November 30, 2019

Saturday - Cloudy and cold

This morning we all slept in quite late.  I woke up a couple of times but fell back asleep.  When it was 11 am I got up for a little. F and I talked about going out for lunch, it was a good idea.  He went downstairs to check on his mother and I got dressed. K didn’t want to come out with us so we promised to bring her a bento. 

We went to Hyakkenbori for lunch and it was great. I had the chicken namban set that you make into ochaisuke at the end.  It was so nice. F was having a bad stomach day so had munikiri or local udon.  He had fish with his.  We had the drink set too so I had some coffee and tea, F had coffee I think.  There were a couple of interesting things that happened during our meal though. The first was the waitress mentioned their Christmas Party that we can book from early December. It’s very reasonable for good food and the minimum number of people is two.  Sounds perfect for us. I took a flyer, I hope that F goes for it as I’ve been suggesting we have an early Christmas dinner for the two of us.

The other odd thing is that an older lady came over to us while we were eating and asked F in Japanese where I came from.  He told her it was a private thing and that he didn’t want to talk about it! I was really surprised. I probably wouldn’t have minded telling her as the lady seemed nice, but on the whole, I’m glad that he stuck up for me.  I’m not on display, believe it or not.  I do wonder if people think about how strange it is to be approached by other people wanting to know where they are from all the time?  Why? Anyway, she left and it didn’t seem like it was a big deal, but I was a bit “Yay F” inside. 

After lunch, we picked up a bento for his mother as promised and delivered it.  Then, we went to see about me getting more Christmas Cards.  There’s a packaging store that sells some and they aren’t terribly expensive.  In Japan, they tend to be 300-400 yen each (3 or 4 Canadian dollars) as they aren’t sold in boxes like in Canada.  It looks like they might be selling off the cards because I found some, but there weren’t that many. I had to buy a few duplicates. I hope they get more next year…or I might pick up a few in the January sales back in Canada!

We did a little shopping next and went to the mall.  F and I walked around the mall. I got a few new balls of cotton yarn at the hundred yen shop, thicker stuff than I had before. We left the mall after picking up a bento for K’s dinner. 

We came back to the house and although we had planned to go to Mikawa and see a movie, F begged off.  He was feeling dizzy and his back hurt.  I didn’t mind not going, to be honest as I was ambivalent about going to see the movie. It wasn’t a must-see for me anyway.

We came upstairs and I watched a little YouTube and worked on a new ornament with some of my new yarn. It’s looking good!

Around 7:30 we went out for dinner. I was hoping for Cocos but F suggested his favourite fish place. I didn’t honestly want fish that much, but on the other hand, it was fine. We were able to get a table and had a yummy dinner.  F ordered us some octopus tempura and that was nice. It came with curry salt which was so yum.  I had grilled fish of the day (sawara) and tempura, F had grilled fish of the day and sashimi, so we were quite fished up tonight.

We hit up a drugstore on the way back to the house for a few essential and non-essential things.  I got a little tube of toothpaste for here and a packet of facial wipes for the aeroplane.  They are nice for freshening up and they are hypoallergenic so work for me. I still plan to take some alcohol wipes for the plane to do a bit of pre-takeoff cleaning!

When we came back to the house we had missed most of Aquaman so I didn’t watch the ending. F seems tired although he’s still awake and on his computer. I worked on my ornament for a while and watched a couple of things on TV and the DVR tonight, no big deal.

That’s about it. So November went out on a good day. 

Come back later if you like and hear all about the way December starts! Until tomorrow….

November 29, 2019

Friday - Snowy and cold

I woke up this morning a little early. I actually got up and didn’t go back to sleep.  The world was white outside, sigh. It hasn’t gone away yet either.

Outside my window this morning.
 It was taken without my glasses through the screen window which is why it has such odd waves all over it. 

I had a quiet day. I didn’t do laundry this morning. I just looked at the pile and shrugged.  I got my breakfast and had that. I watched quite a lot of telly off the DVR today too.

I worked on getting the ornaments I’m sending wrapped up nicely so the person will have a good experience opening the package! During my time spent looking for wrapping material, I came across a bunch of stuff that I’d kept for crafting but I never use. I threw it out. It was things like calendar sheets, nothing I paid for or anything. So even though I’m not doing the proper decluttering, a little of it is still being done. Yay me!

I started an ornament in the late afternoon. I had debated with myself about going to a post office but decided that it would get dark soon so I’d rather not. I started another of the ornaments from Attic24 and got most of it done before F came back from work. It looked good.

When F called to say he was done work, I suggested going to the restaurant near the post office but going to the post office first. He was okay with that.

When he came back to the house, we all bundled up in the car and went off to the post office.  I went up to the person behind the counter and told him that the package was in Japan. We dealt with that, and then I asked for some cute stamps for my cards. Unfortunately, he thought my cards were for in Japan too, when they really weren’t! When he realized they were for out of Japan, we had to rearrange a few things!  Finally, everything was done and it was no big deal. I’ll have to send at least one more batch soon…after I buy them!

Dinner was at Youme Shokudo again and it was nice. F and I both had pork tonight, K wanted the fish, but they didn’t have it so she had chicken.  We all had extras of the miso soup and/or rice. 

We came back to the house and stayed in tonight. F’s back is bad again and he was a bit tired. He fell asleep fairly early I think. I had a shower and then watched quite a bit of telly. I did finish my ornament and I’m going to keep it!  I’m thinking about making a few extra to tuck into Christmas stockings and the like back in Canada!

