July 31, 2015

Friday - Hot and Sunny, humid

A good day.  I got up early, watched my show, fell asleep on the couch, woke up later and then did work out.  However, F had already called to say he was coming home, so I only did a short workout.  I knew that I’d be going out later on, so I didn’t worry too much.

In the afternoon, after F left, I scanned cards, had lunch and then went out to the post office.  I mailed my cards, bought some new stamps, and then went for a bike ride to the drugstore.  I picked up a few things and then rode home again.  I got home about 2 minutes before F called to say he was on his way.  

He popped in for a few minutes to change and then went to his mother’s.  In the meantime, I got the dishes from the day washed and the table cleared off.  Dinner was mostly leftovers tonight, but I did prepare some cucumbers and zucchini sticks and boiled an ear of corn.  

We ate and it was really nice.  The pulled chicken was just as yummy today, the corn was good and dinner was nice.  We still have leftovers, so I might be having some for lunch tomorrow.  I think F is going to take his mother out for lunch, so I’d like to eat at home anyway!

In the evening I watched some TV, did some crochet during Castle. I finished off the 4th square with the blue centre.  I have two more all brown squares to make, plus I may do one more….we’ll see how it goes.  I’ve been watching Marvel shows tonight, just finished the second Thor movie and now I’m watching Agents of Shield.  I should be going to bed….

Tomorrow I have a dental appointment in the afternoon, so I have that to look forward to.  I also want to have some pants of mine made shorter and possibly smaller and also I have to go to the train station.  Should be an exciting day! Come back in a bit and find out what is going on with me.  Until tomorrow!

July 30, 2015

Thursday - Hot and sunny

A good day.

I got up early today and read email and watched my show.  When it was over I watched a bit of an Audrey Hepburn/Albert Finney movie, fell asleep on it, and then did my work out.  F called me during my workout which annoyed me to no end.  It is really stupid that it bugs me so much.  He’s actually being nice, asking me if I want him to bring something, but since my phone is connected to my computer, it knocks out the video when the call comes in.  Anyway, growl.

He came home and I was finished.  Whew.  I was a sweaty mess though.  I let him use the kitchen and when he was done I began working on dinner.  I set up the slow cooker with the ingredients and let it work.  

In the afternoon, I spent more time on my computer and watched a bit of a Ben Affleck movie where he was a single dad.  I haven’t seen it before.  

I took a late shower and then got started on making coleslaw for dinner.  I used a new recipe today that turned out well. I didn’t want to use mayonnaise.  

I asked F to run an errand for me before he went to his mum’s house, which he did.  I got a good result with that so maybe I’ll be going to Niigata next week.  

When F came home to stay I was able to get dinner on the table fast.  As usual too fast for F to catch up.  He decided to hang up his laundry before dinner.  Why, I do not know.  

We had barbecued pulled chicken, plus coleslaw and we ate it on tortillas since I didn’t get around to making bread.  It got good reviews from both of us!

We had a quiet evening in.  I watched the second last House episode tonight.  Oh dear, many things are happening.  

And that’s about it really.  I did some crochet during House and wrote up 5 postcards for Postcrossing.  I’ll have to scan and send them tomorrow.  

Come back later and check out my day.  Until tomorrow….

July 29, 2015

Wednesday - Hot and sunny, with dark clouds at times

A good day.

I woke up on time today, but F was sitting on the couch so I went back to sleep.  It was nearly 10 when I got up, but I did get up.  I got dressed too and made the bed.  

I checked out my email and my websites and waited for F to come home.  He arrived around 11 I think.  We went out again fairly soon after that.  First we did our business at City Hall and it was fast.  We didn’t have to do anything strange and no fighting!  Then it was lunch time.  My first suggestion for lunch was closed today, so I thought about going to Hyakkenbori.  We went there and had a nice meal.  I had teriyaki chicken and F had fritters, which basically meant tempura.  

After lunch we went over to my dentist’s office to make an appointment.  I’m travelling in a couple of months and I want to make sure my teeth won’t cause me trouble again.  Appointment made, we went to Doutors and had a couple of iced teas.  I had the soy milk tea, F had the milk tea.  Yum.  

We were on our way home to take a nap or two when F suddenly suggested karaoke.  I was game of course, so we went to the internet cafe again, for karaoke this time.  We were there for 3 hours but had a great time.  F ate so much of the soft ice cream.  He’s crazy. Unbelievably, I didn’t have any!  The milk really causes phlegm to build up in my throat and then I can’t sing so I didn’t have any.  I did a wide assortment of songs and enjoyed myself immensely.  

I asked F if we could get a dryer inset for my shoes.  With the humid weather, they aren’t drying between wears and since I’d really like to wear them on my way to Canada, I want them dry.  We went to Shoe Barn, got them…the last pack in the store…and then talked about dinner.  I realized that we were right around the corner from a restaurant that F likes, so I suggested it.  

We went to Hana tonight and both had fish.  I had gindara which I liked a lot, and F had a kaisendon, or raw fish on rice.  The food was good, and F was enjoying himself, so that was really good.  I enjoyed it too, so win-win.  

We came home via the grocery store.  I’m going to make barbecued chicken in the slow cooker tomorrow.  Hopefully it’ll be enough for two meals for us, at least.  I may even make some buns in the later afternoon if I get highly motivated!  Ha! 

We had a quiet evening at home.  I watched Nikita, it must have been the end of season show, followed by CSI and then Unforgettable.  I did a little crochet during Nikita, I finished one of the blue and brown squares and came close with another one.  

I don’t have a picture with the finished square in it, but I did take one earlier in the day of the squares laid out on our bed.  It’s quite different from the other one I made, even though it is made up of the same colours!

I haven't quite decided if I want the corners to be plain and the middle squares two colours or the middle squares plain and the corners two coloured. Decisions, decisions!

