Living La Vida Loca In Japan: June 2013

Showing posts with label June 2013. Show all posts

Postcrossing Incoming to July 12

To July 12, 2013

I'm back with six great cards and a very cool stamp. After you have a look at these cards, please feel free to drop me a line and tell me which is your favourite. I'd love to hear from you. Remember that you can click on the cards to enlarge them.

Isdela sent this card from Taiwan, with a story. She said that the front has a proverb on it. It is about a child turning 16. His grandma will make lots of red tortoise cakes for her grandchild. But, there are too many cakes, so they have to be given to neighbours and friends. The point is that there are too many cakes and no one wants them anymore.

Marina sends her greetings from Russia and hopes I enjoy her card. She writes that she likes Vivien Leigh, she's a wonderful and very beautiful retro actress.

Vivien Leigh

This card comes from Turkey. The sender advised me to put a reminder on my agenda to visit Izuir as it is a beautiful city.

Pythagora wrote that he is a retired math teacher living in Mainz, Germany. He points out that it is the hometown of Gutenberg, the man who invented movable type printing. The card shows one of the Bibles that he printed.

Michi sent this card from Switzerland. She writes that this food is more a dessert than a meal, but she likes it and it is a famous Zurich treat. It is called Luxemburgerli but is actually just a small macaroon. She said it is super delicious!

She also used a couple of interesting stamps. I apologize for the bottom stamp not being completely clear, but it is a moving stamp! I think they are playing the Pass It On game. The first person whispers to the second, then the second to the third, and so on. On the stamp you can see the people move! So cool!

My last card today comes from France. The sender thinks it is a funny card, but enjoys eating salads and vegetables too.

There you have them all. My beautiful cards. Which one/s do YOU like?

Until next time....

Postcrossing - Incoming to June 28, 2013

To June 28, 2013

I'm getting behind and a new wave of cards has just started arriving so I thought I should write a few words about this group of cards. Some interesting ones here. Come and see!

Sindy in Taiwan sent this card to me, and says that it shows many of Taiwan's foods. She says they are soooo delicious. When I was in Taiwan, I hardly had any of their national food. I'm quite disappointed in myself.

Christy sent this card from Arizona in the US and says that she loves old B&W movies, especially musicals. She says that Shirley Temple is one of her favourites.

Will Rogers (1879-1935)

Irine sent this interesting card from the Ukraine. She says that she lives in Lviv and likes travelling and knitting. She has a red cat that she loves very much.

Ulike sent this card from Germany. She writes that her sons and her husband like thrillers and action movies the most, but she doesn't like them. She loves Shakespeare in Love and The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain. I like them too, but I also love action films!

Auguste Renoir, 1841-1919 The Afternoon of the Children, 1884

Dmitriy sent this card from Russia and writes "Hello!" Unfortunately, I can't read it, so can't tell you anything about the card.

YehYeh sent this great card from Hong Kong and was quite chatty on the back. It makes a lovely change. She wrote that she loves travelling and plans to travel a lot during the summer.

She watches movies, but seldom remembers them afterwards. The most recent one she watched was Iron Man 3. She likes watching heroes or robots like Batman, Transformers or Spiderman. She likes watching anime like Totoro too, as children's movies are her favourites.

Fireworks over Victoria Harbour

There you are. Six great cards from Europe, Asia and the USA. Which one do you like the most this time? I quite like the black silhouette one, but they are all good this time.

Until next time!

June 30, 2013

Sunday - Warm and sunny

Today was an odd day. It really was.

F went over to his mother's house this morning to do some work in the garden. He'd asked me to call him when I got up so that he would have an excuse to leave if he wanted to. No problem.

I got up, called him, but he said he was already on his way home.

At home, he fed me some of his bread that he made. It was good. He keeps finding these interesting recipes on the net! We couldn't really get our stuff sorted out and it was quite late when we decided to leave. We wanted to see a 5:40 movie, but needed to eat lunch first.

