November 28, 2017

Tuesday - Warmish and sunny

A good day!

I groggily woke up this morning when F left for work, and then woke up later for my alarms.  I didn’t want to get out of bed today, but I did. I did my usual morning stuff and relaxed a bit. I’ve started to watch NCIS LA in the morning and I watch the whole episode and then go down for breakfast. I know I probably should go down earlier, but sometimes over the last few weeks, K wasn’t around, so got into the habit. 

We had a nice breakfast together. It was just the usual cereal, but I warmed K’s milk for her first, which she seemed to like. I like my granola with yogurt and don’t really care about the temperature. We had tea with some leftover warmed milk in it too. Yum.

I went over to the garage after breakfast and brought in most of my clothes. I hung them up all over the room to take advantage of the heater. I watched a couple of episodes of Pretty Little Liars which is just insane. Finish already! 

I went down to have lunch with K and it went quite well today too. We had some steamed veggies, salad, gyoza, tongue and some cup soup. I didn’t make jam and bread today as I thought I’ve been giving K too much food. I put the tongue and the gyoza out on a plate and let her decide how much to have, unlike yesterday. I think it worked better too.

After lunch, I did the dishes and then came back upstairs. I wrote a few more Christmas cards and packaged up my little ornaments for the exchange. Around 3:40 I walked to the post office and mailed everything. Sending the cards was funny. The little post office that is nearest here isn’t a full-service place. They had to look up each card grouping to check how much they would be. Of course, they had no idea where Scotland is. Sigh. I know people say to just tell them “Igirisu” but many of us with Scots blood in our veins would rather not call ourselves English, thank you very much. I stopped off at the convenience store on the way back for a few treats.

After F came back he wanted to know where to go for dinner. I had a couple of suggestions and we went with one of them. However, we had to get something for K’s dinner first. We did quite a big grocery shop together as we were filling in some gaps in our essentials and our junk food. We came back to the house, unloaded the shopping bag and F set K up with her meal. We left the house again and went off to Coco Ichibanya Curry. We had a pretty good meal and got to use the wifi, so we were both happy. F grumbled a bit about the price not being as cheap as he thought it was, but it really wasn’t that bad. Dinner for two for less than 2000 yen is nothing to sneer at. 

On the way back to the house F suggested going to Komagi Spa, the place we visited/walked near yesterday. He thought it might help his back. We checked it out first to see what we would need to bring. Some places don’t provide soap or shampoo for example. Basically, we just needed towels.  

We went back to the house, grabbed our essentials and then went to the spa. It was fine. I was impressed at how clean and well kept everything was. I’ve seen onsens not be good. We had set a meeting time, but by the time I did the requisite scrub down and then dipped my toes in the water it was nearly time to leave. I immersed myself for a few minutes but it really was a bit hot for me. There are rooms that I’d like to try again, and also the rotenburo or outside bath, but that’s for another time.

I rinsed my hair and then dried off and dressed. F took a little bit longer than I did to finish, but no big deal. We had an ice cream each and then came back to the house. We had a good night really.  F is sleeping quite noisily now, and as it is late, I need to get to bed soon too.

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow, but I hope to get more cards written. Come back later and see what I get up to! Until tomorrow….

November 30, 2015

 Monday - Stormy, rainy; clear at night

An okay day.

I woke up with my alarm this morning.  I had a very hard time falling asleep last night.  I must have lain in bed for an hour before I finally drifted off.  I was a bit tired, but fine.  I had my breakfast early on and when I was taking my medicine, F came home.  He nearly hit me with the door and instead of asking me to move so he could go around me, he went in front of the couch.  There isn’t much room there, so I was nervous for my cup, but he made it.  He seemed in a bit of a bad mood, so I was worried about him for most of the day.

I started my laundry early on and did a lot today.  I did about 4 loads, I didn’t know I had that much stuff to do.  Yikes.  I did work out today too.  I did half an hour.  It wasn’t too strenuous, but it did seem to help my back.  Hopefully I can do a bit more tomorrow.

I did a bit of housework, and after my workout, I set up the crockpot with tonight’s dinner.  I did pulled chicken in barbecue sauce, so the apartment had a lovely smell all afternoon.  Instead of using chicken breasts, which they didn’t have in the store yesterday, I used the top of the leg or something. I’m not really sure, it had something to do with the legs of the chicken.  Anyway, it was a good choice as the meat wasn’t dry, and when it was time to shred it, was halfway shredded already.

I never got around to taking my shower.  Oops.  I did unpack my suitcase from Akita finally though.  

F was late tonight and when he phoned me I had worked myself up into thinking he was mad at me from this morning.  He wasn’t!  He came home and I had dinner ready soon afterwards.  

We had pulled chicken on tortilla wraps with home made coleslaw.  I thought it was yummy.  F even had some on rice which looked good too.  We’ll have it for dinner tomorrow night too.

After dishes F watched a bunch of TV and I asked if we could go to the grocery store.  I hadn’t bought yogurt yesterday and I was out of it.  He waited until 9:00 pm so I was a tad miffed as that was when MY one and only show of the night came on, but I DVR’d it and went out.  We got some stuff at the grocery store.  We weren’t in a very happy place, not a terrible one, but still.  

After the groceries, I suggested going to McDonalds for a drink, which F agreed to.  We went in and had a drink each and shared a chocolate pie.  It was really nice to sit and listen to Christmassy songs and get out of the apartment together.  We  ended up talking about F’s school days and school lunches.  I realized that I had no idea what kind of food he ate as a student at school here.  

We came home and things were a lot friendlier.  I watched my show via the DVR and then F found Gone Girl and put it on.  He went to bed, and I’ll be off soon I hope.

