May 31, 2020

Sunday - Hot and Sunny

Today was an odd day if I’m honest. I woke up around 10 am, made a quick trip downstairs and then slept for another hour. I got up around 11. F snoozed on and off and as usual, spent time on his computer.

Around 12 he started talking about going for lunch. I suggested either going to get take out from a restaurant we like, or going there. Then he decided to take his mother there too. I suggested us going first and then bringing her some takeout, but he wanted to take her. It’s not that I didn’t want her to eat, I just wanted to keep her safe. She’s in her eighties after all. 

We all piled into the car and went to Arpeggio for lunch. K and I had the same, the soboro donburi which was very nice. F had oyoka-don, or chicken and egg on rice. After our meal, we came back to the house. F went back to his computer on the bed, I went to my computer and that’s how we spent the afternoon. 

Around 6:50, I suggested that we have food again. F asked where I wanted to eat and I said why didn’t he pick a place that wasn’t for noodles. He picked Udon-Ichi which of course is a total noodle place, but it is one that I like. K was invited but chose not to go for dinner. She said she wasn’t hungry. Okay then. 

We went and had a good meal, but they did something odd. They put us at different tables. We were in a section together, but they didn’t want us to share the same table. I said to F it was a bit odd as we do share the same bed! I know social distancing, but…. We had a dinner that was a bit too big. The set that I had asked for wasn’t available tonight, so I changed to F’s, but it wasn’t what I thought it was!  Rice twice in a day, yuck.

We followed up dinner with Frappuccinos at Starbucks. They were quite nice. I did a bit of reading on my phone there, F watched videos. We never talk anymore. I’ve asked him about that but he blames me and my computer. I never take my computer on holiday or to bed with me. I rarely am the first person to pull their phone out when we go places either. 

We picked up some groceries after our fraps. I guess I’m cooking for K and I, but F wants to have some of my side dishes? Not sure how that is going to work out when K is the human garburator. I’ll have to separate some food out before I put it on the table.

We came back to the house. I watched a little bit of the Prince Tribute but stopped it when I went to take a shower. There hasn’t been too much conversation with F. He’s trying to get some sleep as he has to go back to work on Monday. I hope he’ll have an okay week. He’s always tired and grumpy these days. He blames me, but I blame his computer and YouTube. 

Anyway, come back later if you feel like it and find out how exciting my first day of June is. Until tomorrow….

May 30, 2020

Saturday - Warm and Sunny

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. It went off around 8 am this morning, so I was up fairly early for a Saturday. Poor F was up much earlier so he could go to work.

I watched the day’s news, deleted it, and then watched Downton Abbey, which was as great as always. I got up and dressed, then I took a small load of laundry downstairs and put it through the washing machine. I hung it up when it was done. I basically just washed the new cotton that I bought yesterday so I can start making masks when I like.

I had a quiet morning and was enjoying myself. A friend emailed and asked if I could do a video chat later in the afternoon, but I said that I could go now as F wasn’t due back until 2 or 3 pm. She said that would be okay and just then I heard the car pull into the yard! I felt really bad and I had to tell my friend that I couldn’t chat after all. 

F wanted to go out immediately to try and have lunch at his favourite fish shop. I was game to try, but I did gently try to ask him why he didn’t just call me from the office before he left so that I would have been ready to go when he arrived.  He didn’t really listen.

We went to the fish restaurant and it was good, but they didn’t have their weekly lunch special on today because it was the weekend. (I had suggested to F that they might not have it.  I love being right!) After the meal, we did a little bit of shopping.

We first hit up the grocery store and the bank machine, then S-Mall. In S-Mall, I looked for a new soap dispenser but didn’t find one. I got a couple of things at the hundred yen shop, then went downstairs and F and I had a drink at Doutors.  

We followed that up with some grocery shopping in the mall. We got things for dinner, and they were also selling Costco Muffins. We got a box of six chocolate chip muffins…they were huge. 

We came back to the house around 5 and just relaxed for a while. It was close to 7 when I suggested to F that we go downstairs and put dinner on the table.  We did that. We had a good meal. We had some chicken, some tofu, some bifun salad, beets, and some potato croquettes.  I washed a few strawberries for dinner that F’s aunt brought by yesterday too.  I suggested that he make some coffee and he did.  We ate, and then when it was dessert time, we heated up one of the muffins, cut it into three and put it on top of the strawberries. Or we tried to. K had eaten her berries already.  It was nice. F had thought I was crazy before dinner wanting to share one muffin three ways, but he agreed after he had his bit! I do know what I’m talking about!

After dinner, F and I did the dishes and then came upstairs. I watched a really weird British reality show about celebs wanting dates. Of course, I hadn’t really heard about any of the celebs but it was still fun. I didn’t finish the show as there were a lot of episodes, maybe someday! I did a bit of crochet tonight and may even be on my last row of my Spill Shawl!

So that was my day. It was much nicer than most of the days I’ve had lately. I don’t know what we’re going to get up to later. Come on back and find out! Until tomorrow….

May 29, 2020

Friday - Warm and Sunny

I woke up this morning around 8:30. I got up and turned on the TV and watched the news. It was nice. I did snooze afterwards, but F was in bed too. I did say hello to him, but I didn’t get an answer.

F had suggested going out for lunch today, so I got up around 10 and started to get dressed, and also to check my emails and such. He popped out to get his mother something to eat and I finished getting dressed. I don’t think he was sure that I would be dressed when he came back, but of course, I was. We drove over to Nagomi and had a lovely lunch there. We had soba, mini-keisendon with some tempura and miso soup. It was very good. I was stuffed afterwards.

After lunch, we talked a bit about what to do. I suggested going to see a movie and ran the different times past F. We noticed that there was a film playing in 40 minutes or so that we could make at Mikawa if we went right away.  We decided to do it.

