June 30, 2016

Thursday - Rainy and humid

A goodish day.

My day got off to a fairly bad start to be honest.  When I woke up this morning F was gone, but the garbage that I had carefully put by the door for him to take out with him wasn’t.  That meant I had to do it.  Normally it wouldn’t be such a big deal, but I hadn’t slept well at all last night and needed to get more sleep.  I got dressed, walked the garbage to the gomi station and then came home again and went back to bed.  I changed my wake up time too so that I would get a bit more sleep.

I woke up around 10, got up, and had breakfast.  I had DVR’d Castle and watched it later.  I did some laundry, hung up a bunch to dry and of course, took other stuff down first.  I left some of it on the couch and took a nap.  I woke up about 3 minutes before F came home.  In fact, I heard his car drive into the parking lot and hurriedly threw on some clothes.  

He had a quick lunch and was off again.  I finally got stuck into my column and by gum, I got it done!  Whew!  I sent it off to the editor around 4 pm today.  Is it perfect? Probably not, but it’s quite good and I feel happy with it.  Yay.

I had a late lunch and cleaned up some of the dishes in the kitchen.  There wasn’t too many to do.  I was starting to get dinner under way when F called me.  After a while, he came home and I kicked dinner into a higher gear.  We were just having spaghetti and shrimp, but I tried cooking the  shrimp first, then heating up the sauce, adding the pasta to that and then throwing the Shrimp in on top.  It worked quite well and I was happy with it. 

After dinner, F and I decided to go for a walk.  He went outside and came back again with the news that it was raining.  We still decided to go.  We both took umbrellas and off we went.  The rain stopped after a few minutes so we were able to put down our umbrellas and walk a little faster.  We were going to go home when I suggested walking a little further to the McDonalds for a drink.

We got to McDonalds and of course I decided I wanted an ice cream cone and F did too.  We each had one, plus a drink. It was very nice to sit inside and chat for a bit.  We came home again.

I watched a bit of TV and F took his bath and then went to bed.  I watched the documentary that I’ve been following and then turned off the TV for my update.  

I was so angry in the morning, it was a bit crazy.  I know that F just either didn’t see the bag of garbage there or forgot about it.  He’s had a lot on his mind lately, but it felt like he left it on purpose.  

Tomorrow I need to catch up on some of the things that I let slide this week while I worked on my column.  I didn’t run my errands today, so maybe I’ll get out of the apartment in the daytime if the weather is willing.  Come back later and see how I get on.  Until tomorrow…. 

June 29, 2016

Wednesday - Hot and sunny

A good day.

I got up exactly on time this morning and made my breakfast again.  I had porridge again, but this time the porridge got a little excited.  I usually make it in the microwave.  Well, today, I set it off and then when the time was up, I opened up the door to stir my gloopy mixture.  What I found was a bowl with porridge all down the sides of the bowl and a mess on the plastic turntable tray.  Happily, it was easy to clean up, but a bit sad too.  

I had a quiet morning, I did get dressed and made the bed early again.  I need to keep doing that, although I’m not sure that I will.  F came home but he hadn’t really gone to work.  He had taken his mother to the doctor.  With the weather getting warmer, she unfortunately hadn’t been taking good care of herself and was a bit dehydrated.  She had to get a drip at the doctor and after F ate he went back and picked her up and took her home.  

I worked on my column today and got it done.  I had a few distractions, so tomorrow I’ll read over it again, check grammar and details, maybe add a little something if I still want and then I’ll send it off.  Yay.  I could write about more movies too I suppose.

A little after 4 I ran off to the post office to mail a birthday card to a friend and ended up buying some stamps too. I came home again, but enjoyed going out and getting a little sun.

I waited for F to come home again so that we could go and eat something, but around 5 pm just decided to eat anyway.  Of course, he came home just as I was ready to eat and “stole” my spot on the couch to eat my food!  Grr.  After I ate I suggested that we go and have a drink at Doutor.  

We went to the mall and had our drink.  I had a soy milk tea, F had a coffee float.  After that, we did a quick tour of the hundred yen shop and then went home for a minute.  F went in the apartment, I waited outside.  

We had dinner at one of the Indian restaurants.  It was quite good, but not great.  We both had combo meals, but different curries.  I had chicken, F had pork.  During the meal, I remembered that we should have a flashlight, so we made one more quick trip home to pick some up.

Then, we went to see the fireflies.  We drove out to Yutagawa town and parked in the field.  We got out and walked along the path.  We were the only people at first.  We did see a few fireflies, but sadly not that many.  Other people came, but they didn’t stay very long at all.  After a while, we left too.  The fireflies are so amazing, I really hope that we just came on a slow night for them.

We bought a few groceries back in Tsuruoka, then came home again.  F went to bed after a while.  I did a little crochet and then came back to my computer.  That’s really about it for my day.

Tomorrow of course I must finish up my column and send it in, then I hope to go and run a few errands.  I’ll also be cooking dinner and no doubt a few other things!  Come back in a bit and find out all about my day.  Until tomorrow….

June 28, 2016

Tuesday - Cooler but muggy

An odd day.

I got up this morning a little late, but did my tea, Castle and breakfast thing today. I made myself some porridge again, I love it.  I may have to get myself some more oats soon.

I got myself dressed and some work started early on, quite surprising myself. F came home for lunch although as usual I’m not sure why.  He made his lunch and then very nicely left me his dishes.  Gee, thanks!

In the afternoon I did some laundry, and folded up some finally dried things.  I had lunch, which was the rest of some instant pasta from yesterday.  Honestly, I didn’t like it that much.  The amount of calories it had compared to how much was a serving wasn’t good.  However, I did finish up the duck breast and that was nice.

