June 30, 2020

Tuesday - Cloudy, cooler and rainy

I woke up to an empty room this morning. I think I did hear F leave, but I didn’t wake up all the way. Yay.

I did my normal morning stuff, I watched the news, got dressed, went on my computer, I even sorted laundry so I could do a couple of loads of clothes. I did them while I had breakfast and caught up on my Facebook stuff.

I did take another nap this afternoon, I got tired and I didn’t have a lot that needed to be done then. It was fine.

I made a bottle of cold-brewed fruit tea downstairs and vowed to come back later and take out the tea bags.  I did a couple of hours later, even found a space for the bottle in the fridge. 

I worked on F’s mask for a few minutes tonight. I only did a little hemming, but it was okay. I also have to plan out how to make the channel for the elastic. I did cut the sides a bit longer, but I think I should really double the fabric there so I’ll have to see if I can cut a couple of pieces for support. 

I went downstairs to work on dinner around 5:30 or so. A lot of what I was serving was leftovers. There’s still oodles of pasta salad…yay because it is yummy. I used up the last of the bibinba mix and instead of using it as bibinba, I treated it more like a pilaf. I sautéed some mushrooms and put a flavour packet on them, they were nice. We also had sautéed pork. They were like pork chops but without bones. I wasn’t sure if it was okay for F, I hope so. I cut the chop up for his mother as she’s not great with forks and knives. Dinner was pretty good. I enjoyed it, I think everyone else did too. I did notice before I made dinner that K had had a visitor and had given them some of my tea! If she had asked me I probably wouldn't have minded too much, but I had specifically made it for our dinner! There are a few other drinks around so she really didn't have to "steal" mine!

I did the dishes. F was doing his usual thing about not feeling well. I get that he isn’t well, but dammit, why can’t the doctors find something to fix him with?

I told F earlier that I had to go out tonight but he was in bed when I went upstairs. I reminded him and then left him for a while. It was getting close to 10 pm when I asked him if we could finally go.

We did a couple of things when we went out. We went to the drugstore first where I got something and then hit up MaxValu. F wants to have fish tomorrow so I told him that he is in charge of cooking it. I’ll cook the other things, but I really, really don’t cook fish. He had a bit of a dizzy spell in the grocery store and we had to stay in one place for a while. We came out and came straight back to the house.

We put the groceries away and then came upstairs. I took a shower and have just been blogging since then. 

Not sure what I’m going to get up to tomorrow. I have to do a bit of writing for my women’s group and well, it is Canada Day after all! Hopefully, I can do something to celebrate! I hope. 

Come back later if you like and see how my Wednesday is. Until tomorrow….

June 29, 2020

Monday - Cloudy and a bit sunny at times.

I woke up this morning after F had left and had a very quiet morning. I watched the news from the bed and then had a hard time getting up and dressing. When I finished I took my temperature and then went downstairs to grab my breakfast.

After I ate I got really tired so I took a nap for a bit and then got up. I had planned to start making dinner early but realized that I’d likely run into K’s lunchtime if I did. I waited until later. It was a good call!

I went downstairs around 1 pm to start the pasta salad. The recipe said it would take about 10 minutes to prepare or something…Maybe if you had a kitchen elf to help out, but otherwise…it took me a couple of hours!  I cooked the pasta, cut up the veggies and the cheese and meat, and finally mixed it all together. I put it in the fridge to let it absorb all the yummy flavours!

I went back upstairs and watched the end of The Aftermath. It was a movie that I’d watched half of on either Thursday or Friday. It had Keira Knightley as the wife of a British officer in Germany after WWII. The movie itself was okay, there was a fair amount of sex and nudity and one of the male leads was rather good looking. It was okay. I liked Keira as always.

I went downstairs after 5:30 to get started on the rest of dinner. I prepared some broccoli so that it would have time to cool, marinated the chicken and got the kitchen ready for me to cook.  F called by mistake once and then a bit later called to say he was returning.

When F arrived, I got into gear and cooked everything.  We had lemon-pepper flavoured chicken, pasta salad, cold broccoli and miso soup. It was all quite good. The pasta salad was quite popular. F took seconds without me asking and gave his mother more too. 

Of course, I got gifted with all of the cleanup, but because I’d done most of my prep early, there wasn’t a ton of things to clean up. Hurray for small favours!

F went upstairs soon after dinner, I followed a little later. He was stuck on YouTube and the like, so really didn’t want to chat with me. I watched a movie on TV and then ended up turning the TV off. 

I hope to be able to work on the mask for F tomorrow and also to make something for dinner tomorrow night. Come back later if you like and find out what happens. Until tomorrow….

June 28, 2020

Sunday - Cloudy and a little rainy

I went to bed last night at an insane time so I didn’t even plan to get up early today. I did set alarms for myself around 10:30 am, so when my alarm went off, I did get up.  I planned to go back to sleep, but it never actually happened!

F had made some coffee for us, so we had that, and talked about what to do today. K had eaten breakfast and was good for a while, but F wanted to eat with me. We talked about different places and talked about budgets, but finally ended up asking about going to our favourite place in Mikawa, Bistrot des Pointes.  We didn’t know if it was open but decided to try and go.

We got there, they were open, so we went in and had a fabulous meal. I had roast duck and F had steak. I wasn’t sure that it was a good idea since he is trying not to have things like red meat, but it was his choice. We had dessert too…everything was lovely. We almost had the restaurant to ourselves!

After our meal I wondered what F would like to do so he suggested going to the mall. We didn’t have a real purpose, but it would be nice to look around. It was too busy for me! Most people were masked up, but it was hard to social distance when places were crowded.  I got some wrapping paper there and a postcard. 

