April 29, 2017

Saturday - Rainy and cool

A good day.

We slept in a little this morning.  It was a weird fact that I actually woke up at the usual time for me these days.  So weird.  I am not a morning person however.  I fell back asleep soon after.  

I did get up before 10 am.  F took his mother out to an onsen and I went downstairs with my computer to try to work out the internet problems.  The big news is that I managed to get the internet up and running.  It isn’t perfect yet.  I have the feeling that I have to take something offline and start again.  I can access the internet on my computer, but not on my cellphone.  That isn’t good! Still, now that I have some internet, I can hopefully check out the problems and see if I can fix this for the better.

When F came back, I was still trying to catch up on all the stuff I needed.  I didn’t quite manage but it was okay.  F & I went out for lunch to the Grand El Sun which was lovely.  Then, we headed to the apartment and did some cleaning.  

I finally asked F to get as much of his stuff as he could and got him to take down the light fixtures for me.  He got them down and then I washed them.  When he was ready, he put the now clean ones back up.  

We took a load of stuff to F’s house and then went out to get his mother a bento.  After that, we went for dinner.  

F and I had dinner at First Point, a nice pasta restaurant on Ginza Dori.  We both had pilaf today, with some shrimp too.  It was good.

We went to Machi Kine tonight to see Fast and Furious 8.  I don’t think I stopped laughing once. It was over the top, but I really needed to see a crazy goofy movie for a change.  Jason Statham was of course wonderful too.  

After the film, we came back to the house via the conbini.  We each needed a drink and some snacks!

And that was about it for my day.  It was so nice not to have to use my phone all the time, and nice to have the internet again.  

I have to go. I am tired again and it is late.  Probably catch up again later.  Until tomorrow….

March 31, 2016

Thursday - Sunny and warm

A good day.

I woke up this morning around 8 am and it was a darn good thing too.  As I toddled off to bed late last night, I remembered that Thursday is “gomi” day and I hadn’t prepared it for F to take out.  Well, F left early this morning for work so I could still do it, if I got up immediately and took it out.  That’s what I did.  It was a beautiful day outside and I rather enjoyed the walk to the garbage station.  

Of course, when I got back to the apartment, I got back into bed and didn’t get out again until 9:30.  Oops.  Bed was the exact perfect temperature I needed and it was comfortable and I knew that F wouldn’t be walking in on me anytime soon.  Sorry Mulder…my bed beckoned!

Once I got up I had to take out the bread that F had set up for me, then made my tea and cereal.  I watched a bit of TV from the DVR today.  I finally did my workout, but I was really, really late with it.

I also worked on pinning out my latest craftwork with the equipment I bought yesterday.  I wet the fibres and stretched it.  I hope it dries in a fairly good shape.  Here’s a little picture of it.

Lunch today was from a can.  I’ve never tried the chilli in a can before, and I liked it.  I had half a can of turkey chilli and F’s lovely brown bread.  I was a happy woman!  

I got started on dinner prep around 5 pm today.  We were having swiss chard, fried tofu, sautéed chicken and salad.  It took a while to get it all done, but eventually it was ready.  It wasn’t bad.  I left F a lot of dishes, but he did them.  

We had a quiet evening too.  I watched Bones and Bates Motel and restarted my shawl with a bigger hook.  I’ve done quite a lot of it with a smaller hook, but it’s going to take forever to be done if I don’t use a larger hook.  I don’t have forever unfortunately.

And that’s about it for me.  I had a good day.  Tomorrow, I’ll hopefully run a couple of errands and cook dinner again.  Come back and see how it all works out.  Until tomorrow….

March 30, 2016

Wednesday - Rainy

A good day.  

I haven’t quite decided if I’m going to tell you all where I was last night and this morning or not.  It wasn’t fun and I didn’t enjoy it…does that pique your interest or does it make you feel sorry for me?

At one point I looked rather like this…..

Anyway, I came home around 9:40.  It would have been earlier but a certain husband lost his parking ticket and had to search the entire car for it and then get a replacement. Sigh.  I caught the very tail end of The X-Files, but of course had no idea what happened beforehand.

We vegged at home for a bit, then filled out some paperwork and then went back out to get pictures.  We decided to not go to the photographers studio, but to go to the machine in S-Mall.  We took pictures there and then went back to the car.  From there we decided to go and have lunch, so we drove off a couple of streets and went to Jour Faste.  We had a nice lunch there.  I had pasta with shrimp and taro potato, F had a pork saute with a tomato sauce.  He liked his, I liked mine.  After that, we went home again.  F took a nap on the couch, I stayed up and awake.  

Around 3 I woke him up and we went off to mail our envelope and then go to the cinema.  We went to see Crimson Peak.  I really liked it for the atmosphere and the acting.  I didn’t find it particularly scary and I guessed what was going to happen, but I still enjoyed it.  I’m not sure I’d see it again, and I probably wouldn’t recommend it to diehard horror fans, but for a gothic romance it was rather fun.

I wanted to go to a hundred yen shop, so we went to one quite far away.  F wanted to go to a restaurant near there for dinner.  I didn’t really want to, but was willing to go along with him.   We got the stuff I needed at Daiso, things to block my crochet, and then talked about dinner.  F completely changed his mind!

F suggested going to a yakitori karaoke bar he knew and ever the one for adventure, I said yes!  We went to the bar and for the next hour or so had some nice yakitori and sang a few songs.  F even won a prize as his “score” was 88 on one song.  