In the evening I printed up a few copies of my Christmas letter and picked the Christmas cards for this year, so I’ll be writing and sending cards soon.  Yay for me! I had hoped to do that today, but I had a busy time.  

Anyway, hopefully I’ll be sending off my cards soon. I still haven’t done any Postcrossing cards for a while, but I have a few “must get done” things first.  Tomorrow I might start the cards, and hopefully wrap something and get it in the mail too. Come back later and find out what I actually manage to do.  Until tomorrow….

November 29, 2015

Sunday - Rainy, drizzly, cooler.

An okay day.

I went to bed quite late last night, so I slept in this morning on purpose. I woke up a minute before my alarm went off! How’s that for cool? I got up and F and I talked about going out for lunch and then finally did go out for lunch.

Today we had lunch at the Daiichi Hotel. He wanted to go to the Chinese restaurant upstairs. I didn’t really, but said it was okay. When we go there, it was closed, so we went to the regular one on the ground floor. Yes! I had chicken confit which was okay, and F had Sawara (fish) which he said was good.  We had salad, soup, dessert and tea with it which was nice too.  I had asked for the tea to be with milk, but the waitress brought tea for lemon, so she had to take it back again. I felt a bit sorry about it, but I did ask earlier.

We came home after lunch and ended up falling in bed and sleeping.  We had planned to do that.  I got up around 6 pm and stayed up, F slept on until almost 8pm. I woke him up and asked about dinner. 

We went to the Chinese restaurant near our apartment. I don’t like it that much, but F does, so what the hey.  I had a stir-fry of chicken and a woody mushroom plus rice, soup and pickles.  It was quite nice, or maybe I just couldn’t taste it because I was plugged up! During dinner I brought up getting Netflicks over New Year because of the crappy television on at that time of year. Unfortunately, F said that he wanted to watch regular TV so we had a few words about that. I wasn’t very happy with him and thought about walking to the grocery store without him, but didn’t.  

We went to the grocery store and I bought stuff to make pulled chicken in the crockpot tomorrow.  I asked him if I should buy a new cabbage as I was worried about the half cabbage in the fridge that I’ve been planning to cook for the last couple of weeks.  He’s been sick so I didn’t want to make stuff just for me.  Turns out that he has been eating part of it.  Great.  

We came home and he asked if he should make bread.  I said it was fine, but I’d likely make buns in the afternoon so he said he wouldn’t.  Then he asked about going to the Internet Cafe.  Earlier we had talked about it.  However, it was now 9:25pm and he has to work tomorrow.  I asked how long he wanted to go for, he said 3 hours. I said it was too late, he had to work in the morning.  This went on for a bit and then I just announced that I was going to watch my show (Foyle’s War) and did so.  When it was over I turned off the TV and F got up and asked me if I’d go now to the Internet Cafe.  So I did.

We went for almost two hours and it was okay. We each got massaging chairs. I really needed mine as my back has been bad since I came back from Akita. I have no idea why. I did a little crochet, a little reading and a little watching of TV. I drank some chamomile tea and some soda water and that was it. F enjoyed it too. 

We were much friendlier when we came home. I sort of wish we hadn’t gone, but really I don’t care all that much. I don’t have to work tomorrow. I also decided not to make my own buns, I’ll use tortillas.  We have a pack that are getting near the expiry date, so no worries on that score. 

So that was my day. I had hoped to do some postcrossing or some writing up of Christmas Cards, but I didn’t do any of that. I did get lots of rest and hopefully will feel even better tomorrow.

Come back in a bit and find out how my Monday goes. Until tomorrow….

November 28, 2015

Saturday - Cloudy and Rainy

An okay day.

This morning I overslept a bit, but it was hard not to.  F got up blooming early and sat in the living room with his computer on.  I got up for a minute or two, then went back to bed, closing the door behind me.  I didn’t hear anything for a couple of hours, and as I know there wasn’t anything to watch early on Saturday, I went stayed in bed.  

When I got up, the first thing F did was ask if I wanted tea, and then he asked how soon I’d be ready to go to the doctor’s office.  Neither question impressed me much, although the tea one was a good try.  I was barely awake, and not ready to go.  He kept droning on about how the doctor’s office was only open in the morning until 1:00pm.  To my mind, that was plenty of time, it’s not like we had to drive to another city or anything to get there.

I took a shower, had breakfast and then was ready to leave around 11:15.  See, no big deal.  Still lots of time.  We drove over there and both put our cards in to see the doctor.  I got my iPhone out to read a book on my iBook app and I got told off by my husband, who pointed out the sign on the wall that said to turn off all cell phones.  Well, actually, I had put it on Airplane mode before I’d even come in the clinic, so in my mind I had turned it off.  It’s not like anyone would ever phone me while I was there!  I think Airplane Mode = Off for all intents and purposes, right?  Anyway, he was so angry with me that he got up and moved to another area of the clinic.  

He did come in to see the doctor with me and translated for me, but I thought he was being childish. I’m sure he thinks the same of me.

We were both seen by the doctor, not the usual guy, but a female doctor for a change.  She prescribed some medicines and off we went to get them.  

After waiting for our drugs we went for lunch.  I’m not sure if F had actually forgiven me yet, but he spent most of his time over lunch on his iPhone.  I ate really quickly and was done before him. Mind you, I didn’t have two bowls of rice!

We came home for a bit via the drugstore to pick up more tissues for me.  We vegged for a bit at home, and F watched Tennis on the TV.  

We decided since we were feeling better to go to see Spectre in the evening at Mikawa.  We left home around 6 and got to the mall quickly.  We had a quick dinner in one of the restaurants at the mall. Mine was nice, F didn't like his as usual.  