We decided to have lunch at the mall, and left our apartment around 3. It would give us lots and lots of time really. We got to the mall. F checked his wallet, but couldn't find it. He asked me to wait a minute and he'd check the car. He did. No wallet. He decided to drive home and look at home. I was afraid that he'd decide not to come back to the mall, so I came home too. He searched. No wallet.

He called his mother, no wallet. He went over to the grocery store as he'd bought stuff there this morning. No wallet. Then, he had a brainwave. He looked in the glove compartment. There it was.

By this time it was almost 5:00pm and I thought he wouldn't want to go back to the mall. I was wrong.

We drove back to the mall, got the tickets for the movie, and then got something to eat. F had ramen and I had a crepe with tuna and pizza toppings on it. It was good in an odd way. We went to see Gambit which was okay but not great. Really not great. It did have Colin Firth so I was happy, but I wouldn't recommend it to non-fans. Unless they liked Alan Rickman, and even then….

After the movie we had a drink in Seattle's Best, but F left twice during our drinking time. It was so annoying. We had dinner in a Cocos behind the mall, and it was okay. Nothing special really.

We came home via some blooming long way that F wanted to check out for bugs. He didn't bother to tell me that was what he was doing until we were halfway there. Sigh. After that, the grocery store. We're going to try and go out tomorrow night after he finishes work and see if we can see the fireflies.

We came home and had kind of a frustrating evening together. I asked him to help me with some financial stuff that we've been trying to fix all year, but it was too late at night to do it. Still, we started it and I think that is good.

He's set up the bread maker again for tomorrow, as I asked for some normal bread for sandwiches. He likes making bread!

Anyway, that's it for now. I hope to talk to you tomorrow. Night!

June 29, 2013

Saturday - Hot and sunny

A good day.

I got up this morning in enough time to watch the end of Nigel Slater ont telly. (I have to tell SpellCheck that "ont" is in fact a word, sort of.)

I settled in with my crochet for Gilmore Girls. It was a fun episode with a spa. I got a few rows done and enjoyed myself.

I got dressed and after a while F and I went to Grado for lunch. It was really nice. He had pork, I had chicken in a gorgonzola sauce. Yum. The restaurant even comped us some dessert because we brought them another bag of newspapers. That was nice of them.

In the afternoon, we went to the Chido Museum. F renewed his membership and we went in. I was really happy for him because it was the katana exhibition this week. It's the thing he looks forward to most of the year. He didn't like the fact that they were mostly new katanas though. We enjoyed ourselves in the museum and then we left.

F took off driving and didn't tell me where we were going. We ended up in Haguro at the museum. We arrived at 3:50 and it was supposed to close at 4:30. We went in, but not to the paying area. We looked at the books in the gift shop, I got some postcards, and we bought drinks from the vending machine.

We came home for a while after a nice drive. We vegged at home and then decided on dinner. We went to Aki for Okonomiyaki and it was great. The restaurant wasn't very busy tonight. The cook was bemoaning the fact that last night he was busy, but tonight he wasn't!

We left and made a quick stop at home before going to the theatre. We had an appointment with Tyrannosaur. It was great. It's a really dark movie, definitely not a happy movie, but with interesting people and good writing. A good indication of the film's worth, F didn't fall asleep at it…first time in ages!

We came home via the grocery store and the gas station. We had a quiet night at home. We watched a bit of TV, F set up the breadmaker, and then went to bed. I'm still up, but it is ridiculously late and I should be in bed.

Sunday, F has to go to his house, and we might go to a movie in Mikawa later on. Not sure what else will happen. That's it for me. Night.

June 28, 2013

Friday - Sunny and warm

A good day.

I overslept this morning, which quite surprised me. I thought I'd get up earlier, but didn't.

When I got up I watched a bit of telly and then took a shower. I had a quiet afternoon, but it was nice. I ate leftovers for lunch, I wrote up 4 cards for Postcrossing and then scanned them. I biked off to the post office and mailed them, then came home again.

In the evening, F came home and of course he wanted to go to the internet cafe again. We went for karaoke for a while, and had dinner. This was a bit of an improvement because we were in the same room at least to eat. I had decent carbonara and a very greasy beef cutlet.

