November 30, 2021

 Tuesday - Sunny and warm

I went to bed a bit earlier than normal last night which was great. What wasn’t so great was waking up around 5:30 am because F woke up and couldn’t sleep. After a trip downstairs, I went back to bed and fell asleep again. However, when my alarm clock went off this morning, I really didn’t want to get up! I snoozed for a bit and finally dragged myself out of bed. 

I had a fairly normal morning except I skipped breakfast. When I go to work, I usually do as I don’t have enough time between lunch and breakfast to get hungry. 

I got ready for work and then went to work. It was good today. I got back to the house around 5 pm and then caught up on the US news.

F called quite quickly to say he was on the way and after a bit, I went downstairs. I did my dishes and then I got stuck into making dinner. Today I was making tacos. It wasn’t difficult, and things worked fairly well. I was a touch late getting things on the table, but then again, F took ages to come downstairs. 

Dinner was pretty good. Everyone had at least two tacos. I had three, but I was hungry. F made his tacos and then added more meat to his. He ate them like they were an ice cream cone, it was a bit funny!

I did the dishes, which weren’t too bad tonight. I only used one pan and the dishes weren’t too dirty.

After dinner, F and I went to the local grocery store. We picked up some food for the next couple of days. Hopefully it’ll go well. 

We came back to the house and after a bit I watched Prodigal Son. It was okay as usual. I like the show but some parts are a little clunky if I can say that. They did play Bryan Ferry’s Slave to Love at one point, which I loved hearing. 

F is sleeping for now. He’s been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately. I think it has something to do with his computer but he doesn’t agree with me. He uses it to fall asleep with…I don’t want my computer in bed with me!

Anyway, I have to go. Tomorrow I have to cook dinner and if the weather is nice I might see if I can leave the house for a few minutes or something. Wish me luck with that. 

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

November 29, 2021

 Monday - Clear and sunny

I went to bed really late last night so very nearly didn’t get up this morning. It was hard to stay awake. 

I got moving around 11 this morning. I went downstairs and started making my soup. Today I made chicken vegetable soup in the crockpot. I let it simmer away all day. Yay!

I had a quiet afternoon. I didn’t see K at all during the day. She was in bed for a while. One nice thing for me was I got my first Christmas card today. I still haven’t sent any of mine. Ack! I just don’t seem to have the time somehow. 

In the afternoon I checked my classes for tomorrow, and had lunch. I checked my soup and it was looking good. It smelled good too!

I didn’t hear from F until I was in the kitchen already. I was wondering why F didn’t call, but he was trying to find a place he’ll drive to tomorrow. He called finally and said he was on his way.

Dinner tonight was fairly simple. We had soup with some bread from the store and a salad too. I liked it, but F didn’t finish his and K didn’t want any extras. I had a second small bowl of soup. It was great. It’ll be better tomorrow, but I thought it was very nice. I did get a bit perturbed with F over dinner though. He brought his computer down to dinner and was using it all through the meal. He was still looking for the place for tomorrow and trying to do it on his computer. I was worried he’d spill his soup on it. Or was that hopeful he would? Naa….

I got to do the dishes and stuff, but I listened to a couple of podcasts again so time went quickly. Just as I finished up, F came in to say he was going out to look again. I asked him if he wanted company and he said it was okay! I grabbed my purse from upstairs, my coat and off we went. 

Sadly, F didn’t really find the place he was looking for, but he did get the general area. I hope he can find it tomorrow. On the way, he’d asked how late the drugstores open and I told him. On the way back to the house, we stopped into a new drugstore and F bought a few things. We got some snacks and some drinks as well. 

We came back to the house and relaxed for a couple of minutes. I took a shower and then came back upstairs and watched The Good Wife. It’s getting more crazy and the series is finishing very soon. 

And that’s about it. I really want to get more sleep tonight than I did last night, so I must be off. Come back later if you like and hear all about my Tuesday. Until tomorrow….

November 28, 2021

Sunday - Clear and a little rainy

I went to bed much too late last night, but so did F. I don’t think he slept very well, because he seemed to be awake anytime I woke up. He got up before me and today worked on the door between the kitchen and the living room.

It took a while. I got up and got myself dressed to go out and was waiting to see what F came up with. He finally came up and asked if I was ready! Eyeroll!  Of course I was. 

We loaded up the car with our Costco bags and decided to have breakfast. I gave F the option of going for breakfast or hitting up a convenience store and grabbing a couple of things. He chose the latter, probably a good idea since we got a late start. 

