December 20, 2014

Saturday - Rainy but warm

A good day.

I slept in this morning.  I am blaming the medicine that I had to take for that!  

However, once I woke up, I got up and got dressed.  F wanted to go out for lunch right away, to a fish place.  Sigh.  I couldn’t face it, so I acted like I hadn’t heard him and suggested someplace else.  We went to Restaurant Futaba and both had a nice meal there.  I had pork and F had a paella with seafood.  He liked it.  

We popped home for a few minutes and then went jeans shopping.  F’s usual jeans have a hole in the back pocket now, so he really shouldn’t wear them anymore.  They look rough!  I suggested that I buy him a pair of jeans for Christmas since he couldn’t think of anything else that he wanted.  

We went to S-Mall first and went to the jeans shop.  F grabbed a couple types of jeans and went to try them on.  They looked terrible!  I’m not sure if it is possible, but they gave him a camel toe and were entirely too small in the butt.  He was a bit put out that I wouldn’t settle for those ones, but they were bad.  Both pairs he tried were the same, and they didn’t have any bigger ones.  

We drove out to Mikawa and had a look there.  We tried Jusco, but their jeans just weren’t right.  I told F that they had to look good on them, since I’m the person who has to look at him in them! We went to the Amerikaya jeans shop and had a look round.  We found a couple of pairs that might do, and F tried them on.  I liked them!  We found a pair that satisfied me, and _F_!  Woot!  We also spent a few minutes and bought another nengajo book.  Why?  We have no idea where the first one we bought is.  Gah!  I’ve looked, F has looked, but nada.  They have to be in the mail by the 25th.  

After we did our shopping, F took the stuff to the car and I looked in a store.  I was feeling better today, but I found that walking fast made me feel off-balanced and a little dizzy so I took everything at my own pace.  

F came back in and we had a small dinner.  I had a tuna crepe and he had some ramen.  Then, we went to the movie.  We went to see The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.  I liked it, but I wasn’t thrilled by it.  At the end, I just felt like something was missing!  

We came back home after the movie and spent a quiet evening in.  I watched Under the Dome and later on Miss Marple, which was great!  I adore Geraldine McEwan and have ever since I saw her onstage in London.  She was amazing there and darn great as Miss Marple.

That’s really about it for my day.  Oh, F helped me order a couple of books from Amazon, so I’m a little excited about that. Tomorrow I’m not sure what we’ll get up to, as F has to spend time with his family.  I hope we are able to enjoy the rest of our weekend though.  Night!

December 13, 2014

Saturday - Snowy

A not very good day.

We have a lot of snow. It arrived today between 5:00 am and noon mostly and is heavy and annoying!

Today wasn’t a good day.  F and I didn’t get on very well.  He started in on me before 11 am about where I wanted to eat.  The answer was nowhere right then.  I took a shower and came back to the living room to find that he wasn’t there. He’d gone back to bed.  I left him alone for a while but he came out.  He wasn’t feeling well, and basically spent the entire day in that mode.

We went out to the car and had to shovel snow for a few minutes.  It took both of us working fairly hard about 15 minutes to clear enough snow in our parking spot.  

We finally left for lunch, to the Daiichi Hotel for their lunch. It was nice.  F had a beef stew, I had beef cream pasta.  After lunch we tried to do some shopping, but didn’t really get much.

We finally went to the butcher’s shop and ordered our Christmas Chicken.  It was expensive, but not as bad as the place in the mall.  They wanted 3000 yen for an uncooked chicken.  Goodness me!

We came home again for a bit and relaxed.  F got a delivery and I just tried to relax myself.  I wasn’t really able. 

We drove out to F’s favourite fish restaurant for dinner.  I really wasn’t that hungry but somehow ended up with a huge dinner.  Most of it was really nice, but I wasn’t in the mood.  

Next, we drove out to Mikawa and got there around 7.  I tried asking F what he wanted to do for the next hour, but he wouldn’t answer, he just got mad at me.  Then he decided to leave the mall.  I stopped him and said I’d like to look at craft stuff.  He followed me there and then disappeared.  When I was done I couldn’t find him.  I sent him a text, which he answered.  He said he was in the washroom.  I waited outside the most likely one, and when there were only 10 minutes before the show I texted him again and asked him if I should go and get the tickets.  He wrote back that he was in front of the theatre.  So, he knew I was looking for him and he just buggered off to the movie theatre and didn’t bother to tell me?  Nice.  I walked along there and met up with him.  We almost didn’t go in.  Honestly, when he said, “Let’s go.” I thought he mean “Go home,” and I would have been fine with that.

We got our tickets, F got us drinks and himself some popcorn….I was still too uncomfortably full from dinner to have any…and we went to see Gone Girl.  By the time I finished in the washroom, the movie had started, so I honestly didn’t want to go in.  I HATE missing any of the movie.  

However, I really enjoyed the movie. I hadn’t read the book and I had no idea what would or wouldn’t happen.  Ben Affleck was just about the right sort of actor to play the smarmy husband! A good film in my opinion.

After the movie, I didn’t bother talking to F, I just left. We were the last people to leave the theatre and he could have talked to me, but didn’t.

I went to the washroom.  After that, I waited around the hallway for a minute or two, but realized I had no idea where he was.  I thought he’d probably buggered off again, so I left the mall and went over to the car.  He wasn’t there.  I went back in the mall and was going to text him, when my phone rang and I saw him in the distance.  Apparently he’d been in the washroom too.  Oops.  Too bad, so sad I missed ya!

We drove back to Tsuruoka in silence. We came home and I offered to make tea, which he accepted.  We talked a little to each other, but again, he’s “not feeling well” which apparently gives him the right to be a jerk. 