The picture isn't very good as my lighting wasn't natural.  It is much brighter and prettier in real life.

And that’s really been it for my day. It was quiet but productive.  

I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. I’m hoping to buy more cards…we might take in a movie but it is one that I’m not really too concerned about seeing.  We’ll have to see what happens!

If you are up to it, come on back tomorrow and find out what happens on the last day of November.  Until tomorrow….

November 28, 2019

Thursday - Rainy and snowy, cold

I woke up this morning when F got up but was able to roll over and cover my eyes so I didn’t completely wake up. I ended up oversleeping and it was after 9 before I got up. K wasn’t up either, so I didn’t worry much about it. I watched the news and then went down to do some laundry and grab breakfast.

I was a bit busy with laundry today, I did a couple of loads and also put away some of the older stuff from the hangers. I worked on my ornament too and got it done fairly late in the afternoon. Yay me.

F called after 5 to say he was on his way, which was fine. I reminded him that he was cooking tonight.  When he got here tonight I stayed out of his way. He was still in his work clothes but cooked anyway.  He made miso soup and daikon oroishi, grilled some salty salmon and gave us some rice with that too.  I contributed some salad that I had insisted on buying last night!

Dinner was okay. I’m supposed to be reducing my salt intake, but almost every dish was full of salt. Yikes. I told F about it when he bought the fish but he didn’t seem to care.  Nice!  Then he piled on the other salty foods. 

He washed the dishes and I dried most of them. I wasn’t going to at first but decided that if I dried them they’d get put away too. I’d rather put them away in the evening than in the morning when they are cold.  

When we were done F and I went to the onsen. It was snowing outside on the way and the snow was starting to stick a little. F went and had his bath, I did some crochet and listened to a bit of a podcast. I enjoyed myself.

We left the onsen and F asked if I’d like to go for a drink. We went to Komeda Coffee and had our usual decaf coffee. It was good but my creamer seemed a little greasy or something.

We left just before closing and I asked F that I not have to cook dinner tomorrow night. I’ve done it three times this week and the kitchen is getting colder.  Two of the times I had no help whatsoever, so I’m not really in a hurry to do it again. He said it was okay, but I imagine when we fight over restaurants tomorrow night I’ll regret it!  (I did suggest bentos as a substitute too.)

At the house, we had a quiet evening. It was cold upstairs so the heater has been heating things up and working hard. I sit near the heater so it is a bit hot for me.  I watched a bit of TV nothing too major. F has gone to bed fairly early I think. Yay for that. The weather has really affected his back today. Poor thing. I think he’s dreading having to shovel snow.

And that’s about it. I got my ornaments ready to send away for the exchange. I hope the recipient enjoys them, I think they are awfully cute!

Come back on Friday if you like and hear all about my adventures. Until tomorrow….

November 27, 2019

Wednesday - Sunny but cool

Today was a busy day in a way. It didn’t start that way of course. I overslept by a few minutes and then got up. I watched the news from the bed and then got dressed. I decided not to do any laundry today, although I might regret that later.

I started watching telly off the DVR quite early today so got a lot watched. I also got a lot of things done too, so that was good.  I wrote 3 Christmas cards today too and now I’m out of them. Oh no!  What to do? I worked on my crocheted ornament too but discovered that my third round count was way out, so there was no way it would work. I reworked them and they were better, but the fourth round isn’t going to work. Sigh. I’ve just made the executive decision to go back and not redo it!  I need to cut my losses and try something else. It’ll be fine!

I also took my doily and the two ornaments I had made off the blocking boards today. The doily looks fabulous. I don’t often blow my own craft horn (or do I?), but this turned out so well. My blocking wasn’t perfect, but it did improve the doily I think. 

I was enjoying a bit of a relaxing day as F was due to cook dinner today. I didn’t have to worry about it at all…or so I thought. He phoned me from Yamagata City and said that he was still there and would likely be late. I asked about dinner and he asked me to cook it. Ack. 

When I went downstairs around 5 pm to wash my dishes I did a bit of prep for dinner. I put a mixture of garlic and soy sauce on the pork I bought last night, let the slices marinate in the fridge. There was one potato left, but it was a big one, and I had a potato salad spice packet.  Well, those two things went together. I cooked the potato after I peeled and sectioned it, I left it to cool. I also prepared a few of the long green onions for eating and used some of the really long green bits to snip onto a plate for miso soup or the salad.

I went upstairs after all this prep and took a bit of a rest.  That’s when I worked on my ornament. 

F called to say he was on his way so I went back downstairs and got busy. I made up the potato salad and it was nice, I set the table, set up the bowls for miso soup, heated the rice in the microwave and basically got the meal on the table in a hurry.  We all sat down to a nice meal and it was good. There were a few leftovers at the end, but I plated them for K’s lunch if she wants them. 

F disappeared again during the dishes time. Considering I wasn’t even supposed to cook tonight, I think it was rather choice of him not to make an appearance. I know he was tired, but so was I. I washed and dried everything, then cleaned the stove and sorted out the garbage for tomorrow.  I bagged it up but didn’t put it out as I didn’t want anyone to trip over it. 

When I finished I came upstairs and had a rest.  F came up a few minutes later and said he wanted a bath and would go to the nearby onsen. I didn’t want to go as they don’t have comfortable chairs or wifi. I gave F my blessing to go but asked that we get a few groceries afterwards.  He would phone me when he as leaving the spa.