We went to a convenience store on the way. We each got an onigiri and a nikuman. I added on a sandwich too as I hadn’t had anything to eat earlier. 

We made good time to Yamagata. On the way there was quite a bit of snow in the mountains. Sigh. I’m not ready for winter, I never am.

F said that he’d like to go shopping for jeans so we stopped into the mall for a little bit. He tried on quite a few pairs of jeans and finally found one he liked. He couldn’t have them hemmed today as they were so busy from their Black Friday sales! I did a little shopping too and bought a couple of tops at the ladies department. F thinks I can wear one of them for work, I’m not sure if I should, but I might try it out. It has short sleeves, so I will probably wear my sweater over it. 

We visited the Kaldi (foreign imports store) very quickly and discovered that they had mincemeat tarts so we got a box. Niigata didn’t have them last weekend, so woot. No Christmas pudding, but that’s okay. I’m probably the only person here that likes it anyway. 

We left the mall and continued on our way to Costco. It was quite busy so we had to park on the roof. We did get a fairly decent parking space though so that was good.  

We went in and went shopping. We did fairly well today. I got an Air Fryer today, for quite a reasonable price, we also got some of my Havarti, some puddings, some vegetables (Brussel sprouts, potatoes), and a few snacks. F was worried about the price of everything so I didn’t push for a new set of sheets for the bed. However, we went through the check out and we were fine! We spent a lot, but less than our budget. 

We took everything to the car and packed it in to the bags there. We’ve tried doing it in the store and it is just too stressful for me. I have bunches of food coming my way and no help from anyone to put things in cooler bags or whatever…and no help getting the bags open. F likes to put the bags inside each other. It saves a lot of space, but it awful when you have to get the bags out to pack the groceries in. Anyhoo, at the car we could take our time and pack the cold stuff in the cooler and the other stuff in bags that would work. Whew. 

We went back in and had a very late lunch! F had his hotdog and soda, I had the Aussie Meat pie and a soda and we both had a sundae too. It was quite nice!

We left the store and F bought gas and then we headed on our way. We talked about having dinner in Yamagata, but neither of us was hungry after the food we just ate. We decided to wait until we were back in Tsuruoka.

We had a good trip back to Tsuruoka. I snoozed a bit but F didn’t seem to mind. We decided to buy groceries before going back to the house. I got a few things to make dinner for the next couple of days. 

We brought a carload of stuff to the house and unpacked it. It was almost as stressful as buying it! 

At the store, F had suggested getting some sushi, but I told him that I wouldn’t get out of the house for a couple of days so I’d prefer to go out tonight.  He was okay with that. 

I suggested either sushi, since he’d wanted some earlier or the usual suspects of family restaurants. He chose Coco’s, and that’s where we went. I had jambalaya with spicy chicken and F had deep fried oysters. I liked mine.

We came back to the house and just relaxed a bit. It was a long day, but it was good. We walked a ton today! 

Tomorrow I’m making soup, and I have to go over my classes for Tuesday. I hope I have time to do it all. Come back later if you like and hear all about my Monday. Until tomorrow….

November 27, 2021

Saturday - Rainy on and off

I slept in this morning and it was wonderful! F got up and made his mother some brunch and then came back upstairs. We had a bit of time together and it was really nice. 

For lunch today I suggested the restaurant at the Grand El Sun, and F was okay with that. We had different things today, I had lovely lemon pasta in a creamy sauce and F had grilled fish with a panko breading. I think he liked it, I loved mine. They had a drink bar set up too, so we were able to have a few drinks.

Over lunch we decided to go to Costco tomorrow. We have to renew our membership and there are a few things that I’d like to get for the house. I hope that we can get in and out fairly quickly.

We ran a few errands today and also had coffee at Komeda’s Coffee. We picked up bentos for dinner and then came back to the house and ate. 

F prepared the food in a weird way. He made plates for himself and his mother, heated them up and took them to the table. That meant I had to make my own and everyone else was already eating when I went through. Way to make me feel like part of the family. Then, after dinner, guess who got to gather the plates and do the dishes. Muggins. I really do feel like an indentured servant.

I went upstairs and as I did, F said that he thought we were going to have dessert. I told him that I did too as I continued up the stairs. When I was in the room, he did apologize a bit for leaving me with the dishes, at least I think that’s what he said he was sorry for!

We had a fairly quiet evening. I took a shower and then watched a show. I worked on my little craft project and I think that I have finished it. I worked on the other one I started last night and have decided to start the final row. Woot. I bought a nice box for it all to go in when we were out today. 