I have no idea what we’re going to get up to tomorrow.  I wouldn’t mind if we stay home and  rest, however he did talk about going to karaoke at one point.  I doubt he’ll really want to do that.  I need to get ink for the nengajo that we have to send out. 

Anyway, I’m done for now.  I’ll fill you in on the horribleness of tomorrow when it’s over.  Night.

PS...Added later...we spent the first part of the night in bed holding hands.

December 7, 2014

Sunday - Snowy but warmer

A good day.

I got up this morning because I was cold.  I had been up briefly earlier and came back to bed.  When I did, because F was up, I closed the bedroom door.  F had the heater going,but it couldn’t heat into the bedroom.  Sigh.  

After a while we went out for lunch.  Today, F chose Koike in Haguro.  He confidently drove off there, but on the way I asked him if he was sure he was going the right way.  He said he was, but somehow, when we got to Haguro, we couldn’t find the restaurant.  Ahem.  We’d come the wrong way, so had to go to the other side of Haguro.  Luckily it’s a small place!

We found the restaurant and had a nice meal there.  We had miso pork sauté in a teishoku set.  I gave F my rice because I wasn’t going to eat it, he tried to give me half of his pork.  I ended up taking one piece.  After our meal, we drove out to Mikawa mall.

There was a bit of a traffic jam on the way, not sure why, but, the road around the mall was very busy.  We got there and had to try and find parking.  I suggested to F that since we weren’t planning to stay in the mall really late, we could just go to the other side than the one we usually park on.  He half listened to me.  We ended up parking on the end of the mall.  It was fine really.  

We went in and the mall was packed.  Yuck. I hate it like that.  We bought our tickets to Interstellar and then went and did a little window shopping.  Finally, it was time to go back and get our concession goodies and then see the show.  

Interstellar was great!  I really enjoyed it.  The 3 hours flew by for me.  I liked that I had more questions after the movie than I had before, and that it wasn’t a regular action movie.  

We stopped for a drink at Seattle’s Best and then went to Aeon to price electronics.  After that, it was time to check out the new store.  We went to Don Quijote. I liked it because I like shopping and general craziness, but I’m not sure if F did!  We bought a few food things, but not much else.  I’d like to go back when it is a little less busy and see more of the store.  F had a headache and wasn’t having fun.

Our next adventure today was to have dinner.  We went to Cocos out near the mall.  It was fine, although we had to wait a bit to get seats.  I had my standard chicken, and F had his standard rice gruel with egg  dish.  We were both happy and it wasn’t too expensive.  It was less than 2000 yen for both of us, so not bad.

We came home after our meal and vegged for a while.  I watched Downtown Abbey tonight and it was lovely.  I missed it last week, but no worries really.  

So that was it for my day today.  It really was a good day, but now the week starts and I have so much to do!  I have to get a couple of book mooches out, plus a couple of postcrossings, plus finish wrapping Christmas presents, plus write my Christmas cards.  So, you see, I’m nearly done!  Bah ha ha ha!

Got to go.  Night!

December 3, 2014

Wednesday - Rainy & Windy

A good day.

I got up this morning but I really didn’t want to!  I dragged myself out of bed, it was before 9 am, well before actually.  I decided to nap on the couch instead.  Of course it was much later before I woke up!

I went on-line, read my blogs old entries and then started a few other things.  F called me and invited me out for lunch so I accepted today.  I didn’t have long to get ready, so I dressed and did the usual things I do.

I went outside a few minutes after 12 and F picked me up.  We had lunch at Bikkuri Donkey!! and it was rather nice.  I just had their burg-steak with pineapple.  It’s quite nice.  Sadly, their lunch sets are a bit too high calorie for me right now.  I think it’s the rice they include, it just puts the dishes over my limit.  

After lunch I came home, watched Whitechapel and then got ready to go out.  I made a quick trip to the post office and came home again.

I was starting to think about dinner and what to cook, when I got another call from F.  He asked if there were any movies playing that I wanted to see.  He thought he could get off work right on time, so I said there was at least one.  I agreed that I’d try and get dinner ready to go as soon as he came home.  I did!

Tonight we had some of the leftover Kraft Dinner, some sliced smoked duck, salad, pickles and soup.  It was soup I’d made from a dried veggie mix, but it was surprisingly good!  F was quite impressed with dinner.  He did the dishes fairly soon after dinner and then we went off to Machi-Kine.

We went to see About Time with Rachel McAdams, Domhnall Gleeson and Bill Nighy.  I  really liked it, although F took a bit of a nap in it at the beginning and when we were getting ready to leave, a guy in the seats behind us was fast asleep.  He didn’t wake up for quite a few minutes!  

We bought a few groceries.  We’re going to do a nabe tomorrow night and on Friday we’re going to have Buffalo Wings and maybe pizza.  I’ll have to see!

We had a quiet night at home.  F isn’t doing well with the weather, so went to bed fairly early.  We are forecast to have snow on Friday…Yuck.  I have been enjoying the long Fall.  

That’s me for tonight.  Tomorrow please come back and find out what I get up to.  Night!

December 1, 2014

Monday - Rainy

A good day, a good weekend!

I got up this morning around 8:30, but didn’t stay up.  I decided to skip the “free breakfast” in my hotel and just went without.  

I checked out at the same time as my friend and we walked over to the Aer Building and put our suitcases in lockers for later.  We made arrangements to meet up for lunch and went our separate ways.  She went off for business, I went off for shopping fun!

I shopped through a few stores, but it took a while before I bought anything.  I did buy a few postcards, and a few Christmas presents too.  I also got some import food for myself and some tea, again for myself.  So yummy.  

I met up with my friend for lunch and we tried a new place. It was supposed to be Spanish, may have been, but I had pasta and my friend had a pizza.  It was quite yummy! After lunch, we wandered back to the Aer Building and went to Starbucks for a little liquid refreshment!  Also yummy.

