January 31, 2019

Thursday - Clear and cold

I had a good day. I think I forgot to set my alarms in the morning, but I woke up anyway. I got up and watched the news and then ER which I hadn’t planned to watch, but did anyway.

I had a very quiet morning. I used my new spoon at breakfast and it was great. I really liked it. I came upstairs to eat and while I was watching some TV and working on my column, I heard the doorbell ring. I went down and it was K’s brother and his wife.  They gave us a bunch of vegetables and went to talk to K for a while. I was friendly and polite and excused myself soon as I can’t communicate with them very well.

In the afternoon, K cooked some of the vegetables and I worked on my column some more. I had lunch too, I ate the last of the avocados. I was worried it would be off, but actually, it was fine. 

After lunch, I buckled down and actually got my column about done. I like to sit on it for one night and tomorrow I’ll re-read it, listen to it on the speaking function of my computer and then sent it off to the editor if I like it. Yay!

I worked on my crochet a bit today. I did about two rows while I was watching something on the news so yay for me.

F came back to the house around 6:00 I think. He suggested going to the same place I was thinking about so it was a no brainer! We took K with us and had a good meal. We went to Youme-shokudo near the post office. I had chicken steak, F had ginger pork and his mother had yaki-saba. I think we were all pleased with our meals. After dinner, we brought K back to the house. I checked something upstairs and then we were off again.

Tonight was the onsen for F. I didn’t mind. I sat in the lobby with a coffee and did a bit of crochet while I listened to a podcast or two. I never listen to them at the house, for some reason. I almost finished my first ball of yarn. I like it a lot, but I’m not quite in love with it yet. In fact, I’m thinking of starting another similar project to see if I like it more. I’m using self-striping yarn and it is really pretty, but the long rows I have now don’t show it off that well. Hmm.

When F came out of the shower he wondered if I wanted to go for a drink. I suggested that we not go, but that he have a drink where we were and then we get some shopping afterwards. He liked that idea! 

Since we got a lot of spinach today and we have eggs and milk, I thought I might make a quiche tomorrow for dinner. It won’t have a crust, but that’s okay. My only problem is my pie plate is missing in action, like most of my stuff. I have another, slightly smaller pan I’ll have to use so hopefully, it’ll work. 

F and I had a quiet evening in. I took a shower and watched a little TV. I’ve been chilling for a while!

Tomorrow I have to polish and finish my column, pack my suitcase and make dinner. I hope it all works out! Wish me luck with it all, please. Come back later and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

January 30, 2019

Wednesday - Warmer and clear

I woke up this morning fairly early but came back to bed before F had to go to work. He left quietly and I really didn’t hear him leave. 

I had a quiet morning. I watched a bit of TV, I checked email and stuff, no big deal. After breakfast, I got really, really sleepy so I took a catnap. I set my timer for 15 minutes so I woke up, reset it and then slept a little longer. I got up after that.

I had a nice lunch using F’s onion bread from yesterday. That was so good. I’m glad he listened to me. K was probably back in bed, I didn’t see her for most of the day. 

F called at 4 to say he was still in Yamagata city, so wouldn’t be back before 7 he thought. He was planning to make dinner so it was a small worry.

He actually ended up arriving back at the house around 6:30 or so. He changed and got into dinner making mode right away. I think I was helpful! I carried things to the table, got things out for him and generally was there for him. He had made a nabe, but it was a different one than usual, which is why I couldn’t do it before he arrived. He used konbu to make the stock and then arranged the food in the nabe according to how fast it cooked. When things were made, we had a lovely meal. We were supposed to just grab stuff out of the nabe, rather like a hotpot I assume, but he put the ingredients in small bowls for us and we could choose to dip them in one of two sauces. That was nice.

F washed the dishes afterwards and I dried and put them away. We were done quickly. 

F asked me if I needed to go out, but I said I didn’t. I knew he was tired, so I didn’t want to stress him out. I watched telly, F did his phone thing as usual. 

That’s basically how our evening progressed. I did turn off the TV for a bit and got in some snuggle time, and after midnight I did up the garbage in the kitchen so F can take it out in the morning. I threw out a bunch of food from the fridge too. K has the odd habit of keeping food long past when it should be eaten. I’m not sure if she just isn’t hungry or she forgets when the food was put in, but sometimes it gets really old. I tossed stuff from a couple of weeks ago. I think it is safer that way!

Anyway, that was my not very exciting day. I did work a little on my column, but I’m not finished yet. I’m getting there though.

Come back later if you like and read all about Thursday! Until tomorrow….

January 29, 2019

Tuesday - Rainy and warmish

I woke up this morning at 7:30, which is a little early. I made a trip downstairs just as F was going upstairs. He said that the bread would finish in two minutes and he’d come back and take it out. 

I ended up taking the bread out myself. It wasn’t a big deal or anything. It came out easily. I went upstairs and complained to F about the oven mitts from the bread maker. They felt wet inside, like someone had washed them. F said he hadn’t and basically told me not to bother him while he was getting ready for work. Okay then. I didn’t. I went back to bed and tried to snooze a little longer. He left.

I had a fairly busy for me morning. I did a couple of loads of laundry and put away some of the dry clothes from before. I didn’t see much of K this morning. I did very early on, but not later.

F called to say that he had decided to take the afternoon off. He’d take his mother to the hospital to visit her mother as well. He said that he’d likely have lunch around noon. Okay, I said I’d eat here too.

F called me later to say he was ready to leave work. He showed up a few minutes later. He told me he hadn’t eaten and asked if I’d like to go out with him. I said sure. He told me that we’d go to the hospital first with his mother and then all of us would eat somewhere. 