We bought our tickets first and after we paid for them and had walked away, realized that the guy had given us the “senior” rate for them!  Oops.  We’re not quite there yet.  We didn’t ask for the rate after all….

I wanted to do a little shopping for my sister and my nephew, but ended up finding something for my nephew and my friend.  Still, I’m okay with that.  

We went to see Spectre, the new James Bond movie and we both enjoyed it.  I thought it was fun, although not the best of the Craig Bond movies.  

After the movie, we made a quick stop at Don Quiote for some granola and apparently, beer.  After that, we came home.  F stayed up for a while then went to bed, I’m still up obviously.  But, not for long!

No idea what we’re going to get up to tomorrow.  Come back and find out.  Until tomorrow….

November 27, 2015

Friday - Colder, with hail

An okay day.

I’m still sick.  Last night before bed I took a little cold medicine and was able to sleep quite well.  I got up this morning before my alarm went off and went out to the couch for my morning telly.  I was tired and draggy and even though I had breakfast, I decided not to work out today, and even went back to bed.  I thought I’d been there for an hour or so, but when I next woke up, 2 hours had passed!  

I got up, had lunch and did some computer stuff too.  I didn’t get too excited about anything today. I did watch Once Upon a Time so I’m up to date with that.  I still have a couple of series that I need to catch up with, but that will be okay.  

Fumihiko came home and he’s still a bit under the weather.  He didn’t want to go out for dinner, so I had some of my leftovers and he didn’t really eat I think.  

We had a quiet evening at home.  I took some cold medicine because I couldn’t breathe or swallow earlier which made living a bit difficult.  I sort of wish I had waited until closer to bed time as I think the stuff is wearing off again.  

F wants to take me to the doctor and I might just let him.  I think it is just a cold, but I am quite miserable at the moment!

One good thing that I did today was I wrote my Christmas letter.  That means as soon as I get past the drippy runny nose bit of my cold I can write my Christmas cards and get them in the mail.  Not a moment too soon either!

That’s it.  Hopefully I’ll be back tomorrow unless I get some strong medicine from the doctor that puts me to sleep early.  Until tomorrow then….

November 26, 2015

Thursday - rainy

An okay day.

I’m sick.  Wah!  My nose has been streaming all day and I’ve been sneezing up a storm too.  I’m quite miserable to be honest.  

Anyway, I got up early this morning and had some tea and watched my show.  I did a 30 minute workout today, but nothing too extreme, I went for the gentle exercise and felt rather proud of myself.  F came home as I was finishing up, which annoyed me a bit, but I was enjoying my workout so it was okay.

In the afternoon I had a shower, ate lunch, scanned cards and watched a bit of Once Upon a Time.  It’s much better when I can see the full episode!  

Just before 5 I walked to the post office and mailed off my cards. I was glad to get out of the house.

I cooked dinner, but F wasn’t up to eating it, so I had a nice meal.  I skipped making one of the dishes I had planned because I didn’t want to make it just for me.  I cleaned up afterwards and then F made himself some dinner too.  I really don’t know why my food wasn’t acceptable but on the other hand when I’m sick, I only want to eat a few things.

F watched a lot of TV tonight, all Japanese and all pretty annoying.  I ironed the parts of my tree and then went to the couch for Bones.  I decided not to do any more work on the trees because I am sick and I don’t want to pass on the germs to the two recipients.  They are elderly and probably shouldn’t be exposed.

F went to bed and I stayed up watching TV and messing around on my computer.  I took some cold medicine and it is helping a little bit.  I should try and have an early night tonight.  

I’m not sure what I’m going to get up to tomorrow.  I think it depends on how I feel. I will hopefully talk to you again later.  Until tomorrow….

November 25, 2015

Wednesday - Colder

An okay day.

I got up a bit late this morning and rushed through to the living room to catch House.  I had a quiet morning and even did a little bit of snoozing between shows. 

I did a little bit of a workout video, only 20 minutes today.  It was enough.  My body was still sore from being in the car over the weekend.  F called in the middle of it, but it wasn’t too bad, especially since I had turned off the speaking and just had the music going.

Throughout the afternoon I became suspicious that I caught a cold and by this evening I am sure of it.  My nose is running and I am not sure how I am going to sleep tonight.  

I got 5 or so incoming postcards in the mail today, which was a nice treat.  I have to scan them and blog about them too.  In the evening I wrote up 3 cards, I’d like to do at least one more tomorrow afternoon if I can.

I started cooking dinner around 5:30 and F came home soon afterwards.  He wasn’t feeling well, but went out to get a lightbulb for one of our rooms.  

When he came back I was nearly ready to finish cooking but he said he wasn’t feeling well.  I kept on with it and made a really nice dinner.  Tonight I had “bangers and mash” with salad, tomato wedges and steamed broccoli.  It was pretty darn nice!  I did gravy (from a packet) for the gravy and then when I told F it was ready he couldn’t come.  I decided to serve myself some of the food and then when he came back, I offered him some.  I told him he didn’t have to have anything he didn’t want to eat.  He basically ate everything, but only a little bit.  He really isn’t feeling well right now.  

Bangers and mash, salad and steamed broccoli.  Yum!

I did the dishes, which weren’t bad as I was cleaning as I cooked, wiped the table which F never does and called it quits.  

I started doing postcards, but took a break for the CSI show and a little crochet and end darning.  I decided to press everything tomorrow.  It should make things look just a little better.  

F went to bed after a long snooze on the couch, I’m still up, but will try and get some sleep soon.  I’m not feeling bad, but my nose…blergh.  

