January 31, 2023

Tuesday - Snowy, clear and a little warmer at times

I woke up this morning when F’s alarm went off. He had an early call this morning, set his alarm for 6 am. Poor guy. Helpful wife that I am, I turned on my bedside light for him. However, he didn’t tell me when he was leaving, so I woke up later and turned it off. 

I slept to my usual time and then got up. I started the heater and it worked very well. Woot. I got dressed and then watched the news. I took a little nap, but at 10 am I heard the doorbell. I ran downstairs and yelled to the guy that I was coming. He waited for me. I got the package that was delivered yesterday for F. Yay. 

I went upstairs, grabbed my laundry and washed a load of it, grabbed my breakfast and then went upstairs and watched a bit of YouTube. When the laundry was finished I hung it up in the room. A bit after 1 I went outside and shovelled some snow. There wasn’t too much to do for a change, but I like to think I did help a bit!

I went back in and soon after made my lunch. I brought it upstairs and ate it. I watched The Walking Dead too and discovered it was the last episode for a while. Sigh. That makes me sad. And happy because it scares me silly but I can’t stop watching it.

I went downstairs around 6 pm to get a start on dinner. F was going to be late, so I got started on making dinner for K and I. However, F called me and said that he’d be just another hour, so I thought since K was still in bed, I might as well hold dinner until he was back.

Tonight I made gapao rice and an onion pickle thing. Dinner was good, everyone seemed to have enjoyed it.

I asked F if he’d called the plumber to have the hot water tank fixed but of course he hadn’t. Sigh. I told him I needed a shower. He suggested going to the onsen, but I didn’t think I’d be able to finish dishes in time. However, I did! The dishes weren’t too bad tonight and I worked hard to get them done quickly. 

I went upstairs and changed and grabbed my stuff, F and I drove over to the onsen and just squeezed in before the deadline. I went in the ladies side and did the whole washing and then I did go in the bath for a couple of minutes, but really there wasn’t much time for anything else. I rinsed, towelled off, and then went to the changing room and got dressed.

F was out a couple of minutes later and then we left. We needed to get groceries so we drove to MaxValu as all the other stores were closed.

I went into the store and did the shopping. It was rather fun going around by myself. I got a few things for the house and some stuff for F and me too.

I went over to the car and we set off for the house. However, when we got nearby, F said that he had to go to the gas station. His dashboard light was on. Why, oh, why?  I suggested taking the kerosene tanks too as we were nearly out at the house. We got to the house and F had the tanks in the car already!

We drove to the gas station and F filled the car and then the kerosene tanks. We drove back to the house. I took the groceries in and turned on lights and opened doors for F, then I unpacked the groceries and put them away. 

I went upstairs and turned on the heater then got into my PJ’s and started to relax. F came upstairs soon too and we were both in the headspace where we needed to unwind. 

It turned out to be a decent day. I don’t really like doing the onsen thing, but that is a lot to do with my personal hang ups. 

Not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow, come on back and find out! Until tomorrow….

January 30, 2023

Monday - Sunny, snowy, hail, thunder and windy…so much in one day!

I got up this morning after my alarm went off. I tried to go downstairs but K beat me to the washroom! I had to wait a couple of minutes. I had my usual morning of news and then napping. I woke up and went downstairs with my laundry basket to try out the washing machine. Well, guess what, K had beat me to that too. No worries, I’d do mine when she was done.

I grabbed my breakfast and went upstairs to eat. A little later I checked on the washing machine. It was finished, but K was nowhere to be seen. That was rather annoying. I set myself a timer so that I don’t leave my laundry in for a long time, but she didn’t. 

I decided since it was sunny and the snowplough had gone through sometime and blocked off the driveway, that I would go out and shovel snow for a while. It was a good plan. I was outside for about half an hour or more. I cleared around the house and also got rid of the wall at the road. It took a bit of effort, but since it was sunny I didn’t mind too much. 

I came back in the house and a few minutes later, F called to say that he was coming back to the house and did I want anything. He had to pick something up or drop something off, I’m not sure which. I didn’t need anything, but I suggested a small bento for his mother. He obliged.

I’m so glad that I went out early today and did the snow shovelling or F wouldn’t have been able to park in his space. He was happy I did too!

He brought a bento for his mother, took a short rest, and then was off on his way again. It was a nice visit. K ate her bento and happily took her clothing out of the washing machine. I went downstairs before 4 and did my one small load of towels. I wanted to do something else, but towels are necessary too. 

I watched the news and worked on my crochet. I tried sorting my yarn again and then crocheted for a while. It was so relaxing that I forgot to do some of my internet stuff!

F texted me but I didn’t see his texts. Oops. He phoned me after his work finish time to say that he was going to go to the electric shop to get a new heater for our room. Did I want to go with him? I would have liked to, but honestly, I had to go downstairs to start cooking dinner. It takes longer without any hot water as I have to heat up the water first. 

I went downstairs and started on dinner. Tonight I did roasted veggies in the air fryer and some baked chicken in the toaster oven. At the last minute I threw together another tofu and avocado salad which we had with actual salad. 

I was a bit late serving dinner as the veggies took a bit longer than I hoped and I had a lot to do. However, things were on the table by 7:30. F came down and didn’t dawdle for a change, I woke up K and she got up too. Hurray.

We ate and most of the things disappeared. Luckily I had put aside some chicken and veggies for K’s lunch before we ate! F went back upstairs after dinner, I cleaned up in the kitchen and then K went to bed. I listened to my podcasts and enjoyed them, so that was good.

When I went upstairs, I had half-expected F to have set up the new heater, but he hadn’t even brought it in out of the car! I asked him if he was going to take it back to work with him tomorrow. He did bring it in and took away the old one. This morning, I had filled up the kerosene tank so I wasn’t sure how that would work, but the tank in the new heater is the same as the old one, so we just switched it. We’ll replace it when it empties out. 

