came through to the living room.  I had some tea and didn’t have breakfast.  After a while, F came home for a few minutes, but I took a shower.  When I came out, he was gone.  I got dressed and a little while later, my friend arrived.  

We went to Pisolino and had lunch there.  It was quite nice.  We each had porcini pasta and shared a crab and yuzu kosho pizza.  It was really good.  We had some food from the buffet too. The corner of the restaurant where we were sitting was rather cold, so after we finished our meal I suggested going to Doutors for coffee.  

We drove to the mall and after a quick visit to the hundred yen shop we went for a drink. My friend had orange juice and I had a soy latte. 

She drove me home before she went to a meeting and that’s where I spent the rest of the day.

When I came home I relaxed for a bit and then started to get dinner ready.  F called to say that he was coming home around 6:00.  Sadly when he arrived he wasn’t feeling well at all.  He passed on my lovely dinner, so I ate it all by myself.  The good thing is there are enough leftovers for lunch tomorrow maybe!

F made his own dinner and then went to bed, but came out again a few minutes later.  He went out and then came home again. It was a tad odd.  

He’s in bed now and I hope sleeping.  I watched a lot of TV tonight and just finished watching the original Fright Night which was schlocky but so much fun!

I honestly am not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I think a lot depends on my husband and how he is, and also what the weather is like.  I think we’ll just play things by ear.  Come back tomorrow if you feel like it and find out what happens.  Until tomorrow….

January 26, 2017

Thursday - Sunny

An okay day.

I had a usual morning except F didn’t come home during it and I got a big box in the mail.  What was in the box?  Birthday presents!  No, it isn’t my birthday yet, but my sister was prepared and they arrived early.  She okayed my opening them, so I did.  I got a necklace and a towel from her trip to Hawaii and a t-shirt-y blouse that I really love.

I had a quiet day at home to be honest.  In the afternoon I finished cleaning up underneath my computer desk.  Now I just have to clean up my computer desk.  Sigh.  I watched a little telly and I had lunch too.

This evening I started to get things ready for dinner.  F and I have a huge bag of chips from Costco (it wasn’t MY idea to buy them) and they will expire soon.  I made some dip and also cut up some raw vegetables too so that we’d have something moderately healthy with them.  We also shared a doria that F bought recently.  He bought it for me, but I couldn’t eat it all by itself.  Dinner was quite good. I really liked my dill dip.  

In the evening I watched a double shot of Bones and did some crochet.  F is still not feeling well, although he sounded better than yesterday.  He doesn’t want to take tomorrow off work, but I wonder if he should do it and go to the doctor.  

Tomorrow I am having lunch with the lady from the next city over and then I’ll cook dinner for F and I.  I hope it’ll go well.  I’ll likely be doing more crocheting as well! Come on back later and find out what I get up to.  Until tomorrow….

January 25, 2017

Wednesday - Sunny but cool

A good day.

I woke up earlier than usual this morning and got up.  I refilled the kerosene heater and then settled in with some tea and breakfast for my shows.  F popped in for a minute and it was a good thing as he’d forgotten to take his phone to work today!  He didn’t even notice that.  

Around 11:30 I was dressed, made the bed and then went outside and shovelled the snow out of his parking space.  I’d done a good job yesterday so it wasn’t too bad today, but I still moved a lot of snow.  When I finished I went back inside. 

F came home for lunch and made himself some ramen.  He wasn’t sounding good.  His voice sounded really strained.  Oh dear.

After he left I did a few things.  I went through a pile of stuff and threw out a bunch and sorted other bits of it, then I scanned my postcards.  I had a quick and delicious lunch (last of my soup, onion bagel with some cheese on it), then took my cards off to the post office.  I got there and then came back again.  No big deal, but it was nice to get out of the apartment under my own steam.

F came home and sounded terrible.  I hadn’t planned to cook at home tonight, so we went to the local Chinese restaurant where we had a pretty good meal.  F had some ramen with a shrimp omelette dish, I had half a chicken fried and rice and soup.  It was quite good.  F and I swapped a bit of food, some of his omelette for some of my chicken.  

We bought groceries at the store and then came home.  