After a while we went to the massaging chairs area. We were able to get chairs, but not side by side. We went in anyway. I had brought a book and a magazine, but I looked at the movie listings and found one that I hadn't seen before and it was in English, so I watched it. It was even Canadian to boot! I watched The Sweet Hereafter. It was quite sad, and I think I'd like to see it again.

We came home around midnight and then watched a bit of TV and ate junk food. F is off to bed soon, and I am up blogging and facebooking. A friend is watching some DVDs that I sent her. She's facebooking them! It's kind of cool.

Tomorrow I'm not sure what we'll get up to. I know that F has to go to his house in the morning and I have a date with the Gilmore Girls, so hopefully I'll be up in time to watch them!

That's it for me. Night!

June 27, 2013

Thursday - Hot and sunny

A goodish day.

The nice thing about today is that I was alone for most of it. I got so much done that I needed to do. Yay me.

I got up, and had a bit of a relax this morning. I did go on my computer of course, but didn't spend a lot of time there. I ate lunch, watched 3 hours of Heartland and then remembered I had lots of things to do. Like laundry and my column. I got them both done. Yay me! It was so much easier without being interrupted all the time.

Poor F though, was late tonight. He called me at his usual finishing time to say that he would be late. If he was lucky, he'd be home by 6, if not, he didn't know. He arrived home around 8:30.

I decided to prepare some of dinner though. I didn't do it last night because I was writing my column, but tonight I cooked the chicken, prepped the eggplant and set the table before he came home. I also decided that we didn't need eggplant and gnocchi, so cut the pasta from the menu. Good call really.

When F called to say he was finished I kicked dinner into higher gear. I did fried eggplant and zucchini, we also had lettuce and sautéed basil chicken. Yum.

Poor F was really tired tonight and went to bed super early. He was in bed around 11. I stayed up, did some crochet and then computer stuff of course.

Today was really hot. I didn't actually leave the apartment today. I think F is feeling the drain of the heat more than I am at the moment. He has to work outside quite a lot.

Not sure what I'll get up to tomorrow. I might go for a tea downtown, or I might just stay home and try to stay cool. I might also try to unpack a box or two…or not! That's it for me for today. Talk to you tomorrow? Night!

June 26, 2013

Wednesday - Sunny with some rain

A not very good day.

I got up this morning and checked out the laundry situation. The clothes I washed yesterday weren't dry yet, so I decided not to wash any today. Sigh.

I worked on my column and did quite a bit. F made his way home during the day, although it wasn't during lunchtime for a change. He came bearing gifts which was nice, but not really necessary.

He left again and I wrote a whole lot more of my column. I'm nearly done, just have to proof it and write the concluding paragraphs.

F had to work late tonight and didn't get home until after 8 pm. I begged off cooking as I just didn't feel like it. I was tired and the apartment was hot already. We had sushi at Kappasushi and it was okay.

We came home and then things started to go wrong. There was a crappy show on TV that I didn't want to watch, so while F did, I went into the bedroom with a book. After a few minutes I went back out.

When I tried to set up the VCR to tape something to watch tomorrow it was fine, but when I tried to change the TV to the other channel I wanted to watch now, I couldn't do it. Unbeknownst to me, F was recording something with the DVR and for some reason couldn't understand why I was upset that I couldn't change the station. He stopped the recording and got all angry and huffy. I wish he'd just told me he was recording something.

I tried to do some crochet, but I couldn't. I just wasn't in the right headspace. F kept running around glowering and it worried me, so I put my stuff away.

It's just a bit after two and I'm considering going to bed now. I'm not feeling so great, had a fight with my hub, and I have a lot of things to do tomorrow. Sigh. Got to go. Night.

June 25, 2013

Tuesday - Warm and sunny

An okay day.

I woke up this morning and realized I was alone in the apartment. This was before 7:00 am so it was a tad unusual. Then, I woke up again somewhat later as F came back home. He had taken time off and was going to the doctor.