I was about to turn off the TV tonight but did one final scan of channels and discovered Flash Gordon was on. It was so awful. Really, really awful. It was pretty funny though, in a cringe-inducing sort of way.

Anyway, that’s it for me. I have to get up fairly early tomorrow and then we’ll drive to Yamagata city and to the nearby Costco. Wish us luck. I will most likely update tomorrow night, but if I don’t, I might be too tired.

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

November 26, 2021

Friday - Rainy again

I got to bed at my usual time last night and woke up when my alarm went off today. I got up, went downstairs and then came back upstairs to watch the news. I did wonder for a bit why there wasn’t much US news but I had forgotten about Thanksgiving. 

I had a bit of a snooze but then got up and did a load of laundry. Yay me. I came upstairs and watched more news and relaxed for a bit.

I hung up my laundry and worked on my little craft again. It’s looking so cute. I’ll try and post a picture before I send it!

I went downstairs to get my lunch. K wasn’t up but about two seconds after I went in the kitchen, the doorbell rang. It was F’s sister. I let her in and she went and checked on her mother. I got on with my meal. I took the plate for K that I made out of the fridge early so it could warm a little before I put it in the microwave. I warmed it up for her and took it into the living room for her to have something to eat. She was happy!

I went upstairs with my lunch but one of the pieces of toast caught on my bookshelf and I ended up losing most of the chicken on that slice of bread. Ack. There was chicken and mayo everywhere! I had to go and clean it all up. Bah humbug!

I ate the rest of my lunch and watched a bit of TV off the DVR. After that, I decided that I’d watch a bit of a movie off the DVR. I’d recorded Frances Ha about a month ago, but I’d not watched it yet. I did watch it, separated by the US news in the middle, but I can’t say I was a huge fan. I get what they were trying to do, but I just didn’t like the characters in the film and the heroine was a bit cringe-y. 

I hadn’t heard from F, I figured he was still mad at me. I went downstairs, started dishes and sent him a text asking if he wanted to have pasta with his mother and me. He came in just a couple of minutes after that. He didn’t talk much to me, but he did talk a little. He said he didn’t want to eat anything, so went upstairs.

I got on with dinner. Tonight I did pasta for K and I, we had some canned salmon with it too. There was a nice salad as well. Dinner was pretty good. We finished the rest of the carrots and watched some Japanese news in Japanese. 

I did the dishes and listened to the podcasts that I like. The news from British Columbia about the floods just keeps getting worse. 

F took a shower while I was doing the dishes so he had the hot water boosted up so high that I was burning my hands while I was washing the dishes! 

F left to go and get his massage. He didn’t really say goodbye.

I finished, said good night to K and then went upstairs. I decided that since I had some time I was going to work on some more crafts. I put another coat on one craft and began another crochet craft. I watched a couple of shows on Apple TV.  I had just finished my second one when F came back. 

I think he ate downstairs before coming upstairs and going to bed. We did talk a little, but not too much.

I’ve had a quiet rest of night. I had to put my crochet aside as my eyes were going on me. I watched a few YouTube videos and tried to relax and catch up on internet things.

Anyway, that’s it for me for today. I have no idea what’s going to go down tomorrow. I hope to get out of the house. I’ve been in the house for two days and it is two days too many!

Come back later if you feel like it and hear all about my Saturday. Until tomorrow….

November 25, 2021

Thursday - Rainy again

I got up this morning when my alarm went off. I went downstairs and then I came back to my room. I watched the news from the bed and then took a little nap afterwards. I didn’t have a visitor at least today. 

I had a quiet day for the most part. I worked on my craft for the ornament exchange I am doing, and got quite a bit done. Woot. 

I went downstairs a little late to make my lunch. While I was there, I warmed up the leftovers from yesterday and then gave them to K to make sure she had something to eat. She was happy.

I came upstairs to eat. I watched a little telly in the afternoon and then watched the news from the US. I got a text from F asking if I needed to go out tonight. I didn’t and said so. He wanted to have a massage tonight. I told him to go ahead but to please wait until after dinner. 

I went downstairs and got a start on dinner. F showed up a little later. He was rather critical of how I planned to cook the carrots. I had a few things to get ready and F was getting in my way. It was rather annoying. He went off after a few minutes and I kept on cooking. Finally, I had most things ready. I’d been running to the table between timers to set the table. No help, same as usual. F was sitting in the living room, playing with his phone. I gave F and K their plates. F couldn’t get a massage tonight so he’d decided to go to the onsen with his mother instead. I told F to go ahead and start and I would be out as soon as the carrots were ready. 