We went in, got temperature checked, bought our tickets and then left again. We had about 20 minutes to wait and there was nowhere to sit and not much to do there. F wanted to go to the food court and he ended up buying himself some yakisoba and half an okonomiyaki. I didn’t understand it at all! We’d just eaten, and it was lovely and stuff that he’d asked for and then he needed total junk from the kiosk in the mall?

We went to see Bloodshot with Vin Diesel. It was pretty cool. It wasn’t a great movie, but for a leave your brain at the door and see some fighting and some cool effects movie it was okay. It was kind of a rip off of Universal Soldier to be honest. I still prefer Universal Soldier…in my younger days I was a huge Jean Claude Van Damme fan. Okay, I still kind of am but…I freely admit that Vin Diesel is a better actor than JCVD!

After the movie, we went over to Don Quixote and picked up a few things. F wanted to get a special lens to put on his iPhone but didn’t actually want to buy it. We got some snacks and things for the kitchen.

We went back to the house after this and relaxed for a bit. F was tired, he might have snoozed a little.

Around 5:30 I said that we really should think about dinner. He suggested bentos for all of us and I was okay with that. He ordered and then we left to pick them up. I asked that we detour a little to the Gyomu Super near the bento place. I was looking for a few things. I got some, but not all. I did pick up a few things that went into the freezer and in the fridge, so that was good. 

When we got back to the house, we all ate. The bentos were quite good. F and I both had bibinba, but I had mine with extra meat, and he had his with an egg. K got a makanuchi bento, which looked okay. For the first time in ages, I really liked my bento. Afterwards, F and I did the few dishes. 

We went upstairs and just relaxed. F was on the bed and I was at my computer for a while. I went over to the bed for a while and spent time with F before I took a nap! I woke up around 11 and went downstairs and took a shower.

When I came upstairs, F was getting ready to sleep and I watched a bit of TV. I’m up a bit late watching YouTube and blogging.  

It was a good day. Tomorrow F has to go into work for a few hours and then I’m not sure what will happen when he finishes. I hope he has a good day. I’ll be here at the house at least until he gets back.

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

May 28, 2020

Thursday - Looked warmish, didn’t go out

This morning I woke up early to use the washroom, then came back and went back to sleep. Unfortunately, F had left the room before his alarm went off and forgot to turn it off. He came back in a couple of minutes later and did apologize. I really didn’t think he did it on purpose.

I had a quiet day today. I watched a movie early on called Madame and liked it, but didn’t love it. I watched some stuff off the DVR, including finally an episode of The Walking Dead. It was a good one today. I also finished my second mask this afternoon. I considered starting another one but will leave it for the weekend.

Both masks. Pattern from Sew Much More.  The plain purple one was made first, the floral one second. Both come from the same tenugui(cotton towel). The material is quite thin so I'm not sure if they are very effective, but they are fairly comfortable. 

I went downstairs near 6 pm to wash my dishes. I was half expecting to hear from F tonight as things were better last night. I didn’t. I wasn’t cooking tonight so I went back upstairs.

When F did come back, he tried to go to bed right away, but I reminded him that he was in charge of dinner for himself and his mother. He was quite rude about it, said he wouldn’t eat. I really didn’t care if he did or not, but he should cook for his mother.

He dragged himself downstairs and apparently did cook for the two of them. I wasn’t invited, which was fine.

When he came back upstairs, I went down and made my dinner. I remembered that I’d bought potatoes at Costco on the weekend, so I baked a couple of smallish ones in the microwave. I also made some tuna salad and combined the two. I put a bit of cheese on the potatoes too, once they were cooked. My dinner was amazing. No fuss, and really delicious. Best of all, I was alone to eat and read a bit!  K popped in to see why the kitchen light was on but wished me good night after I told her what I was eating. Oh, and I finished up the raspberries too. They were great.

F has been all over the place emotion wise tonight. One minute he’s friendly and nice, the next minute back to being a jerk. I tried to show him my new mask and he said it was good because it covered my face…I’m not sure how he meant that….

I did a bit of crochet tonight too while I watched some YouTube. 

So that’s about it for me for tonight. He has taken tomorrow off work and suggested a place for lunch so I’ll go out with him and probably his mother too. I’m hoping for a movie in the afternoon, but I’m not sure if he’s ready for that. Can’t spoil me after all.

Come back later if you like and hear about what goes on. Until tomorrow….

May 27, 2020

Wednesday - Cloudy and muggy

F woke me up this morning. I pretended that I was asleep and I thought I got away with it until he came back from the car when I was downstairs in the toilet!

I didn’t go back to sleep or anything. I knew if I did that I’d oversleep. I watched the news and then got dressed and on with my day.

I had an okay day today. I watched some of the TV I recorded on Tuesday night and worked on my mask again. I didn’t share the pasta with K today for lunch, there wasn’t all that much left.

I went downstairs around 5 pm to start dinner. I didn’t hear from F of course.  I decided to do another simple one for K and I but did cook some Brussels sprouts for us. We had frozen hamburg, salad, brussels sprouts and some gobo rice.  It was quite a nice dinner, to be honest! F came back while I was cooking and was rude to me and then went back upstairs. Nice.

After K and I ate, I took everything to the kitchen and then did all the dishes. It wasn’t too bad this time. I did listen to a couple of podcasts though.

After I finished I went upstairs and apologized to F about yesterday. I also asked if we could go out so I could pick up some more food. He didn’t want to at first, but after a while relented.

We went to the grocery store and I bought a few things. F bought more. I had suggested that we go out for sushi tomorrow and he tried to tell me that sushi was a luxury food, but he didn’t pronounce it correctly so I had no idea what he was trying to say!  That doesn’t happen often so it was confusing for both of us. Most of the time that we have sushi, it isn’t a luxury time at all!