We went to Don Quihote next. It was crowded a bit too. Usually, we go to the mall and DonQi later in the day so they just aren’t as crowded. We had a look around and bought a few things, but not very much. I got another face mask and some granola, a few things for the kitchen, and both F and I picked up some quick dry towels for hand drying. Nowadays, most places have shut off their hand dryers so we need something to dry our hands on. I have a couple already but needed a few more. We picked up a couple of drinks for the road back as well.

We came back to Tsuruoka and went to Gyomu Supa. My Women’s group had asked this week about favourite products so I wanted to look around for some things other people had recommended. I got a couple. I found the hummus, and we also got some more adult flavour freeze-pop things for when it gets really hot. They didn’t have any of the bread stuff I wanted but did have more cookies and tea.  F bought some tea for himself! I got cream powder too for my tea. 

We came back to the house and relaxed for a while. Neither of us was hungry since we’d had such a gorgeous and late meal. All of a sudden, F sat up straight and asked if we’d eaten dinner yet!  I told him, no, so we decided to go out again. Gusto was the place he chose out of my suggestions, so we took K out to get some dinner. With their new system of ordering by tablet, it was a bit fun, because F had to put it into Japanese for K to read, and then I had to put it into English for me to order things! We had an okay meal. We shared a plate of french fries and K did her usual double-dipping into the ketchup right away. Ack. We’re trying to train her away from doing that. 

After we finished, F drove us back to the house and saw K inside.  We still had to do a grocery shop. He drove us off to Mina, the nearest big grocery store and we picked up a few things for dinner for the next couple of days. I’m going to make a pasta salad tomorrow so I’m hoping it’ll last a couple of days, but with my hungry horde (AKA K) I’m not sure.  I bought some mini-tomatoes for it and F and I hid them on top of the fridge so that she wouldn’t find them! Last time I left them on the table and she had half of them eaten before dinner! I don’t eat them, so I thought it was funny but tomorrow they’re an ingredient!

And that’s about it. F and I just relaxed. I took a shower tonight and spent a lot of time on my computer. I do want to get to bed earlier than I did last night, so I plan to sign off this soon.  

Come back later if you will and find out how the pasta salad goes and if I have a good day. Until tomorrow….

June 27, 2020

Saturday - Warm and a bit muggy

I slept in quite late this morning. Tee hee.  I woke up at my usual time, used the ‘loo, and then came back and went to sleep again. I woke up next at 11 when my alarm went off. F was at work of course. I went downstairs again, then came upstairs and got dressed, plus made the bed. 

I had a fairly quiet rest of morning, and a decent early afternoon. I had lunch and I gave K the leftover pasta from last night. I thought she might like it. 

F called me close to 4 pm to say he was on his way to the house. When he arrived, we had a nice reunion, then I suggested getting something to drink. We did.

F and I went to Komeda Coffee for an hour and a half or so and had their cake set. I had iced tea with my chocolate cake, F had iced coffee with a caramel mont blanc.  I enjoyed my time there, but did want to leave earlier than F did!

We picked up some food for dinner from the grocery store. F wanted to make hiyashi chuuka and I had no objections. We picked up a few other things in the grocery store and then came back to the house. Before we left the store though, I asked F if he needed any more sauce for his noodle dish. He didn’t.

We get back to the house and F storms into high gear. I offered to help but was turned down. I did get an egg out of the fridge for him. (I know, big deal!) I went upstairs and had a veg with my computer.

F called me down and I went soon afterwards to have our cold noodles. The kitchen reeked. He’d added sauce to the egg that he fried and it probably burned. There was not nearly enough sauce for the noodles and they smelt horrible. After my first mouthful, I wanted to stop. It was turning my stomach. He’d also not put drinks out, so I had to do that. Bah. I asked about more sauce and he said there wasn’t any, but he found a small packet of some somewhere. I got most of it and it did improve the dish quite a lot. 

I ate the dish and it was okay, but honestly, F, try harder! If I served that to you, you’d be not pleasant about it. We had some ice cream from the freezer for dessert, which helped make things better :-)

 I helped a bit with the dishes, but stopped when he washed the pans. I thought they can just darn well air dry!

We came upstairs after dinner. F was watching the movie we’d been watching downstairs - Kong: Skull Island. Well, to be more specific, he’d put it on the TV for me, but he wasn’t watching it. I didn’t really want to watch it but…Tom Hiddleston…need I say more?

And that’s about it. We’ve been fairly quiet all night. F is almost asleep, he’s been YouTubing all night, I’ve done a lot of internet stuff too.

No idea what we’ll get up to on Sunday. I just hope that we have a good day! Come back later if you like and see what happens. Until tomorrow….

June 26, 2020

Friday - A bit muggy

I woke up this morning around 6 and had to make a trip downstairs. As a result, I slept through F’s leaving completely. I ended up snoozing through most of my alarms too. I got up, got dressed and had a little bit of a relaxing morning.

I watched the end of Sleepless in Seattle, which I started yesterday. I enjoyed it, but realized that I actually liked An Affair to Remember better! Cary Grant versus Tom Hanks, no contest. 

I also watched the last episode of The Walking Dead that I had on the DVR. It was a good one. I have to wait until next year until WOWOW puts on the next season. I do hope that the COVID-19 is under wraps then because I feel extra googly watching the show with our pandemic.

I started watching another film later in the day too. It was called Aftermath and was interesting. I haven’t finished it yet though.