F moped around most of the evening, trying to decide if he could take the day off work tomorrow.  He seems to think he can’t.  However, I’m worried that if he had the flu, he really shouldn’t be at work.  He’ll have to decide in the morning.  I’m hoping it is just a cold and that I don’t get it. 

I did a little crochet today and even spread out my squares to see how they look.  I like the way they are, but I’m considering putting another row of cream squares on the top and the bottom, not just on the sides.  It will take longer, but will make it look more balanced.  Anyway, here’s the latest picture…

I can either do 5 more cream squares to fill in the bottom or, do those five, or those five
plus 2x9 cream squares to surround the "checkerboard" with white squares. If I have enough yarn. 

Today was also Robert Burns Day, but I sadly didn’t do too much to celebrate. Maybe next year!

Tomorrow I going to hope that F doesn’t have a cold or the flu and work on more of my decluttering.  So much to do, so many books to find and put away.  Argh!  Until tomorrow then….

January 24, 2017

Tuesday - Colder and snowy

An okay day.

I had my usual kind of morning except I was very sleepy and slept a bit in the morning after breakfast.  Oh well.

I got dressed and did a few things around the apartment. I did some laundry today and unpinned the squares I blocked yesterday.  This time they looked fine. Yay.  I watched a bit of Zoolander 2 and also went outside to do a little snow shovelling.  I didn’t add in a walk today as it was cold out.  

When I came back in, I sat on the floor near the heater and went through some stuff on the bottom of my desk.  I threw out a bunch of stuff.  I’m not done yet, but I was covered in dust, so I had to change before I started working on dinner!

F came home for lunch and said that he’d likely be late tonight as he had a far away driving assignment.  He didn’t get home until after 7 again.  Poor guy. 

Tonight’s dinner was pretty good.  We had a bowl of soup each, plus some salad and I made “buta-tama-kimchi”. It was basically fried pork with an egg and a lot of kimchi, and it was good.  I have some saved for my lunch tomorrow too.  

In the evening F did the dishes and I worked on some Postcrossings as I feel far behind.  I also went  over to the couch to do some crochet during Criminal Minds.  I watched the Academy Award Nominations tonight too.  Sadly, our channel decided to yap over the announcements in Japanese.  I don’t know why they couldn’t have the bilingual sub channel working.  Anyway, the sad thing is that I’ve only seen one of the nominated performances (Meryl Streep’s) and exactly zero of the nominated best films.  Sigh.  

Tomorrow I hope I’m not going to cook, but I will if I have to!  We don’t really have a lot of food in the house for dinner.  Still, I’ll see what F wants to do tomorrow night.

Come back later and see how my Wednesday goes.  Until tomorrow….

January 23, 2017

Monday - Sunny and warm, snowy later on

A busy day.

I got up mostly on time today.  I had a hard time sleeping last night due to the caffeine I had drunk last night, so overslept a tad. Still, I got up, started the heater and went to the washroom.  While I was there, F popped home for a minute.  He left soon afterwards.

I had my usual tea and breakfast and then got started on dinner.  I made chicken vegetable soup, so I got started on it quite early.  I peeled and cut up a lot of veggies and then added a piece of chicken, some spices and put the lid on it all.  Done!  F came home a few minutes later for his lunch.

After his lunch, I went outside and shovelled out the rest of the snow in his parking space, as well as clearing some of the snow in front of the building.  When I finished, it was such a nice day, I didn’t want to go inside yet.  I walked to a nearby vending machine and bought a canned coffee.  I came in, drank it while it was still hot and then went and did the lobby sweeping.  

When I came in after that I took a shower and then blocked a few more squares.  I actually re-blocked the last ones I did too as I didn’t think they were done enough.  

Whew!  It was after 4pm and I hadn’t even had lunch yet.  I had a quick little snack and then got back to work.  I washed dishes and then took the chicken out of the soup, shredded it and then used my handy-dandy new handheld blender to puree some of the soup.  After that, I let it cook some more.

F didn’t get home until after 7pm, close to 7:30 I think.  The roads were bad and he’d had to visit his mother tonight.  I had things ready so when he arrived, waited for him to change his clothes and then we ate.  