F called fairly early to say he was on his way home, so I got dinner heated up and the table set.  However, he wasn’t home until 8 pm.  It was almost too late by then.  He asked if I’d like to go for a walk, I said I would.  

The problem started when he finally came to the table.  He had one fajita and then started mumbling about his stomach being bad.  He ended up going to bed and basically that was it.  He got up for a few minutes a little later, but went back to bed almost immediately.  

I got stuck doing the dishes, but at least I can’t complain about the jobs he didn’t do tonight, because I did them!  I left the table cleared off and wiped, ditto the stove.  

We didn’t go for a walk and I didn’t go without him.  It’s dark out and while I don’t think anything would happen to me out there, I’d just rather go with him than without him.  

I did a little bit of crochet during Suits at 11 and also watched the documentary about Gareth Malone’s choir at midnight.  It’s been a very quiet solitary day.  However, I did get quite a bit done on my column, so I’m around half done now.  I don’t mind that at all!

Tomorrow I have to do more column writing and hopefully get it done!  I’d also like to go to the post office and mail off a card to a friend, and maybe run an errand or two if I have time.  Wish me luck with that please!

Come back in a bit and see if I get any of my things done!  Until tomorrow….

June 27, 2016

Monday - Cooler and sunny

A good day.

I got up a few minutes late, but was soon able to have my lovely tea and cereal breakfast.  I got a few things done early that I needed to do as well.  

F came home for a quick lunch and then was off again to work.  I got to work once he left.  I set up the slow cooker for tonight’s dinner.  I was making chicken fajitas in the slow cooker, so I prepared everything, set it, and let it go.  

I did start my column today, but I also found myself watching a Simon Pegg movie too.  It wasn’t a great film, but it was quite watchable, if a bit dark.  I enjoyed it.  

I had an early for me lunch and then cleaned up right away. I took a quick shower and thought about prepping for dinner, but waited to hear from F first.  I did put a few more veggies in the slow cooker though.  I didn’t want them all to get mushy by putting them all in at the beginning.  

When F finally called me I set the table and got a few things ready.  We had the fajitas and they were okay.  I had only used half of the seasoning pack, maybe all of it would have given us better flavouring, I’m not sure.  And the fajitas were really juicy-runny, even though I used a slotted spoon to take the meat out of the cooker.  Well, it was an easy recipe to do, but honestly, I think I like them the other way more!  We’ll have the leftovers for dinner tomorrow night.

After F did the dishes we went out for a walk.  I was a little more pro-active tonight and insisted that we start out slower than usual and build up speed.  It was a good call.  My foot hurt a bit, but it was nothing like it was last week when we called off our walk.  This was quite bearable.  We went a couple of times around the park and then set off down the road.  We walked along the river and then came home.  We didn’t visit a convenience store tonight either!  Yay us.  

When we came home, I had some tea and set up a pot for cold brewed tea.  F had a beer and went to bed a while ago.  

Tomorrow I must work on my column.  I have a one movie written about, now to pick a few more.  This time I have a list of films that fit the topic so I think I’ll be good if I just make myself do it! Come back later and I’ll tell you all about my day.  Until tomorrow….

June 26, 2016

Sunday - Muggy and rainy

A good day.

I got up this morning just after F came home from taking his mother out.  We ended up going back to bed for a nap.  F had wanted to go for lunch, but I wasn’t really hungry, so didn’t care right then.  

We didn’t really move until almost 4:30. I insisted that we have “lunch” so we went to Subway for a couple of Spicy Chicken Filet sandwiches and potatoes. After that, we ran a few errands.

F wanted to buy some soil for his garden at his mother’s house, so we went to a hardware store with a garden centre for it.  No problem.  We went to one near Yamaya, the store that has a foreign food section, so of course, I wanted to go to Yamaya. 

We got a few things there, nothing too special really.  I picked up another packet of tortillas.  Their price is really good compared to other import stores.  I also bought a large bottle of diet soda and some feta cheese.  Yummy, yummy.  

F asked if I’d like to have a massage.  I knew that he wasn’t doing well, so said it was fine.  We went home first, and dropped off me and the food.  F went to his mother’s house and then came back.  While he’d been gone, I had attempted to look up the massage place on line to check its hours, but the website was down.  I got F to phone and he was able to book us both in tonight.  

We had a little time to wait at home, so we relaxed, and then at 8 pm we drove over to the massage place.  We both had to change and had different courses for a change.  I had reflexology and F had a back massage.  The last time I went, I really enjoyed the foot part of it, but when I had to lie on my stomach for the back massage part, I found that my nose plugged up so much I couldn’t breathe.  It wasn’t fun having to breathe through my mouth for so long.  

The reflexology was very nice and at the end she massaged my hands too, up to my elbows.  I enjoyed that quite a bit.  When our time was up, we both changed back to our clothes, paid, and left.  

My original wish for dinner had been Indian food, but it was late.  I didn’t think we should eat such a big meal so late at night…it was after 9:00 pm after all.  Instead we went to Coco Ichibanya, the curry place.  We each had a different kind of curry, and were well pleased with our meal.  I had chicken and vegetable curry with scrambled egg, F had the handmade pork cutlet.  I gave him a whack of my rice too because I didn’t want it and he did.

We bought a few groceries too tonight.  I am going to try chicken fajitas in the slow cooker tomorrow.  I’m a little nervous, but I hope it’ll work.  I know it won’t be as good as the ones I make in the frypan, but I doubt F will notice anyway!

That’s about it for me.  Tomorrow I hope to get started on my latest column.  The deadline is Friday and I’d really like to get it done soon.  Come back in a while and see what happens with my Monday.  Until tomorrow….

June 25, 2016

Saturday - Warm but cloudy, rainy at night

A good day.