It works much better than the old one. The old one would cut out after a few minutes which you really don’t want during a cold snap like we are in now. I was fairly good at keeping it going, but it was a pain. Let’s hope that the new one keeps working well.

I watched a couple of shows off the Fire Stick tonight. Both were new to me. One from Amazon was called The Scottish Play about a small town theatre club putting on the Scottish tragedy (I’m superstitious too and won’t say the name!!) and the other one was a new one on Apple TV+ called Shrinking with Jason Siegel and Harrison Ford. It has potential. The Scottish Play is one that I’m not sure about. I just read through the _3_ reviews of it on IMDb and it wasn’t much liked. I’ll try another episode since I’m always looking for half hour comedies to watch.

I turned off the TV at midnight and turned on some YouTube. I’ve had a quiet evening since F has an early morning and had to get to bed early. 

And that’s it for me. F said he would be late tomorrow so I’ll maybe have to eat with K by myself. Not my favourite thing, but I’ll manage.

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

January 29, 2023

Sunday - Snowy and cold

F and I both slept in this morning and it was lovely. I dragged myself out of bed eventually around 11:30 or so, I think F was a few minutes later! He went and made his mother some lunch, he made her udon I guess. Anyway, when we started talking about where to go for lunch, he suggested Udonichi. It’s a little local udon shop and usually the food is really good. I thought that he had a bad stomach and wanted to have udon for it. Okay, I can be nice!  I said okay.

We drive over to the restaurant and get in. We got in just around last order so the restaurant was being very nice to let us in. F didn’t have udon. He had blooming tempura shrimp on rice. What the heck. I had Niku Udon, or basically meat udon. I thought it would be simple. I’ve had niku soba at another place and really enjoyed that. It’s one bowl, no fuss, no muss. 

I was presented with a tray with at least 5 bowls on it, plus I was given a jug of soup too. I had a big bowl with some of the longest  udon noodles I’ve ever seen in it, floating in hot water, a bowl of broth or sauce with meat floating in it, a bowl of grated daikon, and a bowl of condiments to go in my broth. There was sesame seeds, sliced negi onions and some ginger. Oh my goodness. What the bloomin’ heck! The jug of soup was to go onto the grated daikon as an alternative sauce for the noodles. It was fine, but what a load of bother for something that I was only eating to be nice! I was splashing all over and there were no napkins on the table, and no oshibori either. Sigh. It got eaten finally, but then F started playing with his phone and wouldn’t move. I finally pointed out that the restaurant had actually closed half an hour ago before he moved. 

We paid and left. The food was good, but what a palaver! I honestly just wanted something simple. 

Afterwards, F asked me what I wanted to do so I told him honestly. I wanted to go to karaoke. He said okay and so off we went. Well, we got there and it was very busy, so we couldn’t get in right away. The guy said that we could get in around 5:30 tonight. F said okay, so we made a reservation for 5:30. Yay us.

I suggested doing the grocery shopping next so that it would be done. F was down with that, so we went to the store, well, I did. I had to use the washroom and that was another palaver! In order to reduce consumption of electricity, a lot of stores aren’t using all their lights. Sometimes it is a good thing as they use a lot of outside lights and really overuse the lights inside. Well, sometimes it isn’t a good thing. Like when they turn off all the lights in the ladies toilet! It was dark when I went in, but at first I assumed it would come on…a lot of places have motion sensors that turn on the lights. Nope. I looked for a light switch both by the door and in the hallway outside. Nope. Finally, I got my phone and used the translate app to read the sign on the door. The light switch was behind the door. I had to use the flashlight mode on my phone to find the flaming light switch! I must have missed it the first time when I tried to see in the dark. I turned on the lights. Success.

Afterwards I got the groceries. I had to pick up stuff for F and K’s breakfasts, my breakfasts, lunches and and dinners for the next few nights. I suggested to F that I buy K’s dinner bento too since I was there and they had some nice ones. He thought it was a good idea. (We did this by text!) I shopped and then paid.

I came back to the car and then we went to the next place. I’d asked to go to Gyomu Supa so I could pick up a few things. I got some things like sunflower seeds and some kimchi and a few other things for the kitchen, F and me. I did get K a couple of treats too. She likes caramels, so I got her a packet and some shrimp cracker things.

We went back to the house and took back the groceries. It was around 4 pm, so I unloaded the groceries and put them away. I left the bento on the table. I took some of the stuff upstairs. Sadly, with K, I have to “hide” some of the food so that she doesn’t eat it all at once. If I had left the stuff for her breakfasts downstairs, she would probably eat that stuff before the food for her dinner. 

F was relaxing upstairs, and that’s what I did for the next 30 or 40 minutes.

Around 5 pm we left. F told his mother about the bento and she must have eaten it. It did look rather nice so I hope she liked it. We drove off in the snow to the karaoke box.

We were able to get in right away and had a nice couple of hours. They had a special thing if you finished at 8pm we could get a special rate, so basically we did that. It was a little over two hours, about perfect for two people. We also ordered some food while we were there. We had a meal each and swapped half of it, and then F ordered some nibbles later on. They were good, even if they weren’t too healthy.

I sang a lot, but as usual, there wasn’t enough time to sing everything that I wanted to sing. I did enjoy myself though. I think F enjoyed it too. He mostly sings in English, but he did a few songs in Japanese too. I did a Lizzo song for the first time, that was cool. I think I need to practice her a bit more!

At 8:00pm, we checked out of the Karaoke box and drove back to the house. We had a quiet evening in basically. I watched a lot of YouTube and actually took back most of my afghan because I decided it was too big. I made it a little less wide and reworked it up. So, that’s what I did tonight. I think I like it a bit better now. 