The soup was pretty good, but F only had one bowl of it.  I had a couple.  Yum.  We had it with some salad and I used tortilla chips instead of croutons.  That was quite nice actually.

F did the dishes after dinner, which I would have let him off of actually.

In the evening I decided to try making a Pinterest recipe for London Fog.  Of course, I had to change it up.  I used soy milk instead of milk and I didn’t have any vanilla beans, so I used vanilla essence.  It did taste very nice however and I enjoyed it.  I’m not sure if F liked it as much, I hope so.

We had a very quiet evening.  F watched some TV that wasn’t annoying (actually I wished it was in English because I thought it looked interesting) and then I watched a couple of late night things.

Tomorrow I’m not sure what I’ll get up to. I’m going to cook dinner again, and hopefully do some more sorting out of stuff during the day.  Wish me luck with that.   Come back later and see what I get up to.  Until tomorrow….

January 22, 2017

Sunday - Cloudy with some snow.

A quiet day.

I slept in this morning, actually we both did, but F was up before me.  After I got up he made me a cup of tea (yay!) and we had a quick bite to eat.  Then, he wanted to go and have lunch.  He wanted to go to a gyudon shop so I could have a steak donburi, but honestly, I didn’t want a steak donburi.  I said I’d go if he wanted to go to that restaurant, but he said he didn’t really want to!  I suggested going to our favourite sushi place instead, and that’s what we did!

After a small, cheap and quick lunch of sushi and miso soup, we went to S-Mall for some coffee.  That was a nice little break.  After that, I tried to get F interested in doing something.  We had planned to go to the Internet Cafe, but he begged off. He wasn’t feeling up to karaoke, so I said do you want to go home and have a nap?  He said yes.  

We came home and after a few minutes I got very sleepy so went to bed.  F came into the bedroom too and we both fell asleep.  The heater beeping woke me up and I got up a bit later.  F got up later than that, but not by very much. 

We went for dinner to Gusto, after a bit of arguing on his side.  I don’t know why he tells me to pick the restaurant if he doesn’t like what I choose.  We went, and had a fairly decent meal. Of course F complained about his so pretty much SOP. 

We came home via the grocery store.  I have decided to make chicken soup tomorrow, so bought a few things for that, and the day after will probably make a kimchi/pork stir-fry, so bought stuff for that too.  I am hoping it’ll go well.

We came home and vegged for a while.  A bit before 11 I filed away some of my postcards and let F had a look at some of them.  He doesn’t often see them as I tend to put them in the pile on my desk.  

I did some crochet during Downton Abbey and got 2 and a bit squares done, so that was good.  I also really enjoyed myself watching the show.  Maggie Smith is a treasure…she’s the best character I think.  

And that was my day more or less.  I caught a bit of Zoolander 2 tonight, but it wasn’t that funny and I didn’t really get it. I should watch the beginning and see the rest of it, maybe.  

Tomorrow I’ll be busy making soup in the morning and then getting on with some other things in the afternoon I hope.  Come back later and find out what happens!  Until tomorrow….

January 21, 2017

Saturday - Cold and grey

A good day.

I woke up rather late today, luckily F was at his mother’s and didn’t know.  The reason was I had woken up earlier of course and snoozed through all my alarms.  I took a shower after making the bed.

F came home a little after 2 pm today.  That makes it so late for us to go and have lunch somewhere.  I wasn’t upset or anything, just a bit sad.  He wanted ramen, even though he just had some, I said no.  Although I actually would have preferred Subway, we went to Bikkuri Donkey!! and had basically the same thing, a sort of nabe with udon.  It was quite good.  

After lunch we decided to go over to Mikawa and do a little shopping and then see a movie.  We drove over to the mall.  I asked that we buy socks.  I’d worn a pair this morning that were nylon or something and just weren’t comfortable.  I got a couple of new pairs of socks and then had a snoop around the craft section.  I didn’t buy anything.  

We had some coffee and tea at Mister Donut, with one of the new doughnuts too, then took ourselves over to the cinema to see The Accountant.  I really liked it.  It wasn’t a perfect film, but it was interesting and it had a character that was quite fascinating.  He wasn’t the kind of person that shows up in every action film, I really enjoyed that.