Not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow.  I really wanted to get my hair cut this week, but I don’t think it is fair to go when I’m sick.  Hopefully I’ll get over this quickly.  Come back anon and check out what I get up to.  Until tomorrow….

November 24, 2015

Tuesday - Cloudy and then sunny

An okay day.

F took today off work as he wasn’t feeling well.  He stayed home and in the afternoon he went to the doctor.  I’m getting ahead again. 

In the morning I got up and watched House.  F came home just before it started and of course claimed the couch.  It’s rather annoying actually.  I made some tea and had breakfast.

In the afternoon, I took a quick shower and then went out with F for lunch.   We went to Nagomi for soba or udon and tempura.  It was very nice.  We came home after lunch and F took a nap.  I woke him up after an hour and then we went out.  I asked him to drop me off at S-Mall, which he did, and then he went to the doctor.

I did a lot of looking around the mall.  I only bought a Christmas card in the end, but enjoyed being out of the apartment.  F picked me up and we came home.

At home, F basically fell asleep on the couch again and slept until almost 8:00pm.  I woke him up and made him take me for dinner!  I asked for Gusto, it is cheap and I thought we both could get food we liked.  I had some chicken, F had some yakisoba type stuff with oysters.  

We bought groceries after dinner and then came home.  I watched Grey’s Anatomy which was the episode with Derek.  It was quite well done and I was rather verklempt at the end of it.  I worked on my Christmas Tree project during the show too.  I’m still not finished, but I’m closer obviously!

That’s about it for me.  F is going back to work tomorrow, I hope he’ll be okay.  I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do.  I hope to do a workout and maybe get a start on my long delayed Christmas letter! Come back a bit later and see what happens.  Until tomorrow….

November 23, 2015

Monday - Rainy

A good day…a good weekend!

We got home tonight around 9:00 pm and had a great time overall.  

I bought a huge number of postcards, and found a couple of small gifts for Christmas.

Today was F’s birthday and it was quiet.  I wanted to buy him some cake, but he asked me not to. I was a tad disappointed, but realized that if I wasn’t feeling great, I wouldn’t want cake either.  We had a drink at Starbucks in Sakata before we came home.  

We went to Yurihonjo the first night, and visited Kakunodate on Sunday.  It is a town that still has many old original houses and was rather interesting.  We arrived in Akita last night and tried to go to a movie, but all the English films were on earlier in the day and we missed them.  Darn!  Instead we ended up at an izakaya and had a nice meal.  

Today, we checked out of the hotel and went to a couple of art museums.  They were good, but not great I’d say.  F wanted to go to them, so no worries.  We had lunch at a Japanese style restaurant, I had something called a “Palette Lunch” and it was good!  F had ramen with chicken and as usual didn’t really like it.  

My Palette Lunch...it was very nice!

Tonight we tried to find an old style Japanese restaurant in Sakata, but it closed a couple of years ago, so ended up at an Italian place.  It was good, but F cheaped out of the nicer meal and all we ended up with was a bowl of pasta and a drink.  I wasn’t too happy about that!  Still, it was good pasta, but I wanted a meal. He hadn’t read the menu properly and thought we got at least a salad with it.  I do not read Japanese perfectly, and realized that we wouldn’t get anything.  Sigh.  

We did Starbucks after dinner, he wouldn’t let me buy him cake and then we came home via the Mikawa mall as I needed a pit stop! 

The evening here was very quiet, but nice.  

That’s it, all you get!  Until tomorrow….

November 20, 2015

Friday - Cloudy and warmish

A good day.

I got up this morning and spent some quality time with my couch.  I had breakfast and also some tea.  

When the  time came, I did a 40 minute workout again, and it was tough!  I did a lower body workout that was full of squats, which are not my favourite thing.  Still, I got through it.  

I had an early for me lunch and finished up the last of my stew.  It was really good.  I had planned to go out today, but changed my mind when I realized how much stuff I had yet to do.  Instead, I stayed in.  

I walked to the post office around 4:30 and mailed off a couple of envelopes and a few postcards.  Yay for me.  I saw a lot of birds again tonight, although not in the quantity that were out last night.  I took a few pictures to give you the general idea.  Click on them to see them larger. 

When I came back I got the kitchen ready for dinner and started a little bit of pre-cooking.  When F came home it didn’t take too long to have fresh pasta with Alfredo sauce and pancetta, plus salad ready.  Dinner was good!

I did the dishes because F needed to do some planning for our trip and then relaxed for the evening.  I crocheted a bit on the couch during Castle and also snoozed a little bit.  

I watched Bagdad Cafe again this evening and enjoyed it.  I’m glad as I have just recommended it in my last Journal column!  It had been quite a few years since I saw it last.  

I also FaceTimed my sister.  We had a quick little chat just a while ago and that was really nice.  I hope that we’ll be able to do that a bit more.  I wish some of my friends did that, or had another way to do video chatting.  

And that’s about it for me.  I am off up north for the next few days, so don’t miss me too much.  I’ll most likely be back on Monday, possibly Tuesday if I’m tired, so don’t wait up for me.  Talk to you soon I hope.  Until next time….

November 19, 2015

Thursday - Clear and cool

An okay day.

I woke up the first time this morning to the blaring of my husband’s alarm clock.  He had forgotten to turn it off when he got up.  I sleepily turned it off, went to the washroom and then went back to bed, closing the door behind me.  I didn’t wake up again until 9.  Yes, I overslept.  Usually no big deal, but F had forgotten to take out the garbage and I was too late to do it.  Oh well.  I guess it is going to be smelly in the hallway.  

