November 30, 2018

Friday -Cloudy and a bit rainy

A good day.

I got up this morning because dear F made a lot of noise in the bedroom when he was getting ready for work. Sigh. I came back upstairs and watched the news on NHK. I’m a bit ketchy these days, I stay in bed with the covers over me for the news. That way I don’t have to run the heater. I’m not sure how long I’ll do that, but it also lets me snooze through the non-English news too.

I got up properly and watched CSI and checked into all the stuff I normally do. I had breakfast and did a load of laundry and put away the stuff that had finished drying from before. I also tried to get caught up with some of the backlog on the DVR. I did fairly well too. 

On my trips downstairs I never saw K at all. I think she was staying in bed. I don’t have any objections to that, but I do worry about her health if she doesn’t move a bit more. I think she does the stay in bed all day thing so she doesn’t have to run the kerosene heater. I’m not sure.

In the afternoon I wrote up a few postcards, then scanned them. Afterwards, I had a few minutes left so I did another one and scanned it too. I got 4 ready to go out today, which was good. I’m not doing enough I know but it is hard to carve out the time for it. 

F came back to the house and was very tired. We did talk about making nabe at the house, but decided to go out to a restaurant near the post office.  We took K too and had a good meal. F stopped off at the post office and I posted my postcards. Yay.

We brought K back to the house and talked about going out again. We wanted to go to the grocery store and get something. They have been having a thing where you collect stickers and get a nice kitchen good for a reduced price. Tonight was the last night. F grabbed the papers and we went out to the car. We drove over to the grocery store and…F couldn’t find the papers. Sigh. We looked in the car and in the back seat, checked his pockets, nothing. We drove back to the house to look for them, nothing. We gave the car another once over and I noticed some folded papers tucked in beside his car seat. Yes! We hadn’t seen them. We drove back to the store and picked up a cooking tool set and tried to get some bowls, but they are back ordered. F put his name down for them though.

We had a drink at Starbucks tonight…their White Chocolate Winter frappucino. It had marshmallows in it, so yuck. I’m not a fan. I didn’t like the drink very much at all. 

We came back to the house afterwards and both did the bath thing. I watched a little bit of telly, but F went to bed fairly early. 

That’s about it for my day.  Oh, and I promised you a picture of that last ornament once I finished it. Here you go….

Until tomorrow….

November 29, 2018

Thursday - A bit rainy

A good day.

I woke up around 4:30 this morning feeling like I had stopped breathing. It was the oddest thing. It really unsettled me for a bit. I went back to bed and sleep, but when I woke up in a few more hours didn’t feel too well. I felt a bit “off” for the rest of the morning.

I did my usual things today but didn’t do laundry. I will have to do it tomorrow. I need a bunch of things for my trip next weekend. As usual, I didn’t interact with K at all during the day. I think at one point she walked right past me, but she didn’t say anything and even though I did, she didn’t hear me. Sigh.

I grabbed lunch and had just taken it upstairs to eat when F called to say he was coming by the house for a moment. It was nice when he arrived, he brought me a cream puff! 

I did a bit of work on my Christmas ornament too. I got it very near the finishing point and only stopped when F called to say he was on his way. I spaced on doing Postcrossing too. Sigh. I’ll try again tomorrow. Then again, I haven’t written my Christmas Cards either. Oops. I think Canada having a postal strike has a bit to do with that. Yep, Blame Canada!

F and I decided to go to the onsen with his mother tonight. He didn’t want to take me as he thought that she’d find it strange that I would go there and not take a bath. I told him we’d already done it before, so no big deal.  

We drove out to Haguro and the two of them went off to their respective bathing sides and I went to a chair and did more of my ornament. First I checked apps and such, as is my habit. 

After K and F finished their baths, we had dinner in the spa’s restaurant. It isn’t fancy, but the food is quite good. I had my almost usual Yakiniku plate, without rice and miso soup, F and his mother had soba. I think they liked it.

We just came back to the house afterwards. K went off to bed fairly soon, F and I stayed up for a while. I watched some telly, I even let F watch some tonight too.  I made some microwave popcorn and we had that. It was just a fairly nice, low key evening. 

F asked me if I’d like to go to a concert in the Aquarium on Saturday night and I probably will go. It’s a Jazz concert and since we are “Passport Holders” at the Aquarium, it is free for us. Yay! Of course, the cd that we usually end up buying isn’t free for us!

So that’s about it for me for today. I did finish the ornament tonight. I won’t be able to post a picture of the finished one tonight, but I’ll post a picture when it was halfway done…and would you like to see the other ones I’ve done?  I thought you’d never ask!

I just finished this one tonight so no complete pic yet.

Traditional Christmas colours.

Come back later if you like and see how Friday was. Until tomorrow….

November 28, 2018

Wednesday - Mostly clear

A good day.

I woke up this morning as F left the room for work.  Bye!

I had a quiet morning of watching the news and then NCIS. I didn’t do laundry, and when I came down to grab breakfast didn’t see K at all. We were really ships that pass in the night for most of the day today.

I did some computer stuff and then decided that since I hadn’t done any Postcrossings in ages, I would write a couple. I left it late to start, but I did write two cards and got them scanned and stamped. Yay me.