After the movie, we left the mall and came into Tsuruoka.  I had suggested a couple of places for dinner and F chose one of them.  We went to Coco Ichibanya Curry and both had Grandmother’s Curry.  It was quite good.  

We came home and spent a fairly quiet night at home.  I watched How To Get Away With Murder and then Project Runway.  I enjoyed both of those of course. I even did a bit of crochet during HTGAWM and got one and 4/5th of another square done. Yay me.

And that was it.  We are just relaxing and getting ready to go to bed I think. I’m not sure what we’ll get up to on Sunday.  If you are interested, you’ll just have to come back and see what happens.  Until tomorrow….

January 20, 2017

Friday - Sunny and warmish

A good day.

I got up a little late this morning because I had woken just as F left.  When I go back to sleep, I often oversleep.  Sigh.

I had a quiet morning and F came home for his lunch.  He actually called me first and asked me to turn on the kettle for him.  No biggie.  I was in the opposite end of the apartment however, unpinning the squares that I blocked last night.

In the afternoon today I straightened some of my books up and had to write some email as well.  

When F came home from work I hadn’t started dinner yet so I gave him a choice of either pasta or potatoes.  He chose pasta.  It was okay.  I think he doesn’t seem to know that pasta has to be eaten as soon as it is taken out of the pot.  It takes him forever to get to the table.  We were having angel hair pasta tonight and I’m sure his must have clumped together because he wouldn’t come and dress it.  Oh well.

Dinner was okay.  F did the dishes, but waited quite a while.  I was actually bothered a bit by that and thought about doing it for him, but decided not to.

At 9:00 pm I joined F on the couch and we watched Spy.  It was a hoot and I think F enjoyed it too.  We laughed rather a lot.  I did a bit of crochet during the movie, and I got three squares done. Yay me.

That is really about it for the day.  I didn’t go out and didn’t accomplish as much as I hoped.  Still it was fine.  

Come back on Saturday and I’ll tell you about my day.  Until tomorrow….

January 19, 2017

Thursday - Sunny and warm

A good day.

I got up this morning and watched my shows, drank my tea, made my bed, the usual.  F came home  before 12 and dropped off his lunch for later.  He came back later for lunch.

In the afternoon I did a bit of book sorting and also scanned my cards for Postcrossing. I decided to send them early today, so a bit before 4 pm, I got ready to go out.  I dropped off the cards at the post office and then went on to the convenience store and sent out more books.  

I came home and got started on dinner.  Tonight I made bangers and mash… and I made guacamole too.  I only used one of the two avocados as the other one was really hard.  I sliced that one and baked it…gave it to us for a side dish.  F came home when I was nearly ready and I asked him to give me a hand with the sieve for the potato draining.  He helped me and that was nice.  We had a nice meal…we couldn’t finish it actually.  

F did the dishes, which wasn’t too bad tonight as I’d washed a lot as I prepped.  

He watched some silly Japanese TV that I was bored with and so I went into the tatami room and blocked a few more of my squares.  I finished just in time to watch Bones.  

 I didn’t crochet tonight, I ate guacamole, salsa and tortilla chips.  Oh dear. Yummy though.  Both F and I enjoyed it. 

And that was about that.  

Oh, I was downloading my pictures from my camera and thought I’d post them for you.  The tall building is part of the University and is outside Hyakkenbori.  The other pictures are down the street where my little post office is.  Enjoy!

Can you see the heron on the top of the building?

We have snow!  This smaller road is actually quite well cleared.

This is the little post office I go to most of the time.  They know me there
 and are usually very nice and friendly.

Come back later and find out about my Friday.  Until tomorrow….

January 18, 2017

Wednesday - Sunny and warm

A good day.  (YES!!!)

I woke up this morning with F still in bed.  He was taking the day off today so no problem.  We snuggled for a minute or two, but nature and Nikita were calling so I had to go!

I got up, made some tea for us and I had breakfast too.  F went out to see his mother and to take her to the onsen.  I watched my shows, made the bed and then took a shower.  F came back a while after I was out. I had been working on a dish for dinner.  I got it to a stage where I could just put it in the fridge and did so. Yay me.