The grocery store was quiet. I bought a few things for tomorrow’s lunch but not dinner. Sadly, I think F did buy things for tomorrow’s dinner. He is planning fish again. Sigh. If he cooks it, I don’t care.

Things gradually got more friendly over the evening. F kept bringing me snacks and that usually means that we’re talking! I worked a little more on my mask. I stopped when I got to the point that I should iron it. 

I did up the garbage downstairs and then took a shower. I didn’t have it too hot today.

I watched Grey’s Anatomy and when it was finished I turned off the TV. 

F has gone to sleep now and to be honest, I think I’ll go soon too. I had an earlier start today than usual. 

Come back later if you like and see how Thursday goes. Until tomorrow….

May 26, 2020

Tuesday - Hot and a bit muggy

Well, today hasn’t been a great day. F woke me up rustling paper this morning but I managed to sleep a little longer. I got up at my alarm and then had my usual quiet morning.

I made porridge for myself this morning and it was nice. I put some cinnamon and some craisins in too and that was rather nice. 

I didn’t see K until later on in the afternoon, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I watched a movie in the early part of the day, Mary Shelley. It was okay. I didn’t love it, but parts of it were fine. I did like that Mary was all crazy-over-the-moon about Shelley in the early part of the movie, then terribly disillusioned about him at the end. Quite realistic that way! Snort! The performances were okay and the story was based on real events, so….

I worked on a mask for a while when I was watching the film. I went downstairs to get lunch and while I was there, I gave K some of it too. We had most of yesterday’s pasta and it was rather nice. I had some salad and a bun with cheese on it too. I came back upstairs and watched another movie that was on WOWOW today, Love Actually. I know! I’ve seen it millions of times [slight exaggeration] but I just love it. I love all of it except the unnecessary fat comments/jokes. Those I could do without and they aren’t funny. I got a bit teary at the end, but it was great. I’m not sure which “love” story gets me the most…I love the Colin and the Portuguese woman romance, and the Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman one just rips my heart out. How dare he?

After the movie, it was back to my regular schedule. I watched the news and then went downstairs to get a start on dinner.  I decided on a simple one tonight because F wasn’t eating with us.

I made taco rice for K and me, plus some guacamole which I served with toasted tortilla chips. We had raspberries and vanilla ice cream for dessert too, just a little ice cream, but it was nice. Poor K covered her taco rice with hot sauce and then couldn’t eat it. I hope she got enough food tonight. 

F came back to the house while I was preparing. He took a look at me in the kitchen and left. Nice. I did all the cooking, serving and things were fine. I cleaned up afterwards and listened to podcasts. 

When I came upstairs F didn’t want to eat, he said. I told him that there were raspberries for him but he didn’t want them. Okay then. He didn’t want to talk to me. He had his headphone on and his nose in his computer so wasn’t being communicative. On the other hand, when I checked one of my Facebook groups, I found an invitation to a spontaneous chat and I decided to join. I told F that I would chat and sit in the stairwell, but he announced he would go downstairs and make his dinner. Okay fine. I sat on the bed in my usual spot and joined the chat. It was fine until F came back into the room. I moved to the stairwell because some of the topics were quite personal and I wanted to give the ladies some privacy. 

Of course, during the meeting, K went to the washroom and tried to turn off the light because she didn’t see me, and F kept going downstairs and coming back up. I have no privacy here. I’m not allowed any. I told K I was on the phone which was close to the truth…I was talking to other people!

The meeting went on for a while and then the last three of us signed off. My computer’s battery was getting fairly low so probably a good thing! I came back in the room and tried to talk to F. He was rude to me and so I was extremely rude to him. 

After a while I tried to make up and went to apologize, but he was rude and basically let it be known that I am not someone he wants around him at the moment. Sigh. You know what?  That is basically a two-way street. 

Anyway, that was my day. The middle was nice but the rest of it kind of sucked. 

No idea what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I have a feeling that I have to feed his mother tomorrow night too. I usually don’t mind, she’s much less high maintenance than F is and is happy to eat most things. 

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

May 25, 2020

Monday - Sunny and warm
(Sorry, this didn't get posted on time...I hit save instead of publish and didn't notice.)

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. I was rather surprised as it seemed that I had just gone to bed! 

I got up, watched the news and after a bit dressed. I made the executive decision not to do laundry today. I went downstairs to grab my breakfast just in time to see K come out of her bedroom and start getting dressed. 

I had been planning to make myself some porridge, but I changed my mind. Maybe tomorrow? I brought my breakfast upstairs and I rewatched Project Runway. I still like it, even without Tim and Heidi.

I had a quiet day today. I watched a couple of things off the TV and then remembered that I hadn’t worked on my second mask in a bit. I did a little bit more today. I sewed on the loops for my ears. This one is a little different from the other one I did. I couldn’t find elastic anywhere. I tried cutting a wider elastic that I have narrower, but it started fraying and then the elastic bits came out. Not going to use that!

Around 5:30 F Facetimed me and said that he was on his way back. I asked him to pick something up for dessert and I went downstairs to start dinner.

In the kitchen, I discovered that K was cooking something. She was steaming or frying her “fuki”, a stalk that she likes to eat from the garden. The thing was, it smelt terrible and I was worried it was burning. As I was planning to make dinner I needed the hotplate too. There are only two after all.  I did my few dishes first and then asked her to look at her pan. I think I asked her at a good time as some of the bits around the edge looked a little dark brown.

I got my pans on and started heating the water for the pasta. I wasn’t sure when F was going to be there. I also preheated the oven for the bread that I had bought at Costco. They had half-baked buns that you could finish off at the house…warm crusty bread with dinner?  Yes please.  Things went well except after F arrived…he just irritated me. I asked him to pick a pasta sauce, he did, no problem, then when I was running around doing things, I asked him to check on the pasta. He acted like it was udon and he grabbed a strand with chopsticks, dipped it in water and then ate it. All he had to do was take one piece out with the spaghetti fork thing…. 