I had a good morning.  I read a newspaper that an ex-student had brought back from Hawaii for me and then checked my email and such. I did a workout, but not as long as the last couple of days.  It was 30 minutes long however, so nothing to sneer at.  

For lunch today I had some stew and I had it fairly early as I had planned to go and get my hair cut.  However, I was quite upset still about the fight I had with F last night, so I couldn’t get motivated to leave.  

I didn’t watch much TV this afternoon, I did quite a bit of reading and enjoyed that for a change.  

In the late afternoon, I walked to the post office to mail off a postcard and was surprised to see a huge flock or murder if you prefer of crows.  They were flying overhead and it was rather scary.  They were almost swarming over the neighbourhood and at first it was rather cool as they were quite high up.  Later, it wasn’t as cool as they were a bit closer.  A large group of them decided to land on the school near the post office and I could actually hear their wings beating. I’m not really good at guessing how many birds were there, but I’d say 500 would be a conservative guess.  I actually came home a different way so I wouldn’t have to go by them again.  

When I got home I basically waited for F to come.  I wasn’t sure if he was going to come home with an attitude or not.  He didn’t, but he was a bit late.  He brought in the shopping bags so I asked if he’d been shopping for our dinner.  He said he hadn’t.  

After a bit of neither of us being friendly or unfriendly, I asked about going for dinner.  He said okay, and off we went.  At first, I planned for Gusto or Cocos, but I had left my phone at home and didn’t have the Gusto App.  I suggested Bikkuri Donkey!! as an alternate, and we had dinner there.  

Bikkuri Donkey!! had a couple of nabes on special, so we each had one.  I had a spicy one with tofu, udon, a fried egg and a hamburg patty, F had one that wasn’t spicy and had grated daikon with udon.  He added on rice and miso soup to his.  

After dinner, which was surprisingly yummy, we bought a few groceries for tomorrow night.  I’m going to use up the pasta sauce and add pancetta to it.  It sounds good to me.  We have to use up the sauce tomorrow.

When we came home we each watched a bit of TV.  I watched the first episode of Bones in Season 9 and did a little crochet.  That was nice.  I also caught the first episode of The Affair.  I’m a bit meh at the moment.

I am hoping that we can keep things friendly over the weekend too.  It is F’s birthday and we’re going away.  I won’t be here this weekend, so please don’t miss me too much!  I should be here tomorrow night however, so come on back and see what I get up to.  Until tomorrow….

November 18, 2015

Wednesday - Cloudy and rainy

An okay day.

I got up quite early again this morning and came through to the living room.  I filled up the kerosene tank because it was nearly empty and I had time just then. Yay me.  

I watched my shows, did some computer stuff, had breakfast, made the bed, got dressed and also did a little crochet.  My project is going quite well, but I have to get cracking on it!

Just a bit before 12 I started a workout and today for some reason, F came home in the middle of it.  Oh well.  I kept on with what I was doing, he had to go around me to get into the kitchen!  I think I like this workout a lot.  It’s divided into 10 minute segments, which is a lot easier to do than mile segments.  It doesn’t hurt that the dvd also has a programmable bit, so I can pick the areas I want to work on.  I can do the warm up, a couple of segments and the cool down and it takes 40 minutes.  Or, I can go for 30 minutes, or even 20 if I’m in a hurry, and still get some movement going. Today I worked quite hard and did an upper body and then a lower body segment.  That one was tough!

F left for work again after I finished and I relaxed for a bit.  I had an early lunch again.  Today I made some instant spaghetti and put the rest of the duck in it.  With an egg on top.  It was pretty good.

I took a shower in the afternoon.  Later on there was a delivery.  We got our “My Number” cards and have already had a fight about them.  Sigh.

When F phoned to say he was finished work, I asked him to get some salad for us.  I cleared the kitchen up again and started the stew re-heating.  Of course, when F came home we got into an argument about the stupid cards and he refused to eat with me.  Colour me so surprised.  Like that’s a punishment?  I got all the stew I wanted, didn’t have to wait for him to take a stupid picture of said meal and was able to sit down and eat while my food was still hot.  I’d call that a win!

We got on a bit better later on.  I asked him to help me with the DVR.  It’s been recording a bunch of weird stuff, turns out that it is because of my trip to Canada.  Either F or I set it up to record every night, but it should have only been once a week.  That’s fixed at least.  And, I deleted the programming for The Big C so that I could get all of Once Upon a Time recorded. So annoying to have the last 15 minutes of a show not recorded.  

Oh, I threw out a pair of trousers today.  When I was in Australia, I sat on some gum and was worried about how to get it off the pants.  I didn’t want to wash them without treating them first.  Today I realized that they’d be the wrong size for me anyway, and after 4 years in my laundry basket, I’m probably never going to get around to it.  I junked them.  Now I can look my laundry basket in the face again!

And that’s it for today.  All the news that is fit to print.  I might go out tomorrow if the weather is okay  Come back later and find out.  Until tomorrow….

November 17, 2015

Tuesday - Sunny in the morning, rainy later on.

A good day.

I got up a little early this morning, and went to the couch to have my morning recline and not do much.  I spent a couple of hours there, but did get into my workout gear and also made the bed, had breakfast and tea.  I got some yummy tea in Banff called “Cream of Earl Grey” which I really like.  That’s what I had today.  

Around 11:30 I did some of my new walking DVD and ended up doing 40 minutes again.  It was quite good.  The warm up and cool down bits are 10 minutes each, I also did a fast walking one and a brisk walk in between.  My legs are going to be so shapely…someday!  (Actually they are already much better than they used to be.)