F called to say he was coming back so I had to get downstairs and get on with cooking dinner. Tonight was a simple pasta and salad dinner, so it didn’t take too long. I had dinner on the table fairly soon after F arrived.

I did the dishes and cleared the table afterwards as F did a bunk again. I didn’t have a lot of stuff so I didn’t mind too much, but I did feel a bit abandoned. 

When I finished I went upstairs and there was F on the bed asleep. He’s basically been there all night. He’s slept for hours! He has to go to work tomorrow and drive to Yamagata City.  I hope he’ll be okay. It is supposed to be raining all day as well. 

I had a quiet evening tonight just watching videos on YouTube. I also did a bit of work on F’s mask tonight too. I took a shower around 11 pm and then came back upstairs. 

No idea what I’ll get up to tomorrow. As I said, F will be away for part of the day, so I’ll be stuck here again.  

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

June 25, 2020

Thursday - Muggy and warm, rainy at night

Today was okay, not a big day or anything. I woke up on time, watched the news and then actually got off the bed and didn’t take a nap. I did some laundry today, actually 3 loads. Two were small though!

I watched a bit of telly off the DVD player and enjoyed myself. I kept things quiet today really.  In the afternoon I put on Sleepless in Seattle and watched that. I haven’t finished it yet, but I enjoyed seeing it again. There’s more to the film than I remembered there was.

I went downstairs a bit after 5 pm to get started on dinner. I defrosted the ajillo which we’d bought a couple of days earlier and did some prep for some other vegetables.  When F arrived a bit earlier I got things started. He’d brought some bread for us, so I got it cut up and put out on the table.  Tonight, I had everything ready to go and F was nowhere to be seen. I shouted for him a couple of times but there was no answer. I finally ran upstairs and found him fast asleep on the bed. He didn’t even wake at first when I touched his foot. He was out.  He did get up and came downstairs after me.  

Dinner was pretty good. We had the supermarket’s shrimp ajillo which I’d added garlic to, plus some smoked oysters that I’d heated in the toaster oven. There were anchovy potatoes and baked asparagus too. Everything disappeared tonight, there were no leftovers!

F did the dishes tonight but in a way, he was so tired that I wished he hadn’t!  He was talking about going to the onsen, so I tried to send him off. He wouldn’t go. 

When we got upstairs, I reminded him that we needed to go out but he said he couldn’t yet. He was so tired and achy, the poor thing.  He had a bit of a rest and then we went to the grocery store. 

I didn’t get a lot, but I did pick up some stuff for dinner tomorrow night and for my lunch tomorrow and possibly on Saturday if F has to work. 

We came back to the house and I unpacked the groceries and then we came upstairs. F went to sleep fairly soon after. In fact, I tried to wake him so he could get into his pyjamas! 

And that’s about it for me. It was a very quiet evening. Tomorrow I have a lot of things I’d like to do, but I’m not sure if I’ll get around to them. Come back later if you like and see what happens. Until tomorrow….

June 24, 2020

Wednesday - Hot and sunny, cooler at night

It was a jam-packed, busy little day today, let me tell you! Lots of interesting stuff happened, so keep on reading!

I got up at my usual time this morning and watched the news. I took a mini-nap and made myself get up off the bed early.  I got dressed for going out and then went downstairs to leave. I was going to say goodbye to K and to tell her where I was going, but she wasn’t around. Oh, dear.  I just left.  I had left the house a minute or two later than I wanted to leave, so I had to hotfoot it to the bus stop. I very nearly didn’t make it! There was a bus that went by when I was nearing the stop, luckily, my bus was right behind it. I waved to the driver to let him know I was coming and then ran to get to the bus. Whew! Safe.

I had a little conversation in a mixture of English and Japanese with a lady who sat behind me about my mask. That was sort of nice, but I’m not sure why she sat behind me. Not Social Distancing!

I got off the bus at Mikawa Mall and grabbed a quick brunch at McDonald's. I wasn’t really planning on having it, but I noticed they were having a “Canada Burger” on right now. Besides being made of beef, I’m not really sure why it was a Canada burger. Maybe the bacon? It wasn’t back bacon though. Anyway, it was meh. 

Next up, I walked back through the mall and went to the cinema. I went to see Casablanca. Sigh. It was wonderful to see it on the big screen. There were a few people in the audience, not a lot, but more than I expected. Casablanca is such a well-made movie, well-acted too. Ingrid Bergman was luminous. I know everyone says that, but in this case, everyone was right!

After the movie, I did a little shopping. I got a laundry net that I’m going to use for washing my handmade masks. It’ll keep them together in one place if nothing else. I also bought some more double gauze for lining masks and I found a really pretty little floral patterned material that I thought might make a nice mask or two for me or…?

I looked at the ladies clothing department but didn’t buy anything. There were a few things that looked interesting, but to be honest, I’m not sure if there are any new procedures due to the Corona Virus and I didn’t want to cause any problems. 

I decided to have a break and went to Baskin Robbins and had a bit of ice cream.  I tried a new to me flavour, Suica-Summer or Watermelon Summer. It was okay. The watermelon seeds were little balls of chocolate which was neat. The first mouthful or so tasted a quite fake watermelon, then I didn’t seem to notice anymore. I paired that with some Jamoca Almond Fudge and loved that! 

I did a bit more window shopping and ended up back in the Aeon store as I was going to suggest that F meet me there. Around 5:20 he phoned me and I told him where I was. 

I kept an eye out for him, but admittedly was distracted and went to look at bedding. I’m trying to find a new queen-sized fitted sheet for our bed. They don’t seem to have one. A few minutes later F called me to see where I was. He’d gone upstairs looking for me. I’m not sure why! He called me and I said I was downstairs. He got on the escalator and then when he arrived my floor headed in the wrong direction. I was still on the phone with him so I told him to turn around!