I had the table set, I baked bread, I mixed the pasta with the sauce and despite the fact that I had asked F for help, he didn’t help. At all. 

I brought the pasta to the table and asked him if he’d like to grab his shrimp himself or if he’d like me to just give him some. He said it was a difficult question. I said it wasn’t but gave him some. Then he did one of his patented “I can’t eat anything” bits and left the table. He left everything on his plates too. So annoying. He went upstairs.

I finally got K to sit down and gave her some food. She was much easier to deal with than F.  I went to see if F would come down but he wouldn’t. Stomach troubles apparently. I reminded him I needed to go out after dinner.

K and I ate. The food was quite nice. She was watching some sort of game show…I did okay at the questions…it was a name the picture kind of thing. We had dessert too. We had raspberries and vanilla ice cream, the ice cream that F had brought for us. 

I did all of the dishes afterwards. There were a lot and I was so not impressed. The only good thing was that I had a couple of interesting podcasts to listen to.

When I finished, more than 40 minutes later, the kitchen was reasonably tidy, the microwave had been wiped a bit inside, the stove had been wiped and all the dishes put away. 

I went upstairs where F was either sleeping or pretending to. I went over to my desk and spent the next while watching some YouTube and doing computer stuff.

F roused himself around 9:45 and we went out to MaxValu. I picked up a few things for dinner and he picked up a bunch of fish and natto and noodles…your basic nightmare for me. I’m not going to be cooking for him for a few days. I’m sure I’m getting the rotten end of this stick, I have to cook for his mother. 

We came back to the house, I took a shower. He was supposed to take one too, but didn’t. I’m sure he’s going to weasel himself out to the onsen soon. 

And, that’s about it. It hasn’t been a great day as you can tell. No idea what I’ll get up to tomorrow and I have no idea what I’m going to cook either. Oh well then. 

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

May 24, 2020

Sunday - Hot and sunny, rainy at night

Yesterday, I mentioned that I was supposed to meet up with my friend in the next town. I was really looking forward to it, but…I woke up with a sore throat. Oh, dear. In this current climate, I decided to bite the bullet and cancel our meetup. My friend works and taking time off if she’s sick is difficult, so I didn’t want to be the person to pass on something.  

I ended up going back to bed for a couple of hours. I didn’t think that I would sleep a lot more, but I did!

When I got up later, F was still hanging out around the house.  After a while, I went downstairs and toasted a couple of bagels for us. F just had butter on his, I had butter or peanut butter on mine.  Yay me. 

He went out to get his hair cut and then when he came back I insisted that we go out. I wanted to get a new pair of headphones for myself. My old pair is literally wearing out. The foam on the earpieces is tearing and the wires are starting to show through the cover. 

We looked all over the store for the headphones and I was finally able to find some that I liked. I don’t like in-ear headphones, so I am quite picky.  I picked up a pair of headphones. They look okay, but I don’t think they’ll last too long.

After the electronic shop, we went to a big grocery store nearby. We bought some stuff for tonight. We got bentos for everyone plus some side dishes as the bentos were small. We came back to the house and then F and I got dinner on the table. 

Dinner was okay. K took the last of the pasta salad. I didn’t mind personally, I just thought she might have wanted it for tomorrow’s lunch. She never thinks of that though. F did wash the dishes tonight, and I dried and put them away.

I came upstairs and tried to relax for a while, but every time I was nearly there, F would ask me something and got me jittery again. He needed something photocopied and then he needed it copied again as he did the wrong thing. Argh! I keep a bunch of stuff on my copier so I had to keep moving it. I wasn’t too happy with him!

Later on, he sent me a message (that answered one I sent him in the store). I went over to spend some time with him and then he asked me if I wanted to go out to the store. I didn’t really, because I was in my pyjamas, but then I thought it could be fun, especially since he promised me ice cream! 

We went out, he mailed an envelope and we got some ice cream and then came back to the house. I went back to my computer and F had a couple of beers and sort of fell asleep. It is so hot up here in the room that I am dreading trying to sleep tonight. We closed the window because there was a big thunderstorm earlier. 

Well, that’s about it for me. No idea what will happen tomorrow, please come on back and find out! Until tomorrow….

May 23, 2020

Saturday - Rainy, sunny and warm

I set my alarm to go off at 9:30 this morning. I went to bed very late so 9:30 was pretty early for me! I went looking for F and he was downstairs making breakfast for his mother. I came back upstairs and got half-dressed. I wasn’t sure if F would want to go out or not. 

When F came upstairs, he was raring to go! I suggested going to the doctor, but he didn’t want to go. Okay then! I also called F’s attention to the weird traffic line-up that we could see from our window. (Remember this!)

I suggested that we go and get his mother some food for the day, and that’s what we did. However, when we got to the main road, the other side of the road was completely backed up. What was going on?

We got to the store, bought a bento and some other food and then started back. I reminded F that the roads were busy so he went a different way. We ended up in a traffic jam! As we inched forward, we came to a crossing. F zoomed off in another direction. We ended up on several dirt roads in between rice fields. I started singing, “Country Roads” at one point. I’m not sure how, but we did make it back to the house! It took a little longer than we expected, but we made it.  It turns out that today some local coupons for restaurants went on sale. You could pay 3000 yen and get 6000 yen in discounts. It was insanely popular. They were planning to sell them tomorrow too, but they were completely sold out. I think they were selling the coupons in the park across the main road from us!

We finally got on the road. F and I had a nice lunch in Kushibiki at the Chinese style restaurant he likes. I had a set meal with egg, pork and veggies, he had ramen and was quite pleased.