We went to the hospital and it was terribly depressing. F had to get me a mask to wear and then we went in. When we found the right room, we had to put on a plastic apron first. F helped his mother do it, but he did it wrong. I figured it out and then helped them.  We popped in for a visit but left after five minutes or so. 

Lunch was at Gusto and it was fine. I had a “special lunch”, chicken with salad and a bun, K had Japanese style chicken with miso soup and F had the daily cheap lunch of a hamburg patty with mushroom sauce. I liked mine, K seemed to like hers and F didn’t like his. Par for the course.

We took K back to the house and F asked if I’d like to go to the Internet Cafe. Even though I should have been writing, I said yes.  I grabbed some yarn and printed out a pattern and then came out to the car with him.

We went for 3 hours and I got a fairly good start on my pattern. I won’t have enough yarn to finish it properly, but it doesn’t really matter. I’ll enjoy the process I think.

It's a shawl/scarf - Sweet Eleanor Scarf/Wrap

After our time was up it was too late to go back to the house and cook dinner, so we went to Coco Ichibanya and had Grandmother curry again. They are having it on for a couple of months. They giveaway spoons to lucky people who pick the right card out of the box…well, tonight that was me! I got a lovely curry spoon which I will use for eating my cereal!

We came back to the house and had a quiet evening in. We both took showers and even though F should have an early night, he can’t sleep. He just gave me some of his lovely onion bread and it was amazing! I should have had some earlier today.

That’s about it for me. Tomorrow I must buckle down and finish that column, or get much closer. I hope that I can. Come back later and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

January 28, 2019

Monday - Rainy then snowy, warmer

I had a bit of trouble getting up this morning, but I did finally. I went downstairs to cut the bread, but F had already done it. Sigh. It looked all damp too because he didn’t let it dry out first.

I had a quiet morning. I snoozed a bit but got dressed around 9. That was a good thing as K called me down for some mail.  She could just leave it on the steps for me, but she summons me down!  Oh well.

I had planned to do laundry today, but K did some of her stuff a bit later than usual, so I couldn’t when I wanted to. I decided to postpone it until tomorrow.

In the afternoon, I did finally buckle down and work on my column. I got a lot done. I still have one question that I have to work on. It’s a real quandary for me. I can’t give a definitive answer. I know what I should probably say, but it wouldn’t be my answer. 

F called me a little after 5:30 to ask what I wanted to do for dinner. I had no plans and said so. F decided to take us out, so I thought about places to go. Then, he called me back to say that probably he should take his mother to the hospital first. That was fine. He came to the house, got dressed and took her off to visit her mother.

I got ready too. I wasn’t sure where we’d go, but I had a couple of ideas. When F got back he said that his mother didn’t want to go out, so he’d stopped in and got her to buy a bento at the grocery store.

F and I went out to the Chinese Restaurant in Kushibiki. I had a different dish for a change, Mabo-gohan…spicy tofu and meat sauce on rice. It really was spicy. F had his usual yakisoba which was okay. It does have a fair amount of veggies in it which I like. We shared an order of gyoza too. F forgot his phone which I thought was funny, so I didn’t use my phone much during dinner. We chatted a little, but the TV was on so F was terribly distracted.

We decided that tomorrow F was going to make a nabe for dinner, so we’d get the ingredients for it. After dinner, we went to the supermarket and picked up some groceries. We got a few things for dinner and my lunch and a few things for us that we shouldn’t have!

F wanted to make new bread for tomorrow, so he said he’d set up the bread maker while we popped to the house to drop off the food. I requested that he make onion bread since we bought dried onion at Costco. He had forgotten about that and thought he had to caramelize them first! I wouldn’t ask him to do that at night. It takes ages to do it properly!

After F had finished with the bread machine we went out again. We went for a coffee at Starbucks. It wasn’t very busy as it was after 9 pm. We each had a latte and updated our phones and such. 

When we left Stabba we bought gas for the car. F wasn’t going to bother, but I reminded him that there have been a few earthquakes lately and he doesn’t want to get stuck with an empty tank if we have another one. 

We came back to the house and relaxed a bit. I watched The Good Wife and later American Idol. I have to say that I don’t like the new format. It seems too fast to get rid of two people each time. The other way did take a long time, but seemed a bit kinder!

Anyway, that’s about it for me. Tomorrow I hope there’ll be laundry and an almost finished column at the end of the day! Come back later and see if I manage!  Until tomorrow….

January 27, 2019

Sunday - Clear but cool

I slept in a bit this morning. I woke up once around 8 and then again around 10. F had vanished this second time, so I realized he’d probably taken his mother off to the onsen and hospital (to see her mother).

I got up, dressed, took care of a few personal things and then watched silly YouTube videos. I enjoyed myself though! 

When F came back we talked about going for lunch. He’d eaten a bit with his mother but would eat more. I suggested a couple of places, but he went with Foodever. 

We drove downtown and parked, then went in. F ended up having Cod Soup, which is good because he missed the festival last weekend.  I had my standard Gapao Rice and enjoyed it a lot. When we finished, we went round to the Coffee Shop area and had a cup and a dessert. I had Natsukashi Lemon Pie and it wasn’t bad. It was a little too sweet but nice.  F had a chocolate cake that I know from experience is good.

I picked up some brochures in English for people that are coming here in April and then we were off again. 

F needed a bank machine, so he used one, we stopped at the big craft fair, but I managed to escape without buying anything, and then he got some kerosene for the car. It was roughly 4 pm by this time, so we stopped at the grocery store to get a few things including dinner for K.  We took everything back to the house.

The snow had fallen off the roof while we were out, so there was a huge mess of snow by the front door. F cleaned most of it up while I put away the groceries. I went out to help F and he went in to take in the kerosene and to give his mother her dinner. He changed and I finished clearing the bit by the door. I came into the house to wait for F and I heard a huge “Whomp”. Another big batch of snow had fallen. I cleared it up. I went in again and of course, even more fell! It was a tad funny. I shovelled it away.