We had a couple of cafe-au-laits at Mr Donut, and a doughnut each. It was nice. I think F needed a little bit of relaxation after work. 

We went to the grocery store and bought us some bentos for dinner. F and I had a grilled chicken one each and we got a tonkatsu one for K. 

We drove back to Tsuruoka. F had said that he needed to buy gas, but didn’t at the mall. I didn’t know that the “buy gas” indicator light was on and had been for a while. I was worried about having to push the car back to Tsuruoka, but F just laughed. We did make it to the gas station, but I really wish he wouldn’t cut it that close. I always try to remind him that this is an earthquake country and when there’s an earthquake there are always gasoline shortages. 

We went back to the house and I set the table for dinner and heated up the food too. F got his mother up and we had a nice and jolly little dinner. I brought out quite a bit of food from the fridge and so we had a decent and not just bento dinner.

Miracle of miracles, F washed the dishes tonight, so we were done quickly. I came upstairs and then he did. He’s not able to eat after 8 pm or so tonight as he has a medical check tomorrow. 

I relaxed and watched the news, then Project Runway. I did a little bit of work on the mask that I’m making F. I just put a hem on the facings, but it is a start. 

F took his shower during the last bit of Project Runway, and then I got sorted to do the garbage up for the night. I took it all downstairs with my stuff for the shower. I did the kitchen garbage and cleared the drain catcher, the usual stuff. I took the two bags of garbage and took them to the genkan for F to take out in the morning. 

On the way back to the kitchen to turn off the light, I noticed something odd on the living room door. It’s a glass door with frosted glass so you can see things on the door. There was something that looked like a gecko. I phoned F to come down and take a look. I told him that there was a thing in the living room that was either a gecko or something lizard-y! He came down and went hunting.  He managed to catch it and he took it outside where it went running off. Whew!  

(Photos courtesy of F who said I could post them.)

I’m not actually sure how or why it got in the house, I’ve never seen one here before and I thought it was too cold in winter for them to stick around here. F thinks that it might have come in with some flowers that K was given. I have no idea. 

I took my thankfully uneventful shower and then came upstairs. F has gone to bed. He’s tired. I’m tired too, but a bit wired from the coffee I had earlier.

So that’s about it for my day. It was a good one, but I think I need a day off to recover from my day out! 

Come back later if you like and see what happens on Thursday. Until tomorrow….

June 23, 2020

Tuesday - Hot and Sunny

I woke up in a bit of a surprise this morning. I didn’t think it was morning yet! I went downstairs, came back and watched the news, same old thing. Then, I took a quick nap. Unfortunately, I overslept and it was after 10 when I woke up. I haven’t done that in a while!

I got dressed and it is a good thing because a few minutes later K summoned me downstairs by bellowing for me at the foot of the stairs. I thought there was mail, so came down. It wasn’t mail, it was F’s uncle visiting. I’m not sure why I had to make an appearance. K wanted me to sit with them, but considering I had no idea what either of them was saying I wasn’t going to do that. I just went back upstairs. 

I went down soon after and started working on dinner! I steamed a couple of chicken breasts which took longer than the recipe I looked up said it would. I think they were bigger to be fair. I got them cooked, cleaned up the kitchen and then went back upstairs. I also had washed the new fabric I had bought so brought that upstairs to dry. 

A bit later K called me down again. What now?! She was doing some sewing and couldn’t see to thread her needle. I guess she lost the easy to thread needles that we bought her a couple of years ago. I turned on the light in the living room and threaded her needle for her. I’m not too mean all the time.  I bet she turned off the light as soon as I left the room! It was black thread and she was sewing something black I think, so I hope she had enough light.

I had a decent afternoon. I watched Green Lantern today, the film with Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively. It was okay. He wasn’t as good as Green Lantern as he is as Deadpool. His sense of humour comes out so much better as Deadpool, even if it is much more raunchy a character!

I also got a start on F’s mask. I ironed all the fabric, placed the pattern pieces and even cut them out. Woot. I made all the markings too. I hope to get started sewing it soonish.

I watched the news and then went downstairs around 5:30. I made some chicken salad, cut some buns open, put a few other things out and eventually got dinner on the table for K and me. She was surprised it was just us, but F was doing a driving assignment to Yamagata today, so I knew he’d be late. We ate and had a good meal.

I took everything to the kitchen and started clearing up.  I did all the dishes and was just finishing up when F called to say he was on his way! 

I gave him some of the food and he ate a little bit, but not a huge amount. His stomach was acting up again. He left and I got to do even more dishes. Sigh. 

I went upstairs when I finished and I watched a bit of TV tonight. F took a shower and then went to bed. He isn’t sleeping much though.

I’ve made a cunning plan for myself though. I’m thinking about going to Mikawa tomorrow. I’d really like to see Casablanca. They have it playing at the cinema but it ends on Thursday. F didn’t want to go and see it on the weekend, so this may be my last chance to see it on the big screen. I’ll have to leave the house before 10:30 tomorrow so I’ll need to get my skates on in the morning!  Wish me luck with that.

So, that’s about it for today. I’ll leave some of the leftover chicken salad for K’s lunch, she should like that I think. Come back later and see what I get up to on Wednesday. Until tomorrow….

Ahhhh!

Mission achieved!