I got up when F came home this morning.  I was surprised to see him so soon, as I assumed that he’d be at the doctor’s office for longer.  He’d also said he’d take him mother out today.  He was back around 9 am and stayed home.

I had an early shower and then watched Click and The Travel Show before we went out for lunch.  F picked a Sushi/Fish restaurant so I had sashimi. It was okay.  

After lunch, we were both a bit sleepy so we came home and slept!  I think we had a three hour nap or something.  F’s was probably longer than mine, since I got up before he did.  

We had a quick and pretty good dinner at Gusto.  I had spicy chicken on bean sprouts, F had some kind of noodle dish and we shared an avocado shrimp salad.  Yum. 

After dinner, it was off to the cinema for us.  We went to see Spotlight tonight and it was great.  A really great ensemble cast, great writing and a deep story.  Both F and I were impressed with it.  I thought it was a brilliant movie, and think it’ll probably make my top ten of the year.  

We bought a few groceries since I really needed some soy milk and then came home.  I watched a couple of TV programmes and F went to bed fairly early.  

No idea what we’ll get up to tomorrow.  A lot depends on the weather and how we are both feeling.  Come on back in a little bit and check out my day.  Until tomorrow….

June 24, 2016

Friday - Rainy and Humid

A good day.

I got up basically on time today and watched Castle, breakfasted and drank tea in the morning.  I read things on my computer and even made the bed and got dressed a little earlier than usual.  I even watched the second episode of Castle at 10:30.  It was the repeat of last week’s.  

I had a quiet day really.  I didn’t go out and I didn’t work on my column.  Sigh.  I just couldn’t get motivated about anything.  F didn’t come home for lunch either.  

I did watch most of Still Alice as it was on TV.  It was good, and also terribly sad.  I watched an episode of Once Upon a Time too, and enjoyed it.  

F was quite late tonight.  He didn’t call me until well after 7:00 pm, and didn’t get home until almost 8 pm. Luckily I had been working on dinner and it didn’t take very long to get it on the table.  Tonight we had fresh pasta with alfredo sauce, duck breast, and sautéed zucchini.  I took the zucchini recipe off a postcard I received.  It was supposed to be a pasta sauce, but I served it as a side dish.  It was quite nice.  We also had some salad and cucumber sticks too.  

At 9 pm I watched Castle (if you are counting, that is 4 episodes of Castle within 24 hours….The repeat of last week's at midnight, the 9:00 am older episode, the 10:30 repeat of last week's-yeah I watched it again…and then at 9:00pm this week’s new episode.  I may be obsessed.)  I did a bit of crochet and then went back to my computer for Numb3rs.  I made tea then too.  

That’s really about it.  I had such a quiet day.  I didn’t go out and I didn’t accomplish anything that I had hoped to do.  Oh dear.  We didn’t walk tonight because the weather was bad and F was tired.

On Saturday I hope to go to the movies and maybe do a little shopping.  Come back in a bit and see what I get up to.  Until tomorrow….

June 23, 2016

Thursday - Rainy, clearing towards the evening

A quiet day.

I got up on time this morning and went through to the living room for my Castle fix.  While taking care of that I made breakfast - porridge - and tea.  It was nice.

I had a quiet day today.  I didn’t do any postcrossings last night, so I didn’t have anything to scan or send out.  I did get dinner started around 6 tonight, as F hadn’t even called to say he was finished work.  

When he came home, I got dinner underway fairly quickly.  I sautéed some garlic cheese chicken, and we had that with some Japanese style pickles that I made with a seasoning packet from the store.  That was fun.  I had to bash a poor unsuspecting cucumber with my rolling pin first.  Good for relieving tension.  We also had some regular cucumber sticks, some tomatoes and salad.  Oh, yes, there was tofu too, with a packet sauce.  Yum.  

We did go out for a walk, but we got down the street and I noticed two things.  Firstly, my right foot was really sore, and secondly, F was 15 feet ahead of me.  If he’d slowed down for me, or even looked in my general direction once or twice I would have done my best to keep going.  I thought about just turning around and going home and seeing if and when he’d notice, but I didn’t.  Finally, he did slow down and asked how I was.   When I told him my foot hurt, he said that we should go home.  I was quite surprised…and happy that he wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it.  

We came home and after a little had some cherries that my friend had given me yesterday.  We had them with mint ice cream, which didn’t really go, but wasn’t terrible!  After I finished my late dessert, I worked a little on the runner.  This time I’m trying a single crochet to see how I like it.  I’m undecided at the moment.  

That’s about it for tonight really.  It was a quiet day.  I did do a little research for my movie column and have started to think about it which is important to me.  Tomorrow night we might go and see the fireflies if the weather isn’t bad.  Come back in a bit and most will be revealed.  Until tomorrow….

June 22, 2016

Wednesday - Hot and sunny

A good day!

I woke up late this morning. F had come back from his medical check and stopped in to say hello.  Grr.  I was angry with myself because I hadn’t gotten up.  I had woken up a few hours before and decided to go back to sleep until my alarm went off…only I didn’t hear it.  Not sure what is going on with it.  Lately the volume things on my phone have been quite wonky.  

Anyway, I got up and hung up the laundry that I had done overnight.  My machine has a delay function, so you can do laundry overnight and hang it up when you want to.  It’s convenient when I remember it.  

I took a quick shower and got dressed for going out.  I had a quick cup of tea and then my friend arrived.  We decided to have lunch at Junior Paper Moon.  We both had the same dish, the ladies lunch.  It was very nice, a kabocha gnocchi.  It came with a salad, a drink and dessert.  The dessert was another of the sampler plates.  There were a lot of different choices and it was fun to try.  