Tomorrow I hope to do a load of laundry. F said that he used the washing machine today and it was fine, so I need to do that. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to go to an onsen or not. I could use another shower, but the hot water tank is telling us to contact a plumber. Oh dear. We almost went tonight, but the local onsen closes at 9 pm and we didn’t get back to the house until 8:18. With the roads in such bad condition, and needing to grab our stuff first, we wouldn’t have been able to make it for last entry at 8:30. I told F I might take the bus there tomorrow, but I doubt that I’d really do that! I could though!

And that was my day. It was a pretty good one, much better than last Sunday was. Tomorrow, I’m not really sure what I’m going to get up to. I’ve got to cook dinner and I’ll probably have to check and see if K eats anything for lunch. She may not want to have what I’m thinking she should have! It depends if I see her or not. Some days I don’t!

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

January 28, 2023

 Saturday - Colder, windy and snowy

I got up a bit late this morning, but then again I went to bed really late last night! It was early this morning in fact.

F went off for his massage this morning, and I slept on. I woke up around 9:30, went downstairs and then came back up. I checked the heater and of course the kerosene tank was empty, so I went back downstairs and filled it up. I brought it back upstairs when I was done and put it back in the heater. I switched it on low and then went back to bed. 

I woke up a bit later and went downstairs again. I was surprised to see that F was back. He’d been back for a while and was making lunch for his mother. That was good, but he was supposed to go to the doctor today. Apparently, he talked himself out of that, again! Eye roll.  

After a little while, he came upstairs and we talked about going out for our lunch. We talked about a couple of places and then headed out. We tried to go to the restaurant just down the road, but they were reservation only today. 

We went over to Arpeggio instead and after a couple of minute wait we were seated. We had a nice meal. I had the bacon donburi, it’s a lot like having bacon and eggs and rice for breakfast. F had my usual, the soboro and he liked it too. We did talk about having dessert or coffee there, but decided not to do that.

We drove over to the MaxValu area and went to Daiso first. I did a little shopping. I bought some yarn for my scrap afghan. I know, if I bought it, is it really a scrap afghan?  I just got some colours to blend together and add a little bit of difference to it. I also picked up some snacks and F joined me in the shop later for his stuff.

We went over to Komeda Coffee when we were done and had coffee and cake. Today I had a pumpkin cake with a hazelnut topping. I’m so delighted that Japan has finally “discovered” hazelnuts. They are my favourite nut and I missed them a lot. 

After we ate and drank and used our phones, we decided to go back to the house, but stopped at the grocery store to get a bento for K. I went in the store since F wasn’t feeling great again. I got her a kaisen-don, or raw fish donburi. F had suggested fish, and it was the nicest looking thing there. They didn’t have cooked fish today. 

We came back to the house and left the donburi on the table for a while. The kitchen was pretty cold today, so it was like a refrigerator in there. We went upstairs and for the next little bit, F kept bugging me about when I wanted to go out for dinner. I wasn’t hungry yet. I wish he’d just say, “I’d like to go out for dinner soon.” but he keeps asking me!

Around 6:30 or so he went downstairs to get his mother up and give her the bento. She seemed to like it he said. Yay.

We decided on Coco Ichibanya Curry House as they were having their Soup Curry again. I had that, the one with roasted chicken and F had a curry with clams and a pork cutlet added on. We had lassi to drink afterwards. My curry was good, but I didn’t find it quite hot enough, temperature-wise. I like my food hot, but then again, I did wait a couple of minutes to start eating so I couldn’t complain too much.

After dinner, we just came back to the house. F spent time on his phone or computer or both, I did some crochet and watched a couple of things off the Fire Stick. I ended up watching 3 programmes tonight and doing a couple of rows on my blanket. I’m wondering if I made it too big. Hmm. I’ll measure it soon and see what I think. It’s bright and colourful and a lot of fun to work on.

And that’s about it for me for tonight. I’m not sure what we’re going to get up to tomorrow. We might go and look at heaters in the store as ours keeps cutting out. I’ve asked F to do an internet search to see if it is a problem we can fix by ourself, but he won’t. Sigh. Apart from that, I have no idea as F is tired and in pain. I think the weather isn’t helping. Oh, and speaking of heaters, the water heater is back to not working again. I hope it fixes itself sooner rather than later.

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

January 27, 2023

Friday - Snowy, slightly warmer

F did wake me up this morning, but I fell back asleep right away. I woke up a bit later when my alarm went off. I did my usual, and watched the news before taking a bit of a snooze. 

I woke up a bit early today and went downstairs. I checked the snow situation and also noticed that I had received a couple of books in the mail from a person in my women’s group. I grabbed my breakfast and went upstairs to eat. I relaxed a bit. Normally on Friday I do laundry, but with the water situation I decided not to do it. I have no idea if we even have water in the washing machine! I did sweep the stairs today which was sorely needed. I hadn’t done it in ages. 

Around 1:30 I went downstairs with the plan to go outside and shovel snow. All of a sudden I heard someone go up the stairs. Huh? K hasn’t gone upstairs lately. It sounded like F. I went upstairs and sure enough, F was sitting on the bed. He told me that he had taken the afternoon off work. Well, that was nice. I told him that I was planning to go outside and shovel some snow and then I’d grab lunch. I sort of expected him to ask me if I wanted to go out for lunch but he didn’t. No worries.

He told me I didn’t have to shovel any snow, but I sort of wanted to do it. I went out and tidied things up, I shovelled around the car too. 

When I had done enough I went back into the house and put my lunch together. I took it upstairs to eat. I suggested to F that maybe after I ate my lunch we could go to the onsen so I could take a bath. He was happy to oblige, in fact, he didn’t even want me to finish my lunch! 

We did leave after I finished lunch and went to the onsen in Haguro town.  It’s F’s favourite onsen. It was surprisingly busy.  I took my bath and was done quite quickly. I’m not really into the bathing part as I tend to find the water too hot for me. It wasn’t too bad today though. I couldn’t remember what time I was supposed to meet F after my bath, so I ended up getting out of the bath a little early. Oh well. The only bad thing was that I hadn’t brought any money as I left my handbag in the car! I did read some of my book on my phone though.