F called after 5:15 and asked what I wanted for dinner. I gave him a couple of ideas and we rung off. When he arrived at the house, he remembered that we had to pick up my shoes today. The repair shop is closed tomorrow. We zoomed over there, got the shoes and then walked over the street to the grocery store and picked up some stuff for dinner.  F got himself some liver, his mother some tonkatsu, and I picked up some chicken legs and some fried rice that I could share.  

We came back to the house and got going in the kitchen. F heated up a lot of the stuff with the microwave, I got an onion cake out of the freezer and cooked it.  I also mixed up a sauce for it. I combined some sweet chilli sauce, a little soy sauce and a couple of drops of sriracha.  It was good! When the onion cake was done, I popped the fried rice into the frying pan and heated it up. 

We put things on the table and had a grand old meal. I shared the chicken and the fried rice, and we all had a bit of onion cake and my sauce.  Afterwards, we did the dishes and F asked me if I’d like to go to the Internet Cafe tonight. I really didn’t mind, so said sure! 

When we finished the dishes, we got ready and took off. There were two massaging seats available so we took them. I asked F if we could check if my favourite channel was available in my booth. If not, we might have to swap. Sure enough, no D-Life in the booth I was assigned. Since F doesn’t watch that channel much, we swapped booths.  

For the next couple of hours, I watched some TV, updated my apps on my phone and did a little bit of crochet too. It was nice.  I had some drinks, some snacks and watched a bit of YouTube too. Hurray for me.

We left on time and came back to the house via a convenience store. F needed a couple of things.

So that was about it for my day. Not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. Come back and see if you are interested!  Until tomorrow….

November 27, 2018

Tuesday - Sunny and warmish

A good day. 

I woke up just as F was leaving for work. I got up a couple of minutes later and then watched the news and then my NCIS show.  I had a very quiet morning again, although I did do a load of laundry. I just came back from putting it in the machine when a friend texted to see if I’d be up for a chat. Of course I was, so we spent about 20 minutes talking. It made such a lovely change to my usual routine.

In the afternoon I spent some quality time on my computer and then did a bit of work on a new ornament. I’m trying something a little different and I think it is working well.

F called to say he was going to be a bit late and would call again when he was finished. He did, but it was a bit later. I went downstairs and started to get dinner ready. We were just having reheated stew, but I had asked F to bring a salad for us to share. I asked for some pickles too, but he forgot them! 

After he came back I sent him off to relax for a minute and to change his clothes. When he came back, I was nearly ready. He cooked the rice and then plated it, I ladled out the stew and we had dinner. It was really good. The sad thing was that the broccoli had all but dissolved, but it still tasted good.  

F washed the dishes after and I dried them. He asked if I wanted to go out and I did, mostly to get more salad for my lunches.  I did say to him that I would prefer that he set up our DVR first though. 

Obliging man that he sometimes is, he did that. He joined wires and plugged things in and it works again. Woot!  We even tried a Blu-ray DVD and that works too, it never did before. 

F and I went out to McDonald's and tried their caramel melts. Well, I did. F had a Black Thunder Flurry which was good too.  We exchanged bites which is how I know!

After our dessert/wifi time was up we went to the grocery store and picked up a few things. I didn’t get anything for dinner although I did think about it. I know I should, but trying to balance my tastes with everyone’s requirements is too annoying!

We came back to the house and after a few minutes putting away groceries came upstairs. I watched telly for a bit and then took a shower. 

F went to bed soon after I came back. His back is bothering him again. Sigh. I feel sorry for him. 

And that’s about it for my day. I really will try and post a picture of my lovely ornaments. They are turning out rather well and I love them. I think it’ll be hard to give them away!  Come back later and see what Wednesday brings me. Until tomorrow….

November 26, 2018

Monday - Clear and sunny

A busy day.

I woke up first with F hovering above me saying that the bread maker hadn’t baked the bread yet. He had reset it for 11:30, so would I please take it out when it was finished?  I said I would and set an alarm for it.

I got up properly around 8 and watched the international news. It sucks, mostly. After some tea and my dose of NCIS I went did some laundry.  I hung it up in my room. 

I had a fairly quiet morning and afternoon. I did take out the bread and even sent F a picture of it.  After it had cooled a bit, I cut a few slices.

I spent the afternoon in my room doing stuff on my computer, then went downstairs around 5 to get started on dinner.  Yes, I was going to cook!

I made something from a Japanese roux called Cheese in Chicken (think it should have been the other way around but….) It turned out well. I made double the quantity because I like leftovers and not having to cook two nights in a row is a good thing! I added a couple of extras to the mix, mushrooms and broccoli and it all turned out well. I served it on rice and got great reviews. K told me a couple of times that it was delicious, so that was good! Of course, she might be really happy that it wasn’t a bento again!

F washed the few dishes there were, which was lovely of him, and I dried them.  We talked about going out. I hadn’t been out of the house all day, so really wanted to go. Since F’s neck was causing pain, I suggested going to the onsen. We did that.  

F took a bath and I stayed in the lobby and listened to podcasts and did a little crochet. I got an ornament started, but I may take part of it back. 