I watched a little YouTube…I watched a couple of videos about surviving a long haul flight. One of the “expert’s” ideas was to use facial masques overnight…or to have some perfume or other cosmetic things close on hand to use.  Ack!  As a person who is highly sensitive to smelly products, if my seatmate started using perfume-y things on the flight, I’d have watering eyes and a runny nose in seconds. It just seemed selfish to me. 

I went downstairs a little early and then went outside. It was raining quite hard, but I was under the roof so it was okay. F called to say he was coming and when he arrived I got in the car and off we went.

We went to McDonald’s first and I had the cinnamon melts. So much nicer than the chocolate ones. F had a chocolate pie thing and a coffee, I drank some sokenbicha.

We went to the grocery store and got a few groceries for tomorrow.  I hope that F will indeed do the cooking tomorrow. I don’t care if he doesn’t, but I am not planning to do it. I have nothing left in the fridge to contribute now. 

I came back to the house with F, took a shower and then came back and watched New Amsterdam and started to blog. I had a bit of an eyebrow raise at some shenanigans on the Tohoku group. I’m not going to the big ETJ Expo for the first time in years and it sounds like someone is panicking over what to do. 

Anyway, that’s it for me. Tomorrow I might start printing out nengajo or something. I really do need to get a start on them if I’m going to send them this year. And I am!

Come back later if you like and find out how my Thursday goes. Until tomorrow….

November 26, 2019

Tuesday - Sunny but cool

I got up this morning around 8 but went back to bed to watch the news. I finally dragged myself out of bed and started on my day. I sorted out a bit of laundry and then took it downstairs and put it in the washer.

Today I got stuck into my Christmas Cards.  I printed some return address labels for myself and I wrote up 4 cards as well, so that was rather good. I have a few more cards to write as well. 

Sad to admit but I think I’ve put off the decluttering. I did make it up til Saturday and planned to catch up today, but getting rid of 60 things in one day would have been a bit much.  I do feel better about the things that went though. 

I made dinner again today. It was a simple one, but it worked out quite nicely. I did pasta with salad, smoked duck breast and a few green onions.  K seemed to like it and ate a lot.  I was thinking to save some of the duck for her lunch tomorrow but she ate it all. She ate more duck than either F or me!

For some reason, I was graced with doing all the clean up again.  It never fails but when there is a lot to do, I get to do it alone.  I listened to a podcast or two so that helped.  After I finished I was quite drained so I went upstairs and took a rest.

F came back and I made him take me out for coffee and groceries.  The coffee was the usual sit-across-from-me-and-ignore-me thing that is happening a bit too much lately. We left a few minutes before they closed.

At MaxValu I looked for something to make for dinner tomorrow. F was annoyed with me because I got upset that he chose salty salmon for dinner tomorrow. The dinner that he is going to make.  He knows I’m not supposed to have a lot of salt. I picked up some pork, thinking to do a garlic kind of dish, but he claims he can’t eat it.  Of course not.  I told him on Saturday night when he gorged himself on meat that he really shouldn’t have that much.  We’ve tentatively agreed on a compromise, he’ll do fish tomorrow, I’ll do the pork on Thursday. 

We came back to the house and put away the groceries. Then, we came upstairs.  Before dinner, F made a quick run to the post office and picked up the big parcel my sister had sent to him.  He was all set to open all the gifts now, but I recommended that he wait. I suggested if he desperately had to open something, that he open one now and keep the rest until Christmas Day.  He opened the two small ones but that’s okay! He was very happy to receive some maple candy and some Moose Droppings!

That’s about it for my day. Tomorrow I hope to do a few more Christmas cards and if the weather is okay, I might go to the post office and get them sent out. Fingers crossed about that. I also hope to work on sending out the ornaments I made for the ornament exchange.  I think they must be about dry now.  

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

November 25, 2019

Monday - Rainy but warm

Unbelievably, you have only one month left to find my Christmas present now!

I got up “on time” this morning, but didn’t really stir for a while. I watched the news from the bed and checked out Facebook on my phone. I was really surprised later when I noticed it was after 10. Yikes!

I went downstairs, grabbed breakfast and came back upstairs. I ate fairly quickly.  After breakfast, I went downstairs with my latest doily and a couple of Christmas ornaments that I’ve made. I washed/rinsed them all and brought them back upstairs. I then began the long and painful (the auto-correct won’t let me type pinfull but it was more correct) process of blocking my doily. I didn’t have enough room on the floor of my room, so had to move to the bed. I got it done while I watched the first episode of Absentia season two. It was good.

Pinfull is appropriate, isn't it?

I went downstairs around 1:30 to start dinner and make lunch. I set up for making tuna patties for dinner tonight. The recipe said that it took 10 minutes of prep time, but they must have had superpowers. I had to wash some of the ingredients, measure, find the things that went in it. It took a while. I was done prepping and then cleaning up after an hour or more! 

Then I started making lunch and got a nasty shock when I saw that someone had left my toaster oven in a huge mess. They’d grilled mochi, something I don’t eat and just left the mess all over the grill. I was quite angry. I thought it was my husband so I took a picture of it. I was going to angry message him about it but thought better of it.

I went back upstairs and started to work on another craft project. I got a little bit done. I also watched the news. F had phoned to say he’d be a bit late, but he didn’t know how late. I didn’t know when to actually go and cook dinner so mostly stayed upstairs.