After a while we left and went to the grocery store.  We got things for dinner for the next two days, and F got his essentials like beer.  We came home and F watched a bunch of TV.  He made himself some instant ramen.

A while later, I thought I smelt something burning and asked him about it.  He didn’t notice anything.  I decided to take a look.  He’d left the kettle on the stove, with the gas on and it had boiled dry.  I turned it off right away and opened the window and turned on the fan for a while.  I’m not sure what would have happened if I hadn’t noticed, but I’d rather not find out.  

And after that bit of excitement, I am about ready for bed!  I was up quite early this morning and didn’t nap all day, so I need some sleep.  Tomorrow I’m cooking dinner and I hope to work a little on some of my craft projects.  I have to start getting them ready soon.  Come back in a bit and find out what I get up to.  Until tomorrow….

March 28, 2016

Monday - Sunny

A good day.

I got up before 9:00 am and came through to the living room.  I made some decaf tea and had some cereal for breakfast.  I enjoyed The X-Files as usual, but fell asleep over the next show.  Oops.  I got dressed in my workout gear, but postponed it until later because I had a feeling F would be home for lunch.  He was.  

In the afternoon I worked out and then checked my backpack to make sure I had everything.  I think I do.  It’s a bit hard to know for sure though.  

Later in the afternoon I started to think about dinner prep.  When F called I got the kitchen tidy and did a bit of prep.  I scraped and cut up some carrots and started to boil them, and then when F arrived a bit later I got the water on for pasta and cooked the sausages.  Tonight we had pasta with a  garlic cheese sauce, salad, carrots and sausages.  It was all quite good.  I rather impressed myself!

F did the dishes and then at 9 I went over to the couch for a bit of crochet and Gossip Girl.  It was fun as always. Silly, but fun. 

And that’s about it.  I’m trying to wind down and get ready for bed a little early. I will be away from my computer tomorrow and won’t be back until Wednesday at the earliest.  Until next time!

March 27, 2016

Sunday - Sunny and warmish

A good day.

I slept in today.  Very late and on purpose.  It was wonderful.  I got up finally to an empty apartment.  F was off with his mother so it was fine.  I got dressed and had a bit of breakfast.  

F came home around 2 and announced he was going to bed to sleep.  Okay.  Good job I wasn’t starving then.  I let him sleep for a while and then he got up when some guy rang the doorbell and it woke him.  

We went to Subway for sandwiches because it was after 4 pm and dinner would be coming soon I hoped.  I had a yummy ham and marscapone sandwich with a cup of herb tea.

After our quick lunch we did a bit of shopping in the hundred yen shop, then F asked if we could go to Book Off, the recycling shop.  That was fine with me too, so off we went.  We went to one that sells many second hand things, not just books.  I looked around and saw a few things that I’d be interested in if I had the space to put them.  I don’t, so I didn’t.  F bought himself a couple of books.  

Next up was dinner.  I suggested a place just across from this shopping area.  They do ramen and curry.  F could have ramen and I could have curry.  Yay.  Dinner was okay and then we picked up a few groceries for tomorrow’s dinner.  I will be cooking tomorrow night.

We came home and watched Begin Again with Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo.  I liked it as much as when I saw it last year.  F was distracted during the movie, which made me rather sad. I did a bit of crochet on my newest project, a shawl.  

So, my 19th anniversary of coming to Japan was kind of a bust, but it was a nice enough day with my husband.  I didn’t see much of him and we didn’t really have any fun, but it’s okay.  

Tomorrow I hope to do a workout and get my away bag sorted.  I am not sure if I’ll have time to put my friend’s present in the mail or not.  Probably not.  There is a chance that I might not update tomorrow night.  It really depends on how I’m feeling.  I definitely won’t be here on  Tuesday night, so don’t miss me too much.  Come back in a bit and see what I get up to.  Until tomorrow…?

March 25, 2016

Friday - Cold with showers

A nice day.

I got up early this morning and did my usual things.  F kept popping in for a moment here and there.  I was going to do my workout early, but time got away from me again.  Instead, I waited and F came home for lunch.  It was a good thing I hadn’t started.  I did it after he left again and got a good workout.  I was really into it today.

In the afternoon I had lunch and scanned my cards.  I walked them off to the post box too. F came by after work to pick up his stuff and then left for his party.  

I had my dinner which was frozen pasta, wieners, and salad.  It doesn’t sound that good, but it really wasn’t bad at all.  I watched a couple of episodes of White Collar and when I had finished dinner, got started on something in the kitchen.  

Tonight I made a fruit crumble.  We’re going to a friend’s for lunch tomorrow and she suggested that I bring a dessert.  I thought about buying something first, but then realized I’d rather make something. I haven’t used this recipe before, so I really hope it worked out!  It looks good and smells great.  

I watched Castle while my crumble was baking…it was good as always.  After it finished I decided to do something a tad different.  I watched 4 episodes of Mr. Selfridge.  It was very interesting.  I hardly ever get to watch it. I tend to keep it for days when F is away because it doesn’t have Japanese subtitles.  And he wouldn’t be interested in it anyway.  

I’m now watching The Holiday as I blog.  I’m sitting on the couch to blog which is a big change for me.  Usually I sit in my little computer desk corner.  

I’m not sure exactly when F will be home tomorrow.  He’ll likely go over to his mother’s when he leaves the hotel and then come home so we can go to Sakata and visit my friend’s apartment.  