I came back to the living room and nobody was eating. F got mad at me for no reason and said that he didn’t want to eat. I said that it was no problem and he stormed off. 

K and I ate and enjoyed our meal. It was really good. I just don’t know what F was thinking. He seems to think that he is punishing me by not eating with me. Actually, he isn’t. 

I cleared the table and started the dishes. F had buggered off upstairs after making himself some noodles I think. He’d used the cutting board, washed it, and put it back where it usually lives. I was putting some plates of food in the fridge and there was a huge bang. The cutting board had slipped off the shelf and slid onto the floor, knocking down a bunch of recyclables that were waiting to dry. I had to pick everything up. I am just really glad that I had already put my glasses in the sink as they weren’t damaged. My plates were okay too. Whew. I got on with the dishes and even was nice enough to wash the cutting board at the end. 

F and K finally left to go to the onsen and I finished up and went upstairs. I had a nice, relaxing time at my computer. I worked a little bit more on my ornament. I cut out some wings and painted them with nail polish. The room smelled quite bad after that.

F and K came back and after a while, F came to the room. He didn’t talk to me and I didn’t talk to him. 

I took a shower and then came back upstairs with my stuff. He was already in bed, so I went over to my side of the room and closed the doors quite a bit. 

And that’s my day. I’m not sure what F was getting all het up about. I know that his back is bad when it is raining, but not interested in being blamed for bad weather. 

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

November 24, 2021

Wednesday - Rainy

I woke up when F got up this morning. He didn’t really wake me up, I told him that he could turn on the light if he wanted as it was really dark in our room. I don’t think he did!

I woke up again when my alarm went off. I went downstairs and then came back to the room. I got half dressed and then went back into bed to watch the news and relax for a while. I fell asleep for a little and then…F walks in the room. Oops. He had free time while he was waiting for the people he was driving around. He stayed for a while. I got dressed and gave him a cup of coffee.

He finally left and then I decided not to do laundry. I really should have done some. 

I had a quiet afternoon and morning. I had a normal breakfast but a late lunch. F kept calling me or texting me…we had received a notice from the post office saying that they had tried to deliver something for him. Oh dear. I hadn’t heard the door at all. I sent him a picture of the notice and he arranged for redelivery later in the day.

He called me just a little after 5 pm to say he was finished work and was on his way back. I went downstairs and got started on dinner.

Tonight I ended up doing something simple for dinner. I made toaster oven chicken, bibinba rice, sautéed mushrooms and we had salad too. It actually worked out quite nicely. Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal and I wasn’t stressed out, which is always a bonus. Dinner started before 7 pm, which was also nice.

I did the dishes afterwards. It did take a while, but I listened to some of my podcasts and enjoyed the heck out of them!

I finished close to 9 pm and then I went upstairs and relaxed for a couple of minutes. F and I decided to go shopping to get a couple of things for dinner tomorrow night. I picked up some pork, I couldn’t think of anything and F had no ideas, same as usual. 

We came back to the house and put the groceries away. F and I went upstairs, I gave him a cup of tea and some cookies that we got on his birthday. He liked the cookies but not my favourite rooibos tea. Sigh. 

I watched Grey’s Anatomy and after it was over an episode of The Worst Witch. I think that one is really cute. 

And that’s my day. Tomorrow I really need to work on my ornament a bit more, I need to perhaps write a couple of Christmas Cards and who knows what else?!  Come back later if you like and hear if I did any of it. Until tomorrow….

November 23, 2021

Tuesday - Rainy, very rainy

I went to bed very late last night. It took ages to write about two days in detail for my blog! I slept in a bit today too. F got up a bit before me and made his mother some brunch. 

He came back up to the room and didn’t want to leave for a while. I was a little hungry. He finally said that he didn’t have a lot of money on him.  I told him that lunch would be on me and I suggested a nice restaurant in the area.  We went and just squeaked in before last order. In a shocking turn of events, I had fish and F had chicken. The reason was the chicken had a tomato sauce on it and the fish was cod and salmon. I like cod and salmon, but F doesn’t like cod very much.  We both had lunch with bread. We asked about having the dessert platter, but they didn’t have enough to make a platter. We were offered wheat germ ice cream instead, so we had that.