We drove out to Mikawa and first went to a business suit shop to get something for my friend’s husband.  After that we visited Nittori, a furnishings shop.  I looked at kitchenware and bedding, my friend looked at some furniture too and also got a couple of pillow cases.  I bought us a new bottom sheet for our bed.  I was hoping to get one at Costco, but the last time we were there, they only had the winter weight ones and I don’t need fuzzy warm sheets in summer.  

After that, we went over to the Mall and had a little tour through the shops.  After a while we went to Seattle’s Best Coffee and had something to drink and a long chat.  It was really good to connect and share a few laughs.

All too soon, it was time for her to leave and she was on her way.  I sent F a quick text to say I was still at the mall and went and did a little shopping.  I looked for, and found something for my niece in Canada and bought that.  I also looked at a few other things, but when I was taking a little break, I noticed that F had called me.  I texted back in case he was driving and a few minutes later got another call.  He was in the mall.  We walked towards each other and found ourselves.  He was tired and thirsty so we had a tea or coffee at Mister Donuts and a doughnut too.  While we were drinking we decided to go upstairs for dinner.  F wanted ramen, I didn’t.  

F ended up having a cold ramen, that didn’t look horrible.  I had a bibinba that I rather liked. Since there weren’t any new movies, and I’d done my shopping, we just decided to go back to Tsuruoka. 

We drove back into town, went to the grocery store, and then came home.  F did ask if I wanted to walk tonight, but I didn’t.  Truth be told, I walked a lot in the mall today and one of my feet is a bit sore, so I really needed a night off.  I’ll likely go out with him tomorrow if the weather allows.

I worked on an edging for my sister’s runner, but I I don’t like it, so will rip it out.  I can’t find one that I like.  It’s a small motif, but the usual types of edgings don’t really fit.  I’ll work something out I think.  

Tomorrow I had better get started on my movie column.  I have a week to get it done.  I have a few ideas at least so I hope it’ll go fairly well.  Come back later and find out what I end up doing with my day.  Until tomorrow….

June 21, 2016

Tuesday - Warm and sunny

A good day.

I got up early for a change and made my breakfast.  Castle was quite good today and I did some internet stuff during the other shows.  I even made the bed a bit earlier than I have been lately, even got dressed then too.

F came home for lunch and had cheap and cheerful ramen.  It smelt quite good and I was reading another blog about wonderful food so I got a bit hungry for a change.  Still didn’t have any ramen!

In the afternoon I watched a few things off the DVR and had an early lunch for a change.  That was good.  I finished up my quinoa and last night’s chicken.  I made a buddha bowl thing with those two things, the last of the swiss chard and a little salad.  I made up my sauce as well and the whole thing was a big yum!

I scanned my cards today too.  I had a whole pile of incoming cards to do.  I’ve received quite a few in the last few days…it surprises me how they seem to come in waves.  I had three outgoing cards too.  I scanned them, stamped them, and ran them off to my local post office.  

I came home and got started on dinner.  I started with the dishes and then washed the snow peas.  I had found an interesting recipe for them, so had to prepare them.

F was a tad late tonight.  He didn’t phone me until 7 pm ish.  I had most of dinner ready, I just had to cook it.  We had quite a good one.  Cucumber sticks, tomatoes, salad, miso pork sauce and sesame snow peas.  It was really good and it all disappeared!

F washed the dishes, sort of, and wanted to go for a walk again.  I said it was okay and got changed to go out.  We preplanned our route tonight and that was a good thing.  No convenience stores tonight, and not quite as long as last night either.  We walked just under 2 miles tonight.  I might try and take a break for a night or two, my foot is quite sore and isn’t getting the rest it needs to recover.  

I watched Suits tonight on the couch.  I didn’t crochet, I just looked for some good edgings for my runner.  I didn’t really find any.  I found one on Pinterest, but when I went back to look at it again, I couldn’t find it.  

And that basically was my day.  Tomorrow I’m going out with a friend to Mikawa to do a little window shopping and to see what’s new at the mall.  We’ll probably have lunch and hopefully just enjoy ourselves.  

Come back in a bit and see just what I get up to!  Until tomorrow….

June 20, 2016

Monday - Hot and sunny

An okay but sad day.

I got up early this morning and one of the first things I saw was a post on my sister’s feed on Facebook.  She had posted a picture of Anton Yeltsin with RIP written above it.  I investigated and found out that this young actor, whose work I enjoyed, had died in what seems to be a strange accident with his car.  I’ve seen quite a few of his movies and TV shows and I always liked his work. 

I watched Castle and also made some oatmeal for myself.  F popped home for a few minutes, then left again.  I ended up taking a nap for a short while but roused myself and made the bed and got dressed.

F came home for lunch, but I had also started to do some laundry.  I ended up doing a couple of loads, all I had room for basically.  It went well, except I have a terrible time getting food stains out of my clothes.

In the late afternoon I had some lunch and then started to get ready for dinner.  I marinated some chicken and was just starting on the swiss chard when F came home from work.  He was a tad late as he’d gone to the doctor’s office today.  

It seemed to take a while to get dinner ready, but then it was ready all at once.  Yay!  We had swiss chard, lemon pepper chicken, salad with tomatoes and cucumber sticks and some yuzu miso.  That was very nice.  

F did the dishes afterwards and asked me to go out for a walk tonight.  I was fine with going, since I hadn’t really done anything exercise wise all day. 

We went for quite a long walk.  It was well over 2 miles long (although Japan is metric, the app I use on my phone is from the US and it gives the distance in miles.) We did make a couple of detours though.  F wanted to visit the drugstore briefly, and I wanted to visit a convenience store to get a chocomint ice cream bar.  Yum!  