I don’t know what the rest of the day will bring.  I’m hoping that it will go well.  I don’t know if we’ll go to a movie or not.  If we do there are a couple of films we could go and see.  Come back later and see what my Saturday turns out to be.  Until tomorrow….

March 24, 2016

Thursday - Cloudy and rainy at night

An okay day.

I got up just before The X-Files started this morning and discovered I had to fill up the kerosene tank.  Sigh.  I did that, watched my show with my cups of tea and my breakfast, then got changed into my workout gear.  Of course, I didn’t workout for a bit, but did finally do the deed.  I did a 2 mile workout today and really got into it.  

I changed out of my gear fairly quickly today.  I did a little laundry as well.  I was quite surprised to see F come home for a quick lunch at 1pm today.  He’d had to work through his regular lunch time.  Good for me, not so much for him.  He had a bento and some cup ramen again.  

During the afternoon I looked up some recipes and had my lunch.  I also watched a bit of TV from the DVR.  I’m trying to catch up with White Collar and Once Upon a Time.  Agents of Shield is going to start soon and I hope to binge-watch it too!

I did the day’s dishes and then when F came home after 7 pm asked if we could go out quickly to the store.  I wanted to go to a grocery store we don’t go to often because it sells some frozen goods that I needed.  We went there and I got some stuff, then we went to Gusto for dinner.

Gusto wasn’t too busy tonight and the food was okay.  I had chicken with salad and what they said was a galette, but really wasn’t.  I added on more salad and drink bar so that was good.  F had the avocado-tuna bowl and liked it a lot, so that was amazing!  I like it too, I’ve had it before.  

We came home via the other grocery store for a few things and then came home.  F was really quiet tonight because he wasn’t feeling too well.  I feel rather sorry for him.  He has to go to a party tomorrow night and doesn’t really want to go, but has to.  

I watched a bit of TV tonight, which I enjoyed.  I tried restarting my latest project with a bigger hook, but made some kind of mistake along the way.  I don’t know if I’ll keep going with it or not.  I’d like to, but it might take a while.  

Tomorrow I have some baking to do, and I have to decide how to spend the day and night without my dear husband.  I don’t think I’ll be throwing any wild parties, but you never know! Come back later and see what I get up to.  Until tomorrow….

March 23, 2016

Wednesday - Clear and Sunny

A good day.

I got up on time this morning which was a tad surprising.  I had my usual tea and breakfast and X-Files.  I think F even made a brief appearance before running back out for a bit.  

I decided to try and start my workout early and got it started before noon.  Unfortunately, F came home for lunch just after I started the second one, so I stopped and called it a day.  I did one and it was a good one, so I was pleased.

F went back to work and I watched a bit of TV off the DVR.  I also had lunch a bit early.  There wasn’t much food to have though, that was sad.  I must buy something next time I do a shop like that.  I used up all the leftovers before we went away.  

In the afternoon I took a shower and then started on dinner.  I washed the bunches of spinach that we bought yesterday and cut it up.  

When F came home, I baked the chicken in the toaster oven and stir-fried the spinach.  I had made instant chawanmushi before he came home, so dinner came together rather fast.  We had salad, chicken, spinach with onion and garlic and the chawanmushi and it was nice. There are leftovers for lunch tomorrow too, which makes it even better!

F did the dishes and I settled in at my computer.  Later on, F asked me a bunch of questions to fill out a form for the hospital.  Some of them were fine, others were a bit stupid, but whatever.  

After F went to bed I prepared the garbage for tomorrow and then came back to my computer to talk to all of you.  Now I’m done!

I should be here tomorrow, no plans not to be, so if you’d like to, come on back in a bit and see what I’ve been up to.  Until tomorrow….

March 22, 2016

Tuesday - Sunny but cool

A good day.

I’m back!  Did you miss me?  I had a great time in Niigata with F.  We drove down on Sunday morning after having breakfast here in Tsuruoka. We had no troubles on the road and got into Niigata around 1 pm or so.  We did a spot of shopping and eating at some places I needed to go to get craft stuff, and then went to the mall.

At the mall I did a little personal shopping and we also picked up a couple of things at the foreign import store.  After that, we decided to go to the hotel and check in.  We did, but only after we drove around for ages to find a parking space.  We parked and walked back to the hotel with our stuff.  When we got there, we found out that it wasn’t a good parking lot for us(I had already told F that, but he didn’t believe me.) He moved the car and then came back to the room.

We had a nice dinner out that night at a yakiniku restaurant near our hotel.  It was good, if a little expensive. I liked it because they were playing great 80’s songs all night.  I had a bopping good time.

We both had an early-ish night at the hotel.  F had brought along a bottle of wine so after two glasses of that and my Downton Abbey fix, I was out!

We had breakfast on Sunday morning and then checked out of the hotel.  F suggested leaving our car where it was and just walking over to the station to meet up with people.  It was a good suggestion since the station was nearby.

We met up with some friends in the station and walked over to the restaurant where we met up with other friends.  We were at El Mirasol in Niigata and had a fabulous time.  It was an AFWJ meetup, but we let people bring friends and family so F was there as were some friends who live in Niigata.  The food was Mexican and really amazing.  I had the best hot chocolate I have ever had there and it wasn’t sweet like most hot chocolate is, it was flavoured with cinnamon and almonds…even had tiny bits of almonds on top.  To die for!

Some of us walked to a nearby Tullys afterwards for more fun and talk.  I played with my friend’s son for a bit, or showed him how to play a game on my phone! Sadly, trains had to be caught and long road journeys begun, so our party finally broke up.  