June 22, 2020

Monday - Hot but a bit muggy

I woke up fairly early this morning, even though I didn’t get a lot of sleep. I went to bed so late last night that it was ridiculous. When I got up, one of the first things I did was ask F to call the doctor’s office. We had appointments for next Saturday, but F may be on-call then, so we needed to change them. They offered him a few times that we could come and he chose 11:30. That was fine, I could have a nice long relaxing morning.

I went downstairs and had breakfast and then came back upstairs. I made myself some tea and was enjoying it when F asked if I was ready to go. It was only 10:40.  I asked him what he meant, wasn’t our appointment at 11:30?  F insisted that it was 11:00 and that’s what he told me earlier. Nope. It wasn’t!

However, I didn’t want to argue with him, so I covered my tea for later, grabbed my stuff and left with him.  We got to the doctor’s office and surprise, surprise…it was supposed to be 11:30. I didn’t rub it in too much. However, we were there until 1pm I think. Ack. We picked up our medicine afterwards and decided what to do for lunch.  

I suggested Hyakkenbori and F was okay with that. We took K a bento and then went to our restaurant. It wasn’t empty, but it wasn’t busy. They have recently changed their menu so actually, F was happy there today. I was too, but my meal was a bit more expensive than I had hoped. It was good though! F had pickled fish and I had roast beef. 

After lunch, we went back to the house for a while. F was taking his mother to the doctor today too, so he went off around 3 with her and I had the house to myself.  I relaxed and enjoyed myself for a bit. 

F came back with K after 4 and wanted to go out right away. I asked him to wait until 4:30 when the  US news ended and he said it was okay. We left right around that time.

We first made a trip to the craft shop and then to the drug store next door. I finally got my caffeine-free diet cola. Yay! (And I hid it in the top of the fridge!) We talked about doing something else and ended up going to S-Mall and having ice-cream at Baskin Robbins. I tried two new flavours, ruby chocolate and super choco mint. The ruby chocolate was okay, the super choco mint was a little medicinal. F had burgundy cherry and the Japanese bean flavoured one that I always forget. It sounds like Diagon Alley or something. 

We discussed what to do for dinner and I suggested waiting for a while and then going to the restaurant in Kushibiki. We decided to take K along with us too. We drove back to the house, picked up K and then went out to Kushibiki.  We had a good meal. F had cold ramen, his mother had a huge hot ramen, and I had mabo-dofu on rice. It was good, but a tad spicy! 

We came back to the house, dropped off K and then went grocery shopping. I got a couple of chicken breasts to steam tomorrow. I’m going to make chicken salad for sandwiches I think.  I hope it goes well! We got some nice buns which I hid away tonight. 

And that was about it for my day. This has been a pretty darn good weekend. F is back to work tomorrow and has to go to Yamagata city. He’ll probably be back late. 

On my schedule for Tuesday is steaming two chicken breasts and maybe starting a new mask, this one is for F. I’m a bit trepidatious about that. He’s quite fussy at times. Still, I like the one I made myself, even though it isn’t perfect, so I hope he likes this one. It won’t be the first one, so I hope it’ll have fewer mistakes than the first. It may have different mistakes!

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

June 21, 2020

Sunday - Hot and Sunny

I went to bed so very, terribly late last night that I didn’t even bother to set my alarm clock. F got up and made a lot of noise and that did wake me up a bit. I made a trip downstairs and then came back to bed and slept a bit longer. F came back upstairs and invited me to go for lunch to a new place. I didn’t really regain consciousness until later but I did try!

We did go out around 12 and drove to the restaurant in Haguro town. It was down a country road, and then a narrow dirt road. I was beginning to wonder where we were going! Finally, we arrived and F parked the car. We had a disagreement about which direction to go but worked it out (I was right!). We went to Oven and it was quite nice. It was fairly simple Japanese food. F had fish, I had chicken cutlet. It was nice, but perhaps slightly overdone? Anyway, it was nice to be in a new place. This was light and airy and had a lot of art around the room. 

There was an art gallery in the same area and we went there after lunch. I wouldn’t say the art was terrific or anything, but it was okay. There were quite a lot of collections of tchotchkes that were interesting. We did have a good time looking at the stuff.

F wanted to know what to do next and suggested the Aquarium. I was okay with that. I checked my card and discovered that today was the day it expired! We got to the aquarium, it was a little busy. When we went in, we were gifted some extra time on our memberships because of the closure for our not so favourite virus. Very nice of them really. We had a nice walk-through. The museum was marked off in 2-meter blocks, but some of the younger people were just ignoring the tape and getting too close. Yes, they were wearing masks, but they were being rude!

We left the aquarium around 4:45 or so and drove back to Tsuruoka. F wanted to know what to do next, so I suggested getting a bento for his mother and then going to the mall. I had asked him last night to take me shopping. I needed to get something for my niece. Her birthday is coming up soon and I don’t know how long the mail will take (or if I can mail it, to be honest.)

We did what I suggested. We got K a nice bento and the good bento shop, delivered it and then got back in the car and drove out to the mall. We parked near the cinema end and walked down the mall and went to the clothing area.  We had quite good luck tonight and ended up getting a couple of nice things. F was very helpful for a change and found two of the things so I was pleased. We paid and then went to the hundred yen shop. I bought a little more fabric there and even got F to pick out one. I’m going to try and make him a mask! I’ll have to get another colour of thread though. I don’t want to make it with white or black, the material is brown.

We had dinner in the pasta restaurant. I’ve now had pasta for dinner for the last three nights. I’m not complaining really…oh, Saturday was for a late lunch so maybe okay? Snort. At least I had a different kind tonight. I had cold carbonara. I really liked it. F had mentaiko and didn’t like his. He was complaining about the cost, but honestly, it wasn’t that bad. Both dishes were under a thousand yen and I had a full stamp card to take off an additional 500 yen. Poor me though, I had to use my card for him, instead of for myself. 