We made good time to Yamagata. We stopped at a rest stop for a few minutes and used the facilities but didn’t buy anything. We decided to stop at the Aeon Mall as I wanted to go to the Import Food store.  We went to the mall and F did a little shopping first. He wanted a new pair of jeans and while I looked at the craft corner, he went shopping. He tried them on and liked them, and also asked to have them shortened.  It was going to be an hour and a half until they were done. We decided to wait!  I bought some fabric masks that I found in the craft area.  I put one on when I went to the washroom. So much more comfortable than the non-reusable ones. 

We went to the food court area and got a drink, then did a little bit of shopping. We went to the import store and I got my rooibos tea bags (two boxes!) and some peanut butter. Yay. We went back to the store and picked up his jeans. Yay. I also got a couple of pairs of socks too. 

We got back on the road, and this time ended up at Costco. We parked on the roof and F got a great parking spot right near the elevator. Yay.

We went in and did our shopping. We had a bit of a problem finding things. I couldn’t get any liquid hand soap as I didn’t find it, and I didn’t get any tissues for my MIL. We got some Brussel Sprouts and some beets, some cheese, sausages, potatoes, just stuff. We picked up quite a few “junk food” things, but I tried to get some that were in smaller quantities so that I could do a bit of portion control. 

As usual, we had a few words with each other going through the checkout. I had asked F to get out the bags before we went through the checkout line and of course he ignored me. That meant that everything got stuffed back in the cart when she ran the items through the register. I tried to bag it when we were at the end of the counter and F started telling me off. Honestly. He made me go and stand in the middle of the store to bag things. I wasn’t best pleased. I didn’t want to yell at him because he didn’t have to bring me today after all.

We stopped and had an ice cream each. It was so good! Today it was mixed Hokkaido strawberry and milk I think. After our break and a bit of a cool down, we were much happier with each other!

We went back to the car. The parking lot was empty except for our car…and the one right next to it! The whole place was empty, but for the two cars parked right next to each other. Happily, the car next to us did move, but I thought it was funny.

We stopped at an Indian restaurant in Yamagata city for dinner. We both had Saag Chicken curry, medium hot and chai. F had his with saffron rice and I had mine with naan.  It was good. F thought his was too spicy though, but I was fine with mine!

After we left the restaurant, we started the long drive back to Tsuruoka. We made pretty good time and got back around 10 pm.  We unloaded the car and put things away. I separated the bagels and put them in the freezer. We came upstairs and have spent the time since we got back relaxing and watching YouTube videos!

Not completely sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow, but we have plans with a friend to have lunch if we can agree on a place. After that, who knows!

If you are still interested, come back later and find out what happened on Sunday. Until tomorrow….

May 22, 2020

Friday -Warmer and sunny

Today was an odd day. It started with F waking me up at 7 am to help him look for his glasses. He’d lost them again. He was just going to move the bed when I put my hand down to get up and felt something in my quilt. It was his glasses.  He left and I went back to sleep and of course, I overslept!

I did do a load of laundry today and then made a start on another mask. This one will have a  decorative pattern, I think it’ll be quite pretty. I had a quiet day. I did start a movie but didn’t want to watch it, so I turned it off for now.

F sent me a text around 4 today to say that his stomach was bad again. I sent him a sympathy note back.

A little after 5 pm, I went downstairs to start on dinner. I had decided to make a potato pancakes with the leftover mashed potatoes. F was going to cook fish and the rest of the meal was mostly going to be leftovers and stuff from the fridge. We did okay I think. F did finally come down and cooked the fish. Of course, he was in my way, but I’m sure I was in his! The potato pancake was okay, not crispy though.  Dinner, when we all finally sat down to it was good. Most of the stuff disappeared so that was good. 

I did all the dishes and there were quite a few, even though F and I had done some while we were cooking. I did all of the dishes, washed and dried them. The only things I didn’t do were his glass which he still had in the living room and the fish grill. Before I went upstairs I told him that the fish grill was left for him to do. He wasn’t too happy, but hey, I did everything else!

Around 10 I still hadn’t seen F. I had found a message from the local cinema that closed today on Facebook and I wanted to ask F if we could do a drive-by and see it one last time. He was in the washroom. He wasn’t feeling well and then came upstairs afterwards and basically started to relax. I knew he wouldn’t want to go out. When he started drinking it wasn’t going to happen anyway. 

He went to bed soon after and I took a shower. I watched a little TV and then started doing the blogging process. 

I’m not sure what is going to happen tomorrow. He did say he wanted to go to the doctor, but I had suggested going to Costco too. We absolutely could do both, but I’m not sure if he will. When I reminded him about going, he said he wouldn’t go to the doctor. No…that’s not what I wanted. If he’s sick then he should go to the doctor. We can put off a trip to Costco, no worries…I just want some kind of plan for our weekend. 

Anyway, I’ll likely blog on Saturday night and let you all in on what happens.  I’m sure it’ll be something so exciting! Until tomorrow….

May 21, 2020

Thursday - Cold and a bit rainy

I got up this morning bright and early…who am I kidding? I got up, went downstairs, watched the news and then snoozed and went over the time I planned. Oh well. I’m a lady of leisure I think, so it didn’t matter too much.

I got up, dressed. I wore my new black jeans from Canada. I realized that if I don’t wear them soon, I won’t be able to as summer is too hot for jeans. 

I had an okay but quiet day. I didn’t watch much TV in the early part of the day. I worked on my face mask and actually finished it today. I didn’t do the edging stitching around the mask. I probably should have, but to do it by hand means it isn’t going to look perfect (at least the way _I_ do it) so decided not to. I did iron it though!