I might have a busy day tomorrow.  I have to work out because I skipped it today, set up the slow cooker, get some more food from the grocery store (maybe), make buns and do some tidying up.  I’m exhausted already!  

Come back later and see if I manage to get any of this accomplished!  Until tomorrow….

July 28, 2015

Tuesday - Rainy and hot and humid!

A good day.

I got up really early this morning, early enough to watch the BBC in America broadcast on TV.  Of course, I fell asleep during the infomercial after it, but never mind.  I watched my show and after it found In Her Shoes, so I had some breakfast and watched the end of it before I worked out.  I even had a little visit from F before the movie finished.

I did a couple of shorter workouts today and when I was doing the first one realized that I had a problem.  My big toe was sore.  I stopped the video, went to the bathroom and took a look.  I had a long and fine splinter in my toe and it was hurting.  I pulled it out and I was fine.  I went back to my workout.  Yay me.  

I had a quiet day.  I did a couple of loads of laundry, and I even had lunch earlier than usual. I scanned my postcards and then took them to the mailbox around 6 pm.  I couldn’t get them done earlier.  It was nice to get out of the house, even if it was only for a couple of minutes!

When I came back, I started to set up the kitchen for dinner.  I was doing dishes when F called to say he was on his way.  Tonight I did boiled potatoes, baked chicken, and salad with orange tomatoes. It was all quite nice really.  F came to the table in an almost goodly fashion, and we had a nice meal.  He did the dishes tonight which I was glad about.

At 10 pm he went off to bed and I went to the couch for Grey’s Anatomy and a bit of end darning.   I got all the ends done up until now.  I did a tiny bit of crochet too, just enough to get the yarn out on the square. 

And really that was mostly my night.  I spent a bit of time on my computer as usual.  I’m trying to co-ordinate a visit to a museum in Niigata next month, but one person can’t come when the many of the other people can.  I’m really trying to include her, but having looked at finances, I can’t really make a separate trip to go with her and then with the others.  Sigh.  I’m not sure if the others will go if I don’t go, since it was my idea.  Damn and blast anyway.  I have to go and see my lovely Pre-Raphaelites while they’re so close.  

Anyway, I must be off.  Tomorrow F is off work and we have to go to City Hall.  As long as we don’t have to fight City Hall, I’m fine with that!  Got to go.  Until tomorrow….

July 27, 2015

Monday - Hot and sunny

A good day.

I woke up a few minutes late, and jumped out of bed.  I came through to the living room and watched Suits.  Afterwards I took a bit of a nap.  Oops.  When I woke up again, I did my workout.  I did the two mile walk. Before I started F called to say he was going to come home for lunch and asked if I wanted anything.  I said no.

F came home for lunch and I told him I was all sweaty because I’d just walked two miles behind where he was sitting.  He asked me if I’d walked back and forth 500 times!  I got a good chuckle out of that.

After he left I did a bit of computer stuff, and had a shower.  I had a relaxing afternoon.  I should have done a lot but it was so hot I didn’t feel like moving.

Around 5 I started to get the kitchen ready for dinner.  I had to do dishes from the odd snack that we’d had and clear the table.  I got it all done, but stopped because most of my dinner prep couldn’t be done until right before I was going to make dinner.

Finally a very tired F came home and I started dinner.  Tonight we had reheated soup from last week, plus chicken and sun dried tomato omelettes  with lettuce and hash brown patties.  It was nice.  I even did the dishes tonight because F was so tired.  

F got to watch a lot of Japanese TV tonight.  I did manage to get in an episode of Gossip Girl and did some crochet during it.  That was fun. 

It’s late and I’m still up, and I’m really tired so I’m going to end this.  Tomorrow I’m not sure what I’ll get up to.  I do have to scan some cards as I wrote up 5 postcrossings tonight.  Come back later and see if other interesting things happen!  Until tomorrow….

July 26, 2015

Sunday - Hot and sunny

A good day.

I got up fairly early for me on a Sunday, but no one else was around to appreciate it.  F was over at his mother’s house.  I got dressed and chilled out a bit while I waited for him.  

When he came home we talked about lunch.  We ended up going to the new restaurant in the souvenir shop near city hall.  We both had the same dish as last time, which was salad, grilled chicken in a curry sauce, with some rice, eggplant soup and scalloped potato on the side.  It was very nice and the atmosphere was great.  We looked at the shop section after our meal and I got a few postcards there.  I’m not sure how they’ll go over as they are mostly local foods, but you never know! We were told there that they were having a special day and at their other store, if we showed the brochure, we could get a free ice cream…a stamp rally thing.  They are very popular here.  

We went to Yamaya next and got a bit of food.  We both picked up a few things for ourselves.  I got more granola.  It’s expensive, but better than the regular grocery store’s.  

We went to the other souvenir shop and looked around.  No postcards that I wanted, but I liked the shop really.  They were selling a lot of local foods that people buy for souvenirs, and had a lottery on for some of their products.  It was 200 yen for a ticket, so we each got one.  We got the same level  of prize.  We could choose between a blueberry shake or a spinning top.  I chose the top, F chose the shake!  We also went and got our ice cream.  Well, I did at first, F had coffee and a shake.  Then, he decided he wanted ice cream too!  He got his free one.  It wasn’t just ice cream, it was Dadacha mame (the local version of edamame) ice cream!  I liked it.

We came home for a while after making a quick drugstore run.  Basically we relaxed for a while, I tried to nap, wasn’t allowed to! 

When it was time to discuss dinner I had a few suggestions, but F wasn’t too happy with them.  I wasn’t too happy with his either!  Finally we agreed to see if the Komagihara buffet restaurant was open.  I suggested calling first, but F didn’t want to.  We went there and sad to say, weren’t too impressed.  It was like all their food had gone!  There were 2 little pieces of sandwich meat and 5 pieces of what looked like corned beef for the meat, several empty trays where normally there’d be food, and no sashimi.  They did bring out a bit of sashimi later, but nothing that would really please me.  And, their desserts were mostly gone too.  When we go for lunch they seem to refresh everything often, tonight it was like they didn’t have anymore food.  I do think we got our money’s worth, but I would have preferred a greater selection.  