F and I walked back to our car and started out for our next hotel.  The second hotel was called Italia-Ken and turned out to be a formerly classic style hotel that is beginning to be a little rundown and show its age.  However, it was very nice!  Our room was reasonably big and the fixtures, while old were fine.  We both liked it because it had character! It was in the Furumachi area of Niigata, but was surprisingly quiet.  

After checking in, I suggested going for a walk, so we did that.  We tried going for coffee, but the Starbucks was closed so we looked at an underground shopping area that was a bit depressing in its quietness and then found a big department store.  I did a little shopping, but it was closing soon.  We left the store and were bowed out by the staff.  I’m not sure I’ve had that done before!

We visited a little temple next to the hotel. It was very interesting and I wish we’d gone in when it was still light out.  We also looked for a restaurant to eat at.  We almost went to the one in the hotel, but it was a bit expensive in F’s eyes.  We asked Siri and she/he suggested a Japanese izakaya.  F wanted to try it so off we went.  It was hard to find, but we finally made it! The food was good, but the service was a bit brusque and it was quite expensive too.  We had some sashimi, salmon on rice, tofu, yakitori, F had a bottle of beer and it was quite a bit of money.  We hit up a convenience store on the way back for some beverages and then went back to the hotel.  

At the hotel I bought a movie card to watch the movie channel, but when we started watching a film, the soundtrack skipped.  I tried another couple of movies and it kept doing it.  F called the front desk and the guy came and reset the machine.  However, it didn’t help.  He told us that we could change rooms, but we didn’t really want to do that, so I asked if we could just get a refund of the card money.  That was fine, and they gave me my money back.

I watched a bit of TV, F went to sleep.  I was a bit later, but eventually went to bed too.

Today, we got up around 8 and had breakfast in the hotel.  It was nice and we both had too much!  I’m looking forward to getting back to normal food soon.

I suggested going to an onsen in the afternoon but somehow we ended up at the aquarium.  Truth be told, I didn’t really want to go, but ended up enjoying myself anyway.  F always wants to go there and I don’t really like it, but…We watched a dolphin show and then had lunch. It was okay.  Because it was a Tuesday, the aquarium wasn’t packed.  It was still busy because some kids are out of school, but it wasn’t bad.  

We left the aquarium around 4:30 and talked about what to do.  I suggested having lunch along the way home, perhaps in the next city to Niigata, Shibata.  It’s big enough to have interesting places, small enough that they might not be too crowded.  We did that.  F found a place on the internet and we set off.  

It was an Indian Restaurant in Shibata.  We found it, parked and then when F got out of the car, he fell.  He said he’d tripped on the wires of his silly camera that he installed in the car.  He skinned both his knees on the ground, but said he was okay.  Gah.  

The food was good, but quite spicy.  It wasn’t just hot, there were all kinds of spices going on.  We had a set for two people and there was tons of food.  Neither of us were hungry afterwards! I was worried about getting sick in all honesty, but I seem to be fine.  We had 3 kinds of curry, dal curry, chicken, and vegetable.  I liked the dal best. We did think the naan wasn’t great.  Perhaps it didn’t rise enough?  It seemed awfully heavy compared to what we’re used to.

The road home was fine.  F got us home in one piece.  We stopped for groceries in our local shop and then came home.  I watched some TV and F went to bed as he has work tomorrow.  

So, that was it. A very long winded explanation about our weekend away.  We had a great time and only had one argument, which was rather stupid, as they usually are.  

Tomorrow life gets back to normal for a bit and we get used to normal life again.  Come back later and find out just what that means!  Until tomorrow….

March 19, 2016

Saturday - Light rain, warmish

A good day.

I slept in this morning, but luckily got up before F came back from his mother’s.  I had a quick shower and then we went out for lunch.  We discussed a little about where to go and finally decided on the Grand el Sun.  We each had the daily lunch special, mine was pork, his was fish.  It was nice!

We came home afterwards for about 10 minutes.  That was long enough for me to brush my teeth and floss, then it was off to the dentist again.  Today I did a lot of waiting, but did get my teeth cleaned again.  They also helped me see the parts that I need to keep working on…. And the best thing was that I didn’t run into my ex-student again.  Yay for that.

F had to take his mother to the temple so I asked him to drop me off at the mall so I could do a little shopping.  He dropped me off and I had a scout around the place.  I didn’t buy too much.  I did get some decorating tape and a chopsticks case at the hundred yen shop.  F called me when I was in there and came to meet me.  He got a headphone for his phone so he can drive and talk.  Gah.

We had a cuppa in Doutors and that was nice too.  Afterwards we came back home and vegged for a bit.  Finally it was time for dinner, so we drove to Kintaro Sushi and had (drumroll please…..) sushi.  That was really nice tonight.  

We came home and watched a movie from the DVR.  Our choices were Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter or The Perks of Being a Wallflower.  F wanted the Kumiko one, so we watched it.  It was an odd movie, but sort of neat in its oddness!  Not sure I’d recommend it to many people though. I also worked on my purse and finished the crocheting part of it.  I'll try and get a picture of it next week for you all!

We watched a bit of regular TV, well I did, F snoozed, but we’re just winding down now to go to bed.  F wants to be out around 9 am tomorrow.  I am so snorting over that one.  I might be ready then, I doubt that he will be!  He hasn’t packed anything, in fact, his clothes aren’t even dry yet.  ACK!