We came back to the house and came up to the room.  We had a quiet evening. I watched The Good Wife and F went to bed fairly early.  We didn’t get the fixed DVD player set up yet. Sigh. 

Anyway, that’s it for me. Tomorrow I’m hoping to do a bit of Postcrossing or maybe work on my next ornament. Come back later and see what goes on. Until tomorrow….

November 25, 2018

Sunday - Sunny then rainy at night

A good day.

This really was a good weekend.  On Friday, F and I took his mother out for lunch, then we left her with enough to eat and checked into our hotel. We stayed at a business hotel in Tsuruoka. It was a very small room, but the hotel was new and shiny. We thought it was too small to stay in again, but enjoyed the bath and the breakfast quite a bit. In the evening we walked to an izakaya and after a bit of bad luck finding one, had an okay but too fishy for me dinner.  We stopped in at another hotel and had a drink in their lounge on the 9th floor. It was nice if a bit expensive. On the way back to the hotel, I bought F a cake at the convenience store and we went back to our room and we had dessert together. He liked the cake. I promise, I would have sprung for nicer cake somewhere else, but he didn’t want it! I also got a card for the Video on Demand in the room and we watched a couple of movies. Well, I did. F fell asleep!

Saturday morning we had breakfast in the hotel and it was surprisingly nice. They baked their own bread, which is always good. We checked out and then we went to the doctor. F got pain medication and I got my blood test results which were fine. We had to wait 2 hours for that.  We checked on K, and she was fine. After that, we had a bit of a rest in the house. 

We decided to go out to Mikawa to see Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and do a little shopping too. First up though, we picked up our DVR which is apparently fixed now. Yay! We bought K a nice bento for her dinner and dropped both off at the house. 

We drove to Mikawa and discovered that somehow I’d got the movie time wrong and the show we planned to see had already started. Next one was in 2 hours. Bonus time. We had our dinner - bibinba- then combed through the craft shop in the mall, and zoomed through the ladies department. We went back in plenty of time for our film. It was okay. I thought there was too much of Johnny Depp and not enough Newt or Ezra Miller or the animals, but I didn’t hate it.

After the film, I asked F to take me to Don Quihote and we bought a few things at the food department there. I didn’t get the things I really wanted, but that’s okay. 

We drove back to the house and I didn’t go to bed until 4 am. If I had blogged last night, I wouldn’t have slept much at all.

This morning we slept in very, very late. I was surprised that F did. Usually, he doesn’t. K didn’t need breakfast or lunch, so F and I went out to a very nice restaurant not too far away. We had a lovely lunch, but no dessert. F promised that he’d take me somewhere for dessert later. 

We went back to the house and F changed the tires on the car. It’s nearly winter, the mountains around us have snow on them already and we had hail last week.

We went out again for coffee and I thought dessert, but F took us to the Japanese coffee place that he likes a lot. Their desserts aren’t that great and it is all quite expensive. So, we just had large coffees and then went shopping. I got a little more thread at the hundred yen shop, then picked up a few things at Yamaya, the shop with some foreign import foods. I got some muesli and pasta sauce, that kind of thing. 

We brought it back to the house and I filled up the kerosene tank in our bedroom’s heater. I noticed that there wasn’t much kerosene left, so suggested we get some. Again, K said she didn’t need dinner so F and I went out and got kerosene and then had our dinner at a local Chinese Restaurant. F seemed to like it, but I didn’t. He keeps ordering a soggy noodle dish that he likes, but I just don’t like. Then he wanted fried rice too. We got that. My order was fried chicken. It was okay, but I really didn’t want it. I let F pick my dish out of a couple of possibilities, it wasn’t awful at all. I just didn’t want it really. So, a bit of a letdown, but I didn’t care too much.

We delivered the kerosene then went off to get the groceries for tomorrow. I’m going to make a kind of a stew thing for dinner. I really hate the whole question of “what do you want for dinner” and if I cook I can avoid it. The problem is that most of my cooking gear is STILL in boxes. It drives me crazy, so annoying. 

We got food then came back to the house. I did the garbage up, F set up the bread maker for tomorrow. And that’s about it.

We had some downtime, we drank some decaf instant, relaxed, took showers and that’s about it. F has gone to bed now, and as it is late, I should go too.

We both had a really good weekend. We didn’t fight and I managed to keep my temper for the most part.

Tomorrow I’m back to the usual things I do around here and then I’m making dinner in the evening. I hope I don’t freeze to death in the kitchen.

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

November 24, 2018

Saturday - Rainy then clearing

It's been a lovely couple of days, but it is very late and I'm very tired, so you'll have to wait a little longer for my update!

Until tomorrow....probably!

November 22, 2018

Thursday - Rainy 

A good day. 

I was awakened this morning by my husband’s alarm. He’d left the room and “forgotten” to turn it off. I went downstairs and then came back upstairs. I went into the TV/computer side of the room and waited until he left. He did ask me to cut the bread that he’d made this morning and I said that I would try.

I watched the news and a few minutes before NCIS started, I went downstairs and sliced the bread. There weren’t any of the usual bags so I put it in a freezer bag.  I came back upstairs, watched NCIS and grabbed my breakfast and put a load of laundry in to wash. F came back to the house and gave me some money for my day trip. Woot! He also thanked me for cutting the loaf of bread. This was progress.