We bought groceries after dinner.  I think tomorrow is going to be an omelette night.  I really don’t feel like cooking a huge meal, so something fast and light would be nice.  I have some leftover soup, and bought some lettuce, so we can have that with it too. 

F had requested that we watch a movie tonight, so I thought it would be fine.  Unfortunately for me, he picked a movie we have already seen, and then fell asleep on it!  I did a bunch of crochet and I liked the movie anyway, so it wasn’t all bad! It was Any Day Now and Alan Cumming was terrific of course.  

That’s about it for me.  My weekend is almost over but it was quite nice.  The weather was a bit hot for me, but I survived!  

Until tomorrow….

July 25, 2015

Saturday - Sunny and a little cloudy at times

A good day.

I got up at a goodly time this morning, and even dragged myself out of bed to boot.  I checked email and FB did all the usual time wasting things I do.  I went to take a nap around noon and of course F came back about 5 minutes later.  He had eaten with his mother today, but I hadn’t yet, so after a think or two, I suggested going to the mall to Subway.  I had a tandori sub with oven baked fries and a drink, F had a mango-coconut dessert thing that I had a coupon for.  Yum.  

We did a little window shopping and then went to Doutor and had a drink.  It was nice to relax there for a while.  We decided to go to the Internet Cafe but came home first.  On the way home, F told me he meant to go to the Internet Cafe after he went to his house, so I went inside and vegged for a bit.  

We had a quick and nice dinner at Cocos Ichibanya Curry.  I was smarter tonight and didn’t have a deep fried cutlet.  I had the chicken and seasonal vegetables curry.  I really enjoyed it, except it was a little hot for me.  

We went to the Internet Cafe and had a bit of a dilemma.  There was only one massaging chair available.  For a change, F gave it to me and he took the reclining seat in the office section.  I stayed in the massaging chair section for an hour and a half, long enough to see an episode of Outlander, and then asked F if he wanted to swap.  it was quite unusual to have to wait so long.  We swapped and I think I had been in his spot for 20 minutes when a worked came and told me that I could move to a massaging chair.  Yay.

We did all the necessary paperwork and I got another massaging chair.  I had watched 666 Park Avenue earlier and then part of Hannibal. I finished up by watching an episode of Person of Interest and then we left.  We’d been there quite a while and it was midnight when we left.  I did get a magazine read and crocheted a square, so I don’t really consider that time wasted!

We’ve had a quiet evening at home since, but I’m a bit tired and would like to get some sleep soon.  Come back again and find out what happens next.  Until tomorrow….

July 24, 2015

Friday - Rainy and humid

A good day.

I got up on time this morning to discover that my early morning drama has been changed to something that I’ve already seen before.  Sigh.  Oh well, it’s still worth getting up for, but not quite as much!  I had an early breakfast today and also did a two mile walk behind the couch.  That quite blows F’s mind when I tell him I walked for two miles behind the couch!  He asked me today if I went back and forth for two miles!  I do, for part of it, but not all of it!

After I finished my workout, I got on with using my new slow cooker.  I washed it, and then plugged it in and prepped the veggies and the soup base for it.  I put everything in, which took a bit of time, and let it do its thing.  

In the afternoon I watched a couple of things on the DVR, including the first episode of Broadchurch 2.  It was good, lots of great actors in it so I’m looking forward to seeing more, maybe next week?

I scanned my postcards today to send out, but because the weather was horrible most of the day, didn’t mail them.  I’ve asked F to mail them on his way out tomorrow. 

When F came home tonight I got dinner out really quickly.  We were just having a simple soup and salad meal.  He’d made bread over night, so we had some French bread with it too.  It was pretty good.  I had made chicken & vegetable soup and together with a gussied up store salad things were nice.  In this heat, we don’t really need or want a lot to eat and this worked for us.  

F did the dishes and we settled in for a quiet evening.  I watched Castle from the couch where I did a big brown square.  I weighed the yarn before I started and then how much a square weighed.  Unfortunately, I don’t think I have quite enough of the brown yarn to cover 8 squares plus ends, so I think I’ll do a little bit of fun stuff!  I hope I still think it is fun when I have to darn in the ends later on!

And that’s about it for my day.  We have no plans for the weekend.  I think it might be a stay at home and relax weekend as F isn’t doing well with the weather.  Come back tomorrow night and see what I get up to.  Until tomorrow….

July 23, 2015

Thursday - Rainy and cooler

A good day.

I overslept again today.  I didn’t check my alarms before bed and I had turned some of them off yesterday, so I just didn’t wake up.  It was late when I did wake up. I got up and got dressed in my workout clothes, and didn’t have my couch time.  Sigh.  

I did my workout this morning/into afternoon.  I did two shorter ones again, but had a pretty good workout really.  I also ended up watching Jeremiah Johnson, the old Robert Redford film.  I noticed that WOWOW had Dances With Wolves on, so it seems that Japanese TV wanted me to watch a western today!  While I was watching the movie, I sat on the couch and darned in the ends of the navy-blue squares.  Yay me.  

In the later part of the afternoon I took my shower and then worked on packing up my niece’s present.  I found a box to use, but it was full of something, so I put the stuff away. 

I washed dishes and had a very late lunch.  While I did that, F called me and then the phone died.  I think it was his speaker on the earphone.  I couldn’t hear him, but he could hear me.  I told him I thought he was calling to say he was going to his mother’s and that he’d be home after that.  I was right!