So, with a bit of luck we’ll be leaving fairly early in the morning and having breakfast somewhere about town.  We should be back in a couple of days if all goes well.  Talk to you in a bit.  Until next time….

March 18, 2016

Friday - Sunny and warm

A good day.

I got up just before my showtime, watched my show and ate breakfast, basically, the usual this morning.  When I got dressed however, I didn’t put on my workout gear.  I decided not to workout this morning as I had to make a start on dinner.  I was making tuna patties.  

I got a good start on the patties and F came home for a few minutes.  He left soon after and I got the tuna mixed up and then put in the fridge to chill.  Hurray.  

I watched a couple of episodes of Once Upon a Time today in an attempt to make some room on our DVR.  I’ve been letting the episodes record so I can binge watch.  I enjoyed them.  

I watched the US news and somehow F was there again.  He was driving people in the area and came home to wait for them to finish what they were doing.  He left a bit later and I gave him my postcards to mail.  I scanned and stamped them this afternoon too.

When F came home dinner went into higher gear.  I did quite a lot of cooking tonight.  We had kabocha with cheese which was very nice, plus stir-fried mushrooms, salad and the tuna patties.  Everything disappeared!  F doesn’t even like kabocha that much and it all was eaten.  Yay! 

F did the dishes and then I watched Castle.  It was a really good one tonight.  I’m quite impressed by the writing on the show.  

After the show finished, we went to the grocery store.  F was in need of some beer and I wanted to get out of the apartment!  We spent a few minutes there and came home.  

That’s about it for today.  I’ve been watching TV on and off tonight.  Now I’m watching an old Richard Gere movie, one with Kim Basinger and Uma Thurman.  I remember seeing this in the theatre when it came out! It wasn’t very good then either.  

On Saturday I have a dental appointment and then I’m not sure what else we’ll get up to.  There aren’t any new movies in English in town, so not sure what else will go on.  F and I are going away for a couple of days as this is a long weekend here.  I’ll probably update tomorrow night, but if I don’t, you will have to wait for my next scintillating update!  Until tomorrow….

March 17, 2016

Thursday - Warm and sunny

A good day.

I got up around my alarm time this morning and came through to the living room.  I had breakfast, tea and X-Files and it was great.  I didn’t do an early workout and of course F didn’t come home for lunch.  

In the afternoon I did a lot of personal things. I did a short workout, then I did some computer stuff.  I took a shower too and then went out.  I rode off to the craft shop, looking for plastic canvas, but I didn’t find any.  Sigh. I did buy myself a new sunhat while I was there.  A couple of my older ones need culling as they are stained or really battered. 

I called in at the drugstore and got a few things, then on my way home stopped in at McDonald for a vegetable chicken burger and a drink.  I ate, read and drank and enjoyed myself.  

At home again I washed the day’s dishes and then started working on dinner.  Tonight we had swiss chard, stir-fried kimchee pork and salad and it was quite nice.  The swiss chard takes a little extra preparing, but really isn’t bad at all.  I like it a lot.  

We had a bit of mango after dinner and then F did the dishes.  I asked him to be careful with my frypans, let’s hope he listened!

F watched a bit of TV tonight and then I watched Bones and did some crochet.  I finally started the flap on my little bag.  I think it will look pretty cute when I’m done.  I also watched Bates Motel and then Nurse Jackie which were quite good tonight as well.  

Tomorrow I’m not sure what I’ll get up to.  I wrote out a few postcrossings tonight, so I should send them out.  I might also pack for the trip that is coming up or I might go out for a bit.  I’ll have to figure it all out.  Come back in a bit and find out about my Friday.  Until tomorrow…. 

March 15, 2016

Tuesday - Warm and sunny

A good day, but beware the Ides of March!

I got up on time this morning and watched the second part of The X-Files.  I discovered while I was making breakfast that F had left his phone at home.  I checked the battery and decided to plug it in for him.  I wasn’t sure if he’d come home and get it, but I thought he probably would if he could.  He did.  He was in and out before 10.

I had a quiet but fairly busy day today.  I did a short workout because for some reason my knee was hurting, then changed and worked on my computer for a bit.  I scanned my outgoing and recently received postcards and posted them.  I had lunch.  Yum!  

Around 4 pm I started to put the address labels on the post cards and then I stamped my outgoing cards.  I decided to walk them over to the post office and got them there just after the pick up.  Sigh.  Still, they’ll go out tomorrow.  I went inside and bought a few more stamps.  I got some of the new spring greeting stamps.  They are so pretty.

I walked and even jogged for 50 meters home and then got even busier.  I got out the vacuum, changed the bag and then vacuumed the apartment.  It did need it.  I also did a couple of loads of laundry for myself.  I did mostly shirts this time.  I got them hung up and as I finished, F called to say he was finished work and would go and check on his mother.

I did the few dishes I’d made during the day and then got started on dinner.  I wasn’t doing a fancy dinner at all, I just wanted to have things under control when F came home.  I found a simple recipe for fried shimeji, and prepared the new microwave pasta maker to put in the microwave.  When F did come home I had a few busy minutes, but things worked out.  The one complaint I have is the usual.  He won’t come to the table when I ask him to, he has to finish his video on YouTube or shut down his computer or whatever before he’ll come over.  

Dinner, when he arrived was good and most of it got eaten. F said he’d do the dishes and did his usual half-assed job of them.  When he was taking his bath later on, I went into the kitchen and finished all the ones he didn’t do. 