F came out a bit later. He gave me some money and I bought us drinks. We talked about dinner. F was having a bad stomach, but he offered to take me out for dinner. I told him that I didn’t have to go out, that I was planning to cook tonight. He decided not to go out after all.  We went back to the house and I changed into my kitchen clothing. I decided to change my plans a little. I had wanted to make pizzas but F didn’t want to eat and I didn’t want to open the bag of bases as I’d have leftovers without F. I pivoted and decided I’d make donburi with different toppings. I reheated some leftovers from earlier in the week, opened a can of tuna and drained it and also made an avocado and tofu salad. I put things out on the table, gave each of us a bowl of rice and tried to show K how to do it. She spent about 15 minutes in the kitchen cutting up some pickle which she promptly ate on the rice that I had given her. She did have a bit of my toppings because I put them on her bowl, but she was really into the pickle stuff!

I did the dishes when we were done eating and said goodnight to her afterwards. When I finished the dishes, I turned off the water in the kitchen because it isn’t that warm outside. I went upstairs.

F was in bed and mostly asleep. He was watching stuff on his computer and snoozing. We chatted for a bit and then I went over to my computer and started watching a bit of YouTube from earlier in the day. I also got started on my scrap blanket. Woot. I had to learn a new stitch to do it, the chainless foundation stitch. I hope I can remember how to do it for other things too!

I went downstairs around midnight and grabbed some water from the kitchen. The water wasn’t off anymore. K must have turned it on. Oh dear. However, I tried the hot water and…it worked! Wow. It must have reset itself or something. I filled up my bottles and then turned off the water again. 

I went upstairs and told F about the water. He was quite tired so he might not have been as happy as I was! I also suggested that he set his alarm clock as he has an early massage. He’d forgotten about that too! He’s really tired and is now sleeping.

Well, that’s it for me for today. It was quite a busy day surprisingly, and quite a good one, so that’s good. 

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to on Saturday but I hope it’ll be a good one. Come back later and find out. Until tomorrow…. 

January 26, 2023

Thursday - Windy, snowy and cold (but warmer than yesterday)

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. F had got up this morning and left without waking me. Hurray for that. I got up, went downstairs, and then came back upstairs. I went back down again as I discovered that the tank in the heater was empty. Oh dear. 

I went back upstairs, turned on the heater, got dressed and yep, you guessed it, got back into bed! I watched the news and then snoozed a bit. I went downstairs a bit later to grab breakfast. I thought I’d check the snow situation outside and went to the door. I discovered that someone had left the door open. It wasn’t completely closed, let alone locked! Yikes. There was snow out there that should be shifted, but not an emergency yet.

I went back upstairs, ate breakfast and watched a little YouTube. I did a thing where I sorted out some of my yarn. I have a lot of acrylic yarn and I’m planning a scrap project, so I needed to round it up and then sort it. I got that done, so that was good. I also brought up the load of laundry that F had left in the washing machine since Tuesday. Even though he had dried it in the machine, it was stiff and crunchy from being damp and very cold. I hung it up because I’m a supremely nice person! I found 200 yen in the washing machine which I confiscated as payment. Okay, not so nice then.

Around 1:30 I got dressed for going snow shovelling and went outside. Sometime in the last couple of hours the snowplough had gone by, so the wall it left behind needed to be cleared. I started by the house, cleared off the steps and then the area in front of the garage. I got the snow dump out and cleared the area where F parks his car. It took a few minutes, but the snow was light and it went well. I started on the wall and got it moved too. Happily, the snow hadn’t re-frozen so it was still easy to move. I got the area in front of our parking area cleared. I did a once over of the steps again as more snow had fallen, and even used some of F’s chemical snow clearer stuff.  

I went into the house and a few minutes later came down to the kitchen to make my lunch. I was making my lunch and enjoying myself when I heard the sound of the heater going on in the living room. K was up. Now, she was looking for her lunch, which was fine. I had put a plate in there a couple of days ago and she hadn’t eaten it, so there was something for her. She wanted to heat it up right away, even though I was still using the kitchen. The kitchen is small but she’s very pushy. Then, she was too impatient to let the food heat up properly so she would keep stopping the micr owave and taking it out! Finally, she left and a couple of minutes later so did I. 

I had heated up some of the leftover taco mix from Monday for myself and had that on two tortillas. Yum. Today I was supposed to watch last night’s The Walking Dead, but I just couldn’t do it yet. I decided to pivot and watched the season 3 starter episode of The Great British Sewing Bee. Hurray. It was much happier I think than TWD.

I watched the news and then went downstairs a little later and went outside to check the snow situation. The steps were clear, so F’s chemical stuff worked. Woot. I cleared a very small area of snow and called it a day. We hadn’t had a lot of snow during the last couple of hours.

I went back inside and started on dinner and cleaning things up. I heated up some water so that I could do the dishes and then did them. I also got started on dinner prep. I was planning to sauté some eggplant and they can take a long time, so even though F wasn’t back yet, I decided to get started on that.

I prepared the eggplant and got it cooking away. I washed up a bit and got started on other things. F called to say that he was stuck in a traffic jam, but did make it back a bit before 7 pm. I told him dinner would be soon. I roused K, I had been heating up the living room for 20 minutes first and was gradually getting the table set. Tonight’s dinner, when it finally hit the table was pretty good. We had miso soup, sautéed pork, salad, eggplant and mushroom stir-fry and K contributed some Japanese pickles. The meal went over well. I gave us a light dessert too, I opened a can of mikans in a light syrup so we had that. 

During dinner I told F that I’d really start to need a shower soon. He offered to take me to the onsen tonight, but I told him that I wouldn’t be done in time to go. I was right.

I listened to a couple of podcasts while I did the dishes. It seemed to take longer than usual because of not having hot water. The cold-rinsed plates took more effort to dry and the kettle took a bit of time to heat up. Still things got done. It was about 9:15 when I told F I was done.