In the afternoon I had lunch a bit earlier than lately and did my computer stuff and scanned the cards I was sending.  I also wrote a letter to an ex-student from a long long time ago asking if she’d like to meet up for coffee when I’m in Sendai.  Apparently, she has moved there and since I’ll be in Sendai next month it might work out.  December is a hard month though because there are many bonnenkais (year end parties) so it gets tricky.

I ran off to the post office to mail everything and popped it all in the mailbox.  I went in and bought a grouping of stamps, they have new Winnie the Pooh stamps.  They are very small, but cute.

When I came home I got to work on dinner.  I was making a pork stew, so I did all the veggie prep first.  I finally was able to get things in the stew pan just a little before F came home.  I thickened it a bit just before serving, but I think I could have skipped that bit.

Tonight’s dinner was pork stew with F’s Pan de Campagne (type of bread that I love) that I had him make overnight, plus wasabi greens.  It was nice!  Really nice.  We have enough stew for tomorrow night too.  Yay!

F did the dishes, but there weren’t that many I think, because I did them as I went along mostly.  We finished up the persimmon crumble a bit later.  

We had a quiet evening.  F watched some weird movie about a female boxer that he’d recorded and then I watched Grey’s Anatomy and did some more crochet.  It’s looking quite good so far.  No peeking until I sew everything together.  

That’s about it.  It was a good but quiet day.  Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be bad so I’ll likely stay home again, but might actually do some tidying up.  That’s the hope at the moment.  Come back in a bit and see what happens.  Until tomorrow….

November 16, 2015

Monday - Sunny but I didn’t go out.

Happy Birthday to my sister….

A good day.

I woke up a bit early today and actually got up and stayed up.  I was a bit tired, but thought it was better than going back to sleep and oversleeping.

I watched the news from the BBC and ABC today, so feel a bit more caught up on world events.  I wish there weren’t any events to be caught up on however.

I had my usual kind of a morning.  I had breakfast watching House, then some crochet time, which was a bit different I suppose.  I spent some time on my computer too.  I also did a workout today too.  I put in a new dvd which breaks things into 10 minute segments rather than miles, so I did about 40 minutes of exercising this morning.  I felt quite good.  I did skip one of the workouts as it was more energetic than I felt!

I had a quiet day at home.  I didn’t get up to too much.  I had lunch before 3:00pm today, so positively early.  F had made cranberry bread in the bread maker last night so I had a couple of pieces with some peanut butter.  Yum.  

F popped home before he went to his mother’s as he wanted to photocopy something.  His printer was out of ink so I volunteered to do it for him on mine.  I’d never done it before though, so I had to work out how.  It was simple and he was able to put his important papers into the office he needed to just in time.

After he left, I got started on prepping the kitchen for dinner.  I had to clear off the table, which was a huge mess after the weekend.  Then, I had to put away dishes, do some dishes and then I could finally start dinner prep.  Sigh.  

Tonight we had baked chicken, with salad and stir-fried cabbage.  The cabbage wasn’t as good as I had hoped it would be.  I used vinegar instead of cooking wine, so it tasted more sauerkraut than I wanted it to.  It wasn’t bad though.

F did the dishes and a bit later we had some persimmon crumble.  It’s pretty good.  I watched Gossip Girl and did more crochet on the couch, then did a few postcrossings tonight too.  I’ll have to get them done and sent out tomorrow too.  

I’m now just waiting to talk to my sister and wish her a happy birthday.  Technology is wonderful sometimes!  

Tomorrow I’m doing a big cooking job, so I may not have a lot of time in the afternoon. Come on back later and see what I get up to!  Until tomorrow….

November 15, 2015

Sunday - Rainy and cloudy

A good day.

I slept in this morning.  When I got up before 11 it was to an empty apartment.  F had gone off with his mother.  I watched some news and tried to make sense of the news of Paris, but the full thing hasn’t sunk in yet.  

When F came home we decided to go out for lunch.  I suggested Misono, a Japanese place nearby, so off we went.  I had stir-fried vegetables, F had a donburi with scrambled eggs on it.  We were both quite pleased.  

After that, we went to get something to drink at McDonald so spent a few minutes there before going to Plassen, a toy and puzzle store.  We did a little shopping for my nephew there for Christmas or his birthday, I’m not sure which.

When we finished there, we visited the local museum to see the art on display.  It was okay.  Some of it was quite cool, other things didn’t strike my fancy today.  

We followed the museum with a quick trip to a second hand store and then Yamaya for some import foods.  I picked up some pear juice, some feta cheese and some sausages.  Yum!

We brought things home and relaxed for a bit.  It was quite nice. 

I said to F that if he wanted to go to the buffet that we tried to go to last week, we should go now.  He said okay.  I actually wasn’t really suggesting it, but I also sort of was.  Anyway, we went there and it was quite good.  They didn’t have much in the way of meat today, but they had lots of fish, so I had some of that.  I actually like fish, but always seem to end up with the piece that has all the teeny-tiny bones in it.  

We both ate a bit too much, but it wasn’t bad today.  Most of the food was quite healthy so even if it was too much, it probably didn’t hurt us too much.  I hope.

We came home via the grocery store where we got food for the next couple of days.  Tomorrow I’m doing chicken and then on Tuesday I think it’ll be pork stew.  I hope that we’ll have enough for two nights with that.  

We had a quiet evening in.  I watched Foyle’s War and then an episode of CSI: Miami with a tsunami.  That didn’t feel odd or anything.  (sarcasm)

I started a new Christmas project.  I think I’m going to try and make tiny Christmas trees for a couple of relatives, either as their Christmas present, or in lieu of their presents.  It is so hard to decide just what to send to older relatives who don’t need much.  