We went upstairs after dinner and bought our tickets for the movie. Although I had plumped for Casablanca, F chose Guardians of the Galaxy. It was my second choice so I wasn’t too disappointed!

We had a great time at the film, we were the only people in the cinema! I think F enjoyed seeing it again, I know that I did. 

After the movie, we came back to Tsuruoka. We stopped in a convenience store on the way back. I haven’t been able to replace my caffeine-free diet cola yet and I’m a tad ticked off! I guess I’ll have to go to the drugstore to get it, although the one we tried yesterday didn’t have it.

And that’s it for the day. Tomorrow it might be Doctor day. We’re going to try and go tomorrow since F might be working on our regular day. F is also thinking about taking his mother to her doctor as well. We’ll see how it goes. 

Come back later if you like and find out how our day goes. Until tomorrow….

June 20, 2020

Saturday - Sunny, rainy and cloudy

Today was a surprisingly good day. There was a bit of a spat in the middle, but it all blew over and we had a good time anyway.

I woke up when my alarm went off at 10 am and went downstairs. F had just come back from his doctor and was feeling a bit better. I suggested that I bake the buns that I forgot to bake yesterday. F had made some coffee, so the three of us got together at the kotatsu and had baked buns with jams or cream cheese or butter and coffee. It was very nice actually. 

Over our breakfast, F suggested going to Akita to see the falls that I had wanted to see this weekend. I was surprised and a little worried. It was extremely sunny and I haven’t had much sun exposure these days. I did go upstairs and started getting ready. I found my new sunscreen, opened it up and put some on. 

At the car, F and I had a little spat. I told him I was worried about the sun and he said we shouldn’t go then we did…the usual silliness. We drove north using the highway and were near Mt. Chokai quite quickly. We took a break and had ice cream. We had dadacha-mixed cones. Nice, but we didn’t get a big hit of the dadacha-mame (the local edamame).

A few minutes later, we made it to the parking lot near the waterfalls. We parked and then walked off towards the falls.  It was a nice walk. A lot of it was under the trees and along a stream, so it was cool and the sun wasn’t very strong there. It was quite cloudy now anyway. 

The falls weren’t huge, but they were pretty, and the walk to get to them wasn’t overly strenuous. I made it without any difficulty so that was good. We saw a very cool bug along the way. It was big and looked like a ladybird, but instead of dots, it had a sort of design on its back. 

As always, please click on the photos to see them bigger...

By the time we got to the falls and then back, it was getting close to 3:30 or so. We walked back to the car. I saw a couple of signs just up the road. Neither of us could read the signs from our distance, so F suggested driving the car up to see the signs. I said it was okay. 

We tried driving the car, but the signs weren’t for anything important, so F decided to turn the car around. Unfortunately, he didn’t notice that the place he tried to turn had a big stump in the middle and the car got stuck on it. I was just in the midst of telling him to be careful when we stopped moving! F checked it out, but we were quite stuck. I ended up getting out of the car and then pushing a little and that was enough to get us unstuck. Whew. I don’t think the car was damaged, we checked a couple of times.

We drove to the nearest roadside stop. This place was redone a couple of years ago and they have a lovely food court with all kinds of food on offer. It’s great when you are going out with picky people like F!  Sadly, the place I really wanted to go was out of hamburgers (they have good ones) so I ended up at the pasta place. It was good, so I didn’t mind. F got ramen which he didn’t like!  

We walked around after our late lunch and did a little window shopping. We came back and then around 5 decided to drive back to Tsuruoka. I fell asleep in the car, so poor F had to do it alone!

We stopped in at a grocery store to get K some food for her dinner and then went back to the house. F and I came upstairs for a bit. Neither of us was hungry right away.

We went out around 8:30 for dinner. We tried one place but it was full, so we decided to go for sushi to Kula. It was okay. They had sold out of a few things, but we managed to have an okay meal. 

We just came back to the house afterwards and relaxed. I took a shower and then I’ve been on my computer ever since.

I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. We might go to a movie and I’ve asked if I can go shopping for my niece’s birthday present. I’m not quite sure if I can send her something as no one knows if the mail is working properly yet. 

Come back later if you like and see what happens. Until tomorrow….

June 19, 2020

Friday - Warm and sunny

I woke up early this morning and got up. I stayed awake too.  I was surprised about that! 

I did a load of laundry later and hung it up in the room. Around noon, I went downstairs and gave K half of yesterday’s leftovers. I think she liked them!

I went back upstairs and watched a movie, Lizzie. It was about Lizzie Borden and was kind of interesting. It was more of a moody atmospheric movie than anything else. I didn’t hate it but the reviews I read weren’t great.

I also finished my mask tonight too. It looks pretty good I think. I didn’t take a picture of it yet, but maybe tomorrow if I remember!

I went downstairs after 5 to make dinner. While I was doing that, F called and said that he would be late. I asked him if I should hold dinner, but he said to go ahead and not make him any. Okay then. I was going to make pasta with a new, expensive sauce, but I decided to make an older cheaper one for K and I.  It was a good choice!

K and I had a nice dinner. I did the clean up afterwards, but it wasn’t too much as I tried not to use a lot of dishes! F showed up right at the end and was very tired and seemed a bit out of sorts too. He stormed off while I was talking to him. 