We couldn’t go to the onsen, but we could go to a grocery store, so that’s what we did. I needed a few things for tomorrow’s meal and grabbed them at the store. F stayed in the car and I went in. I think I did fairly well. I’m going to use up some of the leftovers by making pizzas for dinner tomorrow, along with some of the avocado if its okay and some salad. When I checked out I used the self-check out and it couldn’t feel the weight of one of the things I bought. I got a spice packet for the avocado-tofu salad I’m planning to make. I tried throwing it into the grocery bag, but it couldn’t “feel” it. I had to tell the machine that I wasn’t using a bag for it!

We came back to the house, I put away the groceries and went upstairs to start the heater and my water pot. 

We had a fairly quiet evening. I watched New Amsterdam and then turned off the TV. And…then I blogged and did phone stuff and drank some rooibos and now you are up to date.

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

January 25, 2023

Wednesday - Cold, windy and horrible. Really cold!

It was cold when I went to bed last night but I was quite warm in bed, so that was good. I woke up this morning when F left the room. I got up and went downstairs. I was worried that he’d need me to shovel snow or something, but he didn’t need help. 

I said goodbye and went back to bed for about an hour. When I got up again, I got dressed, watched the tail end of the news and napped for a bit. F phoned me and said he was on his way back to the house. I told him I was still in bed, but did get up then. 

He came to the house and I made him a hot drink and I did my usual stuff. He had quite a big break while he was waiting for the people he was driving. He left around 11:30. I had a quiet time at the house for a bit, I got started on making a couple of pompoms for my scarf. I did that and then sewed one onto each end. It did take a while, but I got it done finally. My scarf is finished! Woot.

The See-Saw Scarf with added pompoms!

I went outside to shovel some snow around 1:30 or so. It was quite cold outside and there was a lot of snow, but not as much as I had thought. I came back inside a bit after 2 and after changing back into my regular clothes, made myself lunch.

I watched the last episode of Bake-off, the one where Nadiya won. Yay. It was a good episode. I had to stop it so I could watch the news.

F called at his usual time to say that he was on his way back, but that the visibility was very bad. He was a bit late. I went downstairs at 5 pm to see if I needed to shovel again, but I decided that I didn’t need to! 

Now, I haven’t told you about the exciting things that also happened today. Our water in the bathroom has frozen. There is a stalactite hanging from the tap. Luckily, the toilet is still working and we have cold running water in the kitchen. 

I had to make dinner tonight but I decided to go a tad simpler than I had originally planned. Because there was no warm water, I didn’t want to do things where I had to wash veggies.  I baked some chicken, fried some hash browns and put out a few other things. I also made some instant soup and a hot drink because it was so cold today. F came back in the middle of me cooking and we chatted a bit before he went upstairs. 

I warmed up the living room a bit, got K up and set the table. Unfortunately, when I put F’s soup near his plate, I ended up spilling it all over. Oh no! There was such a mess. I cleaned up his plate and gave him my soup bowl before I made myself some more. Luckily, there was one more packet of soup!

After dinner I did the dishes. I had to heat up some water in the kettle so that I could have warm/hot water for washing. So much fun! 

I came upstairs afterwards and watched a bit of TV. I recorded The Walking Dead tonight, I couldn’t watch it at night. Last week’s episode was so sad that even thinking about it made me sad, so I watched some comedies on the Fire Stick.

And that’s about it for my day. So, we have cold running water, but no hot because our hot water heater doesn’t like cold weather. Our bathroom tap has frozen and I finished my scarf. An interesting day!

Until tomorrow….

January 24, 2023

Tuesday - Cold and snowy. Brr!

I got up this morning, did my usual stuff of going downstairs, and then watching the news from the bed. When I finished the news I turned off the TV and went to sleep again. I got up a bit later, went downstairs and grabbed my breakfast. I came back upstairs to eat and watch the John Cusack movie de jour, The Bag Man. It was….okay. I lost a bit of interest at the end of the movie. 

When the movie was over I went downstairs and made lunch for K. I just heated up some of the leftover taco mix for her, but I put it on rice. I even heated up the living room a little before I woke her up. She seemed to be very happy when I gave her her plate.  I told her I was going outside to shovel snow, which I did. It wasn’t too deep yet, but it was quite cold. I got the parking area cleaned up and the house steps as well. 

I went inside and rested for a few minutes and then went down and got my lunch. I was surprised because K was up, she didn’t go back to bed for a while. Yay for her.

I took my lunch upstairs and ate while watching the semi-finals of Bake-Off. I’m still on the Nadyia episodes. She’s coming into her strengths just at the right time. 

I watched the news at 4 pm and then I looked outside to see if I needed to shovel snow again. Sadly, I did. There wasn’t too much extra snow, but there had been a little more fall since I did it last time.

I dressed and went out to shovel snow. The snow was light so it didn’t take too long to re-clear after all. Yay. I just got in the house and F called to say he was on the way, but the snow was bad where he was. Sigh. 

I went back in the house when I finished, and went upstairs to change for the kitchen. I took my dishes from the day downstairs and started on dinner.

Tonight I made a pork stir-fry and served that with rice and a salad. It turned out very well. F didn’t arrive until just before 7 pm so he was quite late. He came in and after saying hello went upstairs to relax.

I took a few things out to the living room and turned on the heater and the light. A few minutes later I heard the TV go on, so K must have got up by herself. Yay. I’m glad. I worry that she spends too much time in bed. Today she did better!

I was a little late with dinner, but it did get fairly good reviews. We had the stir-fry and then we finished up the Bocca puddings from Costco. That was nice too.

I did the dishes, which didn’t take too much time happily. However, I still needed to get groceries tonight. F and I got dressed and went out. We had to go to MaxValu as it was rather late and I thought the other shops would be closed when we got there. 