F came out and we headed out again. We needed a cheap and cheerful dinner, so ended up going to Kintaro Sushi again. It was fairly busy tonight which is good. We had a nice meal and got our usual standard things. 

Then, we went to karaoke!  F had asked me if I’d like to go earlier in the day. It surprised me a lot, but of course, I wanted to go. We got right in and had a pretty good time. We spent about 3 hours there, singing a bunch of good and not so good songs. Yay us.

We left and were on our way home when something odd happened. We turned into a side road to get to another main road in Tsuruoka and there was a person sitting in the road. It was a woman dressed in pants and a white sweater. There was a guy standing and talking to her, his car was on the opposite side of the road. F said, “She needs help” and got out of the car. I followed him, one to see what was going on, and two because I didn’t want the woman to feel scared because of all the men around her. I know that F is harmless, she didn’t!

We’re not really sure of the story, but she was out in the cold (it was around 3 degrees Celsius) without a coat. She seemed quite drunk. It sounded like maybe someone had either taken her coat or taken it as collateral if she hadn’t paid her bill. F tried to get her to phone someone for help or for a taxi home, and a taxi even stopped by while we were talking. After a failed attempt, she got herself up and started walking away. F followed her for a while, but she ended up going into Tsuruoka Park. He called the police to report the incident, but really, there wasn’t much else we could do. I followed them for a bit, but F came back soon after. 

We came back to the house and had a quiet evening in.  F set up the bread maker for me, I took a shower and decided not to put out the garbage tomorrow morning. 

And that was my day. 5/6ths of it was great, but one part of it was really odd. I’m glad that my husband is the kind of person who stops and finds out what is going on. I do worry that it might come back and bite him in the butt. 

Tomorrow I have to work on that ruddy column and do a little laundry too. Come back later and find out how successful I was in getting things done. Until tomorrow….

January 26, 2019

Saturday - Cold and snowy

We slept in today. F had made a big noise last night about getting up early and taking his mother to the onsen. He didn’t do it! I got up a couple of times to check email and use the loo, but he didn’t. He was complaining about his stomach again, so I sent him off to the doctor. He left.

I got up and heated up the room, had half a cup of coffee and worried about the snowplough that I’d heard go by. I went downstairs and checked out the window. Sure enough, the entrance to the yard was blocked. The snowplough had left mounds of snow there. 

I got dressed and went out and cleared the snow for F. It took about 45 minutes and he arrived back just as I was clearing the bit near the house. He was pretty glad that I had done all that work though, so that was nice.

We all went out to lunch together. F found a new to us noodle place and it wasn’t bad. They are a soba shop. I can take or leave soba (usually leave!), but this was quite good. K and I had niku-soba with tempura and F had zaru-soba and tempura. It’s quite rare to find a Japanese restaurant that stays open until 3, but this one was okay. It was called Fu-doh or something like that. 

We brought K back to the house and then F and I went out to run a few errands. He decided he needed chains for his car tyres, so we went looking for them. We got them at the second place we tried, and only after he asked about them.

We had some coffee in Komeda Coffee and used their lovely free wifi for a while. There was a cute little display outside in the snow.

Afterwards, I suggested going to the nearby grocery store and picking up some bentos for our dinner. Lunch was good but expensive, the chains were expensive and our coffee was expensive. F liked that idea. We found some nice food and brought it back to the house.

Dinner was good. F had to have his miso soup, but other than that it was fine. F was watching tennis from Australia, I don’t really like tennis. I took the dishes and other stuff into the kitchen and then washed everything. No big deal. 

I came upstairs and watched a little telly and drank some decaf tea.  F came up a bit later and played with his phone. Because it is quite cold outside, F turned off the water in the house and I’m rather annoyed. The dials are really stiff and hard to turn, so if I want to use the washroom I have to go downstairs and turn them on first. Grr.  I’m hoping it’ll warm up a lot so I don’t have to turn the water off afterwards!

Anyway, that is it for tonight. Tomorrow I’m not sure what we’ll get up to. I did work a little on my craftwork, but to be honest, I don’t really like it. I might rip it out again and make something else. We’ll see how it goes! Come back later and see what happens on Sunday. Until tomorrow….

January 25, 2019

Friday - Snowy and warm early on, colder now

This morning I woke up when F came back into the bedroom saying it was cold outside and we’d had a lot of snow overnight.  I did ask if he needed help with it, but he said no. 

I had a quiet morning really. I didn’t see K at all. I did a couple of loads of laundry and when it was done, I hung it up here in the room.  I decided to go out and shovel some snow around 12:30, so I did. I got dressed up in a sweater and a vest and my winter coat and hat and then went out. The snow was fairly soft still, so it wasn’t too hard to do. I got about half of the driveway done when I started to overheat, so I took off my coat, undid my vest and put it in the house next to my slippers. K was in there and I said hello. I think she was cheering me on!

I moved a lot of snow and got most of the parking space cleared out. I thought that the bits of snow left on the concrete would probably melt and that’s what happened. 

I went inside and undid my coat. K had picked up my vest and put it on her coat rack. That’s the first time something like that has happened so I guess it is progress!  

I came down to fix my lunch and F called to say he was making a quick trip back, did I want anything?  I said no, and he did arrive a little later. He couldn’t stay long of course.

I took my lunch upstairs and ate. I watched a mildly amusing movie with Stania Katic in it and worked on a few computer things, then I brought my dishes down to the kitchen and washed them. I checked to see if I needed to do more shovelling, but I didn’t. Yay. 

I went back upstairs. Last night I had said I’d cook dinner if F wanted me to, just pasta, nothing too exciting, but I realized that I really didn’t want to do that! When he called to say he was on his way, I mentioned that I really didn’t want to cook. We decided to go out and he asked me to think of a place. Well, I made a list with 6 places on it.