Our meal was very nice and we both enjoyed it, sadly, me more than F. The only bad thing about the meal was that we were a little rushed. I’ve been “kicked out” of the restaurant before when they closed so I had to keep reminding F that we had to leave soon. 

After lunch, F took us driving. We didn’t really have any plans, so he drove us out to the Mikawa area. He suggested going to Don Quihote. I asked if we could go to Nitori first. A friend had posted a Christmas decoration she bought there and I thought it might be worth getting one too. Sadly for me, they didn’t have it. F and I talked about putting a tree up this year and he told me that I should do it. I’ve been making decorations and I’m in an exchange, but I haven’t shown off any of my ornaments yet. 

We also looked at glasses in Nitori but didn’t buy any. I was game, but F has this incredibly weird standard for glasses so I found it frustrating. We’ve been using some very nice glasses that we got at the hundred yen shop. They are beautiful, but they break really easily. I’ve been replacing them, but I’d rather have a set that is slightly less beautiful, but a lot less delicate. He suggested that we go back to the hundred yen shop, but that made me quite angry. We started with four and have replaced 3 or 4 of them, I have one that needs to be replaced now, so we are getting into the expensive zone in my opinion.

We went to Don Quihote where we picked up a few things, mostly food related. I found some unbranded cookies that are probably from Dare (a Canadian brand), we got a few snacks and I got an Apple card for my growing book collection. 

We drove over to the Aeon Mall area. First F went in the hardware shop, but didn’t buy anything. Then, we went in the mall proper. It was supposed to be just for a drink, but we ended up checking out the hundred yen shop first. We had a drink at Doutor and F paid this time. He didn’t use my card. 

As we left the mall, F said that he was worried about the house. He’d left something cooking on the stove this morning. The stove does have a switching off feature so if something isn’t used for a while it will turn off. I wasn’t too worried. 

We went to a hardware shop in Tsuruoka. It was near my first apartment, so I used to go there a lot. It’s changed over the years, but it is still a fascinating place to explore. F got some hardware for the sliding doors.

We went to do some grocery shopping. I don’t know why, but I had the feeling all day that today was Wednesday, so I bought groceries for tomorrow night and Friday. I completely forgot about Thursday!  I told F that we’ll have to go out tomorrow night for something. Oops. 

We came back and unpacked the groceries. F gave his mother her dinner and I went upstairs. I relaxed a bit for a while, and then F came upstairs. Happily, either the stove had turned itself off, or K had turned it off for him. Whew!

We sat there for a while. We were both YouTubing I think. I suggested we go to eat while we had some choices but of course F only wanted ramen. Finally he hit on a place that I just loathe. It’s his birthday, I said I would go, but when I checked it on my map app, it said it was closed today. Oh darn! The next place F suggested closed early…as in right away. He suggested one more place and I was fine with it. We drove there and of course it was closed. 

I had suggested Misono earlier and that’s where we ended up. I had chicken curry which I liked a lot, and F had some kind of ramen-adjacent food which he didn’t. Bah humbug! 

We came back to the house. F tried to fix the downstairs doors, but the lights weren’t good enough for him to do a good job. He came upstairs where he found me watching Free Guy on our cable channel. I’ve seen it three times now and I love it! It’s just fun.

When the movie was over I took a shower and then came back upstairs. I didn’t watch my usual TV programme, not feeling it tonight.

So that’s about it for me for tonight. F is back to work tomorrow. I don’t think he wants to go, but on the other hand, he might want to have a bit of peace at work! It has been nice to have him around and we haven’t had too many arguments!

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

November 22, 2021

Monday - Rainy

F and I finally got underway yesterday at 11am or so.  We went first to Gusto and had an okay breakfast and then got on the road to Niigata.  We made a couple of pitstops but were able to check in around 4 pm. We made a few plans at the hotel and then F decided he’d take a bath. I suggested that he take his bath and I’d run over to the foreign import food store. He wanted to come with me, so off we went.

I didn’t get too much at the import store, I bought a couple of teas and F got something, I think he bought some wine. We went back to the hotel and took it all back with us. At the hotel, F phoned the restaurant to see if we could get in tonight. We were told it was fine, but there was only one cook tonight, so it might be a tad slow.  We were fine with that. We walked over to the restaurant, but took the time to have a decaf drink at Starbucks as we were going to be very early!