F got home a bit after 6 pm, and I asked him to take me to the main post office to buy a box and send off the presents.  He found a box with his stuff in it and we used that after he emptied it.  I hadn’t wanted to use the other box as it had my address written all over it in marker. We taped it up and went to the post office.  I was organized and got everything done quickly.  F paid for the mailing and off we went.  

I asked for Indian food for dinner tonight, so we went to the new place.  It was nearly empty when we went in, but another family came in after us.  We had the set meal and quite enjoyed it. I had chicken curry and F had seafood.  He liked his too.  

We bought a few groceries and then came home.  I watched House and did more darning in of ends on the couch. I got all the Petrol squares finished now, so I can start on the big squares again.  Those’ll be fun.  

And that’s mostly my day.  I did write a few cards for Postcrossing tonight, and I received a couple in the mail too.  I also got some Gifu Gotochi cards in the mail so that was nice.  

In the morning I have to get up and make soup.  I’m going to try out my new slow cooker and use up some of the veggies I just bought to make something nice for us for dinner.  That’s the plan anyway!  Come back later and find out what my day is like.  Until tomorrow…. 

July 22, 2015

Wednesday - Hot and sunny and hot

A good day.

I got up on time this morning and watched my show and checked my computer and my email.  I drank a lot of iced tea too.  I took a 30 minute nap today as I couldn’t keep my eyes open and it was so hot I almost had to.  I woke up and did a different video today, a Jane Fonda one.  I liked it, but found it hard to follow in places.  She also did some dance steps that she never really explained (possibly in a book or on another tape, which isn’t on Youtube) that were really confusing.  I did like the stretching that she did at the end and some of the more dance moves but I think I’ll only do it if I don’t feel like doing Leslie for a reason!  It was pretty tough working out this morning as I was so hot in the apartment.

I had a quiet afternoon really.  I scanned my cards and then stamped them and in the afternoon took them over to the post office to mail.  I got there just before the post office closed.  I had to go in as I was sending off a couple of Gotochi Card for a swap.  

I came home and started working on dinner.  I set up some tea for us to have as iced tea with dinner, then was putting the spice packet on the chicken when of course F called me. He actually asked me if it was a bad time….I told him it was!  It always happens that he calls me when I have my hands full of raw meat, or they’re wet or whatever.  We have bad timing, the two of us.

F came home and I kicked things up a notch.  I put the chicken in the toaster oven to cook, I put out the boiled potatoes, finished setting the table and put out the iced tea.  Dinner was quite nice really.  F was done in about 10 minutes flat though.  I know he doesn’t feel like eating in the heat, I’m a bit the same, but I know that I have to or I’ll end up eating total junk later on.  

After dinner, I sat in our bedroom and wrapped up my niece’s presents, and the unbirthday present for my nephew.  It was fun, but so hot!

F went to bed quite early tonight, but I sat on the couch for a bit and darned in some ends of the petrol coloured squares.  I’m a little under half-done.  I still have a few of the navy ones to do in the daylight as I can’t see well enough to do them at night.  

I had a mostly quiet day, but it was nice.  It was too hot.  I even put the AC on for an hour in the afternoon.  I was just too hot and it was awful in here.  I’m thinking about going out tomorrow and using someone else’s AC if I have the chance! However, the weather forecast is for rain and a bit cooler so maybe I won’t have to?  I can dream, right?

Come back later and find out what scintillating things I get up to.  Until tomorrow!

July 21, 2015

Tuesday - Hot and sunny

A good day.

I got up a few minutes late this morning.  I had a feeling that I would as I went back to bed around 8 am.  I should have just stayed up, but I wanted a few more zzzz’s. 

I checked email, read blogs and then a bit later I did my workout.  I did a couple of short tapes and was trying out a new one when my phone rang.  F wanted to come home for lunch and did I want a bento.  Nope.  He asks me every time and the answer never changes.  I wish he’d stop asking me!

I stopped my video, put the furniture back in order and he arrived.  I ate breakfast, he had lunch and then was off again quite quickly.  

I actually had a busy day today.  I cleaned the toilet, and later on part of the shower, did a load of laundry, hung it and put away some dry clothes, plus got the kitchen sorted out and a start made on dinner.  Oh yes, I had to poach my chicken breast too.  Not all of my time was spent on my computer or watching the DVR!  Some of it was though. 

F came home a bit late but dinner was mostly done.  Tonight it was just a simple meal-salad.  Salad with yellow grape tomatoes and red onion, plus poached chicken.  It was really nice.  After all the not healthy food I ate this weekend, I was glad to get back to basics.  F didn’t find it enough and had some sujiko and two packs of rice with it.  

I did some crochet while watching Grey’s Anatomy.  I have finished all of the dark greeny-blue squares now. I do have ends to darn though.  Sigh.  Still, it gives me something to do at night!

I had a couple of cookies with some yogurt that a friend had given us a few months ago.  They were delish…but as they had chocolate on the bottom of them, they were a bit melty! Nice though.

Really, that was my day.  I did a bit of postcrossing tonight.  I also have to go to the post office tomorrow so I hope that I can get everything done before I do.  I still haven’t wrapped or mailed my niece’s birthday present and her birthday is really soon.  Yikes.  

Come back later and find out if everything that needs to get done, does in fact get done.  Until tomorrow….

July 20, 2015

Monday - Drizzles and then sunshine

An okay day.

We drove to Shinjo yesterday after lunch.  F wanted to check out the roads as he will have to take someone from his office there soon.  It looks bad if the driver doesn’t know the way!

We made good time to Shinjo and even spent a few minutes trying to do some sightseeing and eating at a festival in a park.  However, the temple I could see from the road was blocked off and the route to get there was long.  We did a little bit of shopping at a mall.  There was a farmers shop, which to me would be a hardware store and when we went through it, had some interesting seeds for sale in a rack.  They were for unusual plants.  One of them was actually for rhubarb!  F bought a packet of rhubarb and has promised to plant it at his house.  The seed packet said that it would take 3 years to grow though.  Oh no!