I went upstairs finally and F was on the bed, trying to sleep and watch YouTube. He decided to go downstairs and I told him that I was finished and I was going to join a Zoom Meeting with some ladies from my area. 

I was on my computer for hours!  We chatted for more than two hours, but it was really fun. I don’t get a lot of chat these days, so I was quite tired when it was all over.  

F fell asleep. I’ve tried to wake him up so that he could change out of his jeans, but he didn’t.  I hope he’ll be okay tomorrow.

Well, that’s about it for my day. It’s really late, but I’m watching YouTube so who knows when I’ll go to bed! Ha!

Come back later if you like and see what happens on Saturday. Until tomorrow….

June 18, 2020

Thursday - Sunny and warm, a little muggy

I woke up in surprise when my alarm went off this morning. I didn’t think it was morning already!

I got up, did some of my usual stuff, but went on my computer quickly as I had to do a bit of posting on the group I moderate. After that, I went back to bed to watch the news.

I had an okay but quiet morning today. I had breakfast, I didn’t see K for most of the day. I couldn’t really get myself motivated to do anything for a while, so I watched YouTube and caught up with my computer groups and such.

I brought up my lunch and then I put on a movie I’d recorded, Skyscraper. It was a bit of a DieHard wannabe, but to be honest, I enjoyed it. I like Dwayne Johnson, he does have presence. It was undemanding, which was what I wanted. While I was watching that, I did a bit of work on the mask I’m making. It’s close to being done, but I have a couple things to do yet.  

I went downstairs to start dinner around 5:30 when F called to say he was on the way. I was making something due to expire today, so it was about time I think!  When F came back I got him to go over the method with me. It was fine and I understood what to do. I told him dinner would probably be in 20 to 30 minutes so he disappeared. 

I got things nearly ready. I was putting things on the table and trying to get early things done early. I finally gave a yell to F and asked him if he’d come and help me. I wanted him to make the miso soup. We usually use instant. It’s dead easy, but I didn’t have hands free for it. I’d boiled the water for it, I needed the packets put in the bowls. Which were on the table waiting for him. Next thing I look over and he’s cutting up a negi to put in the soup. I didn’t need that right then. I know he likes it but I don’t. I needed him to HELP ME! 

I put the bibinba rice in our dishes, took the fried eggs out of the fry pan. F did help by carrying two of the dishes to the table, plus the soup so that was good. He tried to start washing dishes, but I asked him not to as there was something I needed in the drainer and I didn’t want to move it just then.

I went out to the table in the living room with my dish of rice and sat down. Then I realized there was no drink on the table. F told me to relax about it. I told him that I couldn’t relax. It’s the truth. He might not have needed the tea, but I did. He certainly didn’t bother getting up to get the glasses out for me. I did it, poured the drinks too for everyone.  I was upset with him for telling me to relax. How the heck can I? I’m constantly expecting him to get into one of his moods. He usually does.

Despite my worries, dinner was pretty good. There’s some leftover for lunch tomorrow (I didn’t put it out so it didn’t get eaten!) However, I got gifted with all of the clean-up again. How nice for me. It took quite a while as I had used quite a few dishes today. It got done while I listened to a couple of podcasts.

I went upstairs when I was done. I was a bit angry when I came upstairs so I couldn’t talk to him at first, not that it would have been welcome anyway. I tried to chill and then went over to talk. I asked if we could go out to get some food for dinner tomorrow. He said it was okay, so off we went.

I picked up a few things at the grocery store and then he asked about ice cream.  I said it was okay, but maybe we should get it at the convenience store on the way back to the house. The grocery store didn’t have any caffeine-free diet cola that I liked. I was trying to replace the bottle that his mother drank from the fridge. In her opinion, it is a free-for-all in the fridge. She drinks/opens/eats anything that she can reach or find. 

On the way back I asked F which convenience store he wanted to go to and he went off on me about how bitchy I am when I cook. I told him that it was because I didn’t get any help. It’s true. His mother sits in the living room and waits to be fed, he’s upstairs watching YouTube videos.  Anyway, he went back to the house a different way than when we came to the grocery store, so there were only 3 convenience stores and 2 of them were the ones I don’t like. We went to the closest to the house and of course, it was the company that I hate. And they didn’t have my drink. I got an ice-cream, so did F, and we came back to the house.

We ate our ice cream fairly soon after, then I took a shower. F took one a bit later too. 

Tomorrow I’m hoping to finish my mask. I really just have to do some pressing, edging and then cutting the elastic for it. I also will have to cook dinner again. I’m not excited about that!

Come back later if you like and hear me whine some more! (Or hopefully not whine….) Until tomorrow….

June 17, 2020

Wednesday - Gorgeous and Sunny

I woke up around 6 am this morning because I was too cold. Oh no! F was covered in his quilt, but mine was put away already. I grabbed a blanket and used that. I was able to get back to sleep eventually, but F was making all sorts of sighing noises which means he was probably awake and couldn’t sleep. Oh, dear.

I woke up quite late, but no matter really. I got up and watched the news, then had a bit of a relax. I really wasn’t feeling the morning. Despite the gorgeous sun outside, it was a bit cool in the bedroom.

I finally got up and then went downstairs and grabbed my breakfast. I finished up one of my cereals this morning. Sigh.  I came back upstairs to eat and watch a bit of TV. Around noon I got really sleepy so I took a nap. It went a bit longer than I meant it too, but no worries.

When I went downstairs for my lunch I offered half of the leftover Gapao rice to K. She accepted, but then decided not to have any. Oh well. I had a nice lunch and it made a nice change from what I usually have.