I stayed up then and did some laundry, lots of laundry. I also did some computer stuff and then F came home when he finished with the doctor. He offered to either buy me a bento or take me out for lunch, but I was waiting for a package and couldn't go. He went back to work.

In the afternoon, I scanned some cards and then made a mad dash to the post office. I didn't really have to, but I felt like I had to at the time. I mailed my cards, transferred some money and then came back home. I scanned MORE cards when I came back and got them all up to date.

F came home and immediately left. Yesterday he bought a sudare (a bamboo curtain) for his mother, today he tried to install it. He's so changeable on the phone. When he called to say he was coming home he asked me about going to the movies, then came home and said he was going to his mother's for 2 hours. Huh? Anyway, after an hour he called to say he was coming back!

We had dinner in Framboise tonight and it was nice. I had minute steak and F had the Japanese set. It was good to go there after a long break, but the air conditioning hurt my ears.

We bought groceries for tomorrow night. I think tomorrow's dinner might be a little labour intensive, so I'm a bit worried.

We came home and at 11 I watched the season ending of Criminal Minds and did a little crochet. It was nice to get a hook back in my hands!

F went to bed fairly early tonight. I'm trying to get there a bit earlier tonight too. I'm staying up much too late these days and there's not a good reason for it.

Tomorrow I have to cook dinner, do at least one load of laundry and hopefully get most of my movie column written. Come back and see what I do! Night.

Postcrossing - Incoming to June 15, 2013

Incoming to June 15, 2013

I've received a lot of cards lately, but I haven't been sending as many. I'll probably have a quiet couple of months in the future. I hope!

There are some quite interesting cards in this group. I welcome comments and thoughts about them. Click on the pictures to make them larger.

Ann sent this card with a long lovely chatty note on the back. I won't paraphrase it for you, but it was very nice to receive after a lot of one or two sentence cards.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, 1913

Tatiana sent this card from the Ukraine and it is gorgeous. Doesn't it look delicious? She recommends that I learn how to make a Ukrainian dish for my husband! Maybe I should learn how to make a Japanese dish first!

Typical Ukrainian vegetables

This greeting card came from Latvia. It isn't a postcard, but the sender found a card with a black and white picture of an actress that I hadn't heard of, so I was pleased to get it.

Helen Menken was a famous stage actress. She made a few movies, but was most famous for working on the stage and radio. Another of her claims to fame was her marriage to Humphrey Bogart. They divorced a year later however.

She died in 1966 of a heart attack while at a party.

Actress Helen Menken in a sleeveless full-length tulle gown. Vogue, April 12, 1930.

A Postcrosser from China sent me the next great card. He writes that this is the Former Normandy Mansions in Shanghai, China.

Wukang Building (The Former Normandy Mansions)

He put some amazing stamps on the postcard too. Just gorgeous!

Although the sender is from Germany, the postcard comes from The Netherlands. He says is that the border is very close to where he is.

Marina sent this card from Belarus. She's a very young postcrosser, and wrote that she loves sitcoms and anime.

Eva sent this card from Finland. She writes that new potatoes and herring are a very popular early summer delicacy in Sweden and Finland. Looks good!

She also wrote about the stamp. There is a crayfish on the plate. Eva said that its time comes in August. This stamp has braille markings on it, which I thought was unusual.

Well, there you are, 7 cards and some stamps to look at. Any comments? I like them very much, how about you? Which ones do you like best?

Until next time!

June 24, 2013

Monday - Warm and sunny

A good day.

I got up late, but then again, I went to bed late. I had some coffee yesterday, and because of it, I just couldn't sleep that well.

I showered and dressed, I went out to meet my friend from Sakata. We went off to have lunch together. We were going to try a new place but they weren't open today, so we went to the pasta buffet place. It was nice, and we had some great chat. We moved our little party over to the mall then to Doutors and had some tea. Yea us. Sadly, she had to leave, so she drove me home and went on her way.