I watched a movie called Nomis later in the afternoon. It was okay, it had a lot of good actors in it, and the story was okay but it was a made in Canada cheapie. I liked it but didn’t love it.

I went downstairs a little after 5 pm tonight to get started on dinner. I made some spicy cucumber pickles, and eggplant and mushroom stir-fry and some salt lemon chicken. We also had a bit of mushroom left over from last night and some salad. Almost everything vanished, but no one said that they liked it, which was a bit sad. As usual, F skived off helping with the dishes. He said that he needed to go to the onsen and off he went to the closest one. Hmm. Getting to be a nasty habit. 

I washed and dried all the dishes and put them all away. Happily for me, I listened to a couple of podcasts so it was enjoyable at least. 

I went upstairs and when F came back he was bearing ice cream, so I almost forgave him!  

We ate our ice creams and then we went out to get food for tomorrow. I’m planning a mostly leftovers meal, but F is going to cook fish. Sigh. I wish he wouldn’t. I’m going to need the stove and I hope he’ll let me use it while he’s grilling the fish. 

We came back to the house and F went to bed fairly soon afterwards. I know he is really tired and his stomach thing is taking a lot of his energy so I have to let a few things slide with him. We are talking about going to Yamagata City this weekend and maybe meeting a friend on Sunday, not sure if we’ll be able to both or just one of those. And we’ll probably have to Social Distance anyway. 

I stayed up watching some YouTube videos and dealing with some Moderator type stuff of things that came up. 

Tomorrow I’m thinking about cutting another mask out and getting started on sewing it. I’ll probably do a better job of the next one, we’ll see how it goes. 

Come back later if you like and hear all about Friday! Until tomorrow….

May 20, 2020

Wednesday - Cold and rainy

I got up this morning around my usual time and did my usual thing of watching the news. When it was over I was really sleepy so decided to take a nap. I took one and slept a little later than I meant, but it wasn’t too bad really. I had my breakfast and watched Suits from last night.

After lunch, I watched the rest of the movie I started yesterday. It was called Jonathan and it was rather odd. Good ideas, but low budget and it didn’t quite deliver for me. I worked on my mask again. I unpicked it and have started to resew it using cotton thread for the most part.

A bit after 5 pm I went downstairs to start dinner. I had originally planned to make baked potatoes but changed my mind and made Bangers and Mash instead. I also served my soup from yesterday. As usual, I had very little help in the kitchen. F was very tired when he came back to the house and K never helps.

I got dinner on the table and people liked it, but F barely ate any of the soup and only a small amount of the mashed potatoes. I hope he wasn’t too hungry afterwards. I thought he was going to help me with the dishes, but of course, he didn’t. He was nowhere in sight. He phoned when I was nearly done to say that he was having a leg cramp and couldn’t move! He said he was going to go to the onsen. I thought it was odd as it was nearly 8:10 and they close at 9 but okay, whatever.

When I finished the dishes I was so tired and my back hurt a lot. I tried to take a nap but got up after a few minutes. I watched Project Runway which was quite good and halfway through F came back. He’d been too late for the onsen. I felt sorry for him, but wondered why he even left the house!

While I was checking out websites tonight, I checked my local cinema’s website to see if they were planning to reopen soon and they aren’t. They are going to close. I was reading a translation so I might have something not quite right, but it sounded like with the virus they wouldn’t be able to have films safely anymore. I am so sad about this. F and I have seen many a film there. They get films that the bigger multiplex in the mall doesn’t show. They had lots of English movies, and quite a few non-English/non-Japanese films too.  I’ve often written about going out to see a film in the daytime, I likely won’t be doing that again. The multiplex in the mall just doesn’t have great films and it is so much harder for me to get there and back. 

I know that thousands of people have died due to this virus, but this place is like my home. It has made living in Japan bearable for me. I knew that there was a little place where I could go and watch films and be taken away for an hour or two. 

2020 has really sucked so far. First I lost the TV channel that kept me sane in the house, and now I lose the place that got F and me out of the house together on the weekend. There is still a big multiplex in the mall, but they don’t always have English films and they don’t always have good films! And, don’t get me started on the virus!

I’d better go. Sorry for the whine. I know these aren’t serious problems but they do affect my mental health and especially in this time of world pandemics, I needed something to look forward to —after.  

Come back later if you like and hear about my Thursday. Until tomorrow….

May 19, 2020

Tuesday - Cold and rainy

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off and got up. I came back to the room after a few minutes and then watched the news. I did take a bit of a snooze this morning, but it was a short one. 

I got up and dressed. When I went downstairs I took a basketful of laundry with me and put it in the washing machine. Then, I went into the kitchen and started to work on dinner. I got out my slow cooker and used a soup mix that my sister gave me for Christmas. I got everything set up and then went upstairs with my breakfast and my laundry. I ate and then hung up my clean but wet clothing!

I had a quiet afternoon today. I didn’t watch too much TV, I did watch a little YouTube and I didn’t see much of K at all. I didn’t hear her either which was strange.

Around 5:30 I went downstairs to do my dishes and work on the rest of dinner, and then F called. I asked him for buns or a nice loaf of bread. When he got to the house though, everything was nearly ready. He did have some buns, not what I would have picked, but, all in all, just fine to have on the side with the soup. I told F that dinner was nearly ready and if he wanted to change he should do that. He went to the toilet instead. And he stayed there for 20 minutes or more. I got a little bit annoyed so I put out soup for K and I. I put a little out for him too, and then I got K to start eating her dinner too. Finally, F came back. 

Dinner was good and the soup was great. K didn’t want seconds, and neither did F, but I did! I had some and then put the dishes in the kitchen.  F helped with that tonight and he also washed the dishes, mostly before I had even finished putting all the unfinished food away. Sigh. Still, I did dry them all and then I washed and dried my slow cooker too.