We made it home safely and I did a few postcrossings.  I also sent a bit of email and dealt with something in an on-line group.  And that’s about it.  It was a fairly decent day, just sad that a young man with a lot of talent died.  But, then again, this has been a strange week with too many young people dying for no reason at all. 

Come back later.  I hope I won’t be so dejected and that I’ll have something interesting to update this blog on.  A person can dream anyway!  Until tomorrow….

June 19, 2016

Sunday - Hot and sunny, to cloudy and rainy

A good day.

I went to bed when it was getting light last night, so I slept in very late today.  I was actually quite shocked with myself.  Oh well.  Unfortunately, F decided to go to his mother’s after I got up.  He was supposed to go in the morning, but didn’t.  

When he came back, we went to Cafe Cinq for a nice lunch.  I was surprised that they let us in for lunch.  There was only five minutes left on their lunch time.  Still, we made it!  After lunch I bought a few postcards in the giftshop and then we went to the Chido Museum to see the changing exhibit.  It was about Zen.  I didn’t think I’d be interested at all, but it had a lot of drawings and paintings, so I found it quite cool.  

After the museum we hit up my craft shop.  I bought a few aroma insect bands.  I’m not sure if they work or not, but I really dislike using bug spray.  I dislike being bitten by bugs more however!

We tried to find a cafe, but the first one we looked at was closed.  We ended up at a Mosburgers for drinks.  While we were there we made a plan for the next little bit.  F wanted his hair cut, so he would drop me off at S-Mall and then I’d hack around while he got it done.  That’s what we did.

I spent a little time in the mall.  I didn’t buy very much, just a pencil, a marker and some pencil lead.  I was just going to head upstairs when I bumped into F.  He hadn’t phoned me yet or anything so it was a happy coincidence.  We went upstairs, looked at another shop and then F suggested having dinner in Patio, the mall’s restaurant.  I was surprised because he doesn’t like it much.  We went, and I had a nice meal.  I don’t think he loved his meal, but it’s his own fault.  I told him not to have ramen there, he always complains about it.  He didn’t complain too much about it tonight though.

We bought a few groceries at our local shop and then came home.  I watched a couple of Prince things tonight.  There was a documentary about Prince and then Purple Rain was on afterwards.  The weather is now quite bad, so some of the film was a bit distorted.  Sigh.  

Anyway, F went to bed a while ago, but I’m not sure if he’ll be able to sleep with the storm the way it is.  I’m not sure if I will be either.  The thunder is right over us.  

So that is it for today.  It was quite a busy day.  F was a bit upset that we didn’t walk tonight, but I like to take a night off!  My feet need the rest! 

Not sure what’ll happen next, guess you’ll have to come on back and find out! Until tomorrow….

June 18, 2016

Saturday - Sunny and warm

A good day.

I got up on time this morning and after F left, took a quick shower and got dressed.  I waited for F to finish, but sadly, his appointment didn’t finish in time for me to go to the doctor’s office we wanted to go to.

When F came home we decided to have lunch, so I suggested Hyakkenbori at the university.  It was a great idea.  We both had their lunch special.  The price was good and it was very nice…a lemon pepper pork saute. After lunch, we came home long enough for me to brush my teeth, then headed out again to the dentist’s office.

My dentist pulled me in right away, I didn’t even get to look at the magazines in the office, and I had my teeth cleaned and a fluoride treatment.  She told me not to drink or eat for 30 minutes.  No problem.

F had found another ear clinic so we went there.  We waited for a while and then I was seen by the doctor.  He couldn’t really find anything wrong with my ears but gave me some pain medication and told me to come back if it happens again.  Grrr. I’m not in pain now…I’m not sure he even believed me! While we were waiting in the waiting room to pay, I noticed one of my ex-students waiting too.  She said hi and proceeded to ask what was wrong with me.  Er….none of your business really.  However I just said I had an ear problem.  

F and I had a drink in Doutors and then did a little shopping in the mall.  There was an Ikebana show on, so we went to have a look.  It was interesting!

We came home for a bit and then went for dinner.  We went to the local Chinese restaurant.  It was better than I expected, but F ordered yakisoba as well as the ramen he had to have.  I didn’t really like the yakisoba, but did like the chicken/mushroom stir-fry.  It was spicy.  We walked home again, but at 7:45, we left.

We walked to the Machi-kine theatre.  It took us about 20 minutes, but it was a gorgeous night for walking.  There was a street festival on one of the main roads, but we didn’t have time to have a look, sad to say.

We went to see The Danish Girl at the cinema.  F actually liked it a whole lot more than I did.  I came out of the movie with more questions than I went in with.  We both thought that Alicia Viksander was excellent in the movie.  

On the way home we stepped into a new bar/lounge along the way.  We each had a drink and ordered a little bit of food.  We had some sausages and some veggie sticks.  It was nice and I liked the place, F didn’t.  It was too white for him or something.  It closed as soon as we left!

We walked home and a little while after we arrived watched So You Think You Can Dance.  Tonight was the episode where the Japanese dancer was knocked out.  A bit sad, but since I’d read up on it on Wikipedia, I had the feeling it would be tonight.  

And that’s it.  It really was quite a jam-packed day.  Tomorrow, I have no idea what we’ll get up to.  Come on back in a bit and find out!  Until tomorrow….

June 17, 2016

Friday - Hot, sunny and rainy

A good day.

I overslept a tad too this morning.  Tsk, tsk.  I think my alarm isn’t working that well. I’m not sure what is going on with it in all honesty.  Or, I’m sleeping through it.  

I got up, watched Castle and had some oatmeal with coconut milk in it. Yum.  I didn’t take a nap this morning.  I did have a relaxing time of it though.  

F came home for lunch and I was watching last night’s Bones.  I enjoyed it quite a bit.  F tried to give me some food, but I didn’t want it.  