When he came back, I showed him the list and he suggested someplace not on my list. Then another place not on my list. I didn’t like either of the places he suggested. Then he went back to one of my choices.  We all ended up going to Coco’s tonight and it was nice! F doesn’t like it, or says he doesn’t, but he always orders the wrong thing. He’ll get raw fish there or something, they aren’t a fish restaurant. Or he’ll order noodles, but they aren’t a ramen place so he is disappointed. We both had chicken tonight. Mine was okay, but I wouldn’t have it again, he had a chicken steak donburi. It looked quite nice and I almost wished I’d had that. K had mackerel with miso sauce and liked it. She liked the drink bar too, and once she figured out how to use it, had a lot of vegetable juice!

We came back to the house before 9 pm. I was able to watch Castle “live” and then Scorpion. I watched a few other things and then remembered to check out the NHK Friday night movie. It was Tremors! I came in about halfway through, but I love that movie so freaking much.  It made me remember when I first saw that film. It had played in the big cinemas downtown, but for some reason I didn’t go. I didn’t like scary films back then. Finally, I’d heard that it was good, so I took two buses to the west end of Edmonton, to an area I didn’t know terribly well and went to see Tremors. I think I went back the next weekend too! It’s still one of my favourite movies ever.

That’s about it. It’s quite cold outside now and we can hear the snowploughs working at 3 in the morning. I’m glad I don’t do that job. 

I’m not sure what is going to happen tomorrow. My plans with a friend had to be cancelled, so I have a lot of time to kill. I could do some crafting, or I could buckle down and work on my column. Come back later on and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

OH, and lastly…Happy Robbie Burns Day! I didn’t eat them today, but I do have some haggis flavoured potato crisps I can have…maybe tomorrow?!!

January 24, 2019

Thursday - Colder and snowy

I woke up after F left this morning and got up fairly soon. I had a quiet morning watching the news and then my NCIS. I grabbed breakfast and didn’t do any laundry, must do some tomorrow morning then.

After a bit, I got really sleepy so I took a nap. I set a short timer so I didn’t snooze for too long. I woke up and felt quite refreshed.

I watched quite a bit of telly this afternoon and did actually work on my column. It’s going fairly well.

A bit after 4 I went downstairs and washed my dishes, then went outside and did a little snow renewal. It went well as there wasn’t much snow today. Woot.

I came back in and up to the room. I watched the news that I had taped and was surprised when F called to say that he was on his way. We chatted about dinner and I said I had no plans to cook today. He said he’d get something for his mother and that he wanted to go to the onsen tonight. It was hard to hear him as usual, so we rang off.

F came back to the house with some sushi for his mother. We left soon after to go to the onsen. F took a bath and I made use of the free wifi and the lobby chair. Yay for that. I started a new crochet project (fingerless gloves) and listened to part of a podcast. I enjoyed that. 

While I was waiting for F I noticed that today was their ¥300 ramen day. When F came back, I told him, so of course, he wanted to go. We went and F had his ramen. I had tonkatsu but without soup or rice. It was big enough for me and I don’t really need the rice at all. We both enjoyed our meals, although F didn’t think the ramen was great. It was 300 yen though, what did he expect? He said it was better than yesterday’s ramen!

We drove back to the house but stopped in at Mina to get me some salad and bread for tomorrow. Sadly, the store has finished selling the lovely British biscuits that they used to have. While we were there, F realized he didn’t have a lot of cash so I put back a couple of things, and so did he!

We came back to the house and relaxed. I watched some TV and F had a beer, the usual kind of thing. It was a nice evening really. 

Tomorrow I’m not sure what is going to happen. I need to work on my column, do a bit of laundry and I may cook dinner if F doesn’t come up with a better idea! Come back later and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

January 23, 2019

Wednesday - Cool with rain

I woke up fairly early for me, went downstairs and then came back to bed. F snuggled me and I fell fast asleep, didn’t hear him leave. Sigh. I woke up just before 9 and had missed the news. Good job I used the DVR on it. 

I had a quiet morning. I knew that F was probably coming back in the afternoon, so I didn’t do any laundry. I washed my breakfast dishes after he said he was on his way.

Neither of us had had lunch, so I suggested going to the new ramen shop in the mall. It was a terrible idea!  The ramen was horrible according to F. I had Katsu-don and it wasn’t great. It wasn’t terrible, but I wouldn’t willing have it again. Oh dear. But, then again, that’s the place that F wanted me to go the other day and got so upset when I said no!

After lunch, we went over to Komeda Coffee and spent a while there. I thought that F had fallen asleep at one stage. He said he was tired. I had tea for a change and it was fine. I might stick to coffee there, however.

We did a little shopping afterwards. F wanted to go to the hardware store, so we did. He got a new toolbox and something else. I looked at used DVDs but didn’t buy anything. Yay me.

We went to the grocery store to buy K some mikans and decided to go to the deli department for dinner. We got quite a few things to have. We got some fried chicken, bifun noodles, fried tofu in sauce, and my favourite, deep-fried eggplant with shiitake mushroom in the middle. Yum. We came back to the house with everything and got dinner on the table.

We had a nice little feast. Most of the food disappeared. I thought we might have got too much, but I don’t think we did!

F washed the dishes afterwards and I dried them. He stayed downstairs to watch some TV, I went upstairs to watch some TV in English. That was enjoyable for me.

I had a good TV night and I also spent some time working on the mini-convention for my women’s group. I was thinking about timing today and using Google Maps I realized that some things just aren’t feasible or I wasn’t allowing enough enjoyment time.

Not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. Probably laundry, hopefully, my column, but you never know.  Come back later and find out. Until tomorrow….