A bit before 12 I made my way to the bus stop and caught the bus easily. It was a couple of minutes late, but I was half expecting that. I got off at the hospital and then walked to the cinema.  I went to see Tully with Charlize Theron and I really liked it. It was smart and funny and knew about motherhood and womanhood.  

When it finished, I skipped the bakery. I had wanted to get something, but since it was raining I wouldn’t be able to picnic outside and I didn’t have anywhere else to eat.  I walked to Foodever. It was a bit of a hike, but I wanted to see what was going on there. I had just entered the Food Court area when a woman came up to me and asked if I was a tourist.  I said I wasn’t.  She asked if I lived around this area. Yes. She started asking me a bunch of questions. It seems that she was in town with her husband and didn’t know what to do in Tsuruoka. Lucky for her I know a lot about that. She was asking me how to get to her hotel. I recommended a taxi as it was rather far and the weather was bad.   I half wondered if I was being pranked or if I was on candid camera, but she seemed legit.  I gave her a few ideas of things to see and do, I suggested the movie theatre since the weather was bad…and a restaurant near Tsuruoka park.  It was a crazy weird experience!

When I left her I checked out the coffee shop area, but the seats were all full of High School Students. I ended up leaving the building and making my way to S-Mall.  

At S-Mall, I had lunch and then did a bit of shopping. I picked up a few things in the hundred yen shop and then ended up in Doutors. I had a soy latte on points since my card didn’t have money on it. I kept an eye on the time. If I didn’t hear from F by 6 pm, there was a bus that I could catch that would let off near the house, so I didn’t want to miss that.  However, F did call me and came to the coffee shop too. I loaned him my card and he charged it back up for me!

We left the mall after we bought something for K’s dinner. We took it back to the house for K and then popped out again for our dinner. I had suggested Kintaro Sushi. It was a good choice as the sushi is great and they weren’t busy tonight. We left after we ate and were planning to go back to the house when I asked F if we could go to another hundred yen shop. We didn’t turn, we went straight and went to the Pal Shopping Centre. First we bought a few things at the grocery store and then went to the hundred yen shop. I bought some cotton thread in Christmas colours, some wrapping paper and a couple of other things. 

We came back to the house and F was cheerful and happy. He brought two of his happoshu upstairs and after a while drank them plus another one.  He was also a bit of an eating fool. He had two instant ramen things and quite a bit of snack stuff. I was worried about him, especially since his stomach was acting up. He talked a bit about his birthday and kept wishing himself a happy birthday! 

Tomorrow night we’ll be staying in a new hotel in Tsuruoka.  It isn’t a fancy place, so don’t get too excited, but it’ll be a night away so that’s good. I had hoped to go away for a couple of days, but F doesn’t want to do that. I won’t be blogging tomorrow night unless I get moved to do so.  

That’s it for me for a couple of days then. I hope to be back on Saturday night with all the usual stuff. Until tomorrow’s tomorrow….

November 21, 2018

Wednesday - Rainy with thunderstorms.

Not much better….

I went to bed quite early for me last night, got up when F woke me up with his bumping around the room. Instead of going back to bed though I came into “my” room and closed the door. After he left I watched the news and later on got dressed and had some tea.

I had a very quiet morning and afternoon. I worked on another Christmas Ornament and got it done over the course of the day. It’s smaller than yesterday’s one and is very cute too. I think going with thicker cotton thread is better than wool. It has brighter colours and higher stitch definition.

I saw K a couple of times and half-expected her to say something to me, but she didn’t. I wasn’t sure what F had said to her about me.

Tonight when F came back to this house, he didn’t call me. He came up to the room and even though I talked to him, he didn’t say anything to me. He just left the room. A few minutes later I heard him drive away. 

When I checked out downstairs, K had gone too. He’d taken her to the onsen. I’m glad for her, and for him, but he couldn’t even ask if I’d like to go or if I had anything for dinner.  I waited for a while and then decided that I’d make my own dinner.  I had some hard avocado in the freezer, some pasta and some wasabi pasta sauce. I decided that the three things had to meet!

I cooked the spaghetti, defrosted the avocado then roasted it in the toaster oven.  I added the wasabi dressing to the pasta when all was done, mixed in some of the avocado and ate.  Yum. Honestly, it was the nicest stuff I’ve eaten in days, maybe weeks.  Of course, F and his mother came back while I was cooking, but since F was ignoring me it didn’t matter much. 

I cleaned up after I ate, put my extra bowl of pasta in the fridge in case I need it tomorrow or the next day, and then went upstairs. F was watching TV.  I not very politely told him that I needed the TV at 9:00pm.  We were quite rude to each other for a few minutes but I told him I was going downtown tomorrow and asked if I could get a ride back with him. He wanted to know my schedule?! Whenever you get off work….what does he think I’m going to be doing downtown?  Anyway, he came back a few minutes later and gave me some money and said that it was all he could give me.  I didn’t think he’d give me any at all, so it was nice and I thanked him.  He also asked if I needed to go shopping tonight but I told him I didn’t. I’m going out partially because there was no food for me in the house. 