Sadly, it was soon time for my friend to leave, so she took her stuff out of the locker and then left for the bus station.  I went off and did more shopping.  Yay!

I walked along the covered mall for a bit, found the Daiei and went in.  I wanted to look at the fabric/yarn store.  I found it, but didn’t buy anything.  I did enjoy looking and touching however!  By then, I had about an hour left in the city so decided to return to the bus station area.  I found the Tower Records in Parco and got myself a couple of cds…a new Dean Martin set.  I hadn’t seen this one before and it has a few songs I don’t know.  I’m excited! I got another one too, The Proclaimers-Sunshine on Leith.  F and I went to see the movie Sunshine on Leith on Saturday and loved it, so I wanted to remember the original songs.  

After a quick washroom break, I took my suitcase out of the locker and went over to the bus station.  I bought myself a sandwich at the nearby convenience store and a bottle of water.  I put my suitcase under the bus when it was time to board and then I was off.  Between my iPod and my iPhone book I had a good trip home.  I dozed for the first hour, but read and listened to music for the rest.

F was waiting at the bus stop, and he was glad to see me.  We had a quick dinner of sushi and then picked up some food for tomorrow and Wednesday.  

Had a quiet evening catching up with email and TV,  and I also watched the second Ron Burgundy film on WOWOW tonight.  Parts of it were hilarious, but parts were just a bit overdone.  

That’s really it for me.  No idea what I’ll be up to tomorrow. I have to unpack and then see what mischief I can find.  Night!

November 8, 2014

Saturday - Sunny

An okay day.

I got up when F came back from the doctor’s office and his house.  I was horrified to see that he was wearing the shirt that I absolutely hate, a nasty mustard yellow polyester thing that doesn’t fit properly and no one with any fashion sense would wear.  Sigh.  He wore it all day too, just to spite me.

I got up, watched a bit of telly, and then while he dozed, got the table set up for lunch.  We basically just had the same as we did the night before, make your own pizzas. They were just as good today too! We ran out of pizza bases and so F used a tortilla as a base!  It worked and was quite nice too.

After lunch I was overcome with tiredness and F didn’t seem likely to move from the couch.  I went back to my bed and napped for a bit. I thought I’d wake up in a couple of minutes, but it was a couple of hours later.

When I got up, F still didn’t want to move anywhere and to be honest I got a bit mad at him.  I told him that I didn’t want to sit at home anymore, so we went out for dinner.  Yes, it was 6 pm by now.  We went to Bikkuri Donkey!! and had a pretty decent dinner.  After that, we drove home for F to pick up his medicine.  While we were there, we asked Siri to find us the nearest coffee shop, and she named a place we didn’t know.  We decided to find it.  We did, but it was really crowded tonight and we didn’t have that much time before the move started anyway.  

We went to see Lucy at the Tsuruoka theatre tonight.  It was a Luc Besson film, which I didn’t know until after it was over.  It was really interesting and not at all what I expected.  

We came home and watched the last half of Orphan Black. I’ve been waiting to see that show forever it feels like, and I missed half of it.  I’ve asked F to DVR it next week when the repeat is on. I think I’d like to keep it.  

The rest of the night we just watched some TV.  I watched Under the Dome and Downton Abbey.  I think a very interesting show could be made from blending the two.  Imagine, Downton Abbey Under the Dome?  Or maybe not!

That’s about it for me.  Tomorrow I hope that we’ll run a few errands…I need to get winter boots and get cracking on my Christmas shopping too.  Come back tomorrow night and see what I get up to.  Night!

Oh, PS...decluttering...4 books to Bookmooch, a hair magazine, some old tea, and a couple of things from the kitchen drawer.  Yay!

November 2, 2014

Sunday - Rainy

A goodish day.

I got up early for me on a Sunday.  I got up before F did, but of course, he went to bed about an hour after I did.  I had a bread pudding to make!  I had soaked the bread last night, today I had to do the rest of it.  If I could get the kitchen!  F got up just after me and washed the dishes from last night. I was a tad ticked that he’d get in my way, but whatever.

I made the bread pudding, put it in to bake and then took a shower.  An hour or so later, I took the bread pudding out of the oven, and served it up with some milk or soy milk.  It was great!  Next time I’d go heavier on the nutmeg and maybe use another egg, but it was pretty good.  F was impressed too.

After we ate our breakfast and had some tea, I asked if F still wanted to go out for something to eat.  He did.  After a long and complicated voyage around Tsuruoka, we ended up at the pasta buffet place, Pisolino.  I tried to do everything right as far as the buffet table…loaded up on salad, stayed away from deep fried stuff…and even had a little dessert fruit and ice cream.  F and I both had pasta with stew.  I had originally ordered the beef stew, but I didn’t like it.  It didn’t have the rich taste I was expecting.  F had ordered a cream stew pasta, so we swapped. His was better.  He also ordered a pizza and I had a couple of small pieces of that.  

We left the restaurant and went over to the Internet Cafe since F wanted massaging chair time.  The parking lot was completely full.  We left and went to a drugstore for my shampoo, then a few minutes later tried again.  We were able to get in this time, but there was only one chair available. I let F have it and I went to the reclining chair area.  I was there for close to an hour but it wasn’t bad at all. I did a bit of reading. After a bit I was able to move to a reclining chair so I did, and read a bit more.

At 7 I got F to leave the Internet Cafe.  We planned to go to a movie again and I thought it wouldn’t give us enough time if we stayed longer.  

When we got to the mall F wanted to eat right away, but I didn’t really.  I had only a few calories left and I decided I didn’t want to go too overboard today.  I told F that I could eat dinner or I could have popcorn, but not both!  Actually though, if he’d suggested the right restaurant I would have had something small, but of course he wanted either ramen or rice…I’d rather pass.  