I did the shopping and enjoyed myself. I used a buggy today and got it quite full. I picked up a few things for tomorrow and Thursday. I paid using one of the self-registers and had to kick in a few yen since the bill came to just a little over what F had given me. I didn’t mind, just thought it was funny.

I took the shopping out to the car and then we came back to the house. I put the stuff away, filled up the kerosene tank and then took it upstairs. I came down again to use the washroom, but someone was still in it. I had to ask him to get out! He did. 

He turned off the water on me though, so when I soaped up my hand and tried to turn on the tap it didn’t work. Annoying! It is necessary to do that though as when it is this cold, the water might freeze. Sigh. It’s only -7 but the houses and plumbing aren’t well built so we have to be extra careful in the cold. 

And that was my day. I have been trying to tell F that he didn’t set up the DVR properly. He’s lost the guide book now. Sigh. He said that he did it right, but if he did, why can’t I record my programmes? It won’t even attempt the news at 5 am, and even tonight, the show I watched froze in the middle. I don’t get it. 

Anyway, I gotta go. I might have to help shovel snow in the morning so F can get to work. I’ve heard the snowploughs go by a couple of times tonight, so it’ll probably be a mess out there.

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

January 23, 2023

Monday - Sunny and gorgeous in the afternoon, rainy at night

After a disappointing day yesterday, I wasn’t sure how today would go. When I got up this morning, I went downstairs a little late and then came back and watched the rest of the news from the bed. Usual stuff of course. 

I think I snoozed for a bit, but got up and went downstairs to grab breakfast and the mail. I came back upstairs & ate my breakfast while I watched a movie. Today it was The Numbers Station with John Cusack. I like John Cusack, I wish he made more movies. This one was okay, but not great. Probably too low budget. 

When the movie finished, I went downstairs and went out to check the snow situation. It was a gloriously sunny day and the snow was melting. I moved a bit of it with my snow scoop and I tidied up the yard and F’s parking area for him. I enjoyed being outside in the warmth for a few minutes. 

I came back in, and after a few minutes made my lunch. I came upstairs and ate. I watched another episode of Bake-off and enjoyed the heck out of it. 

Today I worked on my scarf again and actually finished crocheting it! Woot. I got it done just before I went downstairs to start on dinner. 

Tonight for dinner I made guacamole and tacos as well. We had them on tortillas and everything was really good. It didn’t take too long, the longest thing was just getting the table set! I got K up and yelled for F to come down. We had a pretty decent dinner afterwards.

I did dishes after we ate and then went upstairs and tried to relax. However, I didn’t. During the day, F had texted me to say that he’d made a dinner reservation on my birthday and asked if it was okay. I texted him back and said that it wasn’t really because we had decided to go away for a night on my birthday, we just hadn’t booked it yet.

So, after I went upstairs, we booked a hotel for us in Yamagata for one night. It’s only one night which isn’t really enough but it’s all that F can take. We can’t leave his mother alone for any longer, especially in winter. I’m thinking about taking a few nights to myself a couple of months later anyway, when the weather is a bit better!  It took ages to book as we were trying to get a discount travel thing, but it didn’t work. One website said that the discount was over in Yamagata so I couldn’t get it anyway. 

After we booked the hotel, I took a shower and then came back upstairs. I watched some YouTube videos and darned in some of the yarn ends on my scarf. I have a few more to do, hopefully I can finish it tomorrow….

That’s about it really. F seems better, he was tired after work, but not like yesterday. I’m a little stressed out, but when aren’t I?

Tomorrow I’m cooking dinner again and we’ll have to go and get some food from the grocery store for the rest of the week. We are supposed to have a crazy bad storm coming soon, so better stock up I think. According to the weather forecast, it’s going to hit -7°C  tomorrow night. Yikes. That’s cold for this area. 

Well, that’s it for me. All the news that’s fit to print and then some. Come back later if you like and hear about my day. Until tomorrow….

January 22, 2023

Sunday - Snowy and cold

I woke up this morning before my alarm. I got up, went downstairs and discovered that the Takkyubin guy had already been and tried to deliver our package. When I went upstairs F was awake and I told F about the failed delivery. He immediately wanted to call and have the package redelivered. I didn’t understand why. We hadn’t made any plans for the day. He started demanding I tell him when it would be okay to have it delivered. I suggested tomorrow between 6 and 8 pm as I’d be downstairs and could answer the door. He suggested between 2 and 3 today. I told him I didn’t know where we’d be as we had to do some shopping.

The next thing I knew was F calling the shipping company again and asking them to redeliver the package and if we weren’t in to put it on a bench and to cover it with a container that F left outside.

I was really annoyed with him for that. There was no need to have it delivered today, it’s a really cold day and there was the possibility that it could freeze.

He got very angry at that, decided that he wouldn’t go out, wouldn’t get up and he went back to bed. He stayed there for most of the day. 

I thought I heard the delivery person ring the doorbell, so I went downstairs. I was correct. He’d put the box where F told him to so I grabbed the box and brought it inside. I didn’t realize, but F ordered 9 bottles of distilled water….I was expecting 6. I could barely move the box, let alone take it up the stairs to our part of the house. Ack. 

I had to open the box and take out some of the bottles so that I could carry the box upstairs. I really wasn’t too happy with F just then. I’m strong, but carrying 18 litres of water at once is something I’m not happy about. 

I tried to get him to get moving later on and even to get up to feed his mother, but he wouldn’t. I was so annoyed. He not only wasted his weekend, but mine too. 

I had a very late breakfast in the afternoon and watched a couple of things on my computer from WOWOW on Demand. I caught episode 6 of Yellowjackets and the first episode of Supernatural. I’m not sure if I’m going to watch all of Supernatural, but I could if I wanted! I did some crochet in the afternoon too. I’m working on my scarf and I’m close to finishing it. Unfortunately, I had to rip out all the work I did in the afternoon.