I watched a couple of TV shows off the DVR and settled in for the news. When it was over, I decided to go downstairs and start dinner. I had a lot of food planned for tonight. However, when I got to the kitchen, K was there. She was cooking something. I couldn’t even wash my dishes as she kept getting in my way. I decided to surrender the kitchen to her!

I went back upstairs, talked to F when he called, and then came back down to get started. K had cooked some green beans and even put them on a fancy plate. Woot. I guessed they were for dinner. It was nice of her really.

I got started on dinner. Tonight I served the rest of last night’s salad, plus some toaster-oven-baked chicken, and an eggplant-mushroom-onion stir-fry. It was very nice! I prepared rice and miso soup for everyone…I skipped the rice as I’d already had some at lunch. K and I had chawanmushi, but F didn’t eat his as he became unwell during dinner. Sigh. I didn’t really see him again. 

After dinner, I cleared the table and washed and dried all the dishes. I listened to a couple of podcasts which was good. The news one helps keep me up on Canadian news which is a good thing.

I came upstairs after I finished. F was in bed, but not sleeping. He was watching YouTube of course. I did ask him how he was but sadly the answer is always the same, not good. 

At 9:00pm I watched Project Runway and then went downstairs to take care of the burnable garbage. I was planning to make myself some popcorn afterwards, but big surprise! F came down too to make himself some noodles. So, he didn’t eat enough at dinner and needs instant crap noodles. Nice. 

At 11:00 pm I put on Grey’s Anatomy and watched that. It was quite good tonight. They had some of the patients that Meredith had treated over the years on, and they also name-checked a bunch of the former hospital staff.  It was nice for me as a long time watcher to hear they hadn’t forgotten about some of the interesting characters over the years. 

And that was nearly it. I did spend a bit of time with F trying to make plans for our weekend. We should finally be able to leave the prefecture after Friday, so I suggested going into Akita and going to a famous waterfall if the weather is okay. F isn’t too sure but might be interested. There’s a nice roadside stop near there with lots of restaurants that might be fun to have lunch or dinner at. We’ll see how it goes. I also told him that I’m thinking of going off to another prefecture in a month or two, the virus willing, to have a few days away. For the last few summers, I’ve gone off to have a little vay-cay around this time of year. Since things with F can be pretty full-on at times and he doesn’t like to leave his mother for more than a night or two, I figure I can go and enjoy myself. Now, obviously, if we get a second surge of COVID 19 or if something else happens I wouldn’t go, but honestly, I need a break. I also think both F and K need to miss me a little!  We’ll see what happens with that.

So, that’s about it for my day. I didn’t do any Postcrossing, but I did work on my mask a little bit during Project Runway. While the designers were sewing, I felt I should sew too! Yay me. This newer design is taking a long time to make. Boo!

Come back by and by if you will, and see what happens on Thursday. Until tomorrow….

June 16, 2020

Tuesday - Rainy and wonderfully cool!

I woke up before my alarms this morning so I had to go downstairs. When I came back upstairs I watched the news from the DVR and then tried to watch a few things from YouTube. I’m watching too much YouTube these days. Boo!

I did a couple of loads of laundry today. I needed my new shorts to get washed as I was leaving black fuzz everywhere! I bought them last year at an end-of-summer sale. 

I watched Jumper this afternoon too. I had recorded it a few days ago. It wasn’t a great film. I remember liking it when I first saw it, but it wasn’t very good now! I worked on my mask again. I got the top of the front and lining joined. I did make a mistake along the way and I had to unpick some of what I had already sewn. That was sad. I decided not to do the other side today as I needed to go downstairs soon.

I went downstairs to start preparing dinner. I cut up some veggies, got the eggs out to warm up and just generally got things ready. F came back just before I was ready to cook. He seemed okay, not as cheerful as he’d been on the phone, but okay.

I was just starting to cook when he stumbled back through the room, said he felt dizzy and wouldn’t eat anything and went upstairs. Sigh.

I’d already opened a packet of rice for him and broke an egg into a cup to fry, so I really couldn’t do too much. I wrapped up the rice and put it in the fridge, and fried the egg when I did the other stuff. Tonight K and I had Gapao Rice and it was very nice. The eggs were very close to perfect…in fact, when I broke into mine on top of the dish, it was still a little oozy. Yay. 

K and I enjoyed our salad and the gapao rice. We drank some oolong tea and watched a really dumb TV show. F just changes the channel on her, I wouldn’t have the nerve but missed watching Japanese news in English.

After we finished eating, I cleaned off the table and then did all the dishes. It took a while, but I listened to a couple of podcasts, so at least I got a bit of enjoyment out of it. 

I went back upstairs when I was finished and tried to give F a cuddle, but he basically asked me to stop as the weight of my arm on his chest was uncomfortable. I left him to his YouTube. I went to my computer and reminded him that we needed to go out. He said he would go immediately, but I asked for a few minutes as I’d been busy for the last couple of hours and needed a break.

When I was feeling a little rested I changed some of my clothes and we went out. We went to the grocery store and I picked up some food for the next couple of days. 

We also bought some kerosene at the gas station. We aren’t using it in our heaters at the moment, but we need it for the water heater. It runs on kerosene at the house.

When we came back, I unpacked the groceries and F dealt with the fuel. Then I went upstairs and got ready to take my shower.  

I had a shower and then came back upstairs. F looks like he is sleeping, but I’m not sure. 

Tomorrow I’m going to do chicken for dinner again, but I’m not exactly sure what with! I think I’ll do a stir-fry with eggplants and mushrooms and maybe onions…or I won’t! Come back later if you like and see what happens. Until tomorrow….