We went to Aeon Jusco so I could look at their wool.  I noticed they were getting low on the baby wool for my blanket so thought I’d stock up.  I was only able to buy one ball from my dye lot, hope I have enough. When I finished in the craft area, I looked for F but couldn’t see him.  I sent him a message and then thought he’d probably left me for ramen.  Sure enough, when I went to the other end of the mall, there he was, paying his bill in the ramen shop.  Sigh.  Why couldn’t he have just come over to me and said, “I’m going to the ramen shop.”?  It’s so simple.  

Anyway, we had time to kill, so we went to Seattle’s Best for a drink.  I had mint tea which was very nice really.  

We went up to the theatre and got our popcorn and drinks and went to see Dracula Untold.  It was surprisingly good.  It wasn’t a horror story, but it did have horror elements of course, but it was well made and well acted.  Both F and I thought it was quite good.  Better than it had to be!

We came home and came into the apartment.  I got to watch Project Runway.  This was the baby challenge, parts of which were quite cool.  After Project Runway, I watched Downton Abbey, season one episode 2.  I missed the first 10 minutes today because I thought I was on the right channel, but I wasn’t.  I missed the whole episode last week, even though I’ve been looking for it.  

And that was my day.  Tomorrow is a national holiday here too, so F is going to go to his mother’s and do some chores he’s been putting off.  He has set up the bread maker to make a loaf for his mother…I think he wants to split it with her.  I’m not sure what I’ll get up to!  Come back tomorrow night and find out.  Night!

November 1, 2014

Saturday - Cloudy, with some rain

A good day.

I got up this morning a bit late.  F had left for the doctor, but came back fairly soon.  He left a bit later for the dentist and was back fairly soon after that too!

He made an appointment for me with the chiropractor at 3:00 pm, so we had to do a few things first.  We had lunch first.  We were going to go to the Daiichi hotel but they had a private function going on, so we tried a new place.  We went to Cafe Ridea.  I’ve read about it in a local restaurant magazine and have even biked past it before, but today we went in.  It was interesting.  F was the only male in the place and the portions were a little on the small side, but it was an interesting place.  The food was quite good too.  We enjoyed it anyway.  

After lunch we went over to Musashi to get F’s dog some food.  We hacked around the store a bit before that too.  I got a new pen and some glue.  Nothing major.  

After that it was almost time to go to the chiropractor.  We made a quick pit stop at home and then went to his office.  The chiropractor is an interesting fellow.  He asked a lot of questions and then after a brief warm up, had me doing all kinds of twisting and moving.  The thing is, it did seem to help.  I’ve been feeling a bit off centre since I hurt my hip, and this helped.  He also gave me some homework which should help too.

After the chiropractor we drove out to Mikawa to the mall.  We had an okay dinner there and then did a little window shopping.  Then, we went to see The Expendables 3.  It was pretty silly as you might expect, yet we enjoyed ourselves.

We came home after the movie and then relaxed and watched some TV.  I watched Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion for the second time ever, and first in 14 years or so.  I liked it!  It wasn’t marvellous, but it was fun in places.  

And that is about it for my day.  It was pretty good.  Not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow.  Come on back and find out!  Got to go.  Night.

October 26, 2014

Sunday -Sunny and warm

A good day.

We both went to bed very late last night. I went to bed before F did, by a couple of hours I think.  We changed where we planned to go for a mini-break and F made the reservation for a change.  It’s about 5 hours away so he’ll want to leave early in the morning.  I want to spend more time there honestly, but I guess it’ll have to do!

I woke F up this morning when I heard the bread maker chime.  I went to the washroom then back to bed, F stayed up for a while. I rather worried about him today.

I finally dragged myself out of bed around noon, F was up of course. He’d had some ramen.  I got dressed and then we discussed what to do today.

We went for lunch to the Daiichi Hotel.  We planned to go to one of their restaurants, but when we got there it was closed for a function. Instead, we went to their Japanese restaurant upstairs.  We had quite a nice meal.  I had chirashi sushi and F had sashimi.  Both meals were nice, if a little bit pricy.  

My Chirashi Sushi.  Yum!

After lunch, F went home to pick up his cellphone and then over to his mum’s to take her the bread.  I stayed in the mall, hacked around a bit and then went to Doutors and had a Royal Soy Milk Tea and read my book for a bit.  I’ve been reading this book for ages, but don’t seem to be getting too far in it.  I’m over half way now though. 

I waited for F for a long time, much longer than I though he’d be!  I did get a hang up call from him, so decided he was probably on his way.  I left the cafe and on my way to the door, I bumped into the mother of one of my ex-students from my eikaiwa days. If she hadn’t been with her daughter who looked the spitting image of her brother, I might not have recognized her, but we chatted for a few minutes.  The mum speaks really good English as she lived in the US for a while as a child.  

Outside S-Mall.  The sky was amazing tonight.

F met up with me finally, and we drove off to Mikawa.  When we got there, we bought oil at the hardware shop, and F put some in the car.  Then, we went into the mall.  We ended up going to the same restaurant as we did last week as I didn’t feel like more Japanese food!  I love Japanese food, but I can’t eat it every meal.  I ended up having Tasmanian beef and fried chicken, F had a Chinese style dish that he thought was “meh”.  I liked mine!  

Outside Mikawa Shopping Mall.  The sky is still amazing!

After dinner we went upstairs to the theatre and went to see Hercules.  I surprised myself by how much I liked it.  Oh, it was supremely silly, but also rather smart about it.  I liked that they never really gave us all the answers either.