We had a bit of mango later on from a can and it was nice.  I watched a bit of TV and did a bit of crochet too.  My purse is now 24 cm long.  I think I need to do another couple of centimetres and then I’ll be ready for the shell stitches.  I did finish the first ball of thread, so that was really good.  

And that, more or less, was my day.  It was quite good. Not sure at all what I’ll get up to on Wednesday.  You’ll have to come back and find out.  Until tomorrow….

March 14, 2016

Monday - Cloudy and a bit rainy

A good day.

I got up late this morning and to make it worse, F had just arrived at home.  ACK.  He had just popped in for a minute or two between work assignments.  I said hi and chased him out.  Not really.  I had tea and breakfast and The X-Files…have to watch it tomorrow to see what happens.

I got dressed in my workout gear, but somehow never did workout.  Sigh.  I just wasn’t feeling it.  I did do some laundry and cleaning so I wasn’t a total lazy bum today.

In the afternoon I watched some of the stuff on the DVR including the missing Downton Abbey minutes.  Watched the whole thing again, love it so much.  Would like to do grievous bodily harm to Thomas, however.  Don’t like him at all.  

F called to say he was coming home in a bit and I got started on dinner.  Today I made herb roasted chicken, steamed broccoli with lemon and garlic and my favourite easy potato salad.  It doesn’t have any mayonnaise so it is a little lighter than the usual type. Dinner came together fairly quickly and was quite nice.  F added in some rice to his.  

He did the dishes and then we did something different.  We went out.  Cocos had mud pie on for half price for White Day, so we went and had one.  We shared it and had drink bar too.  It was nice for me to get out of the apartment and nice to be in public together.  

We came home and at 11 pm I watched a bit of TV. I did a few postcards up too for postcrossing. F slept on the couch and then went to bed.  He has a long day ahead of him tomorrow.

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

March 13, 2016

Sunday - Cloudy and cool

A good day.

I slept in quite late today, but I had a good reason.  When I went to bed the room was spinning.  I was lying in bed and even with my eyes closed the room felt like it was going around and around.  I woke up a couple of other times and didn’t feel that great.  In the morning I got up and used the washroom and still felt a bit bad.  Then I got back spasms because I haven’t been drinking enough water over the last couple of days.  Ack.

F and I had a nice lunch in Krippa, the Indian Nepali restaurant we like today.  They’ve done a bit of a re-fit and have added some benches to the restaurant.  It looked a little nicer in there.  We had the Indo-Lunch set.  I had chicken curry, and F had vegetable curry.  It came with tandoori chicken and naan and a salad and drink.  It was yummy.  

After lunch we took our bedding to a new laundromat and washed it.  Since we have a queen size bed, everything is big, and we can’t do it at home.  It went quite well.  I got a bit of my book read while waiting for the washer or dryer. When our laundry was finished, we went through the small hundred yen shop and got a few things, and then came home and made the bed again.  F picked up some kerosene for the apartment as well.

We had a nice dinner tonight in Okazaki, the fish restaurant that F likes a lot.  I had grilled masu which is apparently like trout. The masu was good, but had some bones in it.  F had tempura and liked it as well.  

We bought a few groceries and then came home again.  I remembered that a movie I love is on WOWOW tonight, so we watched it again.  It was called Still Life and was a really good, quiet little movie.  I did some crochet during the movie too.

Next up for me was tonight’s Downton Abbey.  It was on a little late tonight and I missed the first few minutes, but not to worry, it’s on the DVR and I’ll catch them later.  

Oh, speaking of DVR’s and such, F set up the new DVD player today, so I’ll be able to watch my overseas disks again. Yay!

So, today was quite a good day.  Although my back is still spasming a bit, I’ve been increasing my water consumption so I’ll be fine soon.  The room stopped spinning when I got up to stay this morning, so that was good too!  

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow.  If you have time, come back and find out! Until tomorrow….

March 12, 2016

Saturday - Sunny but cold

A good day.

I got up a little late this morning, but nothing too serious.  I took a shower then got dressed and came back to the living room and had breakfast.  I also caught up on some of my tv which was great.  

F came back from his massage after 2 pm and said he felt better, so that was good!

We went to the station first to see if we could get any info about my travelling in May, but the office was closed.  F did pick up a brochure for me though.  We zoomed over to S-Mall and had tea and something in Doutors.  I had a sandwich, F had some cake.  After that, we looked at the travel agency, but they just gave me a printout that I could have got myself from the internet!  

We came home after this and since we didn’t have any plans, just stayed there.  I went to bed. I set my alarm for an hour, but ended up sleeping almost two.  I had asked F to wake me, but he didn’t.  Sigh.  

We had a nice dinner in Bikkuri Donkey!! and then had oodles of time before the movie.  I suggested getting a drink, so we went back to Doutors and had an iced tea (me) or a coffee(F).  From there, we zoomed off home again to pick up F’s medicine and then went to the local theatre.  The movie du jour was Steve Jobs.  I liked the performances, but I don’t think I would have liked Jobs at all!  

After the movie we came home and watched another movie on the TV.  Tonight, Foxcatcher was on and since it was about wrestling and F is a former wrestler, we watched it.  It was another film where the performances were good, but the people were a bit difficult to like.  F thought that Channing Tatum looked a lot like the man he was playing.  I have no idea about that, but I was impressed with Steve Carell as John du Pont.  It was an odd sort of movie really.

And then I watched Project Runway and enjoyed that.  F is off to bed now, and since I’m tired, I’m going to go off now too.  

I have a few things planned for tomorrow…come on back in a while and see if any of them happen.  Until tomorrow….