We spent a bit of time in Mosburgers.  They had air-conditioning and free wifi, so can you blame us?  After a bit, F asked about dinner.  The place he wanted to take me most was closed due to the holiday, so he found another place with Japanese food.  Not my favourite, but I was trying to be nice.  The picture he showed me looked like a counter so I asked him if it was really a restaurant.  He said it was.  We drove there…we get near and he starts saying how we’re supposed to park in the pachinko parlour’s parking lot.  Huh?  Okay, maybe the restaurant doesn’t have much parking.  Turns out the “restaurant” is a buy-a-ticket at the door kiosk thing behind the pachinko parlour.  I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.  The door opens and this wave of stale cigarette smoke hits me.  I nearly gag.  He marches in, starts demanding that I tell him what I wanted (a different restaurant) so I ordered almost the same thing he had, ginger pork as it seemed to be the only non deep fried thing on the menu.  

The food is only okay, some of the meat was tough.  I gave him my rice since his stomach was acting up again. He gave me some of his meat.  Gee thanks.  He was upset that I wasn’t more appreciative of his choice of restaurants.  Umm…there was Cocos, Gusto, Marumatsu, McDonalds, or Mosburgers and ANY of them would have been better than that yucky place.  

Then it was off to find a place to stay.  He’d looked that up on line too.  We ended up at a little hotel. It wasn’t fancy, but it was clean and reasonably comfortable so I’m not going to complain about it.  

Today, we checked out around 10:30 to go to the next exciting restaurant.  Today we went to Rooms.  Now, it was a bit odd, but to be fair, the food was good.  Rooms was a karaoke parlour with a chef.  We got a room for two hours and then ordered some food.  They were having an Okinawa Fair.  I’m not a big fan of goya, but honestly I quite liked the food that I ate.  We had taco rice, goya chanpuru, some scrambled egg/ham/tofu thing, tofu and F had a couple of dishes I skipped, a tempura onion thing and squid ink yakisoba.  We sang a few songs too.  It was kind of fun, but turned out to be quite expensive.  Again, my restaurants would have been cheaper!

We did a little more shopping, but not much, then drove back to the place F has to take people to.  From there, we left Shinjo.  We promptly came back about 30 minutes later as he wanted to check it again.  Argh!

Finally we left and drove off.  We stopped along the Mogami River so that I could buy some postcards and then got back in the car. We also made a brief stop in ex-Fujishima town so that F could get his mother some snack souvenirs.  

We got home around 4 pm.  I immediately checked email and such, then F went to his house to check on his mother.  

When he came back, we relaxed for a bit and then around 7 I suggested going for dinner.  F said he didn’t feel hungry, so I could choose.  I said either Cocos or Gusto because I just wanted grilled chicken.  He picked Gusto so off we went.  We got a table quickly and ordered.  F was able to have some salt lemon noodles that he didn’t mind too much and I had my chicken.  There was rather too much cartilage in mine, but apart from that was fine.  

We got a few groceries for dinner tomorrow night.  I’m planning to make a big salad with a poached chicken breast on it. F said it sounded good to him, although I did offer to do shrimp for him.  

When we came home, I watched Gossip Girl and did a bit of crochet from the couch, then came back to my computer.  I also finished my book tonight, Odd Apocalypse. It wasn’t great, but is better than the one that came after it.  

So, all in all, an okay weekend was had.  I really never need to go back to Shinjo again, but I promise that I am never, ever going to let F take me to another restaurant behind a pachinko parlour!  Come back later and see how my next day is.  Until tomorrow….

July 18, 2015

Saturday - Cloudy and rainy, a little cooler

A good day.

I went to bed after 4 this morning. It was getting light out before I went to bed, so I wore my eye mask again.  I got up around 7 and took the bar off the door so F could come in whenever he wanted to.  I went back to sleep.

F came home around 10:30 I think and I got up around 11.  I checked email and then took a shower.  

F wanted to go to his “Farmer’s Restaurant” again and this week I didn’t mind.  We went there and had quite a nice meal.  They had an eggplant stew-y kind of dish that was really nice.  It was a bit like Baba Ganoush.  I had pork with apple ponzu and grilled sea bream.  It was good.  

After lunch, we stopped into HardOff, a secondhand shop.  We found out that they were having a major sale on most things in the shop, and were even having time sales.  They were selling their bags at 50% off, but I didn’t find anything I was in love with.  F found me a bag that was 8000 yen, so reduced to 4000.  It was okay, but a bit small and I thought still too expensive!  I found a couple of dress up bags that I could use at weddings or conventions, but they weren’t expensive anyway…and I already have a couple at home.  What I did end up getting was a baking dish, a pyrex deep dish with a lid on it.  Hopefully it’ll be a good addition to my kitchen stuff.  Oh, and a cake lifter.  F got a pair of shoes for himself.  Then, after I scanned the kimono (I have no real use for kimono sad to say) I found a brand new slow cooker in their appliances.  I looked at it quite carefully and F read the sticker for me.  It hadn’t been used.  I decided to think about it for a while, so we walked around the store.  I scanned the dvds and apart from Monty Python & the Holy Grail, didn’t want to buy anything.  I didn’t get the Monty Python because I have too many unwatched movies at the moment.  

I talked it over with F about the slow cooker.  My present slow cooker is over 10 years old now.  It’s really big for the two of us, so it is expensive to fill.  Also I just notice that there is a bit of a wiring problem, so it may be time to get a new one anyway.  F said to get it, so we did.  Yay!  Now I have to figure out where to put it when I’m not using it!

After HardOff we went to Mr. Donut and had some tea and a doughnut each.  I had one, I can’t lie!  It was quite good!  I knew not to have an old-fashioned as they are quite high calorie.  I had the same as F, a Double chocolate. It was a splurge, but not terrible really.