I had asked F to take me out so we could do a little grocery shopping. We went over to MaxValu and immediately saw his sister and her husband.  Well, I had a hard time seeing anything as my glasses had fogged up, but it was nice to see her.  

We got food for a few days and then came back to the house. We had a quiet time when we came back. I took a shower around 11 and then watched some TV at midnight. F is actually asleep by the sound of it, and I am glad. He’s been staying up too late and isn’t sleeping enough. 

Anyway, that’s about it for me. Tomorrow I have to figure out what I’m going to do about dinner…I’m thinking nice lentil/bean soup plus baked potato, but you never know what I decide to do!  Come back later if you will and see what happens. Until tomorrow….

May 18, 2020

Monday - Sunny and warm

I didn’t sleep that well last night. I think it might have been the coffee, but I just couldn’t fall asleep or stay asleep. In the morning, I woke up with my alarm and got up. I watched the news from the bed, and then got up and dressed. I went down a little early to grab breakfast and then came back upstairs to eat.

I had a quiet morning and afternoon. I saw K a couple of times, she was doing a bit of cleaning around the house. 

I had lunch and then went down and washed the dishes. I saw K and let her know I was going out. I got my bike out of the garage and rode off to the bank and the drugstore. I was hoping that I would have received my payment for the classes I taught in April, but not yet. I’m wondering if the company forgot about them! I bought a few things both necessary and unnecessary at the drugstore and then came back to the house. I parked my bike and then I went upstairs in the garage and looked for my iron. I got it and came back to the house.

Upstairs, I watched the news and relaxed for a bit. When F called me, I went downstairs and started to get things ready for dinner. On Sunday we’d bought a couple of frozen entrees with shrimp and clams in them for Monday’s dinner. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any sort of directions on them! After a quick internet search, we decided to run them in the microwave on two-minute intervals and see how long they took to cook. That done, I plated the dishes. We had a nice dinner, but we discovered that the frozen entrees were so spicy we could barely eat them. I liked them, as did F, but poor K only ate a small helping. I apologized to her, but really, there was no warning on the label at all. There was a little leftover that I’ll probably have for lunch tomorrow!

As we were finishing up our meal, F decided that he’d go off to the onsen. He asked his mother to go with him, and I gave them my blessing. Today’s dinner wasn’t the big plate and pan-fest that last week’s dinner was, so I could handle the dishes. 

I went into the kitchen and there is F setting up the dishes his way in the sink. Using his strong detergent instead of my mild-on-my-hands one. Honestly, will he never learn? The water was cold too, so after he left the room, I chucked it out and put new in. They went off, and I listened to a podcast and enjoyed my time.

I did a little bit of vacuuming too while they were gone. I vacuumed the vent in the toilet room, which sorely needed it. Before I did that, I cleaned out K's vacuum cleaner. I don’t know when the last time that was done! I even untangled some nylon cord that was wound around the rotating brush on the foot of the vacuum. 

Then, I came upstairs and did more vacuuming with my vacuum. I vacuumed the heater and also the bit under my chair which sorely needed it. I spend so much time in this room, I need to do a bit to make it tidier. 

F and K came back after a while. Although F asked if I wanted to go out, I asked him where he thought we could go!  So many things are closing early that there really isn’t anywhere we can go. We stayed in and relaxed at the house. Around 11 pm, I put on something off the DVR and watched that.  F went to bed fairly early and might even be sleeping. 

I’m not sure what I’m going to get up to tomorrow. I might work on my mask again. I brought the iron over to iron it when I finally get the straps sorted out. 

Come back later if you will and see what I end up doing. Until tomorrow….

May 17, 2020

Sunday - Cloudy, then a bit of rain

We didn’t go to bed last night until after it was getting light, so I didn’t set any alarms for the morning. In fact, I’d even turned off my reminder alarm to take medicine but happily did wake up just after it was supposed to go off. I took it and then went back to sleep, after eating a couple of pieces of F’s yummy cranberry and cinnamon bread. 

When I woke up a couple of hours later I had some very PG-snuggles with my husband and then I think I got up. Around 2 I requested that we go out to have something to eat. F said it was fine, but by 3 pm he was still in bed on his computer. I got annoyed, grabbed a couple of pieces of his bread and took them downstairs. I toasted them and added cheese. I tried to give one of them to him, but he wasn’t having any of it. 

We finally went out. It was nearing 4 pm and I hadn’t had a proper meal all day and I didn’t for hours yet. We went over to Yamaya and picked up a few things for the kitchen, and beer for F. At my request, we went to a hundred yen shop, I got a couple of things that I think I needed. We went for coffee and cake at Komeda. I tried their new lemony cake and it was nice. F had their old chocolate one and liked it. We were there for about an hour before we left. 

We went to MaxValu near the coffee shop and looked for things for tomorrow’s dinner and tonight’s dinner. We got something for tomorrow and the two of us looked at bentos. F found something for himself and K, I didn’t find anything appealing. There wasn’t a lot of bentos on offer and I just didn’t see anything I wanted. Normally I’d cobble a couple of things together and be fine, but I couldn’t do it today. I told F I’d look at the freezer section and get something there but he got all huffy and put his bento and the one he’d picked for his mother back. Okay then. In the freezer section, I did see a couple of things that I would have enjoyed, so I really don’t know why he was so odd. Whatever.

On the way back to the house he decided to go to another shop and get his mother a bento there. He did. I got some yogurt that I like there and not too much else. We went back to the house, K got her bento, I unpacked a bunch of stuff and put it away. 

Then, we went out again. 

We first went to Gyomu Supa and checked things out. I got a little junk food as it was very cheap, and some dried vegetables for soup making. F got some cheap noodles so he was happy. I noticed that they had filled up some of the freezers now, so there were actually frozen tortillas. They have smaller, whole wheat ones, which I really like! I didn’t buy them as I have some of the bigger, non-frozen kind and we don’t use them often enough to stock them in our freezer.