March 11, 2016

Friday - Cold with flakes of snow

A sad but good day.

I had a usual sort of day to be honest.  I got up and watched The X-Files, but I can’t remember most of it now.  I had my breakfast and also some tea.  I think I finished up my Empress Blend tea too.  

I had a quiet morning, put on my workout gear and was going to work out when the doorbell rang.  We got a delivery of a new multi-region DVD player.  We haven’t opened the box yet. A few minutes later, F came home.  He’d had lunch already he said, but just wanted to spend a bit of time at home.

In the afternoon, after he left, I did a late workout.  I enjoyed it though.  After that, I changed and did a little bit around the house.  I also had my lunch.  I finished up the pulled pork and had a bit of omelette, and even had some tortilla chips and salsa.  A very small amount, but it was nice too.

F came home fairly early tonight and wanted to go out.  He had been at the Art Forum earlier in the day as part of his job, and they were making candles for the memorial. I think he wanted us to make one.  We didn’t get down there early enough, but we did stay for the ceremony with songs and music.  I rather liked it, although I couldn’t see very much of it.  It was sad but enjoyable.

Afterwards, F and I went for dinner at a nearby restaurant/izakaya.  He had a beer, so it is a good job that we were walking!  I wanted to have an oolong tea, but they were out of it, so I only had the free tea they gave guests.  Boo!  We did have a nice dinner.  F ordered a kara-age teishoku (fried chicken set meal) and I ordered a plate of stir-fried veggies.  We also got some gyoza and deep fried tofu. We shared part of the meals with each other and it was nice.  The food wasn’t great to be honest, but neither of us were in the mood to be picky.

We walked home again and I tried to watch TV, but the channel was out.  The weather was a bit cold and snowy outside, so atmospheric conditions must be bad.

I watched a couple of shows and then turned off the TV. And that’s about it, you are up to date.  I think on Saturday we are going to see a movie in the evening, and I hope to go to either the station or the travel agency in the mall to see about my travel plans in May.  I need to see what is out there.  Come back in a bit and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

March 10, 2016

Thursday - Snowy

A Good Day! Yay!

I woke up early this morning on purpose.  I needed to check and see if F had taken out the garbage when he went to work.  There was a lot and if he hadn’t done it I wouldn’t really have been too upset.  He had.  All the bags were gone. Yay.

I went back to sleep for a while, but dragged myself out of bed before 9 am.  I watched X-Files and it was good in a freaky kind of way. It was all about tree people who kidnapped other people.  I had my breakfast and had a cup of my Empress Blend Tea from Victoria.  It was great.

I did a workout around 11:45 today.  I was going to go for 30 minutes, but decided to just do 20 minutes.  I was fine with that.  

In the afternoon I started to clean out one of the shelves in our kitchen.  For a long time we’ve been throwing things in there and there was so much junk that we couldn’t really see just what was there.  I cleaned everything off, threw out a bunch of stuff (we won’t tell F that I emptied out the contents of some cans and threw them away) because no one needs to eat cans of crab that were 10 years past the expiry date.  I kept a few of his ramen soup packets for him, even though some in the bag had split.  I went through the spice box and emptied some of the stuff out, finally threw out the paprika (expired in 2008 and I just bought new on the weekend) and generally made the shelf look better.  I have no idea if this will last, probably not knowing us, but at least it has been done! I have a bit more of an idea what I have now too.  Hurray for that.

After I finished I did a little net surfing and then waited to see what would happen when F came home.  

When he came home, he did say hello and actually talked a little to me, but was quiet.  He wasn’t feeling well, his back was really bad today.  He had brought food home, but put it in the fridge.  I asked him if he was going to eat soon and when he said no, asked if I could go ahead and have my dinner.  I had some of my pulled pork which was still yummy, then did my dishes.  

After that, I thought I had to try something, so I asked F if he’d like to go for a walk or go for a tea somewhere.  He said he would! I asked if he wanted to eat first, so he had a little bit of food.  He did his dishes and then got ready, as did I, to go outside.  He went out to the car for a moment and came back in with a Costco bag.  He gave it to me and said it was for me.  Inside were two bath sheets, one in grey, one in sea green.  For me!  He’d had to drive to Yamagata today and on his lunch break had gone to Costco, picked up the towels and had lunch there.  I thanked him and gave him a hug and things were so much better.

He also told me that it was snowing outside.  Oh no! We decided to go anyway. It wasn’t really staying on the ground, it was a bit like solid rain! I had thought about going to Mister Donut near the station, or McDonald, but he wanted to go to an izakaya.  We walked all the way to the station and had some sashimi and a salad and a couple of drinks at the place in the station. On the way back, Mister Donut was still open, so we went in and had a donut and a cup of their Royal Milk Tea before walking home again.  

Even though it was cold, it was a nice walk, and it was nice to be doing something together.  I got in extra exercise, which made me happy and the fact that we’re talking again made me really happy!

We got home around 11:30 and I watched Nurse Jackie at midnight.  F went to bed a little later and I’m going to go soon too.  

Oh, just thought I'd put in a gratuitous craft shot....this is how my clutch purse looks so far!

Fingers crossed things will keep going better tomorrow.  Come back a little later and find out how that anniversary goes too.  Until tomorrow….