We came home after Mr. Donut and F took a nap.  I did a lot of moderating stuff on my email groups and read some blogs, did some other internet things and then whammo!  It was almost 8 pm.  I decided to go and wake up F so that we could go and have dinner. 

He woke up fine, but then didn’t really ask me what kind of food I wanted tonight.  I made a few suggestions, he made a few suggestions.  He wanted his fish restaurant, but it was busy, another place he suggested was full.  I thought we were going to try an Indian restaurant, then he changed to Italian and then at the last minute to an izakaya he likes.  We went there and had a very expensive dinner.  It was good, but…not really what I wanted.  I find it very hard to stay on my healthy eating programme when I’m with F.  Don’t get me wrong, the food was good, but covered in mayonnaise, or sticky glazes, just not what I needed tonight.  

We came home again and I watched CSI and did a little more crochet.  My next blanket is getting on quite well.  F went off to bed around 1 and I set the DVR to record Broadchurch 2 tomorrow.  

I’m not exactly sure what is going to happen tomorrow, but I think that we will be going out of town tomorrow afternoon, probably returning on Monday afternoon.  I most likely won’t be here tomorrow night.  Sorry…try not to miss me too much!  Until next time….

July 17, 2015

Friday-Cloudy, hot, with a little rain

A good day.  I got up this morning on time, watched my show, had some tea, real tea today and when I was ready, did my workout.  It went well.

F magically appeared around 12:20 bearing a bento for his lunch. For a change he didn’t ask me if I wanted one.  Yay, cause I didn’t.  He did however give me some money!  He wasn’t coming home in the evening and I think he wanted to make sure I could go out if I wanted to.

Around 4 I went out.  I biked to the mall and had a sandwich at Subway.  It was good, the new broiled tandoori chicken one.  Afterwards, I biked off to the closest post office and finally tracked down one of the Gotochi cards I’d been looking for. I bought it and a couple of other cards and some stamps.  I mailed off my cards too.  

I then biked to the theatre and went to see The Trip to Italy with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.  I loved it!  They were eating their way through Italy, plus stopping in at various places important to English Literature, so I was in my glory.  I also really liked the impressions that the two did.  I know it is a sequel to an earlier film they did in the Lake District, but I hadn’t seen that.  It was just a fun movie.  I originally felt mean that I wasn’t seeing it with F, but I don’t know if he would have got the movie the same way I did.  Oh, and one super-embarrassing thing was that F phoned me just before the movie started!  I hadn’t turned off my cellphone yet and I was quite embarrassed.  I grabbed my phone and went out into the lobby to talk to him. It was two minutes before the movie started.  And of course I was the only foreigner there.  I made sure to turn off my phone after that!

After the movie I came home via a convenience store.  I bought a few things for the evening and continued home.  

I made dinner at home.  I had my soup re-heated and a lot of salad too.  It was nice.  I watched a bit of regular TV and then when I ran out of programmes, I watched some of the TV on the DVR.  That was good.  F called me around 2:00 to say that he missed me.  He sounded quite inebriated!  

I haven’t done a few of the things that I hoped to do, but it is late now and I think I’ll pop off to bed as soon as I’m done this.  I’m very tired now!  I’m not sure if I’ll be here tomorrow night or not.  We may pop out for a night since it is a long weekend here.  Don’t miss me too much!  Until next time….

July 16, 2015

Thursday - Rainy and cloudy and cooler

A good day.

I managed to drag myself out of bed this morning on time, more or less.  Hurray!  I spent some quality couch time reading the internet and enjoying myself.  I even did my workout on time today.  

In the afternoon I chatted with a couple of people on Facebook, at the same time.  That was rather exciting.  I watched some of the TV that I had DVR’d over the last few days. I still have a bunch to watch, but the backlog is smaller. 

When F called me tonight, I was just in the process of starting dinner.  I was making some radish roses, or trying to!  He was a bit late tonight, but it was fine.  Dinner didn’t take too long.  I boiled some corn on the cob and we had microwaved fish from the store, plus some tsukune that F had wanted.  It was okay, not great.  We had salad and radishes and tomatoes, and really, dinner was nice.  We also ate together. Hurray for that.  F won’t be home tomorrow night as he’s going to a party.  

We had a fairly quiet night.  F watched something on TV, but it was finished when I turned House on.  It is winding down and I’m wondering how they will end the series.  No spoilers please! I watched the episode of Rizzoli and Isles tonight where they said goodbye to the Frost character.  It was very well done.  The show has really grown on me over the years.

That’s about it really.  I didn’t go out today, but if the weather isn’t too bad tomorrow night I may go to a movie.  Japan is expecting a typhoon so it may not be a good idea.  I’ll check the weather closer to the time.  

Come back later and find out if I get blown away or if I had a good day!  Until tomorrow….

July 15, 2015

Wednesday - Hot and sunny

A good day.

I got up late this morning!  I completely overslept and was horrified with myself.  I even went to bed half an hour earlier than usual last night, but when I rolled out of bed it was almost 10 am.  Yikes.

However, I did a workout this morning, after F made a brief appearance at home.  It was nice to get back to it again.

I didn’t have an exciting day today.  I did a little darning in of squares on my new blanket and I watched some TV that I had taped over the last few days.  I also photographed the squares that I have made so far.  I think it is going well!

Take 2 of All Squared Away Baby 5

When F came home, we decided to go out for dinner and unbelievably, he agreed to one of the places I suggested!  We went to Fireball and had a good nosh.  I ordered chicken throat and vegetables in a tomato cream sauce and F’s pasta was smoked salmon and mushrooms in a vodka sauce.  They were both really good.  We couldn’t pick a favourite tonight.  We’ve had both before, and enjoyed them a lot.