After he left, I turned off the TV after a while, scanned my cards and eventually had a late lunch.  I had thought about going out for it, but then remembered there was some food in the fridge, so I had that.  It was good.  I basically just had a couple of open faced sandwiches, but that was nice too.  

I walked to the post office and posted my cards.  I only sent three today, but that makes 11 for the week which isn’t bad at all.  I got a bunch in the mail today too, including a great Gotochi card from a person in Tokyo.  It was one I didn’t have too, so that was even better!

F came home and I started to put dinner on the table.  I made some quinoa to go with the stew and reheated the stew.  We had a nice dinner, but he was quite late when he got home, so that put everything else late.

F wanted to go for a walk, at least he asked me early tonight.  I was feeling quite a bit better today, except when I bend over, so said that I’d like to go out.  The weather is really changeable now that it is the rainy season and my weather app said we had a 40% chance of rain so I was a tad nervous, but… off we went.

We had a nice walk and on the home stretch took a little break at McDonalds.  I was good and only had an ice tea, F had a Flurry.  He did give me a taste, so I wasn’t that good! 

We came home again and settled in for the night.  F made himself some ramen and I had a cup of tea that was nice.  F is off sleeping now, and I should be running along soon too.  

Tomorrow will be quite busy early on I think.  F has a doctor’s appointment, he’s going to take me to see a doctor after he’s done if there is time and then in the afternoon I have a dentist’s appointment.  Ack! If all goes well, we’ll hopefully see a movie in the evening as The Danish Girl is playing in town.  

So, as usual, I invite you to come back later and find out what I get up to!  Until tomorrow….

June 16, 2016

Thursday - Cloudy with some rain

An okay day.

Okay, latest on my ears…ouch.  Well, half of that.  My left ear seems mostly back to normal, but my right is still quite painful.  I realized tonight that it seems to come and go and this might be a case when the weather does affect it if the pressure in my ears is changing.  Anyway…am still planning to see the doctor on Saturday if F will stop being a silly bugger and take me to the clinic I want to go to.

Woke up late today.  In fact, what woke me up  was the sound of the living room door closing as F went out.  He’d come back home to pick something up I think and saw me sleeping and left me.  Nice of him, but I wanted to be up then.  Sigh.  

I had tea and breakfast, the usual.  I had the feeling that F wasn’t coming home for lunch and he didn’t.  He had to drive to another city for work.  What I did was get to work on dinner.  Today I made my version of The Kitchn’s Curried Vegetable and Chickpea Stew, so I had to do all the veggie prep that goes along with that.  I got it all done and bubbling away by something after 2.  The apartment smelt gorgeous all afternoon.  Then, I had clean up, then lunch, then I had to scan my cards and even do more clean up after lunch.  Ack.  I did a late trip to the post office this afternoon, but I really was glad to get out of the apartment.  

F called me when I was on the way home and I asked him to get some spinach for the stew.  The little shop by the post office didn’t have any today.  The guy seemed quite surprised when I asked for spinach in Japanese…and I even understood his response.  Oh well.

At home I got prepared to finish up the stew by putting the coconut milk in and after F arrived, washing and preparing the spinach.  I threw it all in the slow cooker and then cooked the sausages and set the table.  I was busy.  

I put F’s stew out before mine because I knew it would take him ages to get to the table and I like my stew hot.  F had made bread overnight for us so we had stew, bread, sausages and salad.  It was nice.  I think I had let the stew cook a little too long, but then again, F was late tonight so, not all my fault.  

After dinner I put away the sauces and uneaten food and let F get on with the dishes.

That done, he wanted to go for a walk.  Just then my ear and my neck were quite painful and I didn’t really want to go.  What I wanted was some sympathy, but since I’m not allowed to be sick, I didn’t get any.  I did go out with F for a walk, but it was raining and for most of the walk he walked about 10 feet in front of me.  I wasn’t too impressed.  I finally got him to slow down a bit.  He offered to go to a convenience store, but I didn’t need it tonight.  

We came home and he had his bath and went to bed soon after.  I did a few postcrossings tonight too.  I got three done tonight, but a total of 11 this week.  Yay me.  I seem to be sending to a lot of Russian and German postcrossers this week.  I did get a Canadian one this week though, so that was nice.

And that’s about it for me.  Tomorrow I’m not sure what I’m going to get up to, but if you come back later I’ll tell you all about it!  Until tomorrow….

June 14, 2016

Tuesday - Rain showers, cooler

A goodish day.

The bad thing, let me get right to it, is that my ears are still bad.  In fact, I’d almost say they were worse.  Now if I bend over, the right one in particular is quite painful.  I’ve asked that we go to the doctor on the weekend if they aren’t better by then.  And of course, F being F keeps forgetting why which makes me quite annoyed to have to keep telling him!

In the morning I watched Castle, I was up early for a change, then took a nap.  I finally got moving and dressed, but not in workout gear.  I didn’t feel like it again.  F came home for lunch and brought me something that I’d like for lunch, soup.  He tried to give me an onigiri too, but as I told him, I planned to go out for lunch so didn’t want it.

I did some laundry in the afternoon and when it was finished and hung up, I went out.  I went to S-Mall.  It was very cloudy and overcast when I left home, and it started raining on me when I was close to the mall.  I parked my bike and went inside.  Safe.

I had lunch courtesy of Subway and then went over to Doutors for a cappuccino.  Yes, I am trying to bring coffee back into my life a little bit.  Only a little at a time though.  The cappuccino was great.  F called me while I was there, and was going to join me, but when he heard I had my bike with me begged off.   I picked up some salad stuff for dinner and then biked home.  It wasn’t raining anymore.