I took a shower and discovered that F was sitting downstairs watching JTV. Good.  Leave my TV alone!  It sounds mean, but with the good DVR out of commission, I can’t record my stuff and I’m finding that the days are really long and boring without it. 

F has gone to bed, but he’s not sleeping well. He’s mumbling about being cold, but even in the part of the room where he is, it isn’t that cold. I hope he’s okay.  Friday is his birthday and we’re supposed to be spending the night away from the house. Fingers crossed he still wants to do that. 

I’ll likely post tomorrow night, although if things get worse I might not bother coming back to this house. Come back later and find out. Until tomorrow…

November 20, 2018

Tuesday - Rainy with hail

A horrible day.

I got up this morning just after F left. He was going out the door as I came downstairs. 

I had a quiet day at the house today. I did a load of laundry and hung it up in the room. I worked on my Christmas ornament in the afternoon and got it looking really good. I finished it off in the evening, but I’m getting ahead of the game. We also had a loud hailstorm in the middle of the day. I was rather surprised about that. 

Looking down on the hailstones...

F came back from work and we decided to cook at the house. Of course, we had to go out and get the food first. He talked about getting two kinds of fish and I said that was too much and since we were going to have other side dishes we didn’t need it. I thought he agreed.  

We go to the store, I get stuff for my lunch and he picks up two kinds of fish. Sigh. One to cook, one to sashimi. 

We get back to the house and he goes into “Chef” mode. He starts cooking the fish, plating the sashimi, basically using every plate that he possibly could in the kitchen. I worked on moving dishes to the table and cooking an onion cake that I had wanted to serve with dinner.  Finally, it was all done, but I was not happy.  There was too much food for me. I was barely hungry and there was rice, miso soup, grilled fish, sashimi and onion cake.  I skipped the sashimi and the rice, F was angry with me. I gave them to him to eat so they weren’t wasted. 

Of course, since I was in disgrace I was allowed to do the dishes alone…well nearly. K kept coming into the room and getting in my way.  I think she wanted to say something to me, but not sure what that would be. 

F and I had planned to go to the onsen after dinner. He went without me. He asked me if I was going to come with him and I asked him if he wanted me to. He said a resounding “No!” so I stayed put and he stormed off. 

While he was away I worked on my Christmas decoration and got it finished, almost! I’m still working on the hanging string. I really like it. The first one I did was very pastel, this one is very Christmassy. 

When F came back he ignored me completely, even though I talked to him. His mother and he seemed to have words downstairs, but I don’t know what about. 

I tried to have a conversation with F a few minutes ago but he wasn’t very nice to me. Sigh. I asked him how long this was going to last and he said he didn’t know. I got the usual crap about how I stay in bed too late and stay up too late. Well, what else is there to do for me?  Besides, I get up around 8 am these days, how or why is that late? On weekends I like to sleep in, and why not? It’s not like we ever have any plans. 

Anyway, I hope this will blow over soon. It’s F’s birthday on the weekend and I’m not sure if that makes him extra cranky or if it is the change in the weather. 

Come back later if you dare and see how things go on Wednesday. Until tomorrow….

November 19, 2018

Monday - Rainy and cold

A quiet day.

I woke up just before my alarm this morning. The wind was wuthering around the house and it sounded horrible outside. I felt sorry for F having to go to work in it.  I watched the news from under the covers so that I didn’t have to turn on the heater quite yet. Around 9 I got up and turned on the heater and watched my morning drama.

I had a quiet morning and early afternoon. I barely saw K at all, didn’t even say hi to her until 4 pm. I worked on my ornament for my Christmas swap. I even finished it, but I’m not sure about it.  It’s cute, but I’m not sure that it is Christmassy at all.  

When F came back to the house I suggested getting in bentos for dinner. We ordered and then F and I went off to pick them up. We did a quick grocery shop and then picked up the bento and came back to the house. We ate and everyone enjoyed themselves. After I finished, I started gathering the dishes and cleared the table. I put my dishes on the table in the kitchen and went back for more. K brought her dishes through and then washed them in the sink. She washed them in cold water with no detergent in the old cold water in the basin.  I tried to get her to stop, but she wouldn’t.  As soon as she left the kitchen, I grabbed her dishes again and put them to be washed again. If they had just been dishes that only she used, I wouldn’t have cared so much, but they were things like glasses that all of us use.  

F came into the kitchen and he washed the dishes, I dried them.  We went upstairs afterwards. I watched a bit of TV and worked on another ornament in more Christmassy colours. F asked if I wanted to go out. I told him that I could, but I didn’t have to.  He asked a couple more times so I thought that he would like to go out.  I finally accepted.

We went over to Komeda Coffee and had coffee (decaf) and I had an order of chicken nuggets.  It was really good. I was still a bit hungry after dinner, and the chicken filled me up. I did give F a piece too, so I didn’t eat it all.  

We came back to the house and took showers. F went to bed and I stayed up and watched Idol. 

That’s about it for today. It was an okay day and hopefully, I get to do it all again tomorrow! Come back and see what goes on…until tomorrow….

November 18, 2018

Sunday - Gorgeous but cool

A good day.