January 22, 2019

Tuesday - Cold with a bit of snow

I got up this morning fairly early and turned on the TV to watch the news. I watched the English news and snoozed through the rest! I also watched NCIS and enjoyed that too. 

Breakfast was fine. I did some laundry along the way this morning, a couple of loads. It was needed! K seemed to be up for most of the morning today, good for her!

I caught up on some of my DVR telly and saw F in the late afternoon too. He had a break in his schedule. I was planning to go out and shovel the snow and ended up doing that. He was still parked in the space for a while. I was a tad miffed since he’d compacted the snow with his vehicle, but I did get most of it moved.

After shovelling the snow, I went back inside and upstairs. I relaxed for a few minutes then went down to the kitchen and started making dinner. Today I was doing Bangers and Mash again, so I had to peel a lot of potatoes! It was so cold in the kitchen that I filled up our dishwashing basin with hot water just to put a little heat in the room. Of course, I didn’t waste it, it was used to wash dishes with!

F came home near the end of my cooking and did a few things to help me. He took the salad dishes to the table and the glasses, but at that point in time I had about three things going and was juggling. Still, things got done and were pretty darn good according to the other people eating! All of the mashed potatoes and gravy went, and all but one of the sausages. That’s for K if she wants it tomorrow. 

I cleared the table and was just going to start washing dishes when F came in and took over. He washed, I dried and we got done fairly quickly. 

F wanted to go to the onsen tonight and I wanted to get out of the house, so we went after a while. F went to take his bath, and I found a good seat in the lobby and played with my phone for a while. After a bit, I decided to put on a podcast and do some knitting.  I had brought an old project that I started years ago with me tonight, so I did just over a round of it. That’s quite a lot, so I was glad. I’m sure it’s been a year almost since I last looked at it. I finished a hat out of the same yarn last year, this year I might be able to finish the cowl if I work at it. Should this be a year of finishing projects?  Heaven knows I have quite a few to do!

When F finished his bath we met in the lobby. He had a drink and I got another one, and then we came back to the house. We had a fairly quiet evening. I took a shower and then came upstairs to watch Ghost Whisperer which they are running again. 

That’s about it for tonight. Tomorrow I’m really not sure what I’m going to get up to. There’s a rumour that F might take off part of the day if he can. He’s been having some health problems lately and if he uses the time to see a doctor I’m fine with it.

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

January 21, 2019

Monday - Cold & Snowy

I had a hard time waking up this morning. My news came on really early today, so it was pre-taped. I overslept and barely dragged myself out of bed. Thankfully I got dressed, so a bit later when I heard the doorbell, I could run downstairs.  K was there before me though. It was F’s uncle and aunt I think, and they came for a visit. I said a quick hello and then came back upstairs.

I had a quiet morning and afternoon. When I went down to get lunch K wasn’t around.  I came back upstairs and ate, and watched a bit more TV from the DVR.  I did actually start working on my column today. I didn’t do a lot, but I did start. Yay.

Around 4 pm I took my dishes downstairs to wash. I did that and then went outside and shovelled snow for a while. When I came in again I got a big surprise. K asked me to come into the living room and watch sumo with her! I wasn't sure what was happening. She offered me tea and some cake. I took a little bit of cake and sat with her for a while. I was actually rather touched. I left after washing the dish and knife and went back upstairs to look for a recipe.  

When F called, I was trying to print out a recipe. It took a while as my printer and I weren’t communicating well. I suggested he just come to the house.

I went downstairs and started making guacamole. The avocados were a little overripe but still tasted fine. I didn’t have a seasoning packet, so I just had to add a few things. I think it turned out okay. When F came, I said that I was going to make either omelettes or scrambled eggs, which did he prefer? He said scrambled eggs. I toasted our tortilla chips as they were a bit stale, made some eggs, cut up some cheese for them, did some frozen broccoli from the freezer and even toasted a piece of bread for myself. F did help. He took things out to the table, plated some of the guacamole and heated the rice. Dinner came together and was pretty good. It was even better considering that I hadn’t actually planned to do anything except the guacamole!

Everyone seemed to enjoy their meal, which surprised me a lot! After I finished I went to the kitchen with the dishes. I started washing the dishes, took a break to dry the ones I’d finished, and by then F came into the kitchen and washed the rest. Yay!

Looking at what I needed for dinner tomorrow, I decided to get some milk as ours expired last year! I asked F if we could go and get a few groceries and maybe have a drink somewhere. We ended up at Starbucks which was nearly empty tonight. We had a cup of drip decaf each. It was pretty good. We sat and drank and played on our phones for a bit.

We got a few groceries for tomorrow. I picked up the milk and also some salad, plus a few snacks for us two.  

F bought some kerosene on the way to the house and sadly spilt a little all over his clothes. The car smelled on the way back. He changed and put his clothes in the wash and took a shower. I put together the plastic garbage and then went upstairs and grabbed all of our plastic bottles to dispose of.  I spent a few minutes cleaning and crushing them, before bagging them for tomorrow.

F and I had the last of the tortilla chips that I had toasted tonight with some of the guacamole. It was really nice! I think I might like it more than the packet stuff even though I just used a few ingredients! 

That was about it. I did book a hotel for myself in Tsuruoka for April. I’m having an event and I’m trying to get my friends to visit! I wanted to see what the hotel booking experience was like…terrible! I had to get F to help as the English page doesn’t work and the Japanese was too complicated for me to muddle through. Still, I think we got it!

I finished up my night with American Idol. They’ve made it really short in this version. It seems like they are cutting people so quickly, I’m rather upset about the whole thing. We went from 10 people to seven and now to five. Egads. Oh well…

Anyway, I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow, but hopefully, laundry will be involved, as will some cooking of dinner! Come back later and see what happens. Until tomorrow….