We bought groceries after dinner.  I’m going to try and cook for both of us again.  Tomorrow night’s main dishes were picked by F.  He chose a pork tsukune kind of thing, already prepared by the store, and then at my suggestion, salmon in a lemon pepper sauce to microwave.  I grabbed a couple ears of corn again and some improvements for a salad.  I picked radishes and mini-tomatoes.  I hope it works out.  I also got dinner fixings for myself for Friday night as F has a party and isn’t coming home.  

We came home and I moved over to the chesterfield to watch CSI, but realized I’d already seen it.  I put on The Host instead.  I’d DVR’d it a couple of weeks ago and watched the middle, but not the end or the beginning. I don’t know what F thought of it! It was okay.  Meyers gets good ideas, she just has problems executing them.  

That’s about it for the night.  Or not.  After I came back from dinner, when I was changing into my “at home” clothes, I decided to try on a pair of jeans from 10 years ago.  I found them in a drawer and have been wondering if I’d be able to get into them again.  I tried about a month ago and got them on and up, but wasn’t able to close them.  Tonight, I got them zipped up.  I can’t wear them yet, I can barely breathe in them, but they closed! Little bit pleased at that!

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

July 14, 2015

Tuesday - Oh So Hot!

An okay day.

I got up this morning, just as F came home to grab some spare clothes for work.  I’m not sure why he can’t take it with him in the morning when he goes!  

I vegged for a while, watched my show and then was going to get up and have breakfast when F called.  At first I thought he was asking me to go out for lunch, but he was asking if I’d like to go away this weekend since it is a long weekend.  I told him I’d look for a hotel within our budget.  I spent the next hour or so looking for hotel rooms.  I found some but they were far away or not really double beds.  A lot of hotels in Japan seem to have “small double rooms”  which means they either have a ¾ size bed or a single bed and call it a small double.  I’d rather have a twin, particularly in this heat.  I couldn’t find anything.  AND I missed my workout so I was a bit annoyed.  

F came home for lunch and I gave him the bad news.  I suggested a staycation so I hope that’s what we’ll do.  It should be cheaper and we might be able to get a hotel or something locally.  There’s a typhoon on the way and I don’t want to be on holiday in the middle of it.

The afternoon was quiet.  I scanned a bunch of postcards, both incoming and outgoing, then when I was done I took them to the post office and mailed them.

I came home again and wondered about dinner.  I took last night’s poaching liquid and used it as a soup base for me for tonight.  When F came home, he told me to go first for dinner, so I made chilled pasta with a basil yogurt dressing, and had that with some of the leftover salad and chicken from last night.  I finished up with a bowl of soup.  It was quite nice, but in all honesty, I didn’t really eat enough.  I did my dishes, cleaned up the kitchen and then let F have his turn.

We had a quiet evening.  F turned on the AC when he came home. It was quite hot inside by then.  F is not doing well with the AC on, but I’m too hot at times.  I do feel like I’m better than I was last year, but it is really hot here.

I did a bit of crochet during Grey’s Anatomy and F went to lie down on the bed.  He’s still there, still in his jeans, which worries me.  I’ll have to wake him up soon to get him to go to bed properly.

Anyway, it was a quiet day today.  It wasn’t bad at all. Come back later and find out if Wednesday is a more exciting day!  Until tomorrow….

July 13, 2015

Monday - Too Hot and Sunny

A goodish day.

I got up this morning, watched my show, had a visit from F, worked out and then had lunch.  It was a busy morning! Well, not really.

In the afternoon I did a little laundry and watched a couple of shows on the telly. I did have something stupid happen today.  I just got a new watch and the wristband was too big.  I popped out the pin to adjust it and it fell to the floor.  I looked for it.  I cleaned under my desk, I scanned the area with two flashlights, I swept, I even used a magnet.  I couldn’t find the pin.  I didn’t want to tell F since it was a present from him. I decided that when I was in the mall later, I’d go to the jewelry shop and get them to sell me a new pin. I finished watching Penny Dreadful and also caught an episode of DCI Banks.  I had a quick lunch and then decided to leave for the mall.  I wanted to do a little shopping and I needed to get out of the hot apartment.  

Going outside was like going into a sauna.  Yuck.  It was so hot and so humid.  Riding my bike wasn’t too bad.  I made good time and got to the mall.  At the mall I went to the jewelry shop first as I knew it would take a bit of time.  They understood what I wanted and I was told to come back in 15 minutes.  

I went to the hundred yen shop and did a little bit of shopping.  I got some nice stuff, some for my niece and something for F.  I went downstairs and got my watch back, and paid of course.  I did a little shopping downstairs, but not that much.  I went to Doutors for a sandwich and an iced tea.  I started reading an actual book, Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz.  I’ve pretty much given up on him, but I bookmooched this novel and I have to read it.  

I was there when F called.  He was on his way to his mother’s.  I told him I was leaving soon, and that I’d see him at home.

I got home quite quickly and decided to turn on the air conditioner.  It was hot and humid and horrible inside.  It cooled down and became fairly livable soon.  

F was a bit late tonight.  He’d been at his mother’s and then did some shopping for her and for himself.  I told him he could go ahead and cook his dinner first.  He didn’t take too long.  

I poached a chicken breast for myself and had that with some salad.  I actually washed lettuce leaves tonight.  It was yummy.  I had salad, some of the chicken and dressing, plus parmesan.  I could have more, so I added on a piece of bread and some peanut butter.  

F watched some sports but fell asleep on it so I changed the station and watched something else.  I did tell him he could change it back, but I think it was over anyway.

F isn’t doing too well tonight.  I am worried a bit about heat stroke or just generally not taking care of himself today.  Apparently it was the hottest day of the year up here so far.  

I wrote a few postcards for postcrossing.  One took a long time to do as the person had quite specific requests.  They weren’t bad, I’m not talented!  And, when I moved my box of postcards...I found my pin for my watch!  ARGH!

That’s really about it for today. I’m hoping to be able to exercise tomorrow, I have to scan my cards, run them to the post office and maybe wrap my niece’s presents for her.  Come back later and find out what I get up to.  Until tomorrow….