When the movie finished we looked in the book store and bought a nengajo book, and then came back to Tsuruoka.  After a trip to the grocery store, we came home.  I’m going to make chicken stew again.  I have to remember how much work it is and plan my time accordingly tomorrow! 

We had a fairly quiet evening, F watched some Japanese TV, I watched Project Runway.  Tonight was the Rockette challenge.I think the right person went home.  

And that’s that.  My day, more or less.  It was quite a good one.  I’ve got to go.  Night!

October 25, 2014

Saturday - Warm and sunny

A good day!

I got up fairly early this morning. F went off to the dentist a bit later and I relaxed a bit.  When he came back, I put lunch together.  It was really just leftovers.  We have tons of couscous left and we finished the nabe from yesterday.  It was really nice to have a cheap and cheerful meal at home!  

F wanted to go for a drive in the mountains to see the greenery…or properly the reds and yellows! We drove off and drove through Haguro and went on our way to Mt. Gassan.  Unfortunately, I noticed halfway up the mountain that there were a couple of big X’s marked on the GPS map.  The road was already closed for the season.  Oh no!  We had hoped to go up to the top. 

We got up to the road closure.  Luckily there was a big area to turn around in and so we parked and got out of the car.  We took a few pictures because it was really beautiful up there and got back in the car.  Then, F turned the key and nothing happened.  

Panorama

He’s been a bit worried about the starter, but hadn’t thought about it much lately.  However, there we were, out in the boonies, with no working car.  Yikes.  He couldn’t find his JAF card either.  Luckily, I heard another car coming so F asked them for a boost.  They had to stop in that area too.  It was a little embarrassing, but F was able to get the car started after that.  Happily, _I_ had bought F jumper cables a few years ago as a Christmas present!  Yay for me.

We drove back down the mountain, but did stop a couple of times.  Once was in a visitor centre, just for a look-see, and the other time was at Mt. Haguro’s museum to get some postcards.  At the visitor centre F left the car running as he was worried about getting it started again.

We went shopping when we got back to Tsuruoka. F wanted a hardware store and I wanted a hundred yen shop and the foreign imports store.  We were both happy.  I got a new binder for my recipes and a new “touchpen” for my phone.  At the import store I got some rooibos tea, a soup mix, some granola and some pasta sauces.  F got some ramen from Thailand!  

We came home and I discovered that I had received 4 postcards.  I’ll be dealing with them shortly on my postcrossing blog, but I want to mention one of them.  The person complained about my profile and told me that it wasn’t what postcrossing was about.  I mention that I’m not a big fan of some types of cards and asked not to receive them.  Honestly, I don’t know what they were complaining about!  I’ve also been a member for much longer than they have!  I wrote her a fairly polite email saying thank you for her card and that I like my profile the way it is.  I’m in Postcrossing for the personal connections I meet, the postcards are important, but I’d rather “meet" the person behind them.

We went out for dinner at Jiro and both had the same thing, chicken. It’s not our usual dish there, but it was very nice.  After dinner, we headed over to Machi-Kine for a film.  Tonight we saw The Queen of Versailles, a documentary about a couple of very rich Americans who lost most of their money due to the banking crisis a few years ago.  It was a very interesting film.  I liked it a lot!

After that, we came home.  I’ve been blogging and catching up with various things that I need to do.  Tomorrow, I’m not sure what I’m going to get up to.  F will go over and visit his mother early on and then who knows!  Come back and find out what we get up to!  Night.

October 19, 2014

Sunday - Clear and sunny

An okay day.

I went to bed late last night and slept in quite late this morning too.  F plied me with his bread and it was nice, but I didn't really want any! 

He was muddling around with the bread and his computer for a while, so it was after 2:30 before we left to find lunch.  We didn't really have a destination in mind, but when we got near the road we saw that Grado was open today.  Their hours have been erratic lately, so we took the chance and went in.  We had a nice meal, F had pasta, I had beef stew.  After most of the lunch crowd had left the waitress came over and told us that the restaurant is closing.  No!  It's been our place for the 6 years it has been open.  She said it was due to staffing problems.  Their main chef quit and then the replacement chef has health problems or something.  They still have a restaurant, but it's further away from our apartment and it doesn't have parking.  Sigh.

After lunch we came home again.  F left soon after to take his mother the bread he baked and I spent time on my computer.  He came back and then took a nap. 

I woke him up around 6 and we went out for dinner.  I suggested the Japanese restaurant we went to last weekend. We had a nice meal, but it was rather smoky today.  

After dinner we drove around a little as it was too early to go to the theatre.  When we did, we bought our tickets and went to see Her.  I liked it, more for what it didn't say than for what it did.  I am not sure if I've ever seen a Spike Jonze film before.  

We came home after buying groceries and then watched a bit of telly.  It turned into a good day after all.  Hurray!  That's it for me.  Night.

October 18, 2014

Saturday - Sunny then rainy

An okay day, ended badly.

I got up before 9 this morning because I knew I'd be getting a delivery soon. I even got dressed.  F was still in bed for quite a while.  My computer finally arrived.  I did open the box and have a look at it, but I closed it all up again. I knew that I wouldn't have time to look at it yet.

I went back to bed for a nap.  F wasn't too impressed because he wanted to go out on the dot of whenever to have lunch at a special fish restaurant.  Barf.  After a while I got up again and we tried to go to his restaurant.  We got there and it was full.  He was mad…at me.  Okay, whatever.  He was put out but I suggested that we come back in 30 minutes and see if there was room again.  That seemed to cheer him up, and that's what we did.  We went to the Komagi area and bought some veggies and fruit in the meantime.  

We went to the restaurant and got seats at the counter.  The food was good, but, you know, raw fish isn't that exciting to me these days!  F was happy though, and that made it worth while.  We went home again to pick up some tickets to an ikebana show and put the veggies in the fridge.  One problem…F couldn't find the tickets.  So, we stayed home and used our computers.  