When I got home I started prepping the kitchen and the table for dinner.  I was mostly re-heating things, but had to wash the lettuce and the cucumber that I had bought.  F came home in the midst of things and wasn’t too annoying about coming for dinner.  

We had a nice dinner.  We had a couple of tacos each and then with the leftover broken shell, plus some tortilla chips made some taco salad.  Yum.  It was nice!  

What wasn’t so nice was that F was watching horrible Japanese TV with the volume up high.  With all the noises and braying hosts and such it was really hurting my ears.  A couple of times I asked F if he was really watching it and he said he was, but got a bit annoyed with me.  

He wanted to go for a walk after dinner, but didn’t do the dishes for ages.  Then he did do them.  I tried to change my clothes and I asked to borrow his thermometer to see if I had a fever.  My forehead felt hot.  I didn’t have a temperature at all.  

F threw a bit of a snit because I wasn’t ready and because I wanted to check my temperature and the next thing I knew, HE had thrown himself down on the bed and closed the bedroom door.  I was rather irritated because I had been telling him all damn day that I wasn’t feeling well, yet, he has a headache and decides not to go for a walk.  Okay.

I thought for a while and then decided that I wanted to go anyway.  I went in and suggested just going to the nearest 7-11 for an ice cream bar.  He said it was okay, so off we went.   We walked about a mile and a half all told, and it was okay.  I’m glad I went.   And, I had to pay for the ice cream, because F had forgotten his wallet again!  He paid me back later but honestly….

The evening at home was okay.  I wrote up 4 Postcrossing cards and watched a bit of TV with the volume quite low.  F took his bath and is now snoring on the couch.  

Tomorrow I don’t really have any plans yet.  I’ll have to scan and then send my cards, and maybe do a few other things.  I need to start doing a bit of research for my next column.  Ack…due the end of the month.  

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

June 13, 2016

Monday - Rainy, clearing and cooler at night.

A goodish day.

I woke up late this morning.  Of course I had stayed up much, much too late last night, but I watched most of Castle and did my tea and breakfast thing.  This morning I made oatmeal and it was lovely.  

I had a pretty good day.  I didn’t do a workout.  I was tired and couldn’t get motivated.  F came home for lunch which annoyed me for some unknown reason and then popped in again later on in the afternoon.  I really don’t like it when he does that.  I took a shower while he was here!

Later on I worked on my computer for some stuff and then got a handle on dinner.  Tonight was taco night.  I got the kitchen cleaned up and then got ready to cook.  When F came home, I was almost done my prep.  I cooked the meat and just before it was ready I put the taco shells in the toaster oven to warm up.  I asked him to keep an eye on them for me.  He didn’t.  I pulled them out before they were burned completely, but they all had a huge burn on the side of them.  Sigh.  I knew I was tempting fate, but thought he might at least give them a look now and then.

Anyway, we ate and the tacos were good.  I had made some overnight drained yogurt to use as sour cream, had some sharp cheddar cheese grated, had some salsa and some taco sauce ready for us and we had salad as well.  It was nice!  I think F had forgotten how nice tacos can be.  I hadn’t.

After dinner F did the dishes and then he asked me if I wanted to go out for a walk.  I did as it happened, since I was a bit of a couch potato today.  We went out just after 9 pm.  We ended up walking over 2 miles tonight!  That was actually a good thing.  

We came home and F watched some TV until he took his second bath of the night.  While he was gone I changed the channel and watched a documentary on the Queen.  

And that was about that.  I’m not feeling great today.  I think it is a combo of too much sun yesterday, plus my ears feeling really odd.  I’m not sure if it is a reaction to the air conditioning where we were yesterday or not, but my ears almost hurt.  The side of my neck and jaw hurts too, so I haven’t felt that genki today.  

Tomorrow I don’t have any plans yet.  It depends on the weather whether I make it out of the apartment during the day or not.  Come back later and find out if I do.  Until tomorrow….

June 12, 2016

Sunday - Hot, muggy and sunny

A good day.

I woke up late today, but still in the morning.  I came through and after a drink of water, said hello to my husband.  We relaxed for a while and then we had some quiche and salad.  

It was 2 pm when we headed over to the Kokusai Mura to go to the International Centre, and the World Bazaar was over at 3 pm.  Sigh.  We did manage to get some nice food, but once again our bad timing did us in.  There was nothing nice to drink that didn’t have a lot of sugar in it, so I didn’t have anything.  We did have some decent food though.  Well, I did.  I had something Indonesian…a vegetable thingy….but it was a bit like a takoyaki.  Good though.  F had some chicken noodle stuff that I thought was nice but it wasn’t ramen so he didn’t like it.  I got some pad thai and bought F some Tom Yang Kum soup…he liked it and I liked mine.  We finished off by having a kakigori each and a slight sunburn for me.  We looked at the sales stuff, but they were packing up when we walked by.  I saw an ex-student, but she was deep in conversation with someone and didn’t see me.  

We went to S-Mall and I bought us both drinks at Doutors.  Then, F needed his medicine, so I suggested that he go home and get it, while I stayed in the mall and shopped.  Yay!  I hacked the 100 yen shop and only bought one thing, and even that waited until F came back.  He got one thing too, so 200 yen and a little tax saw us out of there.  

We came home for a while and vegged.  F started to pester me about dinner, so I suggested Coco’s.  We ended up going there as I needed a drink bar!  F had wanted to go to a roadside diner, but they don’t have a drink bar and it’s not that great food wise either! 

We both had chicken at Coco’s.  I had mine with cheese sauce and veggies, he had his with garlic soy sauce and potato wedges.  We both added on drink bar and either rice or a bun.  It was quite nice, but we sat near an air conditioner vent.  It was a little freaky because we could see the cold air coming out of it.  It was a bit like that bit in Raiders of the Lost Ark when they open the Ark of the Covenant! Spooky.  And cold.