When he came home we talked about going for lunch.  Since I hadn’t eaten and he’d had something with his mother, I chose Hyakkenbori since I liked the look of their special lunch.  We went there, luckily they were still open.  I had the baked rolled chicken with a bun instead of rice and it was very nice.  F had cod soup and seemed to enjoy it a bit.  

After lunch, we sent off another batch of books and then F brought me home.  He came in for a few minutes and then left again. He had a couple of appointments.  

He called me around 5:30, but I thought that was still a bit early for dinner.  I was scanning postcards for my postcrossing account.  I hadn’t done it for a while.  And, I discovered that a card I received two days ago that I thought was a friendly card, was actually an official Postcrossing card…and I hadn’t registered it.  Yikes.  I was having a bad day and totally missed the card ID in the corner.  

When he came home we just relaxed for a while and then I began to cook.  I roasted some Brussels sprouts and sweet potato, then boiled some pasta.  We’d got some tortellini and some ravioli a few days ago and some special sauces for them.  I cooked them and basically everything came together and we had a nice meal.  The pasta was great and so were the sprouts and sweet potatoes.   

I volunteered to do dishes because I needed F to go and buy kerosene.  I couldn’t very well do it unless I rode my bicycle! I’d used a lot of dishes tonight serving dinner, so I was busy for a while.  Still, they got done.

F watched some telly for a while when he came home, and then I did.  I did some crochet during a show and made a couple of squares.  I probably should do some more blocking so that I don’t have a panic at the end!  

I have spent the last little bit tonight sending emails and checking on things that are part of my responsibilities as moderator of an on-line group.  I’ve been back and forth-ing with my sister too, that was fun.  

Anyway, I am done and it is my bedtime.  Hopefully things will go well tomorrow and I’ll be able to catch up with you in the evening.  Come back then.  Until tomorrow….

January 17, 2017

Tuesday - Sunny and warmer, bit of snow

A better day!

I first woke up this morning because F’s alarm had gone off and he was nowhere to be seen.  I got up, looking for him.  He was in the process of getting dressed for work.  He turned on some lights and I went back to bed and closed the door, or vice versa.

I got up at my usual time and had tea and breakfast while watching Nikita.  F came home for a few minutes then left again.  He didn’t seem in a good mood at all.  I watched my other show and then got dressed and made the bed.  I decided to go out and shovel a bit of F’s parking space.  I did quite well.  It was warmer today so I thought if I cleared a bit of it, it might melt.  I think that was a good thought. 

After I finished outside, I went into the lobby and did the sweeping there.  It was quite messy in places.  F came home while I was there.  I finished up and went inside.  

F was eating and then before he left started talking a bit. We talked a little and I got a bit of a feel for what he’s been going through at work lately, and how bad it has been. He also talked to me a bit about the plans for my birthday.  

After he left, I did a bit of internet stuff and then did some more clean up and throwing out of stuff.  I’m never sure whether concentrating on one place is better than grazing…today I did a bit of grazing and throwing!  I also listed some of my books on a Facebook site for Readers in Japan, managed to find homes for most of them.  I boxed up two sets of books and then did a bit more tossing of stuff.

I had lunch and watched a bit of telly, but kept working.  I managed to get quite a bit of stuff culled.  

F came home around 6pm tonight I think.  He didn’t seem grumpy or upset or anything for a change.  I even gave him a hug because I think he needed it.  I asked him for help sending my books out and he said he would.  I also reminded him about a couple of other things and asked if he wanted me to cook or eat out.  He decided to eat out.  

We went to the new convenience store on the big corner and sent the books quite easily.  Yay!  F did one in Japanese, I did the other package in English. 

We had dinner at Cocos and it was rather nice.  I had the ethnic chicken again and really enjoyed it.  We came home again afterwards.

We’ve had a fairly good evening together.  F has been very quiet as I think he’s very tired.  He is off work tomorrow for a personal matter, so he’ll have a bit of a break.  I hope it is a good thing.