I got up this morning a bit early for me on a Sunday. F had decided not to go to the onsen today as he wasn’t feeling great. I asked him if we should cancel with my friend, but he said not to do that.  

I went back to bed for a short snooze and my friend called to say she’d slept in and would be late. We adjusted our plans and after we rung off, I let F know.  

I got dressed and ready to go.  I grabbed a bag for her with a packet of biscuits from Britain. I know she likes them!

F and I drove to the Oyama Nature Centre, but he kept getting lost along the way. He didn’t wait for the signs to tell him where to go. I asked him if he was really born in Oyama! My friend arrived at the Nature Centre a few minutes later with her children.  We spent the next hour and a bit walking around, looking at birds and chatting. In the Centre’s building, they have quite a few things set up for kids to play with so it was great for the children.  

Around 1 pm we all headed back into Tsuruoka for lunch. We went to McDonald, which was a big treat for the children, but not so much for F or even me if I’m honest. F had the Texas Burger, I had the Idaho Burger…his had barbecue sauce on it, mine had a hash brown patty and they were okay. While we were there we saw F’s nephew and his wife. His wife recognized me but I thought she was one of my ex-students, so didn’t really twig on who she was. Oops.

Sadly it became time to split up our little party. We had had a lovely time, but have vowed to try and get together again soon. 

F and I came back to his house and went to bed again.  I slept for an hour, used the washroom and then went back to sleep for two hours!  When I woke up again it was after 6 pm. I can’t believe that I slept that much. F came into the room just after I woke up and said that he’d been to the grocery store and bought things for his mother’s dinner.

We talked about our own dinner and didn’t really know what to do. We sort of decided on bentos from the store, but then F suggested going to Cocos Ichibanya so did that instead. Good idea.  I had the Spice Chicken Curry again, but with veggies this time, F had the curry udon with rice. Our dishes were both good.

We did a little grocery shopping afterwards and then came back to the house. I noticed that Three Billboards was on WOWOW, so put that on. It is such a good movie. Not safe for families, but worth watching. 

And that’s about it for my day. It was lovely to see my friend and her children, it was lovely to be out and about in the great outdoors and it was even better not to have a fight with my husband!

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

November 17, 2018

Saturday - Rainy then clear

A busy day.

I got up quite early this morning and got dressed. F had gone to the doctor’s office and put in our cards so we could be seen early.  We got dressed and went to the clinic.  After an hour or two of being poked and prodded and such, we were able to leave. No big deal. 

F and I went to the new Starbucks and had regular coffee and a biscuit each. I had a buttermilk biscuit which was lovely, F had a strawberry one which was okay. 

We went back to the house when we finished and relaxed for a while.  F made his lunch and something for his mother, I made myself a couple of quesadillas that were good. 

We left for the clinic where we were getting our flu shots and it went a lot different than I thought. We were in and out in about 20 minutes.  I had taken my knitting and I wasn’t able to do any of it!

We went to the grocery shop for K’s dinner and also because I wanted to buy something there.  After that, we came back to the house. F gave his mother her food and we discussed where to go. Since F didn’t want meat, I suggested a really good fish place. He countered with a couple of others but really mine was the best place to go.  We went early as it gets very busy. On the way to the restaurant, F suggested going for gyudon instead but I squashed that. He said he’d have fish there, but I personally didn’t want gyudon! We had a lovely meal at the fish place. F did that thing he does where he says he’s going to have one dish until the waiter arrives and then he changes his order at the last moment. Argh.  I was going to suggest an add-on for us but he changed his order to something that included the add-on I wanted so we couldn’t do it anymore.

After we finished we went to S-Mall and had some Baskin Robbins. I tried a couple of new to me flavours. Yum.

We came back to the house and had a quiet evening in. F was half in bed and half on his phone so I got to watch a bunch of stuff “live” tonight. Yay me. 

That’s about it for today. Tomorrow we’re meeting up with a friend of mine and her children and after that, I’m not sure what we’ll get up to. Come back later and see what happens. Until tomorrow….

November 16, 2018

Friday - Rainy and cooler

A good day.

F woke me up again this morning. He dropped something heavy on the floor. I wasn’t too pleased. 

I got up soon after he left and watched the news in English. I tend to ignore the non-English ones as I can’t understand them.

I had a really quiet morning. I did some laundry and hung it up, I also put away the older stuff. 

Most of the afternoon I listened to podcasts. Nothing groundbreaking, but quite interesting.

F came home and wanted to know about food. I suggested going to Tai, the Curry/Ramen place and he liked that idea. K came too and we had a good meal. We came back to the house afterwards and stayed in. 

F was tired so he played on his phone and I watched TV and worked on my Christmas Ornament. It’s going quite well so far. I’m hoping I can finish it soon.  

I used FaceTime to talk to my sister and my niece tonight. It was lovely to be able to talk to them. I do feel sorry for them though, the weather outside was horrible. They have a lot of snow at the moment. 

I have to get up quite early for me tomorrow as F has offered to take me to see a doctor. It’s nothing serious, but I should get myself to bed if I want some decent rest. Tomorrow night, I’ll likely be back, but I’m also getting a flu shot tomorrow so if I’m not up to posting, don’t miss me too much.  