Around 5:30 F wanted to head over to Mikawa, but there was torrential rain at the time.  We waited a few minutes and then went out.  We drove over to the mall and had dinner in a restaurant.  F went there too and had ramen which he didn't like, I had steak and chicken which I did like!  

After dinner we had a run around Uniqlo, did a little shopping there.  F took the stuff out to the car then.

We went up to the theatre and bought our tickets for Grace of Monaco.  A little while later we went in and saw the film.  I didn't really like it.  I was buying it until near the end though.  They did a huge close up of Nicole Kidman's eyes and nose.  All I could think of was that she had a lopsided nostril and I wasn't sure if it was natural or a surgery mistake.  I couldn't even listen to what she was saying…I tried looking in her eyes, but all I could see was this strangely shaped nose hole.  Then, the last scene of the film really threw me and I didn't "get" it at all.  So, not the greatest reaction to a film then.

We came home and on the way F talked about making fig bread and I promised I'd look up some recipes for him.  When I did, and I tried to talk to him about them, he was obviously not really listening.  I gave him a print out of the recipe, but he was just not there with me.  I suggested that he not make bread tonight because he seemed really tired.  He said he was fine and then did more of it.  I was a little miffed because I wanted to use the microwave and he was in the way, so I said something "under my breath" that he heard.  Oops.  I basically said something like he was always in my way.  He got angry and stopped making bread at that point.  I think he did get back to it before he went to bed, but he wouldn't talk to me.  I did apologize for being rude.  

Anyway, that's about it for me.  I hope he's feeling better in the morning.  The bad weather hasn't been good for my husband, his back hurts more when it rains.  Sigh.  I have no idea now what tomorrow will be like.  Wish me luck.  Night!

October 17, 2014

Friday - Rainy in the morning, sunny later on.

A good day.  

I got up this morning and decided to take my shower right away. I think it was a good decision!  

I watched a little TV, had breakfast and then set off.  I walked to the local theatre, Machi-kine to meet up with a friend.  She was able to meet me just before the movie started, so I met her at her car, and we went in.  I bought myself some popcorn and a drink, she had a snack too.

We went to see Grand Budapest Hotel and had a great time.  I had seen it on the weekend, but my friend hadn't and as it was the last day it was playing locally, we really wanted to see it today.  It was great, even the second time around.  

After the movie we went to S-Mall to have a drink and a light lunch in Doutor.  I had the newest sandwich, the smoked salmon and shrimp one and it was good.  When we finished we chatted a little longer and then did a bit of shopping in the mall.

She dropped me off at my apartment and I went in.  I took out the yakiniku pan for dinner and I waited for F.  He came around 5:30 and relaxed for a bit.  Later on, I thought I was going to get things ready for dinner, but he did.  We had some nice yakiniku and lots of yummy veggies too.  

I did the dishes and then settled in to watch a few TV shows.  I did offer the TV to F a couple of times so I don't feel too guilty!

Tomorrow is a big day.  My big purchase is supposed to arrive although I probably won't try to set it up until next week in all honesty.  Also, F wants to go and see a movie and I'd like to too.  He also wants to try a fish restaurant at lunch.  Wish me luck with that! I have to get to bed soon, so I'm off.  Night!

October 11, 2014

Saturday - Cloudy/sunny

A good day.

I had a pretty good day today.  I got up a bit after 9.  F had just come back from the dentist.  We spent time on our computers, I watched a couple of BBC programmes on telly.  

I cooked our brunch today.  I wanted to use up some of the leftovers in the fridge, so I made chicken and vegetable omelettes.  There wasn't anything else to eat!  F had eaten all the bread and the freezer didn't have anything brunch like in it.  The omelettes were good and were well received.  

After lunch we took a nap for a while.  I got up after a bit, but F slept on.  I let him sleep until after 5 pm.  I thought if he needed to sleep that much, he probably needed it.

I woke him up to suggest that we go for dinner before the movie.  He in turn suggested a new to us place, a Japanese restaurant not too far away from us.  We went and it was really good.  I had something called Pork Piccata…but it wasn't what the recipe books call pork Piccata, but it was good.  F had a donburi with teriyaki pork. We were quite pleased with our meal and there are lots of other things on the menu to check out.  

We had about an hour after dinner and before the movie, so we went to S-Mall and had Doutors.  I had a hot Royal Milk Tea with soy milk and it was lovely.  F had a Marron Latte and said he liked it.  We did a quick Daiso run too, but I didn't buy anything at all! 

We went to the theatre and arrived in almost perfect time for the movie.  We bought our tickets, then our popcorn and went to see The Grand Budapest Hotel.  I loved it.  It was quirky and I never knew quite what was going to happen next.  I didn't think I would like it as much as I did, and I had been worried that F wouldn't like it at all.  He did.  

After the movie, we came home.  I made tea, F made bread.  I watched Under the Dome at 11, and so did F. I was surprised as I didn't think he would. I've been spending a bit of time on my computer, writing my review and listening to my music.  

Tomorrow we might go to the next city over, if we can get up early enough!  Or, if the weather is bad, we might just stay home.  I'm really not sure what we'll do then.  Come back tomorrow night and see what I get up to.  Night!

October 4, 2014

Saturday - Cloudy and rainy

I slept in this morning.  I wasn't terribly happy about it as I missed my favourite cooking show, but it wasn't a terrible thing.

F had made bread overnight, but it didn't work out very well.  That was 2 loaves…so he decided to make a 3rd loaf.  Huh?  I wasn't too happy with that, but whatever.  