I worked on the cull of my women’s group and sent a bunch of emails too.  I also let the other moderator take some of the names too so that she can learn to do it too.  

I also watched the last episode of Burn Notice.  I have really enjoyed the show over the years.  Tonight’s episode was bittersweet as someone made a huge sacrifice, but some of it was also funny as they used some of the lines from the opening as dialogue.  I bet that was fun for them too.  I’ve been watching that show for quite a few years, first on a terrestrial Japanese channel and then later on D-Life.  I loved it.

So that’s it for me for today.  Things are a bit better and I don’t feel like I’m in a war zone anymore. Let’s hope that continues tomorrow too. Come back later and see if it does!  Until tomorrow….

January 16, 2017

Monday - Clear, and warm, but still snowy

A not very good day.

I was having my usual nice quiet morning when F came home and ruined it all.  He was angry about his co-workers and took it out on me.  Then he started to ask me the name of the hotels we’re supposed to stay in next month on our trip. I told him.  Then he wanted to know the name of the hotel that I was planning to stay in when I stay on.  I didn’t want to tell him.  I know it sounds silly, but I was planning to give him the details later. I didn’t know why he was interrogating me about it in the middle of the day.  Anyway, I didn’t tell him so he told me to cancel the whole trip and that he won’t come with me like we planned.  Great.  I didn’t cancel my part of it however.

He left and I got on with my day.  I showered and then went and dug out the vacuum and went over much of the apartment, and the heater too.  He came back for lunch when I was finishing up.  He didn’t talk to me.

After he left, I emptied out a drawer in the kitchen and packed some of it and threw out some of the stuff.  We had stuff from years ago that needed to be garbaged. When I finished there I went over to my desk and sorted through a lot of papers and threw a bunch out there too.

After watching the news I washed the dishes quickly and then went outside and did a bit of snow shovelling in our spot.  I think I made things better.

F didn’t come home for ages.  I didn’t know why.  When he did come home I asked if I should make dinner for us but he said no.  I made myself some pasta and then ate.  When I finished doing my dishes I think he went into the kitchen and made something very smelly.  Yuck.

While he did that, I worked on the membership cull of an email group that I take care of.  It took a long time, but since F wasn’t talking to me, it wasn’t a waste of my time.  Oh, I forgot.  I also took a short nap.  I was so sleepy.  When I’m upset like I am today, I often get so tired.  

Anyway, I finished the first part of my culling, and sent a message to my co-moderator asking her to help with the next part.  

And, that’s about it.  It was a quiet day for the most part, but not a very good day.  

Come back later if you are up for it and see what I get up to on Tuesday.  Until tomorrow….

January 15, 2017

Sunday - Cold, but sunny for a bit

Horrible day.

It had a good start, however.  I slept in, but got up earlier than normal on a Sunday.  F was watching a sci-fi movie that was interesting, so I watched it too.  We were going to go out but ended up spending some time together.  Then, we got ready to go out.

Today was the Cod Soup Festival.  I do not like Cod Soup, Sam I Am, I do not.  However, good sport that I am, I said I’d go with F.  I did suggest going to a restaurant first so I could get some real food that I did like but of course was ignored.  

After helping to dig the car out of the snow, we drove to City Hall and parked there.  Then, we walked over to the street where the festival was.  Well, I walked, F practically ran.  He was at least 10 feet in front and even walked over the street when the lights had changed.  

We get to the street, and the very first stall he sees, he goes over to it, and then beckons me over so I could look at the food on offer.  There was NOTHING that I’d want to eat there.  I gave him a dirty look as I was coming over because I knew that he would do this, and he did, and that set him off.  I was told not to give him that ugly face anymore and he stormed off, back to the car.  I tried to follow him and get him to come back to the festival, but I couldn’t catch him.   There was too much ice to run and I got stuck behind a couple of slow pokes who weren’t moving.  I tried yelling to him, but he ignored me and even tried crossing the street and disappearing that way.  

He drove off, but I was nearly there so I got in the car.  We were both angry and yelling at each other. I asked him to go back and he wouldn’t. He said he’d go for ramen.  He tried to put me out of the car on a bridge, but when I wouldn’t get out, drove around the corner and parked in bus parking.  I got out then and he sped away.  