I went inside, watched a little TV and then F came home. He wanted to go out right away. His mother had called and said she wanted him to buy her something. We went to the hardware store, got her the sudare and then drove out to the boonies of Sakata. "Why?" you might ask. He wanted to see if there were any fireflies. We drove up mountains, around scary corners, between tall trees, and I slept through most of it. We arrived at a place that was a parking lot for a famous local waterfall. The parking lot was empty. Not a car in sight. I asked F if he was sure it was the right time of year. Yep. So, he confidently headed off into the trees.

I, not so confidently, followed him. I didn't see anything that looked like a firefly and I was a bit huffy and puffy, so wasn't sure what we were doing. It was dark, there was no one around for miles (kilometres?) and all I could think of were the murder mysteries that I love so much where the seemingly devoted husband tricks the dumb wife into doing something she'd never do under other circumstances. I kept thinking that it would be a great place to hide a body for a few days…heck, thrown in the river, it might be even longer before it was found. I told F about my worries and we laughed and turned back.

In the car we decided to have dinner in Sakata again. This time we went to Steak Miya (at F's request). I had chicken which was very nice, F had a mixed plate. We ate and then headed back into Tsuruoka.

In Tsuruoka we just came home and watched a bit of TV. I wrote up 3 cards for Postcrossing. I haven't done a lot lately and I have soooo many postcards in my card box. I must stop buying them!

F went to bed a bit late, and I'm still up. Tomorrow I think I'll stay home and do some writing. I have a movie column that is overdue and I haven't started it yet. Tomorrow I will! Got to go. Night!

June 23, 2013

Sunday - Warm and sunny

A good day…no-really!

We had a slow start to the day today, but after a while we got ourselves up and out. F was up early of course, he even made us a mini loaf of bread. We had our lunch at a soba chain restaurant, then he suggested a movie. It was fine with me, so we drove out to Mikawa.

We went into the mall and bumped into the same student I bumped into on Friday! She'd even been to see the movie we were going to see. F asked her to call me if she wanted to get together sometime.

We went to see The Great Gatsby and I was really surprised. I don't like the novel, I had to read it at Uni and thought the people were useless and basically pretty dolls, but this film was different. I'm actually quite surprised that I liked it as much as I did. F however fell asleep for part of the film. Poor guy, he's doing that a lot these days.

After the movie we went shopping. I needed to get a present for my niece, so we did that, then hit the kitchenware department for my replacement spatula! We finished our mall time by going to Seattle's Best and having Java Kulas. Yum.

When we got to the car, F suggested going to Sakata for dinner, so we drove their and decided to go to an Indian restaurant. We went and had a really yummy meal. We had their Couple Set.

We left and headed back towards Tsuruoka. F wanted to do something else, but I said it was okay, but only if we stopped to use a washroom! We stopped at a bookstore and had a quick look around. I found something else that would make a good present for my niece and we got that too.

We just came home and I stayed home for the rest of the night. F popped out to the grocery store for CCR. I told him that was how he had to remember it. Cheese, Chocolate and Ramen. Well, I didn't care about the ramen, but the chocolate I did care about.

We watched a bit of TV. F made more bread for the morning (that's why he needed the cheese!) and finally went to bed. I should get there soon as I'll be going out in the afternoon with a friend.

That's it for me. It was a busy but fun day. Night!

June 22, 2013

Saturday - Sunny and warm, rainy at night

A good day.

I got up just in time to watch Gilmore Girls and it was great as always! I did a little crochet. Afterwards, I spent a bit of time on my computer, then headed back to bed! I was tired.

After a bit I got up, got dressed, before F did! We went out for lunch to Patio in the mall, but it wasn't a success. My meal was good, but F's wasn't and the waitstaff took a long time. F was really angry with them and almost walked out of the restaurant. I was surprised. He's usually not the impatient one.

Following lunch, we went over to the Bussenkan, the tourist area. My niece wanted some touristy stuff, but there wasn't too much. I did get her something though. F and I had an ice cream afterwards and then came home for a bit.