We went to El Mirasol, an excellent Mexican restaurant in Niigata. As usual, we had the couple set, but I suggested to F that we get the special nacho set too.  It wasn’t part of the set, but they very nicely took out the regular tortilla chips and put the nachos in instead, with a little extra charge.  F had a Corona and I had the aqua de Jamaica or hibiscus tea. So nice. We had a lovely meal.  There were the nachos, we also had salad, a shrimp taco and a beef burrito that we shared. We finished it up with some Mexican rice and some meatballs. It was so good. 

Nicely full, we left the restaurant and walked back towards the hotel. As we passed the bookstore we noticed that it was still open. Woot.  I had a gift card and I wanted to spend it. We went downstairs to the English books where I made a lovely discovery. They were having a sale and a lot of books were 50% off. Woot. I picked up three books and took them upstairs with us to pay. F offered to pay the extra that I would owe. I thought it would be about seven or eight hundred yen extra. Unfortunately, the card wasn’t a new one as I thought, it only had 300 odd yen left on it. F still paid for my books and wouldn’t let me give him any of the money for it. Sigh. 

We got back to the hotel and had a quiet night in mostly. F did take a bath. He wanted me to go, but I decided not to. I had a shower in the room. Later on, I watched a movie on the free video channel in the room. F was going to watch, but he fell asleep!

Today, we had breakfast in the hotel and it was very nice. There weren’t quite enough Western-style foods for me, but there was a good assortment of different foods available there.

We packed up our room and then checked out of the hotel. F drove us over to the mall. We had a couple of hiccups along the way as we got a bit lost, but made it there. I looked at some ladies' clothing, but didn’t buy anything. We also looked at men’s clothing, but I didn’t buy anything there either. 

F was getting a bit snarky so we decided to have a drink. He wanted to go to Komeda’s Coffee in the mall, but there was a long lineup. We could have gone to Starbucks and taken our drinks out, but he didn’t want to. Then, he got tired of waiting and wanted to leave. I was okay with that, if we stopped in the import store in the mall first.

We went to the import store and I picked up two boxes of my favourite rooibos tea. I also got a couple of other things, and F grabbed something too. I bumped into a friend in the store too, so that was nice!

From the mall, we headed over to the port to have lunch. F really wanted to see things at the port and have lunch there. It was his birthday trip, so I wasn’t going to turn him down! We wandered around the area, looking at fish and other interesting things, then went to the fish restaurant. We just sneaked in before last order. We both had a meal set, F had keisendon, or mixed fish on rice, I had salmon and ikura on rice. We shared a salmon jaw steak. It was very good.

When we finished lunch, F wanted to get going fairly soon, but there was one more shop I wanted to go to. It was a liquor store, but they had imported food too. I picked up more tea. Don’t laugh! I can’t get this stuff near where I live and it is amazing!

Finally, we were ready to come back to Tsuruoka. We got back on the road and I fell asleep. I woke up when F went over a big bump! I dozed a lot of the way back. 

At the house, K was in bed of course. It was about 6:30 or so. She didn’t need more food, as she still had some left. F spent a bit of time with her and then came upstairs.

We weren’t ready for dinner yet, but around 8 pm we decided to go out. I had suggested going for Korean food, but he countered with yakiniku. That was fine with me. We decided to check and see if we could get into the good place and we could in half an hour. 

We drove over to Togashi and were seated. We picked a mixed dish for two people, plus some tongue. We added on some kimchi and vegetables. We had a great meal and everything was delicious. 

We came back to the house and chilled out. F opened his bottle of sparkling wine and we both had some. It was quite nice. 

After midnight, he went downstairs for a moment and I put his present on the bed next to where he was before. When he came back he was a bit surprised at it. He thanked me for the bag (it looked like a backpack) and then casually tossed it off to the side. I was a little upset that he hadn’t even opened the bag up! I told him to look inside and he did. He found a DVD of a movie that he likes a lot! He was happy with it I think.

And that was my day. Not sure what we’re going to get up to tomorrow. It is actually F’s birthday on Tuesday so I hope to help him have a good day. Come back later and find out if he does have a good day. Until tomorrow….

November 20, 2021

Saturday - Warmish and clear

I slept in today as I was up very, very late. F came upstairs and told me that he was going to take his mother to the doctor as she was a bit under the weather.

After he got back and made her some lunch, it was our turn. He suggested a restaurant and as it was one I liked, we went there! F had ham cutlet for lunch, I had the bacon-don. I like that one because I feel it is like breakfast as it has bacon and egg on rice. 

After lunch, we headed out to Yunohama. We made a brief stop at a drugstore to pick up drinks for the road and to get some tissues for the car. We ended up having to get a package of boxes as it was cheaper than buying one individual box of tissues!