I went down to the kitchen after 6:30, thinking that I really should get things ready. I made some couscous for myself, prepared some green onions for dinner, did a few things around the kitchen to get ready. It wasn’t until I went to the washroom that I noticed that F had called. Oops.  

He arrived when I came out of the washroom. I was glad to see him.  

I started to get things ready. I sautéed the tuna patties and I toasted a chichimi from the freezer. I plated the salad and took the couscous to the table. Basically, I got dinner ready. F heated the rice and I put in on the plates.  

Dinner was good and got great reviews. Yay! It doesn’t always happen, but most of the food disappeared. I still have couscous for me, and there  is one tuna patty for K’s lunch if she remembers.  

I cleared the table after and even did some of the dishes, but F, bless him, came in and washed the majority of them. I asked him about the toaster oven and he said that he didn’t do it. It’s a good thing I didn’t angry message! It must have been his mother. I don’t know if she didn’t notice or what…

After F finished the dishes, and I finished drying them I cleaned the stove and then the toaster oven. I got most of the mochi off. It was hard as there was one piece melted over a bit that doesn’t come off the oven. Yuck.

I came upstairs after dinner, and F came a few minutes later. He did ask if I wanted to go out, but I was okay. I fell quite tired tonight and really don’t want to go out. F was tired too and just went to bed.

I took a shower and watched The Good Wife afterwards. I think these are episodes that I haven’t seen before, so that is fun. I followed that up with some American Idol. While I appreciate that the show is shorter in its run, I don’t like it as much as before!

I’ve made myself a list with things to do on it tomorrow. I have to get started on my Christmas cards as I don’t know if I’m going to have enough! I thought I bought a few extra ones last month, but I can’t find them. Sigh.

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

November 24, 2019

Sunday - Clear and sunny, warm

In a way, today was a good day. I got several of my goals accomplished too, so that was great.  I got my shoes from the repair place, I got a new battery for one of my watches and I decided what to cook for dinner tomorrow. But…I had a bit of a blow-up at my husband for being his usual idiotic self, so I’m feeling pretty lousy about it.

I went to bed really late last night, overslept today. We all slept in, but F and K were up before me and they had brunch together. F came back into the room and wanted to go out for lunch around 2. The thing is that everywhere good is usually finished around then. He wanted to go back to Kushibiki to see if the restaurant that was privately booked last night was open. I didn’t want to go. We ended up going to Jiro near my first apartment. It was a good choice.

Jiro wasn’t too busy and I got to have my old favourite, Pork sauce with garlic oil. It was good. F had carbonara and said he liked it.  

After lunch we went looking for shoes for F. He got some in Shoe Bahn. I hope they will be okay. I tried to find myself a new pair but the women’s section is hopeless and all the men’s pairs that I might have been interested in were the wrong size.

We went to the shoe repair place, picked up my shoes and then headed to S-Mall.  We tried to get a new watch band for my watch since it is a little tight these days. I took out a link before when I was thinner and lost it, so I can’t replace it. Sigh. They didn’t have a band that was long enough for me, so I didn’t change it. I did get a new battery put into my new watch, the one that F got me a few years ago that I don’t really like. It’s too big and clunky really. Still, it is a nice watch and I should try to get used to it. I just really love my old watch. It was the first nice thing that F ever gave me from when we were first engaged.

While they were putting the battery in my watch, we had coffee or tea in Doutors. Of course, F didn’t bother to talk to me while he had his iPhone with him. Sigh.

After we picked up my watch F wanted to get bentos and I didn’t. I wanted to go to the hundred yen shop so we did. We both got quite a few things there. I was really trying to get rid of F so that I could get him a present in another store. Finally, he said that he’d go and use the bank machine downstairs so I thought I had my chance. I went to the video store and grabbed the DVD I wanted to give him. Now, this is the problem. The woman told me that it was on special with two DVDs for the price marked, I thought she meant that for the lower price marked, I got an inferior DVD set…only one DVD vs two in the pack.  She was showing me that I could pick any other DVD from the group in front of me when I noticed F walking by. I thanked the woman, scanned the DVDs quickly and put the one I had picked up back. I went over to F and told him he wasn’t getting a present because he was being too nosy and then I walked off to go to the washroom. 

I was so upset with him.  I had wanted his present to be a surprise and he had to come and find me. I had a little rant in the ladies room and then went looking for him.  Of course, by the time I found him he was angry at me. Quelle surprise.  He bought some rice in the grocery store downstairs and I gave him my shopping bag but didn’t pack it for him. I don’t eat the stuff.

We came back to the house in silence. I know that F didn’t really know that I was in the store, but good grief, couldn’t he turn around and leave when he saw me? I told him I was going to get him his present, but he had to be Mister Snoopy Snoop Snoop so he got nowt.

I was still full from dinner and feeling quite horrible at this moment in time, so thought about just staying at the house in bed. I was actually in bed when F asked if I was ready to leave. I didn’t want to keep on an angry tack, so I went out with them. We went to Gusto and had an okay meal. Poor K was on the verge of eating at the house and her meal took the longest. I’m not sure what happened. I had asked F to order us some French Fries and of course he didn’t, so the poor woman had to sit there and watch us eat our meals before hers came. 

We came back to the house with K, dropped her off and then F and I went out for kerosene and groceries. I’m going to cook tomorrow night, I think I’ll make tuna patties. F and K can have them on rice, I’ll have mine with salad, and maybe some couscous if I feel like it. 