July 12, 2015

Sunday - Hot and sunny

A good day.

I woke up this morning before I had to get up and just before F came home.  I really should have gotten up earlier and taken my shower but I didn’t.  F asked if he could take a quick one and since I was still in bed, couldn’t really say,”Nope, me first!” I took a quick shower, got dressed and then we were on our way to Yuza.

Today we met up with my friend and her son in Sakata and another blogger and her son for lunch.  We had lunch with kireikireikirei, the writer of “We Speak Japanese and English”.  We had a great time, and enjoyed some good food and conversation.  Sadly, a train had to be caught and our party members had to go our separate ways.  

I begged and pleaded with F (not really, I just asked!) to go to Starbucks in Sakata, so we went for a nice beverage.  Today I had a hojicha latte with soy milk, he had a frappuchino.  He complains about them there and says they aren’t cold enough.  While we were at the coffee shop, F told me that tomorrow is Obon in our city and his mother had visitors coming.  Then an odd expression came over his face.  He thought he might have left some squid tempura in the car this morning instead of giving it to his mother.  When we got out to the car, he looked but couldn’t see anything.  Then I looked.  There was a bag of shopping in the back.  Today the temperature was 32℃ so I wasn’t sure that anything was still edible.  F swore that it was.  Instead of going to the mall for shopping, we went back to Tsuruoka.  He dropped me off at home and then dropped off the bag at his house.  I hope that no one eats that food, but…

When F came back, we decided to go and see a movie in Mikawa and do some shopping.  We drove back to Mikawa and I did some shopping for my niece and then for me.  I didn’t really expect to get anything, but I found a couple of things that I liked.  We put them in the car and then went to the movie theater.

We went to see Terminator Genisys and quite enjoyed ourselves.  I had fun, and so did F.  There were some interesting ideas but somehow it wasn’t quite as scary as the original The Terminator.

After the movie, I did a little more shopping and then we had a quick dinner at Cocos.  I had a California taco salad, F had a vinegary chicken and vegetable rice dish.  It looked good, but I didn’t want too much.  He did give me some of his chicken though.

We came back to Tsuruoka and the grocery store.  I told him as we went in that I wasn’t going to cook for him over the next couple of days.  I bought myself some chicken, some salad and that’s about it!  I will probably have a salad tomorrow night with grilled chicken or something.  It’s all I really want.  

We had a fairly decent evening at home.  I did more crochet while I watched Project Runway and started another colour.  This second blanket is going well so far.  I do get a little worried in case it doesn’t stay that way, but I hope it will.  

And that was my day.  It was quite good and we got a lot done.  Tomorrow I hope to go out and get a few little presents for my niece and then I’ll be able to wrap up the present and get it sent off to her.  If you come back later you’ll be able to find out what I get up to.  Until tomorrow….

July 11, 2015

Saturday - Warm and sunny

Better…

I got up in the morning to an empty apartment.  F was out at his mother’s or the doctor or both.  I got dressed and checked my email and such.  When F came home he didn’t talk to me at all.  Sigh.  He put on the TV and the noise of the horrible TV shows he was watching drove me from the room.  I went back to the bedroom, closed the door and tried to read for a bit.  After a while I just went to sleep.  I hadn’t eaten, and didn’t have breakfast until the early afternoon.  F of course was chomping away on noodles, seemed like all afternoon.

I spent quite a bit of time in the bedroom.  I finished my book and came back out.  I talked a bit to him, but not a lot.  I asked if he’d picked up his new glasses…he hadn’t.  He disappeared for a while, I assume to his mother’s house and then came back.  While he was gone I had a small lunch out of some of the leftovers from last night.  

When he came back I asked again about his glasses so he decided to go and get them.  He asked me if I wanted to come too.  I went, I just needed to get out of the apartment.  We picked up the glasses and then went for dinner.  I had suggested Indian food but F wasn’t in the mood.  He had wanted to go for fish to a restaurant near City Hall.  We went there and it was good. I had a tuna and negi-tori don.  I liked it, F had kaizen-don, or a fish mixture.  We added on some tofu and some fried eggplant.

After our meal, F just brought us home.  I was a tad disappointed as it was a lovely night and I wanted to stay out for a while.  He offered to take me to the grocery store as usual….I hate our grocery store and don’t ever want to go there!

When we got home I decided to go for a walk.  I would have gone immediately, but I was dressed in all navy-blue, which isn’t a good walking outfit after dark!  I went in and changed into my walking outfit that I use during the week, plus a shell over it.  I grabbed my ID, a little change in case I needed a drink and my cellphone so I could be reached/and count my steps.  

I walked to the park, and then around the park once and then came home.  I would have done more, but the light in the park wasn’t very good and I was jumping at shadows.  There was also an empty car parked in the entrance way and I hadn’t seen anyone around.  Last night’s Rizzoli and Isles had a woman jogging in the park at the beginning.  She was murdered and I didn’t want to have that happen to me. I watch too much TV.

Still, it was nice to be outside and it was a lovely evening.  A little warm, but there was a light breeze too.  I came home and relaxed.  

At 11 I did a bit of crochet on the couch. I got 14 out of 16 squares done and decided that since they were so fast, I might as well do the other two as well.  F went to bed around this time, so I decided to just crochet and then bring my computer to the couch for blogging purposes.  Usually I sit at my desk, but tonight I’m lounging on my couch!

So, F and I are talking which is good.  I think I won’t be cooking much over the next couple of days though.  I have decided that I want to eat more salads anyway and that I can’t cook for him.  There’s no point in making a nice meal if he turns up his nose at it.  Tomorrow we have lunch plans, we’re going to meet up with my friend from the next city and another woman and her son that we haven’t met before.  I’m hoping that it all goes well.

Come back later and find out just how things go.  Until tomorrow….