Around 6 pm I made another appeal to F. We needed to go grocery shopping and I was hella hungry. He finally roused himself. We got dressed and went downstairs. He gave his mother the bento that she hadn’t eaten yesterday for her dinner and then we went out. Of course, we had to clear a lot of snow first because there was a lot around the car.

I had suggested going to Coco’s, but on the way F talked about going for yakiniku. I was fine with that, but when we went to the yakiniku restaurant we wouldn’t be able to get in until 8 pm. It was around 6:30. F said no, and we went to Coco’s instead.

Coco’s was fine tonight. We were seated right away and both ended up ordering the same thing, soup curry. We also had appetizers. I ordered calamari and F ordered red scorpionfish! It was decent. We had drink bar too and I kept us plied with drinks.

When we finished we went to the Pal Shopping Centre and did the shopping. I went into the shop and F stayed in the car. I got the groceries we needed, at least I hope I did, paid, and then came back to the car. We drove back to F’s house. 

When we got back, F rushed into the house and straight into the washroom as usual. Sigh. I unpacked the groceries and sorted out the things I needed to take upstairs and leave downstairs. 

I went upstairs and a little later F came up too. He spent most of his time in his room watching TikTok and I spent most of my time in my part of the room watching YouTube videos and crocheting. I think I’ll be able to finish my scarf soon and then I want to start a scrap blanket. I have a lot of yarn scraps and odd bits of yarn that I’ve bought for projects that I don’t need, so I might as well use them up. I can always start it and finish it later as I get more yarn. It’ll help keep me warm!

So that’s it for me. I’m beyond annoyed at F wasting all our time today. I know that he is in a lot of pain, but the thing is that he was such a complete jerk that I stopped caring. He knows that there are three things that I have been asking him for help with since last year and none of them were accomplished. He was also supposed to book something for my birthday in a couple of weeks and hasn’t to my knowledge. Well, I think I need to start planning my own trip and just say I don’t care what he does at that time. After all, last year he gave me Covid for my birthday and I had to cancel all of my plans, even the ones that included him. I don’t want to do that this year too.

Come back later if you like and listen to me whine some more! Until tomorrow….

January 21, 2023

Saturday - Snowy, windy and very icy at night

I woke up this morning at 10 am. F was still in bed, he was looking at his computer. Silly guy. I snoozed a little longer before going downstairs. He was supposed to go to one of his doctor’s today, but he begged off. He also booked himself a massage for the evening…6 pm. Not a great time if I’m honest.

We went to the grocery store first to pick up a bento for K. I went in the shop as F’s knees were really bothering him again. We brought it back to the house where F gave it to his mother.

F had made a reservation for us at Naa, the farmer’s restaurant so we drove out of the city proper and went there. We got a nice table by the door and both had the same meal. We had pork with a sesame dressing and a grilled fish, with a couple of side dishes, miso soup and a mixture of white and brown rice. 

After our delicious lunch, we left the restaurant. I suggested going to the mall to see if I could get my glass cover replaced on my phone. They have an iPhone Doctor booth. Over a year ago F told me he could do it, but he hasn’t. Story of my life really. We walked over to the booth and discovered I had two options, for replacements. However, the worker wasn’t there. There was a sign saying if it was an emergency to call him. We decided to go for a coffee. 

We went to Doutor and we had a drink each. I had caffeine less coffee, F had coffee. We walked back to the iPhone Doctor. There was a sign on it now saying he’d be back at 5 pm. It was 3 pm. We, actually F, decided we’d go back to the house. 

We stayed at the house for the rest of the afternoon. I was rather disappointed as I had many things I wanted to do today. F being in so much pain every day makes it hard to do anything I want.

He went off to get his mother another bento and then he went off to get his massage. I hung out in the room and watched some YouTube and enjoyed myself as much as I could.

When F came back he said the roads were very icy. There had been quite a bit of snow and it had frozen on the roads. We decided to go to Kappa Sushi since they were open late, and less likely to be busy.

F gingerly and carefully drove us to the restaurant. The side roads we usually use were like glass. There was one part where we started to slide a bit because it was on a hill and we’d had to stop for a light, but happily, the car righted itself and we went on. 

The restaurant wasn’t too busy so we were seated right away. We had an okay meal there. I actually stopped eating sushi before F did. I debated getting a dessert, but decided it wouldn’t be worth the cost. 

F drove us back to the house, but we did stop at the convenience store for a snack run. I got us ice cream too, which turned out to be nice!

At the house, we came upstairs. I watched something off the Fire Stick, The Rig, and then WOWOW’s FBI. Both were fine. F and I had little bits of chat over the evening.

I’m not sure what we’re going to be doing tomorrow. A lot will depend on how F feels.  And the weather. I know that F likes staying at the house on his weekends while I like to get the heck out of the house as I’m here all day during the week. I understand it, but I don’t want to spend extra time here. When F wanted to come back to the house this afternoon I was a tad upset. I really wanted to be out of the house. When he makes his massage appointments for such strange times there is nowhere for me to go out of the house. S-Mall is on winter hours and closes at 7 pm. His appointment would go on after the mall closes and there would be nowhere for me to wait for him…and today was colder than it has been in a while. Sigh.

Anyway, that’s about it for me. If all goes well tomorrow I’ll be back and report on all the stuff that goes on! Until tomorrow….

January 20, 2023

Friday - Rainy and terribly windy

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. I got up and went downstairs. I came back upstairs, got dressed and went back to bed to watch the news. It was cold in the morning.

A while later I did the first of two loads of laundry. I hung the laundry up after I ate my breakfast. I had a quiet morning and afternoon too. When it was lunch time, I grabbed my lunch and brought it upstairs to eat. I decided to watch Wednesday’s episode of The Walking Dead. It was a pretty scary episode and the ending was the biggest downer I’ve had on the show since my favourite character was killed. I was sad and angry and upset. 