That was about it for my day.  It was a good one. Anyway, come back later and find out what I get up to on Monday.  Until tomorrow….

November 14, 2015

Saturday - Rainy

I’ll start off with the big news.  There was a terrible attack on Paris today, at the moment the news reports state 120 people are dead and many people are injured.  I don’t know a lot of the details as I’ve been out all day and haven’t heard any English news.  I did try to follow the story on Japanese TV a bit, but they are too busy worrying how Japanese tourists will come home from dangerous Paris to be of much use to me.  

For me, it was a busy day.  I got up before 8:00 am which is neigh on unbelievable.  F and I went to his doctor this morning and had our flu shot.  Mine is quite red and hot as usual, F’s is a little red but not painful for him.  

When we finished at the doctor’s, I asked F to drive me to S-Mall so I could do a bit of shopping in the mall.  He dropped me off and then went to his mother’s home to take her to the dentist and shopping.

I got to spend the next 4 hours in S-Mall.  It is a very small mall, so it was a bit much, but I did spend a good hour or so in Doutors and that was nice.  I found a few things for Christmas and got them, I found a few things for me and got them too, so I was quite happy.  I picked up a box grater at the hundred yen shop, and a few things as presents too.  

When F was finally finished with his mother, he picked me up.  We’d missed all the lunch specials at the mall, so I suggested going to Coco Ichibancho Curry for lunch.  We went there and it was good.  I had curry with less rice and chicken and root vegetables. I also got scrambled eggs on that, which was yummy.  F had grilled chicken and curry.  

After lunch, we came home and F slept a lot on the couch, and I did a few things on my computer.  We left the apartment around 6 to go to Mikawa.

In Mikawa Mall, we had dinner at the pasta restaurant, and both had the same thing tonight, tuna and grated daikon on pasta with a yuzu soy sauce based sauce.  It is quite nice, light and filling.  

I shopped a little in Uniqlo and got some things for my nephew which F took to the car.  When he came back, we went up to the theatre and got our tickets for the movie.  

Tonight we saw The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and quite enjoyed it.  I liked the easy manner of the actors and that the music in the movie was easy to listen to.  It wasn’t ramped up hard rock or heavy metal.  My one and only thought during the film was that it seemed a little bit like White Collar and Henry Cavill and Matt Bomer could be related.  A scan through IMDb tells me that I’m not the only person to think that!  Apparently Matt Bomer was up for Superman at one point too.  

When the movie was over, we came back to Tsuruoka and home.  F went to bed quite early, and I made a list up of all the presents I have bought already and how much they are worth, so I know who I need to spend more money on and about how much!

I need to get some sleep soon.  I hope to sleep in tomorrow because I won’t get to sleep in next week.  Poor me!

Not sure what we’ll get up to later on.  F is not doing well with the weather and is in a lot of pain.  I’m not sure if we’ll go out or stay home for the most part.  You can come back on the morrow and find out!  Until tomorrow….

November 13, 2015

Friday - Sunny but cool

A good day.

I woke up quite early this morning and got up.  I stayed up and snoozed a little on the couch.  I also got dressed quite early as I was expecting a delivery.  It arrived at a good time which was nice!

I decided not to do a workout today.  My hip has been bothering me, probably too many knee lifts in a row, so decided to take the day off.  I knew I’d be going out later on my bicycle, so swapped one kind of exercise for another.

I had a quiet morning and afternoon.  F didn’t come home for lunch again, and I had lunch around 2.  He came home just as I was getting ready for my lunch. He left soon though.  

I scanned my cards and got them ready to take out.  A little later, I jumped on my bike and went off. 

There was a humungous spider on the wall of the bike shed.  It looked a little sad and sick to be honest, it was moving very slowly.  I left it alone.  Here's the picture!

Argiope bruennichi or Wasp Spider
Not Charlotte...

I went to a Daiso and got a few things for Christmas and for myself, then biked off to a drugstore and got a few things for myself.  

I arrived home just before 5 and it was almost dark.  It is so sad, but I’m glad I went out.

F came home around 6 pm tonight and I got started on dinner then.  It was quite simple tonight.  We had a salad, one of the pre-packed ones from the store, but I added some locally grown wasabi greens to it.  Yum!  We also had some fresh fettuchini and Alfredo sauce, plus smoked duck. It got great reviews.

F did the dishes and then got working on something for work.  I built my list for Christmas cards for this year.  I was going to write my Christmas letter too, but got distracted and sleepy.  

Around 11:30 we had some of the persimmon crumble.  It’s still good.   I heated it in the microwave, F wanted it cold, but didn’t tell me till afterwards.  Sigh.  

That’s about it.  I’m hoping to go to bed soon as F wants to go and get the flu shot tomorrow morning bright and early…as in leaving the apartment before 9:00 am.  I am not exactly in favour of that, but I know that he has to take his mother to the dentist at 11 am, so it makes sense.  I should probably put my clothes out tonight for that so I don’t panic in the morning!  

Talk to you later as long as the flu shot doesn’t incapacitate me too much!  Until tomorrow….

November 12, 2015

Thursday - Sunny

An okay day.

I got up this morning a couple of minutes late.  Oh well.  I came through to the living room and made myself some tea and breakfast right away.  

I had a good morning, did the bed and dressed in my workout clothes and even started my workout a couple of minutes earlier today.  I did two miles again and it was fairly intense.  I’m sore in places that I didn’t know existed!  I’m debating about trying the resistance band workouts tomorrow, or changing to my other DVD with the shorter workouts.  