I tried to take a nap, but as usual F decided I didn't need one and he joined me.  It was really sweet (and mostly PG-13) so it turned out nice.  I got up around 1 and started to heat up the last of the stew for lunch.  Yes, it's true, we had lunch at home today!  I added another clove of garlic, plus more curry and let it simmer for a bit. I even added some raisins to the mixture.  It was good. The garlic added a lot of heat, so F liked it better. He would still have liked more heat, but I wouldn't.

In the afternoon, he went to visit his mother and take her the 3rd loaf of bread (which turned out well).  He also got his hair cut. 

He came back and after a bit we headed out to the mall.  We hit up the hardware store first for F, then went into the mall and picked up my pants that I'd had shortened.  Everything was fine with them, so we took them to the car.  Well, F did!

We had dinner in the upstairs food court.  F had ramen and I had bibinba.  Mine was a bit meh today.  We visited Baskin Robbins afterwards and had some nice ice cream.  Sigh.

We got our movie tickets and then did a little extra window shopping.  We had a tea downstairs and then went up to the theatre.  We went to see Guardians of the Galaxy and it was fun to see it again. I actually think I enjoyed it more this time! 

After the movie we drove back to Tsuruoka and went to the grocery store.  F needed some supplies.  Then, we came home and had a relaxing evening.  

Tomorrow I have an AFWJ event and I don't know how late it'll go.  It's a family event, so that should be fun.  Sadly, we planned to have a few people come but for one reason or another they've dropped out.  Their reasons are all perfectly valid, it just is terribly sad.  Sigh.

That's it for me.  I'm not completely sure that I'll update tomorrow night.  I probably will, but if I don't, don't worry about me!  Night.

September 24, 2014

Wednesday - Cloudy and muggy

A good day.

I got up early this morning, and even though I didn't like the look of the clouds outside, I decided to go.  I watched a bit of TV, made the bed, got dressed and was off to Machi Kine.  I was lucky and had enough points to get in to see Inside Llewyn Davis for free.  I did.  It was a very Coen Brothers film.  I liked it, would like to see it again, after a bit.  

When I finished at the theatre I rode off to S-Mall. I had tea in Doutor and then grabbed a Subway sandwich and brought it home with me.  

At home, I ate, and did some stuff on my computer including scan my cards.  I watched last week's Grey's Anatomy and just as it finished, F came home.  He'd taken half of the day off and had just finished taking his mum to the doctor. She was having knee problems.  Poor thing.  

He had a call during the day, so he called them back and also called the insurance company.  He was busy!  I finished up my cards as he was doing this and ran them off to the post office.  He offered to drive me, but honestly, it wasn't raining and I told him I'd be back in 10 minutes.  I think I made it in five!

F got dinner under way after that.  We had shabu-shabu and it was nice.  I'm not sure if there was really enough food, but I was fine for a long time so it was okay.  

We watched some TV, I watched a bit, F got to watch some too.  He was in a good mood tonight. He went to bed a while ago and I'll go off to bed soon too.  That's it for me.  A busy and kind of fun day.  Tomorrow I think I'll be staying at home as the weather has become rather bad now.  I have to go.  Night!

September 21, 2014

Sunday - Warm and Sunny

A good day.

I slept in this morning and got up around 11 today.  Yay me.  I took all of my stuff out of F's suitcase today and found the two Hawaiian style shirts that he'd bought for his sister and her husband.  He was perplexed because he'd already taken them his presents, two t-shirts.  The thing is, those t-shirts were things that he bought for himself, the Hawaiian shirts were for his sister and her husband.  My husband is so forgetful.  Sigh.  No word from Guam about his cell phone either.  It makes me think that someone might have stolen it.  Sigh.  However, he has cancelled it so hopefully nothing will happen.

We went for lunch at Krippa…is that the name?  The Indian/Nepali restaurant that is near F's doctor's office.  It was good. We had a vegetarian style curry today with naan.  Yum.  

After lunch, we talked about going to the museum, or the park where something was happening, but F had to take his mother shopping.  No problem with that, but we also wanted to see a movie in the late afternoon. I suggested that he go right away.  He did, and I'm glad that he did as he was away for well over an hour.

During that time, I scanned some of my postcards that I have received lately and uploaded them to Postcrossing.  I had a lot of cards so it took a while!

When F came back, we left for Mikawa Mall.  We made good time and then I went to the wool department in Aeon.  I got a few more balls of wool so that I can make this baby blanket a bit bigger and hopefully better!  I picked up some blue and pink today, plus a lot of white for the edging.  If I need more colours there are still brown and grey in the shop.

We had a drink and then put the wool in the car.  After that, it was up to the theatre with us to see Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.  It was a lot of fun, and not a bad film at all.  

After the movie we left the mall and were going to go to a restaurant in Mikawa for dinner, but F missed the turn-off.  We kept driving and we were going to head back to Mikawa when F asked if I'd like to go for yakiniku instead.  I said it was fine, so that's what we did.  We went to a place in Tsuruoka and had a great, if oversized meal.  

We bought groceries for dinner tomorrow night and then came home.  I watched a couple of TV programmes, F got prepared for work tomorrow and is off sleeping now.  And, I should go to sleep soon too!  That's it for me for tonight.  Have a good one.  Night!

September 6, 2014

Saturday - Sunny and warm

A good day.

I got up and went for a walk this morning.  I don't know if I will every Saturday or not, but I couldn't go yesterday and the weather was great for it today.  I had a great time and heard some great music so it was nice.

When I came home I watched Nigel…he's back! I showered and even took a mini-nap while waiting for F to come back.  He didn't for ages.  It was close to 1 pm before he came home.  He wanted to have lunch right away so I suggested going to Restaurant Futaba.  He liked the idea so we went there.  I had the grilled chicken, but F had the paella in a stone bowl.  He liked it a lot.