I watched the news and a while later, F called to say he was on his way. I went downstairs to get started on dinner. K of course had been in the kitchen and had left the kitchen door open. She let out most of the warm air that I’ve been trying to  make in there. Sigh. We have the hardest time getting her to close the darn door.

Tonight I made gnocchi with alfredo sauce and bacon. I used the plates that I got from Daiso’s seal campaign and washed them. K liked them!  I put all the food, the gnocchi and sauce and salad on the plates. Unfortunately, the alfredo sauce that I used wasn’t very good. F said it was salty, I just didn’t think it was good. We had a bit of fruit cake for dessert so we were all happy.

I did the dishes after dinner and it didn’t take too long, so I was happy. I finished everything before 9 pm so that was great. I went upstairs and relaxed for an hour or so before I took a break to take a shower. 

While I was washing my hair, I realized just how short it is now! It is soooo short. I came back upstairs and told F that my hair is shorter than his…and he agreed with me!

 

I watched some YouTube and started to do some blogging. And, that’s about it for today. F is planning to go to the doctor in the morning and then has booked a massage for himself in the early evening. I’m hoping that things will go well because I don’t want to spend a lot of time at the house tomorrow.

We are supposed to have a massive bad weather storm moving in over the next few days so I really hope that we are able to get out a bit this weekend. 

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

January 19, 2023

Thursday - Cool in the morning, gloriously sunny in the daytime

I woke up this morning and did my usual thing of going downstairs and then came back to the room. I watched the news from the bed and even allowed myself to take a short nap. I got up around 10 and checked my computer and also grabbed my breakfast. I took my breakfast upstairs and ate. I had a cup of tea for good measure too. A bit after 11 I started to get dressed and pack my bag for going out. I hadn’t seen K yet, and hadn’t really heard her either.

I went downstairs around 12 and was just about ready to leave, when I realized that I was wearing my house glasses. I could keep wearing them, but when I’m getting my haircut, I have to take them off. They don’t fit in a regular glasses case, so I couldn’t take them. I ran them back upstairs and then left the house.

I walked to the bus stop. I got there just as the bus was supposed to, but happily for me it was a couple of minutes late. When I saw it in the distance I crossed the street so that I could get on board. For some reason, the bus stop is on the wrong side of the road!

I got on the bus and we went off. It wasn’t too busy today, but there were quite a few people getting on and off. I appreciated that really. It just shows that we really needed the local bus. 

I got off at the station and went into Foodever. The fancy pasta place was closed, and the restaurant I often eat at didn’t have a dish that tempted me today. I decided to go up to the post office and then look around on the way back. 

I mailed a couple of parcels at the post office and also made a deposit to my account there. Japan banks and post offices have recently started to charge for depositing coins. The post office allows you to deposit 50 coins for free per day. It means that it is a real pain to get rid of the coins that we collect every day. And, the amount they charge goes up by number of coins, so you if you deposit a lot of 1 yen coins for example, it wouldn’t be worth it. Maybe Japan should get rid of the one yen coin? It works for Canada!

I walked to the mall and decided to go to the Daiichi Hotel and have their weekly lunch. Today it was Yurinchi. It was quite nice.  I paid and then walked over to my hairdresser’s salon. 

Over the next hour, I got my hair cut and it looks so cute! It’s very short and I had to go and get some hair product later to try and make it look a bit spiky! I paid my stylist and then went back to the mall.

I did a little shopping around the mall and even had an ice cream at Baskin Robbins. That was nice. I started reading my Journal from my women’s group.

I did a bit more shopping and then close to 5 pm, I went to Doutor and had an iced rooibos tea while I waited for F to finish work. He called me around quarter after 5 and said he’d meet me. He came by the coffee shop and had a seat. I got us both drinks and we relaxed for a bit. 

We left the mall and went to the grocery store to buy some bentos and do shopping for tomorrow. F was in a lot of pain today, so I did the shopping. We went to the station grocery store. I picked up 3 bentos for us, plus a few side dishes, some onigiri for F and K’s breakfast, some yogurt for mine, and a few other necessaries. 

We came back to the house. F headed straight for the house, didn’t offer to help carry anything. I had three bags of my own, plus the heavy grocery one. To make matters worse, when he went in, he closed the door behind him!

I put the things in the kitchen and then headed upstairs to change my clothes. I didn’t want to wear my nice clothes in the kitchen.

When I came downstairs again, F was still sat in the living room at the table, and so was K. Nice. Neither of them had shifted their butts to get dinner on the table. I’m afraid that I opened the living room door and had a few words with F. He said that he was in too much pain to stand. 

I started heating up bentos and putting other things on plates. Just then, I saw F sneaking upstairs. I asked him if he was going to come down for dinner but he said he wasn’t. He’d eat later.

I put dinner out for K and I. It was okay. I got her katsudon and I had a spicy pork donburi. We also had some spring rolls and a little bit of katsuo (a fish) and some kara-age. It was nice. K didn’t finish her meal, and is leaving it for tomorrow. That’s fine. 

I did the few dishes and then went upstairs. I had a relaxing evening. I had wanted to watch something off the Fire Stick, but discovered that a show I watch wasn’t being recorded by the DVR. F really needs to take another go at the machine set up. It isn’t working well at all. 

After a bit, F went down and got his dinner and brought it up. He said it was good. He had gyudon and somehow managed to add in some cup ramen.

I watched an episode of The Red Green Show and then tonight’s New Amsterdam. It was good, but a bit strange. I know a lot of things are happening there. 

F went to bed after midnight and to be honest, I’m a bit tired and would like to get to bed soon too. I had a really lovely day out and I’d like to go out more often. Now that the bus is closer, I suppose I can! Another good thing is that when Machi-kinema reopens, if it does, I’ll be able to take a bus there and probably back too. Woot!

So, that’s it from me for today. I got a great haircut, I was able to go out in the lovely sunshine and I had a good meal by myself. Yay me!

Come back later if you like and read all about my Friday. Until tomorrow….