Back at the house, we had a quiet evening. F and I basically ignored each other, except when I helped him set up his mouse. I worked on a little decoration for the ornament exchange. I made a cute little wreath. I might make something else soon too. I’ll try and block it tomorrow, maybe post a picture if I’m up to it.

Yeah, so that’s my day. I know I shouldn’t have lost my temper with F but he never gives me a moment alone. I’m so sick of it. Thank goodness he is going back to work tomorrow. Three days together is about three too many for me!

Come back later if you dare and see what Monday brings. Until tomorrow….

November 23, 2019

Saturday - Sunny and warmish

Happy Birthday to my dear F!

We slept in this morning, well, I did anyway. I got up once or twice, but basically, I didn’t get out of bed until after 12. Bad me!  We were both up quite late last night so I’m not sure why F was able to get up, but he was.

He made brunch for his mother and then the two of us went out for lunch. He tossed around a few ideas which I agreed with.  I even agreed to a ramen shop because it was his birthday. However, we ended up at Kula Sushi.  We had to wait a while to be seated as we didn’t make a reservation, but had a fairly good lunch. F even won a Star Wars magnet so that was nice.

We made a quick stop back at the house to pick up his phone, and then we went over to Komeda Coffee to have coffee and cake. We were there for a while, but it was okay. I get to a point where I almost fall asleep there. I’ve been drinking decaf and it’s hot and stuffy. They don’t bring round extra water unless you ask for it, and I never catch them when they have the water in their hands. 

We did a quick grocery shop to get K a bento and a few things for the house and kitchen too.  We delivered the bento and then went out for dinner.  F didn’t really know what he wanted but kept coming back to yakiniku.  I was worried about his stomach, but he said he’d be okay.  We ended up going to the new place near the station…not that new now as it has been over a year since they opened. We were able to get a table right away and had a good if expensive meal.  

I was looking forward to going back to the house and relaxing when F asked me when the movie at Machi-kine was. Gulp. The one that was on in 35 minutes.  We had finished our meal anyway, so we paid and then drove up to the cinema.

We went to see Crawl tonight, a movie about alligators and people trapped in a flooding house during a hurricane. It was better than it sounds, but it was quite tense.  It wasn’t MY choice, but F wanted to see it and it was his birthday, so I dealt!  I watched a lot of the film from behind my hands!

After the movie, we came back to the house and relaxed. We both took showers and I’m still up listening to music and blogging away. 

I have absolutely no idea what we are going to do tomorrow.  I have to pick up my shoes from the shoe repair store, but apart from that, it is a mystery!

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

November 22, 2019

Friday - Sunny but cool

I slept in until 9 this morning. F got up a bit before and made his mother breakfast. Then, he went off to the doctor. He was gone for a couple of hours.  

When he came back, we all piled in the car and went off to Nagomi. We all had the lunch special. It wasn’t cheap, but it was big!  F and I have been meaning to go there during the week for ages, but never quite made it before. We had a small keisen-don, new soba, some tempura, miso soup and pickles. It was very nice.  

Afterwards, we came back to the house. I thought that we’d go out, but we didn’t. F used his computer for a while and I did too, then I took a nap for an hour.  I got up around 4 and watched the US news.  

F and I had a reservation for dinner, so F made dinner for his mother. She had requested udon, so he made some for her. 

F and I drove off towards Mikawa but stopped at a drugstore to get a few things. We needed supplies for the kitchen and drinks for on the road.  

We arrived at Bistro De Pointes in Mikawa and had a fabulous meal. We were celebrating F’s birthday a little early.  I think the restaurant is closed tomorrow.  We had some amazing food, lovely salad and sashimi, kabocha soup, grilled fish, filet steak, a heavenly bun, and a baked apple for dessert with cinnamon ice cream.  We had a lovely cup of coffee too.  F passed me some money and asked me to pay the bill!  

After dinner, we went over to Mikawa Shopping Mall and did a little shopping. I picked up something for my nephew and something for my niece and also my sister! Woot.  We drove the car around to the cinema side and went to see a movie.

Surprisingly, the cinema was showing Frozen II in dubbed AND subtitled versions, so I was able to go and see it here. Yay!  They don’t do it too often for animated films anymore, but they must have realized that Frozen II would have a lot of adults wanting to see it.  I really liked it and so did F.  The songs were good and the story was better than it had to be. 

After the movie, the mall was closed, so we left.  F wanted to see about getting some electronics for his new phone, so we went over to Don Quihote and he found some. I got another new toothbrush and some cereal, F picked up a few things for himself too.  

After that, we came home. When we got here, I was coming up the stairs when I remembered that The Walking Dead was on tonight and I hadn’t recorded it. Yikes.  Still, I missed a few minutes but saw most of it. Scary stuff!

And that is it.  Since it is after midnight (well after midnight) it is F’s birthday. I have no idea what we’ll get up to, but I hope it is good!

Come back later if you will and hear all about it. Until tomorrow….

November 21, 2019

Thursday - Cloudy but cool

F did wake me up this morning, but I didn’t really wake all the way up, so was able to go back to sleep.  I got up a bit after 8, so went downstairs and came back up afterwards. I did my usual watching of news, catching up on FB with my phone from the bed thing. It was nice.