March 9, 2016

Wednesday - Cloudy

Not much better today…

I went to be quite early for me last night, a bit after 1 am.  I woke up this morning when F’s alarm went off.  He was up before me but I had to make a washroom run so he knew I was up too.  I wasn’t spoken to, but the lights in the living room were turned on, as was the TV.  When he left a few minutes later I got up.  He’d turned off the DVR, but left the TV on, probably by mistake. Good thing I got up.  I ended up staying up after that.  

I had my breakfast and tea over The X-Files and even did my exercising early this morning.  F didn’t come back at all during the day, however.  He had an out of town driving assignment.

During the day I worked on part of the area around my computer.  It was sorely in need of a declutter/throwout, and it got one today. I filled up two small garbage bags, I’ll probably have to get up and take them out tomorrow.  

I didn’t watch a lot of TV in the daytime, I just didn’t feel like it.  I did have a nice lunch by myself though.

When F came home it was a bit late.  He did respond when I said hello, but didn’t talk to me.  I asked if he wanted dinner, he didn’t speak to me.  He went to the kitchen and made his own ramen and then ate it.  When he was done, I reheated my pulled pork and had that.  Mine was really nice.  There’s still enough for me for tomorrow, so I’ll probably have it again.  I don’t mind really.  

Basically, I was ignored for most of the night.  At one point the noise level was quite high as he had both the TV on and the computer on making noise.   I decided to just ignore it as much as possible.

I was cold so changed into my pyjamas and then did up the household garbage.  I wonder if I have to take that one out tomorrow too.

A little before 11 I told F that I wanted to watch something so moved over to the couch with my crochet and watched Scandal.  It is so deliciously over the top that it actually cheered me up.  A bit.  

When it was over I asked F if he wanted to watch anything but he was rude and a bit scary when he shouted “NO”. I left the room and he turned on the TV anyway, but it went off soon enough.  He’s gone to bed now but still seems mad at me.  I’m not sure how long this silent angry treatment is going to last.  I’m quite over it.  

That’s about it for me.  It’s almost 1 am and I’m thinking about going to bed.  This kind of atmosphere in our apartment makes me so tired for some reason and I just feel like sleeping for a long time.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to get out of the apartment for a bit and also that there’ll be some kind of breakthrough.  Who knows?  Come on back and I’ll tell you what I can.  Until tomorrow….

March 8, 2016

Tuesday - Cloudy with some rain

Was a good day until night.

I overslept this morning.  I didn’t turn on one set of alarms because I didn’t think I’d need them, so I woke up very late, because of my dream…which I can’t remember of course.

I got up, made breakfast and tea and spent a bit of time on the couch watching TV.  I changed the station at one point and got sucked into a movie, The Jane Austen Book Club.  

I was going to do a workout, but I correctly surmised that F would be home for lunch so put it off.  I had moved the couch already though so he moved it back!

In the afternoon, I did my workout, and then got dressed in regular clothes.  I set up the slow cooker for pulled pork and then went out.  I went to the drugstore and then to the grocery store.  After that, I went to McDonald and had a small ice cream and an iced tea.  I read a bit of my book (Alan Cumming’s Not My Father’s Son) and then left for home.  

At home, I did dishes and cleaned up the kitchen a bit.  I got a call from F saying that he was going to be late…his mother’s friend was visiting and she wanted to take them all out for ramen.  Since I had a big meal cooking at home I was quite sad about it, but knew that he would probably enjoy it a lot.

He came home around 8 and I put dinner out on the table.  It was really good.  I had buns that I bought for the meat, coleslaw, some spinach & sesame thing I bought at the store and a few other small things.  Yum!  Of course, there was tons leftover because F wasn’t terribly hungry.  

After doing the dishes, F popped out to his house to pick something up and when he came back I watched Criminal Minds.  I did some more crochet over on the couch.  It went quite well.  I think I have done 16 cm now.  It’s single crochet and quite fine, so it really is going quite well.  

When I came back from the washroom after my show, F started putting away my slow cooker.  Well, I had looked at it while he was away and decided that I needed to rewash it since there were some stains on the inside of it.  I told him to leave it alone as I had to rewash it.  I think he must have been quite surprised at that.  He started in on me about the new MyNumber card that Japan has just brought out.  It’s a bit like the SIN card in Canada but it has a lot more information on it like addresses and birthdates so it’s a bit of a tricky thing.  He wanted to go and pick up the permanent cards, I said I needed to research it first.  I’ve heard about some of the other foreign wives having problems with it and I wanted to check it first.  At that he got really upset and started talking about getting divorced and moving out of the apartment.  He was really strange.  

He said later that he was getting a bit of pressure to get the card and he doesn’t know the final date for it, but he wants me to trust him about the whole thing.  I trust him, but I don’t think he always understands the possible ramifications and I wanted to look it up and check things out for myself. 

He was talking about cancelling a trip that we’re taking later in the month and I don’t exactly know why he’s so crazy about this.  

While he took his bath I did look up some of the details about the card and it isn’t quite as bizarre as I had feared.  I’m not as trusting with my personal information as he is, and I have to give it out more than he does, so I want to be clear on the boundaries of the card.  I ended up telling him I would be okay with the card, even though I’m still a bit unsure, but he’s still upset with me.  

I’m not sure where things are now.  He isn’t talking to me and has gone to bed.  

It’s funny.  I actually thought things were going well lately, and had even started to relax a little.  I bought his White Day Present today when I was out.  And then, this.  

Hopefully it’ll all blow over soon, or else this blog is going to get an awful lot more interesting! Come back later if you dare.  I’ll more than likely be here, but if I’m not, I’ve probably run off and spent the night in a hotel.  Until tomorrow….