I expected F to come home during his lunch time, but he didn’t.  He did pop in quite late, around 4 pm which was surprising.  On the other hand, I had an early for me lunch, and then a shower too.  I had a quiet afternoon.  I also found out today that the DVR automatically switched over from taping The Big C to Once Upon a Time.  Unfortunately, it didn’t lengthen the time it recorded, so the last 15-20 minutes of each episode is cut off.  Ack.  I’ll have to watch the rest of them and figure it out I think.

When F came home, I was working on the persimmon crumble I promised him.  It took a bit of work, but I got it ready to go in the oven, and put it in the fridge.  I really didn’t want to cook it before dinner.  

After it was ready, I switched to my stir-fry and got it ready to go.  Even though I felt rather bad about making F wait, I did get dinner done quite quickly.  We had baked chicken, with a broccoli/onion/mushroom stir-fry in a soy-chilli sauce and salad.  F added on rice, I didn’t.

F did the dishes tonight, I did some postcrossing.  I got four cards ready to go out.  I’ll have to scan them tomorrow, but I’m happy with them.  For some reason, none of my cards have gone through in ages.  I feel sad about that!

I also booked us another hotel for the weekend of F’s birthday.  He wants us to go away for two nights now, not just one.  The place I booked is a business hotel, but from the other ones I’ve stayed in of the chain, they are comfortable.  

We had the persimmon crumble and it was quite nice!  I used a new recipe and I like it.  Hurray for that.  

Since I didn’t go out today, I must run a few errands tomorrow.  Come back in a while and find out what my Friday is like.  Until tomorrow….

November 11, 2015

Wednesday - Cloudy and cool.  Remembrance Day

A good day.  

I got up this morning and discovered a bag of bread on the table.  It wasn’t home-made, it was from the convenience store.  I was rather touched!  I had asked F to make bread last night, but he was really tired when he went to bed, so forgot.  That meant he’d gone out, bought it, and brought it home again.  Sweet guy!

I watched my show as usual.  I had breakfast too.  F popped by for a couple of minutes and I thanked him for the bread.  

I got a note on Facebook from an ex-student that she had something for me from her trip and she wanted to know if she could drop it off for me.  I suggested meeting up for tea or coffee and she agreed.  I suggested meeting around 3 pm which was okay with her.

As I had plans in the afternoon and didn’t want to be all sweaty for them, I only did a one mile walk.  F called me during it, but no problem.  I finished just as he arrived home for lunch. When I told him about my plans for the afternoon, he gave me a little money.  Yay!

I had lunch and then scanned my outgoing postcards for Postcrossing.  I also stamped them and got the two outgoing gotochi cards ready to go too.  

When my friend arrived, we went off to Cafe Studio Cinq and I had darjeeling tea.  She had coffee and cheesecake.  We had a lovely chat and caught up a bit.  I haven’t seen her in a couple of years, we do keep in touch on Facebook, but we are both a bit busy at times.

When our time was up, she drove me towards home and I asked if she would let me out at the post office instead.  I had to mail the cards and walking home would be a nice treat.  She was worried I’d get cold but I reminded her that I’m Canadian!

At home again, I heard from F that he’d be late so I just relaxed some more.  When he came home we talked about going out and I suggested going to Cocos, since we haven’t been there in ages.

We drove there and had a pretty decent dinner.  I had plain old chicken as usual, with a side salad and drink bar, F had a newish dish, chicken in a tomato sauce with 12 grain rice, side salad and dessert.  We were both quite pleased with our dishes.

On the way home we bought gas for the car and then some groceries.  I’m going to do chicken and a stir-fry tomorrow night I think.  There’s a lot of stuff in the fridge to use up.  

We had a fairly quiet night in. I went to the couch and worked on the table runner I’m making for my sister.  First I darned in a whole bunch of ends, then did one additional square.  Yay for me.  I didn’t darn in its ends however.  

That’s about it for me for tonight though.  Tomorrow, I’m not sure.  I may go out, but I’ve been saying that for days.  I’d like to do a little more pre-Christmas shopping, plus I need to get some things for myself.  Come back later and find out what I get up to.  Until tomorrow….

November 10, 2015

Tuesday - Sunny and Cloudy

An okay day.

I got up on time this morning and went through to the living room for my morning recline on the couch.  I made myself some tea and had breakfast.  

Later I made the bed and also got dressed in my workout clothes.

F called me to say he was going to come home for lunch, but I hadn’t started my workout yet, so I wasn’t upset with him.  Yay!  He did come home for the last little bit of my workout, so got to see me all sweaty and out of breath.  

In the afternoon I did a few things around the apartment and also took a shower.  I needed it after today’s workout.  

I got started on dinner around 5 tonight, but F was working a bit late, so I finished up to a certain point and waited for him to come home.  Tonight we had the rest of last night’s soup, stretched a little with more chicken consommé, plus a slightly different recipe of roasted cauliflower, and some chicken wings and salad.  The cauliflower took the longest because I had to cook it in batches.  Soon we were able to sit down and have a nice meal though.  I thought dinner was really good, I’m not sure if F did too.  He’s not a kabocha fan like me!

He did the dishes tonight, which made me happy, and I wrote up a couple of postcrossings, plus two Gotochi cards for the swap I’m doing.  I rather enjoy this part of the swap.

The evening in was quiet.  F’s back is in pain so he’s not very talkative lately.  I want to talk to him because I didn’t go out today and haven’t talked to anyone at all, but it is hard when he doesn’t want to talk to me. 

Not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow.  I’d like to get out the house for a while, since I’ve spent all of Wednesday indoors.  I will have to go to the post office, but maybe I can go past there too?  I hope so anyway!  Come back later and find out what I get up to.  Until tomorrow….