I had a very quiet morning and most of the afternoon. I was sleepy and considered taking a nap today too, but somehow never got around to it. I did more decluttering today too. There’s still a ton of clutter around, but I’m getting a little deeper now, so that’s good. I also finished the little ornament that I made a couple of days ago. I’d like to block it, so I’m not calling it done quite yet. I also spent some time watching YouTube videos on how to block a doily because I’ve decided that I really should do mine! I’ll wait till next week I think.

F called a couple of times to say that he was finishing and that we should decide when to make my dental appointment for…anytime she’s available when we are? He also asked me to think about somewhere to go for dinner and I said I would.

When he arrived after work, I suggested going to Coco Ichibanya for curry. I had read in my blog a few years ago that they had soup curry at this time of year. I wanted to have it again.  Well, long story shorter, they don’t have it anymore.  The three of us loaded into the car and went to the restaurant. We got a table and looked at the menu. K did the sort of thing that F always does. She picked one thing, then changed to another thing, then changed her mind again!  At one point she was going for the low carb curry, but she hadn’t noticed that the rice was actually cauliflower rice. She had liver and nila curry, F had oyster curry and I had an Asian Spice Curry. Mine was good, but quite hot. I’d had them give me less rice, so it wasn’t quite as filling. We enjoyed our meals I think.

We came back to the house, and I went upstairs. F followed a little later. K went to bed I think.  F and I talked about what to do and decided to do a coffee run. I wanted Starbucks since I haven’t been in a while. 

The two of us went to Starbucks.  F took his computer with him, so conversations weren’t had today! We both had the Gingerbread Latte to drink, but we asked them to make them less sweet. Mine was fine, F complained his was still too sweet. I did enjoy the drink.  

We came back to the house around 11.  I took a shower and watched some TV, F did the computer/phone thing.  It was a nice evening.  We also shared a bag of chips, special Yamagata chips.  The chip company is releasing a flavour of chips for each prefecture. Our flavour is dadacha-mame, the special edamame that Tsuruoka is famous for. They tasted fine, but the flavour was very mild. It could be because I still have remnants of the cold that I couldn’t taste the chips very well.  

Yamagata Dadacha-mame flavour

And that’s about it.  The NCIS that was on today was the intro to NCIS: New Orleans, so my hero Scott Bakula was on telly, along with Lucas Black. I was a diehard Quantum Leap fan, so I was thrilled to watch it…and it is continued next week. Woot.

Come back later if you like and find out all about our Friday. F will be off work and we’ll be starting his birthday celebration a touch early. Until tomorrow….

November 20, 2019

Wednesday - Cold, rainy, with bonus snow!

I got up this morning because I noticed that my dear husband had left the bedroom door open when he left for work. I had my little heater on near my bed and all the warm air was being sucked out the door. Argh!

I had a quiet morning. I didn’t do laundry today, but I had breakfast, watched a little telly and I even took a bit of a nap. Unfortunately, F phoned me while I was asleep, but it wasn’t a big deal.

The afternoon was quite quiet too. I watched a bit more telly and did my decluttering. It’s getting harder to find things to throw out. I know that’s a good thing really, but I just have so much stuff. Ten more days…I hope I can do it. 

F tried to make a dentist’s appointment for me for Friday but wasn’t able to do it. She’s busy!  I could have told him that. He also messaged me to say that he had made a reservation for our dinner for Friday night. Yay.

F finished work around 5:30 and came back to the house. My friend was due to arrive around 6:00 pm, so I wasn’t sure who would arrive first. F did, and he got started on dinner for his mother. He didn’t even change out of his uniform tonight. He was planning to take his mother to the onsen tonight after dinner.  

My friend arrived and we went off in the middle of a hail/snowstorm. She drove very carefully and we made it safely to the restaurant. We went to Pisolino, the Italian buffet place. It was quiet tonight, and for some reason, there wasn’t a lot of food put out. It was difficult for her to get a lot of dishes from the buffet section as many of them had meat or alcohol in them. She had a pizza and I had pasta, and it was quite nice. I enjoyed my meal.  I enjoyed our conversations a lot more though!  It was nice going out with someone who wasn’t F! 

She brought me back to the house around 10 pm. The snow was gone by now, so the roads were okay. F was in the living room watching TV. I think he was waiting up for me, bless him!  We came upstairs. I went back down after changing so that I could do up the garbage in the kitchen. It took a bit of time as usual, but I got it done. Yay. 

I came back upstairs and watched New Amsterdam and enjoyed it. I did a little internet stuff too.  And that’s really it. I’m very long-winded these days. I’m sure I really don’t need to write so much, but I enjoy stretching my English. 

Anyway, I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I’d like to work on my Christmas craft, or maybe on my nengajo. We’ll just have to see what I get up to. Until tomorrow…

November 19, 2019

Tuesday - Rainy, Windy and Cold.

F woke me up this morning around 7. He’s a noisy one, he is. I was nice enough to wish him a good day and mean it too. I went downstairs for a minute and came back upstairs. I went back to bed “until my alarm went off” and of course completely overslept. I was up before 9 though, so not a complete layabout. 

I had a fairly quiet morning. I did do three loads of laundry though, but that was a good thing. I didn’t see K at all, I think that she was in bed most of the day.

I did my decluttering today too. I went through another drawer and tossed a bunch of yucky things, kept some cool things though. 

I knew that F would be working late tonight. He told me that he’d finish around 9 pm, so I decided I’d better get dinner over early. K and I could eat and then I’d have a couple of hours to myself after I cleaned up. 