In Yunohama, F drove us up some very scary and narrow roads to go to a hotel. The hotel was hosting a craft sale and a woman who makes pottery had let us know about it. We’ve bought bowls and cups from her in the past, so F wanted to go again. We had a look around and it was nice. There weren’t a lot of people at the sale. One lady was selling bags made from jeans…they were expensive but looked amazing. There was a place selling semi-precious jewelry. I liked it but couldn’t think of someone to give it to! We went outside to a different section and saw an area that had a lot of sashiko and kogin on display. At one point, a man asked me if I knew about sashiko (in English!) and I said a little. One of the displays was made up of examples of different samplers of stitches. They were beautiful.  I said to the guy that I thought that most of them were kogin and he was quite surprised that I knew that word!  He explained that since this area was very into sashiko, kogin was included in sashiko or something like that. I’m not sure that I agree, but if it was his work, I’ll bow to his experience! I may have misunderstood of course.

We came back to the hotel’s lobby and looked at the lady’s pottery. She had some amazing things, but the problem is that they didn’t fit into our lives. In the end, we ended up buying smaller cups. We have huge cups upstairs, these are smaller cups that we might use for coffee when we have it with meals. We got a little freebie from her too, for milk she suggested. 

We drove back into Tsuruoka. F decided that he wanted to get his hair cut, so I asked to be dropped off at S-Mall. F dropped me off and I went in. I did a little tour of the hundred yen shop and then the grocery store. It was Costco day there and I wanted to see if they had any Havarti cheese. Sigh, they didn’t. 

I went to Doutor and had a drink. I tried their new houji-cha latte. I liked it. I waited for F and he called a little later to say he was on his way. He joined me and I bought him a decaf coffee. 

We looked in the grocery store for something for K’s dinner. F picked up a few things, and then we delivered our stuff back to the house. K got her dinner and a few minutes later, F and I went out for ours. I had suggested a couple of fish restaurant possibilities and F chose Kappa Sushi. We went there and had a fun meal. We shared some fries and even ordered ourselves some mayo to have with them.  

F wanted to go to the grocery store afterwards, so we went in. I didn’t really think it was a good idea since I want him to pick up bentos tomorrow so that they are as fresh as possible for K. However, there weren’t any bentos anyway. He picked up a few things and then we came back to the house.

We had a quiet evening in. Both of us packed for our trip tomorrow. I’m taking a backpack since we are only going away for one night. I watched my show and then watched something else off the DVR. F went to bed quite early. He’s hoping to take his mother to the onsen tomorrow morning before our trip. 

And that’s about it. I won’t be updating tomorrow night. If all goes well, I’ll write more on Monday night so don’t wait up for me! Come back later if you like and hear all about my trip. Until next time…

November 19, 2021

Friday - Clear and sunny

I got up this morning and went downstairs. I watched the news and then fell asleep afterwards. I snoozed for a bit until I got multiple messages from F saying the same thing. Apparently, he’d been in the mountains this morning and wasn’t sure if his messages to me were getting through. They didn’t until he left the mountains, and then they arrived at once. 

I had a busy morning once I got myself up. I did three loads of laundry and hung it up. I debated going over to the garage to look for something, but K was bopping around so I didn’t. 

Later in the afternoon, I went over to the garage to look for glasses from my school and something from my school that I wanted to use next month. I couldn’t reach the box of cups and such as there was a lot of stuff piled in front of the shelf they were on. I wasn’t able to find the other thing either, so I was quite sad about wasting my time.

When I came back into the house, I was going to make lunch, but I was quite dusty. I decided to go upstairs to change my shirt. I didn’t want to prepare food with dust all over me. I came back downstairs with a different shirt and then asked K if she’d like to have some curry and rice. Of course, she said yes, so I prepared some for her. I also made my usual lunch for myself. I had cheese toast and toast with chicken on it plus a salad. I brought K her lunch and then I went upstairs to eat mine.

I was upstairs for quite a while. I didn’t come down again until after F called to say he was on his way.

I didn’t do my usual pasta tonight, although I wish that I had. I asked F if he’d prefer gnocchi or regular pasta. He picked the gnocchi. I also let him pick the sauce, he chose one out of a possible three types. I got things ready and set the table too. Well, sad to say, I either used the wrong pasta sauce or I used to much of it. It wasn’t good. K couldn’t eat all of hers and washed the sauce off, F and I added some mayonnaise to dilute the sauce a bit! Oh, dear. I should have listened to my intuition and not used the sauce that F picked on the gnocchi. Never again!