I ended up walking home via a convenience store where I bought myself a sandwich.  I came home, ate it and some soup and waited to see what was going to happen.

He seemed different when he got home. I said hello, he did too.  He didn’t talk to me much. 

In the evening I suggested going to a restaurant where I thought he could get his precious cod soup, but he said he’d go somewhere else.  I asked if I could go too and he grudgingly let me.  

We went to a fish restaurant where F had cod soup and cod sperm tempura and a sashimi donburi.  I had the donburi too, and it was good. F was not overly pleased with his cod soup.  

After dinner, we bought groceries at the store and then came home.  We were quiet but not really fighting anymore.  

I watched some silly things on YouTube and at 11 went over to the couch for Downton Abbey and some crochet.  That was therapeutic.  

Oh, and I made us some tea in the evening and gave some to F.  He had to mop up some tea from his cup, which was odd, because I’d had to mop up some too.  In fact, I’d wiped the bottom of his cup before I gave it to him.  We realized that there must be a crack in the cup that is allowing the liquid to come out.  We only noticed it because the tea had milk in it and the cup was dark brown, so we could see the light drops form on the outside of the cup.  Weird!

So, I’m not sure how things are going to be tomorrow.  F will probably be really tired tomorrow after work which is never a good thing. 

Anyway, that’s tomorrow’s story, so no need to preview that!  Come back later and find out if my Monday gets any better.  Until tomorrow….

January 14, 2017

Saturday - Snowy and cold

A good day!

I slept in a little bit this morning, but got myself up around 10.  I decided not to take a shower, so got dressed and had a cup of tea.  

F came home around 10:30 and we left for our doctor’s appointment.  We did the usual hurry up and wait thing.  I had brought my Sue Grafton (X) and I was so close to being done that I almost didn’t want to get called into the office!  No big whoop, we had our 5 second consult and then we were back to the lobby to wait and pay!  We got F’s medicine and then we were off to have lunch.  

We had lunch at the Grand El Sun.  It was very nice, but also, how shall I put this, very small!  Honestly, we had chicken almandine and we each got two tiny pieces of chicken breast.  It was very good though!

After lunch I requested that we go to S-Mall to get my bus ticket.  I am coming back from Sendai by myself next month, so need a seat on the bus!  We saw a sign in the mall that said the bus station is moving temporarily and today was the last day for it to be in the usual location.  They are going to redo it! Kind of yay…just hope it doesn’t take too long.  

We bought my ticket and then had a snoop around the hundred yen shop, followed by a cup of coffee at Doutors.  It was fun watching people.  We sat at the big central table and two women across from us were falling asleep.  It was a little odd.  When we were finished, we decided what to do and F asked when the movie was.  It was at 3:45, or in about 35 minutes.  I had planned to see the late show, but F wanted to go right away.  That’s what we did.

We went to see Miss You Already with Toni Collette and Drew Barrymore.  We both enjoyed it more than I thought we would.  I think Toni Collette is an amazing actress anyway, so was set to enjoy it!  

A quick look at the Machinaka Theater we saw the film in.  It's a very cool building-
a renovated silk factory! Sadly, this showing wasn't very busy.

After the movie, F suggested going to the Evil Place for dinner. I said it was okay because I haven’t been there in ages.  The Evil Place, for those not in the know, is a yakiniku buffet place.  The meat is okay, but they have a lot of other foods too.  Some are good, but some are very unhealthy Japanese foods. After an hour and a half we staggered out of the restaurant and came home.

We spent a fairly quiet evening at home.  I watched Project Runway at midnight and enjoyed it, then let F do a little channel surfing while I worked things on my computer.  I also finished my book.  Yay me! I liked it, but looking at the Good Reads reviews...I might be the only person who did!

That is about it for today.  I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow.  F should go to his mother’s in the morning, and I’ll probably sleep.  Come back later and see what our Sunday is like.  Until tomorrow…. 

January 13, 2017

Friday - Snowy and Cold

A good day.