We bought a few groceries.  I’m going to make tacos tomorrow night.  I bought a taco kit that was on its way to expiring somewhere, it’s okay until July, but I’d rather use it as soon as I can.  Besides, I’m hoping to cook tomorrow night and not have to cook on Tuesday.  Hoping!  

Since we didn’t get home until after the Weekend Movie I wanted to see had started, I told F that I would go on a walk with him.  So, that’s what we did.  We went out for about an hour, walked over two miles which is quite cool when you think about it.  

We came home and I spent a bit of time on my computer looking for a good edging for the runner I posted about yesterday.  I have a couple of ideas bookmarked now.  

And that’s about it.  It was a pretty good day really.  My sunburn isn’t bad, I’m not red at all, my back feels a little…pained…but not really painful.  Tomorrow I hope to get out of the apartment if the weather co-operates…maybe go and have a tea somewhere.  Come back tomorrow and hear all about my trials and tribulations.  Until tomorrow….

June 11, 2016

Saturday - Hot and Sunny

A good day.

I got up earlyish this morning.  I came through to the living room and turned on the lights.  F was sitting in the dark again.  I watched Click and was watching something else when F wanted to talk about lunch.  He did have an idea today, and it was an interesting one.  He suggested going to a karaoke box and having lunch there.  The new one that I have a card for has a lunch and karaoke deal.  We went there and tried it.  The lunch wasn’t the best ever, but it was okay.  The karaoke was fun though.  I sang a lot and so did F.  We did a wide range of songs.  One of the most fun ones for me was doing Careless Whisper with George Michael.  They had his video on the screen so that I was singing with him.  Too cool!

After karaoke, F just wanted to come home, so I did.  He went off and visited his mother and checked that she was okay.  She was, so he came home again fairly quickly.

Around 6 pm I took a couple of pictures of my crochet runner.  I wanted to send them to my sister, since I’m doing it for her, but I don’t think she’ll mind if I share them with you!

It's long...about 116 cm and 15 cm wide.

This is before blocking...click to see it a bit closer...

We drove off to the mall and had dinner in a Japanese restaurant there.  It wasn’t very good. F had picked it, with my blessing, but neither of us really enjoyed the food.  After lunch, we went upstairs and I noticed a dvd sale so I had a look.  I ended up buying one dvd, Blow Dry.  I bought it for Alan Rickman, but it also has Josh Hartnett in it too, so I’ll enjoy it.  I’ve seen part of it once, at least I think I did.

We went to see Money Monster with George Clooney and Julia Roberts.  It was okay.  I wouldn’t say it was my favourite movie of the year, but it was nice to see something without comic book heroes or romance in it!

We hit up Don Quixote after the movie for a little shopping, mostly drinks for me for the ride home. Then, we came home and just vegged a bit.  We had a fairly quiet evening.  I did watch So You Think You Can Dance and enjoyed it a lot tonight.  Some of the routines were really good. 

Oh, one funny thing…we arrived at the mall tonight and F made a funny face.  He checked his pant pockets, but they were empty.  He had left his wallet at home.  That meant that I had to pay for tonight’s festivities.  However, F paid me back when we got home, so it wasn’t a bad thing!  

Tomorrow might be a bit different.  I’m hoping to go to the Kokusai Mura for the International Bazaar.  I just hope it isn’t too hot for me, or the food isn’t too weird or whatever.  I don’t want to be “gaijined” while I’m there.  

Come back in a bit and see how my day goes.  Until tomorrow….

June 10, 2016

Friday - Hot and Sunny

A good day.

I got up at my usual time this morning, a little before 9:00.  I had tea and breakfast too and watched the two Castle episodes that were on.  F came home in the middle of the second one.  I took a shower and we talked about going for lunch.

We went to the post office first so I could mail off some cards and buy new stamps.  After that, we went to Pisolino, the Italian buffet place.  It wasn’t very busy, so we got a nice corner of the restaurant and then proceeded to eat too much.  It was nice food for the most part, but really, neither of us needed as much as we had.  

We decided to come home after lunch.  F took a nap, I messed around on my computer for a while.  Around 6 pm he roused himself and then went off to his party.  

I almost took a nap, but didn’t.  I was on the bed for a while but I didn’t sleep, I did some reading.  Yay me.  I made my dinner and then decided that I’d watch a couple of episodes of Once Upon a Time off the DVR, and that’s what I did.  Dinner was mostly leftovers from a few night’s ago and was nice. Once Upon a Time was fun and I’m quite enjoying watching it like this.  I’m not exactly binge watching it, but I quite like seeing 3 episodes in a week.  

I watched the new-to-me Castle at 9:00pm and did a little computer stuff. At 10:00 I went over to the couch and did what I hope will be the last motif in the project I’ve been working on for my sister.  F came home in the middle of me doing that.  He’d had a good time out with his colleagues. 

I darned in all the remaining ends in my project.  Now I have to decide on an edging for it. Or block it first.  I’m not sure what would be best!

From reading through Facebook there is some sad news for hockey fans today as Gordie Howe has died.  I'm afraid I don't really follow hockey, I never did, but he was one of the best.  I tried to explain him to my husband by saying he was the Wayne Gretzky before Wayne Gretzky, but F had no idea who Wayne Gretzky was either. I only ever heard good things about Gordie Howe, so I just thought I'd mention his final leaving the ice.  

F and I spent a bit of time together before he decided to go to bed.  I reminded him that he might want to change out of his jeans and polo-shirt before he went to bed!  

That’s about it for today.  Tomorrow I’m not sure about the morning.  We’ll likely go to a movie in the evening and I hope do a little bit of shopping or something.  Come back later and see what I get up to.  Until tomorrow….