January 20, 2019

Sunday - Snowy and cold

I got up this morning a little after F took his mother off to the onsen. I did a couple of personal things and then waited for him to come back. They got back around 12:30 I think. F asked me about lunch and I asked if he’d like to take his mother out with us. He said he would, so I asked where they’d like to go.  The next thing I knew, he was going downstairs to make his mother and himself some udon. Did I want any? Bleck. Course not. When he came back it was nearly 1:30 and I was quite upset.

Almost all of the good lunch places would be finished accepting new customers and he didn’t like the places that did. I suggested East at the Grand El Sun and he didn’t seem happy, but did drive me there. In the parking lot, I asked him if he’d eat with me and he said yes. Of course, when we got seated, he refused to eat. I asked him if we should go but he didn’t want to. I really was annoyed with him. He spent the entire time at the restaurant with his eyes on his cellphone. It was really hard to have any kind of discussion with him. I had a lovely meal and it should have been a nice lunch, but somehow wasn’t.

When we left and paid at the restaurant I got a good laugh. Our bill was for quite a bit more than I thought it would be. F’s coffee cost about the same as half of my meal!  I had a set meal with soup, bread, salad and an entree, and a hot beverage.  

We did a little shopping after lunch. I asked to go to the craft shop. I bought a pair of knitting needles for knitting in the round, and some winter socks.  

We went to S-Mall for a while and F trawled the bookstore. He didn’t buy anything. I also had a good look around but didn’t find anything. I saw a pen I liked, I might go back and get it later. He’d forgotten that we’d gone there to get a drink, so we went downstairs and had one.

On our way out of the mall, we passed the ramen shop and F came up with a great idea for dinner. He wanted to go to the new, temporary ramen shop in the mall with me. I could have one of the few non-ramen dishes they offer. Of course, the fact that I didn’t want any of those dishes didn’t make a difference to him. I said that if he went there it was fine, but I’d go downstairs to the Pizza Hut Express and get some pasta for dinner. It’s nice, so why not? He didn’t like that idea much. I had already reminded him that I wanted to go to the curry place as they were selling their Grandmother Curry again. They have a spoon giveaway too, and their spoons are really nice. 

We bought a few groceries including some stuff for F and brought them back to the house. I wasn’t feeling too well, my nose was running and with the tension from earlier just thought I’d rather go to bed than face more arguing.  

F came upstairs and asked if I was ready to go to the curry place, so I said I’d go, and asked what he wanted to do afterwards. He had no plans so I suggested the internet cafe. He liked that idea so off we went.

Dinner was good. The curry was great, and not terribly expensive. We had free drinks and didn’t have toppings, so the bill wasn’t too bad.

We drove over to the Internet Cafe and had a nice, quiet time in our favourite massaging chairs. I tried casting on with my new needles, but I think I’m going to have to rethink my plans as I don’t have enough yarn to do what I had wanted. Darn!

We came back to the house when our time was up. I did up the garbage for tomorrow, watched Elementary and enjoyed it, and also took a shower. F took one even later than I did and he went to the onsen today so I was surprised. 

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

January 19, 2019

Saturday - Sunny and clear

I got up this morning long before F did. He had told me last night that he was going to go to the onsen this morning, but he didn’t. I got up around 9:30 and he didn’t really roll out of bed until close to 10:30. That normally would be fine, except we had an appointment at 11.  We didn’t actually leave here until 11 am so we were a little late. It didn’t matter too much, however. 

While I was waiting at the appointment, I finished reading a book that I’ve been reading for the last two and a half years! It’s the kind of book that you can’t really read straight through, it’s a book of mini-biographies of weird and wonderful people in history. I liked it a lot, but couldn’t spend a lot of time at a time on it. It was called "The Book of the Dead - Lives of the Justly Famous and the Undeservedly Obscure" by John Lloyd & John Mitchinson.

After our appointment was finished, we went to a bank machine and then back to the house. We picked up K and went to Naa for lunch. It’s the farmer’s restaurant that we go to sometimes. It was really good today and not very busy at all. That made it nice and our food was quicker than usual. Hurray for that! I suggested Naa because I know that K and F like it and our meal wouldn’t have a lot of meat in it. K didn’t have any at all, and F only had a little, as did I.

We visited a farmers market after, but I didn’t get anything, K did. We came back to the house via a gas station to pick up kerosene.

F and I went out around 4 pm which was soon after we got back to the house. I suggested going to a hardware store for a new towel rack. I broke the one in the kitchen a couple of days ago by accident. We found one, I got a couple of hooks for here in the bedroom, and F picked up a thing to help him charge his phone. 

We each had a cream cafe au lait at Komeda Coffee. That was a big tall glass of milky coffee with soft ice cream on the top. I liked the ice cream, but the coffee wasn’t too memorable. Probably next time (!) I’d have plain iced coffee with ice cream.  I had only wanted to stay for an hour max, but F wanted to stay longer.

Although I had suggested going to the curry restaurant for dinner, we decided to check the nearby grocery store for bentos for dinner.  F picked up a couple of raw fish ones for himself and K, I couldn’t bear another helping of rice today so got some bifun noodles and some pepper chicken.  We had our bentos with some iced tea and then some stollen for dessert. K really likes it!  I’m a bit amused at how much she likes the things I contribute to dinner. 

As there weren’t any movies in Tsuruoka for me this week (there were some new ones that F could have seen, but he rarely goes without me), I suggested that we stay in and watch a couple from the DVR.  So, we had a double shot of Paddington!  We rewatched Paddington and then I made a bit of popcorn and we watched Paddington 2. They were both terrific.  Hugh Grant was in the second one and was so funny.  For me, it is rare to watch a family movie that the main character is so positive and I still like it! I admit that I was rather verklempt at the end of the second film (and maybe the first if I’m really honest.) F enjoyed them too and I think it was fun for us to stay in and not spend a huge amount of money tonight!