We next went to Gusto which is next to the Gyomu Supa and had dinner. It wasn’t too busy. They’ve changed a few things and it was okay really. They don’t have actual menus now, just a tablet to order on. The nice thing for me is I can set it in English. Woot. We both ordered stuff that had discount coupons from our phones, and for some reason (rain) the drink bar was free tonight, so we had that.  The food was okay. F had an omurice and I had chicken and a hamburger, and he didn’t complain about it! I liked mine so I was good. At the drink bar, we weren’t allowed to bring our glasses/cups back for refills, which makes so much sense! They didn’t have a lot of ice out which was sad, but they did refill it after a bit. 

We left and then hit up the grocery store again! We didn’t get too much there, some decaf coffee since F has started using the coffee maker finally, and some Japanese long onions. My main purpose in going there tonight was to get rid of the meat trays that we’ve been collecting around the house. Gone!

We came back to the house and unpacked again. We relaxed a bit and F went to bed. I took a shower and here we are. I think F has finally gone to sleep or at least is trying to sleep. He’s been staying up so late lately. He blames me, but he can go to sleep alone, but he won’t put down his computer. Often times, I go to bed and he’s still watching things on his screen, so I don’t think I can be blamed for that!

No idea what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I should do some laundry, but I hate doing laundry on Monday so you never know. I might go out if the weather is decent. That would be a good thing!  Come back later if you will and see what happens. Until tomorrow….

May 16, 2020

Saturday - Rainy and cloudy, cool

I went to bed terribly late last night and as a result, I slept-in terribly late this morning. I did get up at 11ish for a few minutes but then went back to sleep right afterwards.

I got up a bit later and got dressed. F had been up earlier, but he didn’t get dressed. He also went back to bed in the afternoon. He didn’t sleep though. We were both on our computers, just vegging really. Around 4 pm I started to suggest that we should think about dinner, but F put me off until 6ish. I was getting hungry. I’d had breakfast, but that was hours ago.

We went out together and bought K a bento, a nice one, and a few necessary groceries, then we went out for our dinner. All the places we wanted to go were closed, so F suggested Nagomi, a Japanese place we both like (yes, there is such a thing!) He had a sashimi-on-rice bowl and soba set and I had my usual, duck in soba. It is so nice. The restaurant was very quiet, we were the only customers at first. Later on, two more arrived, but they sat on the other side of a divider so we weren’t close at all. 

We came back to the house via a conbini. I got some iced cafe latte as the coffee shop we’d tried to visit closed a scant 5 minutes before we got there! 

When we came back, I suggested watching a movie, so I put on Hereditary. I’d heard it was a good horror movie, and it was. It was scarier for all the good acting and the weirdness of the story. I’m not sure if F liked it as much as I did. I’ve noticed with him that he doesn’t “get” the scary Western Stuff, just like I don’t “get” the scary Japanese Stuff. [Once upon a time we walked through a haunted house together. He was a bit freaked out, I didn’t know why things were supposed to be scary!] Toni Collette is an amazing actress. She was good in this like she is in everything!

After the movie was over, I watched another on that was on WOWOW. It was called Stray, but it wasn’t very good. It had potential, and it was interesting that it was about a Japanese family in America, but overall, I wouldn’t recommend it.

And that was about it for our day. I did a bit of crochet during the first movie, got a bit over a row done. I have about 3 more to go if I have enough yarn. Fingers crossed there. 

No idea what we’ll get up to tomorrow. F had wanted to go to Costco, but I asked him to wait until next weekend. He’s still not in great condition and I wouldn’t want to make him drive for hours when he isn’t feeling well. He wants to do something tomorrow, so let’s hope that works out!

Come back later if you like and see how things go. Until tomorrow….

May 15, 2020

Friday - Sunny and warm

I overslept a bit today. I’d forgotten to set my early alarms last night so I was rather surprised to see how late it was when one did go off.  I got up, watched the news and got dressed. I got a call from F this morning asking if I’d seen his wallet. I hadn’t but I did find it when he suggested a few places. Yesterday’s jeans pocket!

He came by a bit later and picked it up as he was working nearby today. He left right away.  

Today I worked on my mask but, I messed up. Sigh. Yesterday I had sewed on two straps but today I decided I had done them wrong so I unpicked them and sewed them on another way. Then, when I sewed the lining and the outside together and turned it around, I realized that they were fine the first time. Sigh! So, I might have to go and unpick everything and redo it. Darn!

I watched an X-Men movie today while I was doing my sewing. That was rather fun. I had lunch and after lunch, I watched something else, but I can’t remember what.  

When F called tonight to say he was on the way, I gave him three options for dinner. I told him we could have pancakes, omelettes or pasta with sausages. Any of them would be fine.  He picked omelettes. I suggested getting a salad for us and then I went downstairs.

I got quite a few things ready and took the eggs out of the fridge to warm up. It took F a while to show up, but when he did I washed some lettuce and then started cooking. I made three individual spinach and cheese omelettes with salad and a sausage. K & F had rice too. I had made some vinegar drink for us and it was all nice. The dinner disappeared and got good reviews. 

After dinner, F disappeared of course and I got to do the dishes again. To be fair, he wasn’t feeling well all through dinner and was in the washroom for rather a long time. I listened to a couple of podcasts and then came upstairs. F came up a few minutes later and asked me if I wanted to go out while he was putting on his pyjamas! He really wanted to go out, didn’t he? F went to bed and I stayed up. I watched a bit of YouTube until I took a shower and after that, I watched some TV.  

It was a really quiet day today. I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow if anything, but come back and find out what we actually end up doing. Until tomorrow….