After lunch we did a little shopping.  We went to the Shoe Barn and got F a pair of shoes for our trip.  We stopped by the drugstore too and got a few things for the trip.  We came home for a bit after that and I watched Once Upon a Time.  

We drove over to the mall after 6 pm and had dinner at Copan, the pasta restaurant.  I had pasta with bacon and mushrooms, F had carbonara and pizza too.  We did a little window shopping through the mall.  I found that the craft store had a lot of wool on for 50% off, but honestly there wasn't that much that I wanted to work with.  The stuff was all a bit too thin for what I wanted.

We had a drink in Seattle's Best and then went up to the theatre.  Tonight we saw Non-Stop (Flight Game in Japanese) and it was rather fun.  It wasn't a great movie, and considering that we'll be flying next week…maybe not the best choice, but it was exciting.  Liam Neeson is cool.  

After the movie we drove home, watched a little TV, including Project Runway.  They had to make dresses for previous contestants on the show.  I rather enjoyed seeing the old designers again.  

And that's really it for today.  I am so glad that I got to walk this morning.  I really enjoyed it.  It made today a lot less stressful.  I may have to add exercise to more of my days.  Ha! Gotta go.  Night.

August 23, 2014

Saturday - Sunny and hot

A good day.

I got up this morning and watched Gordon Ramsay.  F came home when it was over.  We chatted for a bit and then I got tired and went back to bed! I slept for a while and then got up.

We had lunch at Grado and it was nice today.  We both had the same main dish, pork saute. It came with potato and corn soup, plus a canape, either bread or rice and a drink.  It was good.  

We came home and after a bit F took his mother shopping.  They were gone for quite a while.  After a while, he came back and we talked about our evening plans.  We didn't have any so decided to see a movie.  

We drove out to Mikawa and had dinner.  We both had bibinba, which was great.  Sometimes they don't get the bowl hot enough, but it was today.  I added a touch of hot sauce tonight and it was yummy.  After that, we had ages before the movie, so we explored the mall.  I looked for stuff for me, but didn't see too much I liked. We did get some socks though. We went downstairs and had more luck.  There was a bargain rack selling hats, so I got another hat that is supposed to be a bit UV proof, and then I saw jimbei on sale and asked F if he was interested.  He tried on the top over his clothes and it was fine, so he decided to get it.  When the clerk was folding up the jimbei we noticed that it had three pieces, a top and two bottoms.  One was short shorts and the other was longer.  That was great really.  

We took our stuff out to the car and then went into the theatre.  F bought the tickets and then we got into the line for the popcorn.  I had told him that I wanted a medium drink and a medium popcorn, thinking that was what I used to get all the time.  Er…no, it wasn't.  I got a huge tub of popcorn for myself, and F got one too.  We went to see Into the Storm and while it wasn't a great film that will stand the test of time, it was a great popcorn film!  We both finished our popcorn…and F doesn't usually finish his at all! 

We came home afterwards.  I changed into my PJ's but F went out for some drinks for himself.  Actually, he got me some too, which was very sweet of him. 

At midnight I was very happy to report that Project Runway was back, and in English!  I have missed it.  It was okay tonight, but honestly, I feel like when they went to the one hour format, it lost a lot of interesting stuff. Today they had 16 designers in Times Square.  16 people in one hour makes it hard to really get a feeling for anyone.  There's a Japanese designer this time, and he didn't get slung out today, so maybe that's a good thing?  Not sure about his clothes though.  

And that's about it really.  It turned out to be quite a good day today.  I have no idea what we'll get up to tomorrow.  I am hoping that we'll get to the foreign food store and maybe to hang out and have a drink or something nice together. Got to go.  Night!

August 9, 2014

Saturday-Muggy and rainy, bit cooler

An okay day.

I got up early this morning and made the bed and got dressed.  F was still out visiting his mother and the dentist…no, not together…don't be silly.

I spread some newspaper on the bed and then I took all of the dishes out from under my kitchen sink and put them on the bed.  I got the area under the sink cleaned out.  Yay me.  

When he came back, F cleaned off the island(peninsula?) by doing his usual throwing everything into a box or bag.  Still, it was cleared off. I haven't seen it look so good in years.  

When we were done and resting a bit, he suggested going out for lunch.  Yes…HE did.  Not me.  He wanted to go to his fish restaurant, so we did.  And…I had a great meal there!  I always knew that I liked fish, I just have had bad luck with it! We had the same thing, deep-fried fugu and squid sashimi.  I really liked it.  The fugu came with lemon and it just brightened the taste up so much.  We ate well. We left about 25 minutes to one and came home.  

The pipe guys came at 1:00 or thereabouts and were fairly unobtrusive.  They brought hoses into the apartment, but had put down tarps first to save us from the pipe mess.  I let F deal with them anyway as I couldn't talk to them anyway!

After they left, we could hear them working away in other areas of the building.  I read my book, I'm almost done Every Which Way But Dead and I'm loving it!  

F and I left for Mikawa a little after 4.  He wanted to go and see Transformers: Age of Extinction.  We got to the mall, and had a quick bite at the food court then went to see the movie. We split up, I bought the munchies, F got the tickets.  For the next 3 hours we were in the theatre watching the movie.  It was 3 hours of my life that I'll never get back again. Awful movie.  

We came back to Tsuruoka and got a few groceries and then came home.  I made myself a chicken sandwich which I enjoyed.  I watched a bit of TV too.  X-Files was on!  So cool to see it again.  The free BS channel is starting it soon, so this was a preview.  

We had a quiet evening at home and F has gone to bed. He has to go over to his mum's again tomorrow.  I'm not sure what we'll get up to but  I hope it all works out!  

Got to go.  Night!