That’s about it for today. F says he might go to the onsen in the morning with his mother, and after that, I’m not sure what we’ll get up to. I’m hoping that it will be good.  Come back later if you choose and find out. Until tomorrow….

January 18, 2019

Friday - Cold, snowy and windy

I got up on time this morning, but watched the news and my drama from my bed. It was darn cold this morning and I needed to stay warm. I was surprised that K was up today. I didn’t really run into her at all until much later.

I had a quiet day by myself. F did pop in for a few minutes later but didn’t stay long. He seemed in a good mood. 

I caught up on most of my DVR tv and didn’t do any of my column again. Sigh. I have to get down to it.

I thought for dinner tonight we’d have the last of my soup and some salad and get something from the supermarket to stretch what I had. When F called to say that he was on his way I asked him to pick up some more bread and maybe some sashimi for us. He agreed and then phoned back a couple of times and said that he wanted to change his clothes first. 

When he got here he started in on me about the sashimi and how I wouldn’t let him buy it on Wednesday. That was complete crap. I told him on Wednesday that I didn’t want any of the fish and encouraged him to buy it for him and his mother. I had found a lovely looking salmon carpaccio salad for myself.  Tonight, since I’d had a break from fish for a day or two, thought that a bit of fish might be nice. Then, my dear husband declined to do anything, got into bed and pulled up the covers. Great. So I was in charge of feeding his mother, was I?  

I went downstairs, remembered there was some frozen Brazilian Cheese bread in the freezer, so got that out to bake. I also put the soup in a pan and reheated it, set out the salad and generally got dinner together. 

When everything was ready I brought it out to the table and we had a nice meal. I told her that F was sleeping. It was near enough the truth. 

After dinner, I washed and dried all the dishes and put them away. I went upstairs and tried not to be nasty to my husband. I think I managed. I checked on him but he didn’t want much for a while, then went downstairs and probably made noodles for himself. Whatever he made had a disgusting smell and the entire house reeked of it.  Bleck. 

I showered, F eventually went to sleep.  

I’m not sure what’s going to happen tomorrow. We have appointments in the morning and after that I’m just not sure. I was hoping for a good movie or something, but there’s nothing in our city. Maybe I can convince him to watch something off the DVR? We’ve got a lot of good stuff on it right now.

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

January 17, 2019

Thursday - Cold, snowy and windy

I woke up this morning when F got up and I had a wee chat with him. I told him about the two kerosene tanks I had put in the genkan and asked him to deal with them for me. I think he did. Yay.

I had a quiet morning in the room. It was cold so I am afraid I stayed in bed a little late. I wasn’t sleeping though.

I had breakfast and thought about going down to make soup. I waited until after 12 though. I waited until about 12:30 as I hadn’t heard K in the living room, so assumed she was still sleeping. However, a few minutes after I started work on my soup, she got up. Oh dear. I’m afraid that I was in her way so she didn’t really come in to get her lunch.

I put together a chicken and vegetable soup today. I parboiled the vegetables and this time I cooked the garlic I used. Last time I put it in raw and since it was really strong stuff, it overpowered everything.  I got it all put in the slow cooker finally. I had visits from K and even from F.  He came here for a quick visit. While he was here I broke the towel rack in the kitchen. Oh no! I’m not exactly sure how I did it, but the plastic was old and quite brittle, so it just flew everywhere. Sigh. I told F and K and they both seemed less concerned than I was. Whew. 

I went back upstairs when I was done and let K have the kitchen. I had a very late lunch today, grabbed it around 4 pm actually. The soup was smelling rather nice. Yay.

I did my dishes after lunch and then went outside for a few minutes to do some snow shovelling. It wasn’t deep, just a bit cold out. My gloves got wet too, which was a pain. 

F came back to the house around 6:30 I think. I’d sent him to the store on his way back from work for some French bread and salad. I served dinner, and then cleaned up afterwards without any help at all. Poor me. I know that F is exhausted, but it would have been nice if he could help a tad. And, after all my work, F and K only had one bowl of soup. They said it was good, but F has a stomach thing going on and K pretends she doesn’t like to eat a lot. The French bread was good. I had put cheese on half of it and toasted it, so it was a little luxury. So, my lovely soup is now sitting in the fridge. I haven’t decided if I’ll have some for lunch tomorrow or not. Maybe I will. For dessert, I had pre-cut some stollen that a friend had given me and put it on a plate with mini forks. F didn’t have any because of his stomach, but K and I polished off most of the rest. There was a half a piece left on the plate so I wrapped it up and told her it was for her and would be in the fridge!

I washed the dishes and then dried them. With this style of dinner making, there weren’t a whole lot of dishes so that was good. It still took me a while. I washed and dried and put away my slow cooker and then put the soup in the fridge. Done.

F came upstairs later and wanted to go to an onsen. Our usual one is closed today so he went to a nearby one. I didn’t go with him as the seating isn’t comfortable and there isn’t any wifi. I did tell him that if he felt like it afterwards, I would meet him at the door and go to a coffee shop with him. And that’s what we ended up doing.

We went to Komeda coffee. F had a coffee milkshake which he liked, I had a decaf coffee. I did think about having cocoa but decided against it. 

We came back to the house after our coffee. We closed out the coffee shop I think!

F went to bed fairly soon and I’m trying to go a little bit earlier tonight. I’m quite tired as I had a busy day. 

Tomorrow I might get a start on my column or a craft project. I really should start my column! Come back later if you like and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

January 16, 2019

Wednesday - Clear with flurries of snow

I went to bed a bit early last night and it was a good thing. When F’s alarm went off early this morning it woke me up. I chatted with F a little and wished him a good day. I snoozed for a bit but got up about 8:30 or so. I went downstairs and grabbed my breakfast then. I was going out and wanted to have breakfast early.