We headed out again around 6 to have dinner. We went to Hirabokujo, the tonkatsu restaurant. It was really nice. The surprising thing is that it was F's choice. I tried to remind him that lately he hasn't wanted meat, but he was sure about this place!

We headed over to the movie theatre after we finished and went to see After Earth. It was okay, but not great. I actually enjoyed Oblivion more than this movie, because it had a more interesting plot.

We came home and spent a fairly quiet evening together. I did more crochet, F did his usual watching TV and computer at the same time. It was pleasant to be honest.

I'm not sure what we're going to get up to tomorrow. I'll be sure to fill you in tomorrow night. Until then. Night!

June 20, 2013

Thursday - Sunny and warm

A good day.

I got up this morning and had some of the onion bread that F made the night before. Yum. I had a quick shower and watched a bit of TV.

F called and invited me out for lunch. I said yes, so I was waiting when F came to pick me up. We went to the Chinese restaurant nearby. I wasn't feeling great, so just had a small meal.

He dropped me off at home. During lunch he asked if he could go and see a movie in Mikawa tonight by himself. It was a movie in Japanese, so I really had no urge to see it. I do however have to get a present for my niece as her birthday is coming up. This would be a perfect chance for me to do a little window shopping and enjoy myself without F. Win-win!

In the afternoon I did a little bit of crochet and took some photos of my projects. I posted them to Ravelry too.

F came home around 5:45. He changed and I got my last minute prep done. We drove to the mall and had dinner. I still had a bit of an upset stomach so I just had noodles in the restaurant. We went for tea or coffee after and then I sent F on his way to see the movie.

I spent quite a bit of time in different departments, looking for all kinds of interesting things. Last night when F was caramelizing the onions, he didn't use the lovely silicon spoon/spatula that I have, he used a plastic one and melted it. I was not terribly impressed when I saw it this morning! I didn't find the kind of replacement I wanted so didn't buy anything. In the clothing department I saw some lovely tops that would be nice for my niece, I think. In the craft department I saw lovely cotton yarn that would be lovely for me to work with, but I didn't buy any.

Around 8:30 I was a bit window-shopped out, so I went to Seattle's Best and had an ice tea. After that, I went upstairs and waited outside the theatre. I sat on a bench and read my book. I had a great time, except it kept getting darker as they turned off more lights!

I did keep an eye out for F, but he surprised me. No one else came out at the same time as him, so he must have left during the credits. He didn't like the movie very much he said. I'm sorry about that.

We drove back to Tsuruoka and came home. I was feeling a bit better by then, but still not great. We watched a bit of TV. F tried to help me by pre-setting the pay channel box for my show, completely forgetting that I don't ever do that now. Ack! It took five minutes before we could stop the blooming machine. I stopped using that thing because it wouldn't let me adjust the language the show was recorded in. After that, I settled in to watch Desperate Housewives. It was a good show tonight.

F went to bed a bit after his bath and I spent more time on my computer. As usual. I did have some plans for tomorrow, but sadly they had to be postponed, so if the weather co-operates I think I'll go to the movie theatre in the afternoon. Maybe!

That's it for me for tonight. Tune in tomorrow to see what happens! Night.

Oh, here's a bit of my present crochet work, just as a bonus for sticking around!

Granny Ripple Baby Blanket

Crochet Bolero in Blue & Silver

June 19, 2013

Wednesday - Rainy and drizzly all day

Well, I got up this morning, in time to have a nice breakfast, but it was rainy. Quite rainy. I had a think, even got dressed, but just when I thought I'd be able to go, we had another strong shower. I decided to stay home.

I had brunch, watched a bit of TV and took a nap in the afternoon. Sigh. I shouldn't do that. F called to tell me that the craft shop managed to find my yarn for me. Yay! He'd take me to pick it up after he finished work.

I decided to tackle a bit of the tatami room too. I emptied a couple of boxes and took out one of my large chest of drawers. I put it in our bedroom and I'm going to use it for storing my clothes. At least that's the plan right now. The nice thing is that now we can get into the tatami room, at least a little bit!