I got up early this morning and had oatmeal and tea while I watched Nikita.  That was fun.  After my show was over, I watched something else and then I don’t remember what!  Around 11:30 I made the bed and showered.  After that, I did some hand laundry and F came home for his lunch.  I missed most of it.  

In the afternoon I did a few things around the apartment and even dragged out my shredded and did some papers.  I should do more really.  At 5:00ish I went outside and shovelled F’s parking space and a little around the building.  

I came back inside after that and started to heat up things for dinner.  When F came home, he almost had an asthma attack…it seems like he is really allergic to whatever spice from the curry.  Thing is, I was fine! After he ate the curry he was fine as well.  We had a nice dinner and I did the dishes because F was in bad shape.

We had a quiet evening in.  F watched a bunch of stuff, some of it was actually interesting for a change.  I watched something at 11 and did more crochet.  I made two of the little cream squares.  yay me.  

And that was about it.  My day was quiet and I didn’t get a lot done, but I did some laundry, some shredding and crochet.  Yay for me!

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

January 12, 2017

Thursday - Snowy and cold

An okay day.

I got up this morning and did my usual tea and breakfast thing over Nikita…the show de jour.  Afterwards, I watched something on another channel before going back to my other show.  At 11:30 I turned off the telly, got dressed, made the bed and went out into the building lobby and did the sweeping.  F came home for lunch and was quite surprised when I bade him a cheery hello from the stairs!

He ate his lunch and while he did that I laid out my squares on the bed.  They look so much better after being blocked!  They lie flat and they are almost exactly the same size.  Yay me.  I did a little bit of figuring out tonight though and I’m not going to have enough brown yarn to make enough complete squares.  I do have a couple of cunning ideas however.  I think I might do partial brown squares or all cream squares on two sides of the blanket to make it a square again.  I think it’ll look good.  I hope.

In the afternoon I actually had an early-ish lunch (for me) and then did some computer stuff.  I also did a little bit of texting fun with F.  He was waiting for someone at work and was in the car.  He can’t do anything or go anywhere, so he texted me.  

I went back on my computer for a while.  I also watched a movie that I dvr’d a few days ago, but I didn’t like it much.  It was a Transporter film, but not with Jason Statham.  It was kind of boring in a way.  

I watched the news and got a good start on dinner.  I parboiled some potatoes and cut up the broccoli.  I had a few ingredients ready.  When F came home, he immediately started to complain about his eyes being irritated.  This continued for hours.  I opened the window and turned on the fan, but it didn’t seem to help much.  

I was making a vegan curry dish and I was wondering if he was having a reaction to one of the spices in it.  It had cayenne pepper, nutmeg, allspice, curry powder, and a few other things.  It didn’t bother me at all, so I didn’t know what was happening.  Afterwards, looking at the ‘net, I came up with a theory that since he is a bit dehydrated and has dry eyes, whatever irritated him didn’t get washed away in tears like it normally would. I didn’t blow the spices around and I didn’t spill any, so I’m not really sure what could be the problem.  

We had our dinner, with some leftover tortilla chips from last night, plus some store naan, salad and Korean nameru.  I really liked it, and told F that he’s getting it for dinner tomorrow night too.  

F said he’d do the dishes, but a little later, and he did.  Hurray for that!  I requested before dinner that we go out for a bit.  I hadn’t been out of the building all week and I really wanted to go.  We had to wait until a good point in his TV show and then he wouldn’t leave until almost 9 pm.  I wanted to check that I had been paid and the ATM closes at 9:00pm so I wasn’t too happy with him.  We JUST made it.  In fact, the machine shut down as soon as I took my passbook out.  My money was there, so I was happy!

I bought a few groceries and then I asked that we go to McDonald for a drink.  We went there and had some Royal Milk Tea and shared an order of curly fries.  They were good, but not good for me!

We came home again and I watched Bones and did a little crochet.  F took his bath and eventually went off to bed.  

So, that was about it for my day.  It was okay, except I’m still not sure what bothered F’s eyes.  I may never know.  Tomorrow I don’t really have any major plans, but I am thinking of firing up my shredder and getting the big bag of paper I have been filling cut up.  I don’t need to leave the house now, but I might want to if I feel like a walk or something.  It depends on the weather.  

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