Come back later if you like.  Until tomorrow….

November 15, 2018

Thursday - Rainy at times, mostly clear

A good day.

F woke me up again this morning. He turned on the light in the room and I’m afraid I wasn’t too nice about it. I think I made a comment to the effect of “You woke me up again?!”  I suppose he doesn’t really have a choice…actually, he does. If he’d just get his stuff together in one place the night before like normal people do, he wouldn’t have to turn on the light. Whatever.  I ran downstairs and then came back up for 5 more minutes of sleep.

I got up, but the room was cold, so I turned on the telly and watched the news from the bottom of the bed. It was warm and cosy that way!

I had a normal morning except the plumbing guys were here to fix the pipes and then F’s sister came by to check on his mother. She rang the doorbell, but K didn’t hear her. Luckily, I did hear the doorbell and opened the door.  

I had a very quiet day for the most part. I set up the slow cooker to make Pulled Pork and then exited the kitchen. I didn’t use a recipe, just a method from Epicurious. It turned out quite well. 

I did a couple of Postcrossing cards again today. I thought that doing two is better than waiting for myself to have a non-busy day and doing a bunch. These ones are off to China and the US. 

F called around 5:30 to say he was on his way, so I went into the kitchen and made the coleslaw. He arrived just as I was going to shred the meat. There was a big lump of fat still on the roast, so I was going to chuck it out. F said he’d eat it. I suggested he use the frypan to fry it first as it didn’t look too appealing. I can’t really believe it, but he cooked the whole thing and then ate it too. I shredded the actual meat and put it back in the slow cooker to blend with the juices. 

I worked quite hard to get the table set and F worked to get in my way. He did help by making rice for K, but when I’d ask him what he’d like, got mad at me.  Sigh.  I got things on the table and set K’s plate in front of her.  F and I had our pulled pork on tortillas, she had hers on rice.  She said a couple of times that she liked it, and ate it all, plus had a little extra so I guess I believe her! F only had a couple of tortillas, I had three. It was good, but I missed not having a lot of barbecue sauce on the meat.  Still, the others liked it a lot, so that was good. I cleared the table.

I was just about to start washing the dishes when F came in. He washed them and then went off somewhere. I washed my slow cooker and boxed it back up again. 

I went upstairs and F came up a bit later. He went straight to bed. I waited a while and went over to see him. We had some cuddles and then talked about going out. It seemed if we wanted wifi our choices were Komeda coffee or the internet cafe. We went to the latter one.

It wasn’t too busy tonight so we were able to get our chairs right away. We spent 3 hours in the chairs. I watched a little telly, a little YouTube and did some crochet of my Christmas project. Yay.

After 3 hours we came back via a convenience store for me to mail my postcards. Before I ran into the store I asked F if he wanted to come in or get something. He said no.  Then, when we were coming up to a store nearer to his house, he asked me if I wanted to go to a convenience store. I just laughed. 

We had a quiet evening in. F took a shower, I watched some telly and then started blogging.  That’s about it for me. 

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I have a feeling that laundry will be involved though! Come back later and find out. Until tomorrow….

November 14, 2018

Wednesday - Rainy

A goodish day.

I got up this morning but it was cold, so I did my “stay in bed with the covers over me but watching the news thing”. It kept me warm. I got up after 9 and did a few things around the room.  

I had a fairly normal day today with some laundry, a bit of Postcrossing and a bit too much time on the computer.  Oh well.

The hot water doesn’t seem to be working either. I tried to heat up some water to do dishes and nothing but cold water came out. Yikes.  A couple of times today K tried to tell me something, but I have no idea what. She isn’t very good at explaining things. To be fair to myself, F says that he can’t understand her sometimes either!

F came back around 6 pm. He’d called earlier and I had asked him to bring something right away for his mother to eat. I don’t know if she’d had anything to eat this afternoon. There is food, but I’m not sure if she can make it/heat it nowadays. 

F showed up with 3 bentos, so we had dinner together by bento. It was rather nice.  We did some washing up afterwards and then F and I went to the onsen. Since the hot water in the house is out, I used the onsen, I didn’t really have a choice. It was fine today. I spent most of my time out in the rotenburo. Nobody was in it with me for about 10 or 15 minutes so it was nice. 

After the onsen, F wanted to go for coffee, so we went to Komeda Coffee. I like the place, but think it is a little expensive for what it is. I tried to talk to him a couple of times, but he didn’t hear me as he was wearing an earphone and listening to a radio drama. Sigh. It’s really starting to get to me, that. Yesterday when I had lunch with my friend the two of us hardly stopped talking, but my own husband can’t be bothered to listen to me. Sure, I check my phone, and I’ve even been known to play a game, but to listen to radio dramas when someone is with you seems more than a little rude to me. 

We got a few groceries for the house and then came back. I did my lovely burnable garbage thing and then came upstairs.  I got F to fill up the kerosene heater for me and have used it to stay warm for the rest of the evening. And yes, I did put on a sweater first.

That’s about it for me. I’m going to do pulled pork in my slow cooker tomorrow for dinner, and maybe a little more laundry. I’m not sure. I’d like to do another couple of Postcrossing cards too or get a start on my Christmas shopping.  