F called to say he was coming so I went outside to meet him. We drove over to the craft store and they had my yarn. Hurray!!! I'm so glad. We bought it and they even gave me the discount on it that I got when I bought the first batch.

We came home and I put dinner together. We had bought edamame vichyssoise, which was very nice, plus the left over lettuce which we each turned into caesar salads for ourselves. I grated some of my real parmesan cheese (a gift from a former student who went to Italy) over it, F grilled some fish and we had a nice meal. F wanted rice with his, but I was fine without. I had even bought some chicken at the store earlier for me, but I'll save it for lunch tomorrow I think.

F did the dishes and I spent time on my computer. F then decided to make onion bread (I created a monster!) so spent a couple of hours caramelizing the onions. They were so strong that even across the room they were making my eyes water. I took a break in our bedroom and fell asleep. Oops.

I came back to watch some TV and do a little crochet. I started the second colour in the blanket tonight and it looks good. I am mildly worried that the holes are too big for a baby, but I think they'll be able to keep it for him when he's a bit bigger. Maybe?

F fed me a piece of his onion bread and it was great. It's funny how he always makes the bread these days!

That's about it for today. I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow. I might go out tomorrow, if the weather is okay, but I'd like to be back in the afternoon to catch the repeat of one of the shows I watch. I missed it last week. Probably not an urgent thing though! Talk to you tomorrow. Night!

June 18, 2013

Tuesday - Cloudy, rainy and humid

A goodish day.

Today I got up on time, didn't fall asleep on the couch, did read the paper…amazing. I had a slow morning though, but it was peaceful. I decided not to go out as I wanted to catch the re-run of The Good Wife. While I did that, I got the baby blanket started. One of my colours is navy blue and it was really hard to see where the stitches should be made on the first row. It was hard in the daytime, at night it would be even harder.

I had lunch today and it was nice. I had leftover salad, chicken and couscous. I love leftovers, shame there aren't usually leftovers with our meals.

In the afternoon I began writing my area report for the Journal. I haven't started the column yet. I had an idea, but it would take rather a long time to do research for it. After tomorrow, I suppose I could do a bit though.

When F came home he was a bit cranky. I didn't know, but he wasn't feeling that well. I was watching a programme and he changed the channel on me. I wasn't too impressed, especially since it was to some guff about the rainy season. He changed it back, but stormed out. He told me that he was trying to set the machine to record but couldn't do it quickly enough. Now, why didn't he just say THAT? Instead I got told to "Wait a minute." He stormed out. Buh-bye.

I took to my bed, and tried to take a nap, but didn't manage. It was cool in there as I had the fan on me. When he came back home, I expected he'd come and talk to me, but he didn't.

I decided to go out and get my dinner. Long story shorter, he offered to drive me. That's why we ended up at Gusto and I had an okay meal. F didn't really eat. He had an annindofu dessert and drink bar.

After dinner we stopped at the grocery store and got some stuff for dinner tomorrow night. We're going to keep it simple, which I think is a good idea.

I watched Criminal Minds at 11 and did the second row of my crochet. It looks good, but feels a bit too loose. The hook I'm using now is big and it is the one that gets me the closest to the gauge. Not spot on though. Sigh. I'll see how it goes before I decide if I'll turn back or not.

That's it for me. F still isn't feeling that great, I hope he gets over this thing soon. I will say that it was absolutely lovely not to have him pop by the apartment during the day. I felt so much more at peace without his little visits. Night!

June 17, 2013

Monday - Hot and humid, bit cloudy

An okay day.

I got up on time this morning and stayed up. I kind of fell asleep on the couch, but didn't go into full napping mode. A good thing, because F came back at 10 am. Then, he came back for lunch after 12. Neither of these things really made me happy.

I did have breakfast, and a shower just as F was coming home for lunch. After he left I did a few things. I scanned some cards - finally - sent some postcrossings and prepped a couple of things to mail. I also paid for my AFWJ membership for next year. I thought I should do it while I have the money!