I went downstairs, heated the soup and decided that I’d open a bag of pilaf from the freezer for us to share. There was a little salad left from yesterday too.  Did we need anything else?  I hope not.  The soup was hot, the pilaf warm, so I took everything out to the table. K was a bit surprised that it was only us, so I explained that F would be late tonight, around 9 pm.  We had a nice meal and she had the local news on so it didn’t bother me like usual.  

I cleared the table when we finished and made a pit stop before I started the dishes. That was when F called to say he was finished work. It was barely 7 pm! I asked if he wanted dinner and he said he did.  

He got back to the house a few minutes later and I was able to have the remainder of the pilaf and the last of the soup on the table for him right away. He was watching the TV and playing with his phone and sitting with his mother, so he didn’t need me around. I asked him to wash his own dishes and then went upstairs after I washed my pot.

He came upstairs after a few minutes and said that he’d like to go to the onsen. That was fine. I went along for moral support and because I needed some groceries afterwards. I took some knitting with me because I hate just sitting in the lobby.

F went off to bathe, I sat and knitted and listened to a couple of podcasts. F came out a bit early and then we left. While he was in the bath, his uncle had called and we both thought the same thing. An update about Granny?

F called back from the car, but it had nothing to do with his grandmother. His uncle talked to him all the way back to Tsuruoka (we have a hands-free system in the car) so F missed the turnoff to the grocery store. I told him we needed groceries again and he rerouted us. 

We got our groceries and then came back to the house. I took a shower and then watched The Handmaid’s Tale, F was probably on his phone. 

And that’s about it. Tomorrow I should be having dinner with a friend that I don’t get to see too often. I think we’re going for pasta to Pisolino, but I’m not sure if we will.  Come back later and find out! Until tomorrow….

November 18, 2019

Monday - Rainy and dark

I got up this morning, almost when I should, and watched the news as usual. I vegged a little this morning and then was called down by K because I had a postcard. It was telling me about the Teachers Meetup next month. Sadly, I’ve decided not to go as it is too close to my trip.

I went downstairs around 11:30 and started working on my soup. I used a new recipe today and it didn’t take too long to do. I’m quite slow with all of my chopping though. K popped in a few times, I think I was taking up her lunchtime. Sorry….Finally, it was all in the slow cooker and I set it and forgot about it!

I had a quiet afternoon. I watched one show off the DVR and a bit of YouTube. I just wasn’t feeling anything today.  

I went downstairs around 5 to do dishes and work on dinner.  After that, I went back upstairs. F had called earlier to say that he would be late.  I decided I’d come back in 30 minutes and put dinner together.

I came upstairs and used my computer for a while. I went back down, and while I was starting to get things ready, F called to say he was coming. I asked him to pick up some salad dressing as we were nearly out of it. He said he would.

I made some curried tuna, sliced some croissants, got the salad out and plated it, and took some of it out to the table. K was there and asked about F. His car pulled into the driveway just then and I told her he was back now! 

We had a good dinner. The soup was really good, the curried tuna was nice too and dinner got good reviews.  No one had seconds on my soup though, and I thought it was delicious. That made me sad.

F came in the kitchen and “helped me”.  I shouldn’t really put it in quotes because he DID help me, it is just his timing was off. I needed a second or two to put things away and wrap the leftovers, he started washing dishes from the get-go. He kept getting in my way and me in his. Sigh. I also wanted to cool down my slow cooker before he washed it, he grabbed it when it was still too hot in my opinion.  

He came upstairs when he was done, I followed a few minutes later. He was in bed and using his computer. I watched a bit of TV and checked out Facebook, that kind of thing. 

We didn’t go out, which means that I didn’t go out of the house all day. Sigh. Tomorrow F will be late he said, so I may not get out of the house then either. I might take myself off for a walk if the weather is okay though. Two days of house arrest is enough for me. 

I did get a start on a Christmas Ornament project for the exchange I am in. It looks rather cute if you ask me.

That’s really about it for me. Tomorrow it sounds like I’ll be doing dinner duty with K by myself. Oh well. I hope she likes my soup!

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

November 17, 2019

Sunday - Sunny but cool

Yesterday wasn’t a great day, but today wasn’t bad at all. I didn’t go to bed until very, very late, and slept in quite late as a result. F was in bed quite late too.  I went back to bed and slept for a couple of hours.

F and I went out for lunch after he’d given his mother some lunch. She’s still a bit under the weather.  We went to Arpeggio, the place he’d wanted to go to yesterday. They stay open fairly late. We had a nice lunch, I had soboru don, a chopped meat on rice thing and F had a ton-don, slices of pork on rice. It was fairly basic Japanese stuff but done well. It was fairly reasonable too, but we didn’t add on coffee or dessert today. 

After lunch, I had asked that we visit a store that sells larger sized clothing. I wanted to see if there was something for my nephew.  I found him a couple of things there and I bought them and paid for them. After that, F started driving! I wasn’t sure why, but he drove off towards Kushibiki (a suburb of Tsuruoka) and took us up past the ski hill. It was lovely up there and the trees looked lovely in their colours. We came back because someone had set the bread maker to come off at 5 pm and needed to take the bread out.

From a lookout point.  It was near sunset.

We got back to the house and there was lots of time left. Oh dear. Finally, when F did take the bread out I pointed out the nearly complete loaf of bread on the table. He hadn’t seen it earlier. Still, he’d made raisin bread and that was very nice!