I didn’t see K at all this morning. I watched NCIS, did dishes, made the bed, got dressed and brushed my teeth too. I got ready to meet my friend.  At 11am the postman came by with a package for me from my sister. Yay!  I took it upstairs quickly. When I came back downstairs my friend was there already.

She drove us over to Pisolino and we had a good feast and a better chat.  We barely stopped talking! Sadly, our time ran out and she had to go home to get ready for work. I asked her to let me out at S-Mall and she did.

I spent a couple of minutes in S-Mall, then decided to walk over to my hairdresser to see if I could get a hair cut. I could as it happened. Yay.  My hairdresser did her usual fabulous job and I came out of her salon feeling a hundred times better! Unfortunately, it was snowing up a storm at that time, but I managed to get back to the mall.

At the mall, I visited the hundred yen shop again, then came downstairs and had a treat at Baskin Robbins. I read some of my book on my phone then. 

After that, I decided to go to the coffee shop. I grabbed a soy latte and a table and waited for F to finish work. When he did, he called me and I invited him to join me. We both finished our drinks and then left.  We did a quick and pointless tour of the grocery store in the mall, but then turned around and went to another store nearby.

I wanted something for lunches and F wanted something for dinner but wasn’t specific. He grabbed more raw fish, and I saw a marinated salmon salad. I thought that sounded nice for me. I wasn’t too hungry. I had a big lunch, and then ice cream and then a big drink. I didn’t need a lot. I let F know that I didn’t want any of his fish so he put it back and got really angry at me again.  I told him it was fine if he got the fish for him and his mother, I wasn’t very hungry. He seemed insulted and refused to pick up the fish again. I put my fish back, it looked nice, but I had just lost any appetite I had had. He went through the rest of the grocery store with a huge chip on his shoulder, I’m not even sure what he did pick up. He was rude and nasty and wouldn’t even look at me.

We got back to the house and he started to make dinner right away. Now, he’d got wet at work and his uniform was wet too. For some reason, he refused to go and change. I offered to help him with the dinner while he changed. No. I told him I’d be upstairs.

I went upstairs and started warming up the room. About 20 minutes later F came up and told me dinner was ready. Huh?  I told him that I didn’t want any.  I had no idea what he’d made and I really didn’t feel like it anyway.

I didn’t see him again for a while. He came up and then I decided that I would do the garbage since it hadn’t been done in a while. The next thing I knew, he went downstairs with his bag.  I wasn’t planning to go down just that moment, so when he came back 5 minutes later I asked him what he’d done. He’d taken the garbage bag out of the container in the kitchen but hadn’t replaced the bag. He hadn’t replaced the nets in the kitchen sink drain and corner box either. How is this helping?  I took my bag downstairs and took care of the things he didn’t. He didn’t even seal his bag at the doorway. He just left it there.

Oddly, when I came back upstairs, I was angry with him, but he didn’t seem mad at me anymore. I swallowed my anger and we talked and chatted a bit. He showed me an old photo album of himself when he was a lot younger. It was interesting to see him in his twenties. I don’t know if I’d have been interested in him back then!

I watched a bit of TV and F went to bed. He’s snoozing away. He’s back at work tomorrow and I might make soup if I have any time. I’m not sure if I really want to though!

Anyway, that’s it for me. Come back later and see what happens on Thursday. Until tomorrow….

January 15, 2019

Tuesday - Clear, rainy at night

I got up a bit late this morning and watched the news then my show. I went down to get breakfast and didn’t see K around. I got a late nengajo today from a friend, that was nice.

I had a quiet morning basically. I did a load of laundry and then a friend got in touch and asked if I’d be able to do a video chat. Of course, so off we went.  We talked for a couple of hours I think, but it was good.

F texted me in the morning that he was going to take off two days next month so that he could be with me longer in Sendai. I had to ask him not to do that. I’d already made hotel reservations for us for one night and myself for two nights, so I didn’t want to change them. I had also made plans to meet someone, so probably could change it, but didn’t know if it would be okay. It’s funny but when I made the reservations I couldn’t get a straight answer out of F. He wouldn’t help me make any plans and wouldn’t give me a budget, but then decides that he’d spend more time away.  I was a tad worried he was upset with me, but he called later and we talked about it.

I grabbed my lunch and watched the first episode of Bake Off from the DVR. It was great of course!

I did a bunch of dishes and then came back upstairs to watch the news. F phoned around 5:30 and I suggested getting bentos for dinner. I had no plans to cook and no ideas about what to eat. He obligingly did go to a place and picked up three for us. 

When he came here he wanted to eat immediately, but need to have miso soup. He put that together, I grabbed glasses and some tea for the table.  We had a nice dinner watching the news. I asked F to tell his mother that I am going out for lunch tomorrow so I won’t be around. I could have muddled through it, but this way she knows! 

F and I did the dishes and then went out to the onsen.  F took a bath and I sat in the lobby, updated my phone and then I read some of my Journal from last time.  I know it was an accident, but they got my column all mixed up.  It was terrible.  Apparently, a page got turned over or mixed up or something.  I did post in a couple of places the reading order, but I don’t know if people understood.

After the onsen, we went to the grocery store to pick up a few things. I was sad to see that there weren’t any salads on offer. Yikes.  I got a couple of things, F got something for his mother’s lunch tomorrow and then we came back to the house.

I took a shower and then came back upstairs. F is having an early night as he has to get up and go to work early. He has a driving assignment.  I am meeting a friend for lunch and then I’m hoping to get a haircut or at least book a haircut as my hair is horrible at the moment!

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