In the afternoon F called me three times. He was trying to let me know about his finishing time as I needed to go back to the craft store. I had started washing the lettuce for dinner and I wasn't too happy to be constantly interrupted. Still, I got it done before he came home.

We arrived at the craft store, I confidently led the way to the stuff I bought yesterday, and only found one ball of yarn. Oh no! Apparently the company has discontinued it, and the store has tried to call other stores to see if they have it in stock. Bloomin' heck. I'm such a twit. If I'd bought it all yesterday I would have realized that there wasn't enough of the colours and could have changed my mind. I'm really crossing my fingers that they can find more of it for me.

Came home again and I was getting dinner ready. I was ticked because since we haven't eaten at home in ages, the dinner table was under a huge pile of F's junk. I got it shifted and the tabled wiped. I went back to my cooking when F announced that he wasn't going to eat dinner. I told him I wasn't surprised and kept working. I made some couscous for myself since F doesn't like it, and got the salad together. I really wish that I had gone the extra step of making the dressing myself as the commercial one we bought wasn't that good. It was okay, but… My salad was nice and the couscous was a nice change. After I finished, I put everything away and did the dishes. Lots of dishes. While I did dishes, F watched some ultimate fighting crap.

He told me after dinner that he wasn't feeling very well, and then announced when I started to watch TV that he'd go for a walk. He did. He brought back munchies so there wasn't much point of it though!

He stayed up for a while, but isn't a happy camper at all. Finally, he went to bed and I'm up way too late. I wrote up another Postcrossing entry and read a cool article about Voyager on the Internet.

I am debating going out tomorrow for a noon movie or staying home and watching (re-watching) The Good Wife. I haven't decided yet. I think I'll see what the weather does. We keep getting showers tonight.

I'm done. Got to go. Night!

June 16, 2013

Sunday - Hot and sunny. Hot!

A good day. We both went to bed really, really late last night…I believe we both went around 5 am. I was in bed slightly before F. I didn't get up early at all today!

I dragged myself out of bed just before noon and F fed me some lovely bread that he baked. I liked it, he wasn't too impressed. It was Brioche.

We had lunch at Grado. I had a lovely meal of local pork with camembert cheese grilled on top. It was very yummy. F originally chose a fish dish, but they didn't have it anymore. Instead, he foolishly chose a tomato based pasta dish. He has problems with tomatoes too, so it wasn't a good choice. He finished it, but wasn't too happy about it.

Next up for us was the craft shop. I've been meaning to make F's nephew's child a baby blanket, so we had to get wool. I didn't like the choice for baby stuff, so I branched out to some gorgeous all acrylic stuff in strong colours. I chose a royal navy blue and a cream colour. Unfortunately, with F being there and me having to mentally convert how many balls of yarn I'd need to get the blanket done, I made a mistake. I only bought half of what I need. Sigh. And I thought I had the right sized hook on hand, but I don't. I did a little of the pattern tonight and the yarn works up really nicely. It is so soft.

After the craft stop and a brief drugstore run for F, we hit up the internet cafe and went to karaoke for a couple of hours. It was fun and we enjoyed ourselves. After our two hours, we went over to the massage chairs for an hour and relaxed. Today I found a perfect thing for myself to watch, the Done in 60 Seconds film festival from Empire magazine and Jameson whisky. They were weird, wacky and wonderful.

We had dinner tonight in a soba restaurant. We had soba, which is a bit unusual for me, but it was okay. Then, we bought groceries for tomorrow's dinner. I think I'm going to make something semi-simple like a caesar salad with chicken on top. For me, it sounds delicious and wonderful, but I'll be timing F to see how long it takes him to make ramen for himself afterwards!

We came home and relaxed. I watched a bit of TV and tried out the pattern that I'll be using. It's just a bit of counting but so far so good. It did take a while to get the first row done. I really should check for gauge though. I don't want to make an adult sized blanket!

After a while F went to bed. He has to go to work tomorrow. I do not. I also did a couple of Postcrossings tonight. I'm happy to finally get going on that again. I miss it. And that was it for me. Got to go. Night.