We were planning to go and see the 8:05 movie tonight but had to do some grocery shopping first. We went to Mina, the nearby big grocery store and I got a few things for dinner tomorrow night, plus my lunch.  Then, I tried but failed to find a loaf of French bread so I got croissants instead. I hope they’re okay. We left the store and F realized he forgot to get his rice! We delivered the groceries back to the house. No, dear husband, I don’t want to leave some raw meat sitting in the car, even though it is November and getting colder.  We put the groceries in the house and left again. We visited the local closest grocery store and picked up some rice. That can be left in the car no problem!

We drove over to the cinema. We were quite early, so had a seat in the lobby. We got some popcorn and drinks and went to see Us.  I liked it a lot. It was quite spooky and a bit scary. It was a bit gruesome, but not over the top or anything. 

We came back to the house after the movie. K was up having something to eat, so F chatted with her. I came upstairs and checked my email and such. My BFF was on-line and we had a chat about my trip to Canada. We’re hoping to get together and maybe have a night or two together if we can swing it. We usually manage, but Christmas makes it difficult because we’ll both have family obligations.  

And that’s about it. I took a shower and then came upstairs to blog. It was a much better day than yesterday, probably because we didn’t have to get any kind of shot and the weather was good.  

Come back later if you will and see how my dinner-making goes. Until tomorrow….

November 16, 2019

Saturday - Clear and sunny until it started to rain!

Happy Birthday little sister!

I had a horrid night last night. When I wrote, F and I were fighting. He finally said that he was planning to go to his other doctor in the morning before our mutual doctor. I really didn’t understand why he wanted to go to the second doctor so early, especially since the first is hella busy always. I said if he phoned me from the first doctor when he left, I’d be ready to go to the second one then. I tried to sleep, but he had his bedside light on for a while, and then his computer, so the room wasn’t dark enough. Yes, I was wearing an eye mask, I always do. 

In the morning, I wake up and he’s gone.  I got up, dressed and then tried to check my email. Except, there was no internet. I checked and it was a month since the last time this happened. He’d not sent the forms in to get the payment from his bank account so they’d cut us off again. Sigh. We went off to the doctor’s office. No big deal. We got our flu shots, a couple of tests and our two minutes with the doctor. 

After the doctor and pharmacy run, we got K a bento and dropped it at the house. She’s a bit under the weather apparently.

We went to have lunch and the place that I wanted had no parking available. We took a pair of my shoes to be repaired and then went into the restaurant. It’s a nice place with great food. However, F started complaining all the way up the stairs and even into the restaurant about the price and how the food wasn’t that good. He wanted ramen. He said as we went in that he wouldn’t eat. I was sick and tired of that crap and said that we could leave, but he wouldn’t. Then I basically told him to get out. I didn’t want to see his face while I ate. He threw some money at me and left. 

I had a lovely solo lunch. I felt bad about taking up a whole table, but they always had an empty table so not too bad about it. I had a side salad and shrimp and orange bouquet (a type of cauliflower) cream pasta and it was amazing! I also got a nice piece of cake and a cup of coffee for lunch. It wasn’t a cheap lunch, but I definitely feel I got what I paid for. I left and walked to the car. 

As I had thought, F was in the car. He’d eaten, but didn’t say what. I think he’d gone to the grocery store and taken something out and eaten it in the car.  He was in the process of calling the internet provider and finding out how to make a payment! We went to a convenience store and he made the payment, I mailed my postcards from the day before. Done!

We went back to the house and I took a nap. I was out for about 20 or 30 minutes. We had planned to leave for the aquarium at 4 pm. We were a few minutes later than that, but we were at the aquarium in lots of time.  We went and looked at the beasties and then had a drink in the lobby. We were a tad late going downstairs to get seats for the concert. F was quite annoyed with me, but when we got downstairs, there were tons of empty seats available!  We got a couple of good seats and were able to enjoy the show. Today it was a local contrabass player and a guitar player duo. We liked them a lot. I said afterwards that they weren’t really main event performers, but they’d be great for background music.  

We left the aquarium and drove back to Tsuruoka. F wanted food, I wasn’t too fussy honestly. He made me choose the place and I suggested sushi. Our favourite place would be closing in 45 minutes, but we could probably get in.  We did.  We had a bit of sushi each, but many of my favourites were already finished for the evening. Sigh. 

When we left, we headed back to the house, or so I thought. On the way there F said he wanted to take a bath…he didn’t do that this morning. I said it was fine. I wouldn’t take one, but I would go to the onsen and read on my phone.  

We went to the onsen which was really busy tonight. He went off to the bath, I got a chair and vegged. I caught up on Facebook and read some of a book.  

When he was done, we just came back to the house. He checked his mother and she’s mostly the same, but she did eat something so that is good. 

Upstairs, he went to bed with his computer and I went to my computer. I spent a few minutes talking to my sister about her birthday and my upcoming visit. It was nice! 

It was a long day and I’m feeling quite tired.  Is anyone still there? Oh, F left the first doctor’s office before he was quite done! He was supposed to get a shot for pain but didn’t. I think that is probably why he was so grumpy today. But, for me, the best part is I was right!  I had told him that he wouldn’t be back from the first doctor in time to go to the second as early as he wanted. He kind of cheated didn’t he?

Anyway, that’s it for me. Come back later and see how Sunday goes. Until tomorrow….