Come back later if you have the inclination and see what I get up to on Thursday. Until tomorrow….

November 13, 2018

Tuesday - Sunny and gorgeous

A good day.

I woke up early this morning, went to the ‘loo and then came back upstairs and went back to bed. F got up after his alarm and left, I said a sleepy goodbye to him.  

I got up and watched the news. When it finished I went downstairs and grabbed my breakfast early. I came back upstairs, ate and then went downstairs and washed my bowl. F called me to say that the people were coming now to check the pipes. I reminded him that I was going out soon.  

A few minutes later, I was dressed, and I heard voices outside. I looked out the window and saw some men.  The doorbell rang and I went down.  The people were there. K didn’t hear the doorbell because she was dozing with her radio on loudly. She did come and I got her to deal with the pipe people.  I went upstairs again and did a very quick check of what I had to take. I grabbed my backpack, jacket and hat and went off on my merry way. I did say goodbye so K knew I was gone.

I walked to the nearby rehabilitation hospital and caught the bus there. It took me straight downtown and actually was rather a nice ride today. When I got to the mall, I bought my bus tickets for next month, then went out to the front to meet my friend.

After a few minutes, she arrived and we went to Pisolino. We spent an enjoyable couple of hours there. She had a pizza and I had pasta. I really liked mine.  

When she had to go, she dropped me off at S-Mall and I went back inside. I did a little shopping and window shopping, then decided to walk over to Starbucks and see if it was insane!

I walked about 10 minutes and got in right away. It wasn’t terribly busy at that time and there were even seats available! I ordered a Gingerbread Latte and had that.  I’ve never had one before but had heard they were good. They were. I’m not sure I’d have it again, but I did enjoy it. 

I was soooo excited!

My Gingerbread Latte/Selfie to show excitement!

After a bit of wifi and my drink, I left.  I went to the nearby drugstore and bought a new pair of gloves, something to snack on later and some decaf tea.  I paid and walked back to S-Mall.  I was looking around S-Mall again when F called to say he was finished work. 

He picked me up and we decided to go to Starbucks together. It was much busier at 6 pm than it was at 4 pm.  We had a harder time finding a seat, but one of the baristas reserved one for us.  I just had tea since I didn’t want another big milky sweet drink.

Coffee date with my guy

We enjoyed our drinks, chatted a little, and then came back to the house.  K was fine, didn’t really need any dinner as she’d had quite a bit leftover from yesterday. F asked me what I’d like and I told him that I didn’t want anything, so he should please himself. He didn’t believe me at first, but it was true. He made himself ramen of course.

Later on, F asked if I’d like to go for a walk. I had done quite a bit of walking today already but said yes. I changed into my walking gear and we went across the street and did once around the walking trail. It was nice. I do have the problem that my feet keep sliding in my shoes. I’m not sure if I need to tie them tighter or what. It’s annoying.

We came back to the house and were quite pleased with ourselves.  I watched some telly and had an instant soup thing, and later made myself some popcorn. That was what I wanted. F went to bed around midnight I think, possibly before.

Today was a really good day. I enjoyed it a lot. Tomorrow I hope to do some Postcrossing and maybe even some laundry! I haven’t done any in ages. 

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

November 12, 2018

Monday - Rainy then clearing

A good day.

This morning F woke me up again. I think it was accidental, but it happened just a couple of minutes before my alarm anyway. I got up and stayed up.  I had a quiet morning, but I did get dressed right away this morning as we were expecting plumbers to come by sometime.  I also had a chat with my BFF in Canada during that news. It was lovely to be on live with her. 

Morning passed. K disappeared, she went back to bed. F kept phoning to see if the plumbers had come and of course they hadn’t. They never did show up! I watched some TV upstairs. It was a touch hard because the DVR doesn’t work properly. It would record the last 2 minutes of a programme or the first 20, but not always the whole thing. Luckily, one of the programmes that I really like was complete, but a couple of other ones weren’t. 

F popped in a couple of times to check on us. No big deal.  I had my lunch and then a bit later K got up. I offered her the tofu nabe we’d bought for her, and so I made it up.  I gave it to her and left her to eat it. 

When F came back from work he was knackered. He said he didn’t want to eat, I didn’t want to cook so we ordered bentos. We made a quick run through a grocery store first and then picked up the food. We brought it back here and ate.  It was nice.

F washed the dishes tonight and then we went over to the onsen. I had thought about taking a bath today but decided not to do it. I took my craft bag over with me and did a bit of knitting and a bit of spool knitting. 

We came back to Tsuruoka afterwards and to the house. I took a shower right away and then came upstairs. F went to bed before midnight tonight. I’m glad. He’s been staying up with me lately and it isn’t something he can do. I can get away with being sleepy, he can’t. 

And that’s about it for my day. I’m heading out on Tuesday to have lunch with a friend and buy my bus tickets for Sendai next month. I hope to be able to pick something up for my husband’s upcoming birthday too. AND, Starbucks in Tsuruoka opens.  Woot!  I’m not sure if I should risk trying to go or not. It might be totally insane there. I have no idea!  Come back later and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….