I did the dishes and then went upstairs. F was getting ready for a massage. He was going out to get a massage so took a shower.  After he left, I took my shower and came back upstairs. 

The rest of the evening I’ve just had a relaxing time. It’s been nice. I watched a little YouTube, I watched a little AppleTV and I’ll probably go to bed soon. 

I’m not sure what we’re going to get up to tomorrow. I hope we have a good weekend.  Oh, I should let you all know that I’m off on Sunday night. There won’t be any update as F and I are off for a night. I may or may not blog tomorrow night, it depends on when we plan to leave on Sunday. 

Come back tomorrow or Monday night to hear all the latest from me. Until next time!

November 18, 2021

Thursday - Cloudy with bits of rain

I woke up this morning, made my trip downstairs and then got back into bed to watch the news in warmth!

I got up again around 10:30 and grabbed breakfast. The bus that I had planned to take came at 12:01. I wasn’t sure if I could or even wanted to catch that bus. A little time on Google Maps told me that another bus, going in another direction would get me to the mall an hour or so later. Plus, this would be a new-for-me bus route and that is a good thing! Stretch my boundaries and find a different area I can get to on my own. Woot.

I decided to go for it. I got dressed, went downstairs and told K that I was going to S-Mall and left the house.  I got to the bus stop a couple of minutes before the bus and I got a seat in the back. It was a busier route than the one I usually take and it was quite cool to see the various twists and turns. I did see a part of Tsuruoka that I haven’t visited before and I found a way to the MaxValu area that I can get to by myself. Yay for that!

I got off at the mall. I was the last person on the bus! I went into the mall and started looking around. Unfortunately, the restaurant I was thinking of having lunch at was booked today, so I had a pizza at Pizza Hut. It was okay. It was a Bul-go-gi pizza but wasn’t spicy in my opinion. I enjoyed it though. 

After lunch, I did a little shopping and picked up a present for F’s birthday and a present for me for being such a nice person! I did some other shopping too, I bought a few things at the hundred yen shop, and had an ice cream downstairs at the Baskin Robbins. I tried two new flavours, white tiramisu and pistachio scream. I liked them both and they went well together. 

I grabbed a couple of things from the grocery store and then went to Doutor for a decaf iced coffee. F called me a couple of times while I was there. F said that he would finish work a bit late. I did think about catching a bus back to the house, but he asked me not to do that. When he finished work and arrived at the mall, he didn’t want to stop and have a drink. Oh well.

We hit up the grocery store for a few things for dinner and then went back to the house. I changed quickly and then I started to heat up the leftover curry. We noticed during that time that we hadn’t bought any rice, so we could only have one serving of rice each. Oops.

It took a bit of time, but I finally got the curry heated up and ready to serve. We had the curry with salad, rice, a vegetable croquette each and then some dessert. We picked up a packet of Annen dofu at the store today. It wasn’t great, but it was okay.

I did the dishes after dinner and a little while after that, F and I went to the store for a few things. Of course, we left with a basketful of things, but we did get the necessities.  

When we got back to the house, I filled up the kerosene tank in our heater up here and then started up the heater. It was cold but has heated up quite nicely. 

Tomorrow I’m going to do a huge amount of laundry because I haven’t done any all week. Bad me! I’m also going to cook dinner, pasta again, but I think it’ll be nice. 

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

November 17, 2021

Wednesday -  Cool and sunny

I woke up this morning a few minutes before my alarm rang. I checked my alarms and discovered that I actually hadn’t set any for today! Yikes. Good thing it wouldn’t have mattered if I had overslept. I set a few alarms so I wouldn’t over snooze though.

I came back from downstairs, watched the news and then I did snooze a little. I also had a wee text chat with F. 

I went downstairs after a while and grabbed my breakfast. I had a relaxing morning, which was nice. I watched the end of last night’s movie. I enjoyed it, but it was a little sad too. It was called The Kindness of Strangers. I almost went to see it in Yamagata when I went down there for my birthday. The timing was wrong or the weather was bad and I didn’t go. Oh well. 

I grabbed lunch and then came back to our room to eat it. I watched another movie after a while, one I recorded recently. It was called Stage Mother and it was quite fun. It was about a woman who inherits a drag bar in San Francisco when her son dies. Her husband disowned his son and for years she did too. After her son dies, she goes to his funeral and was shocked by all of the drag queens there. Still, she perseveres and eventually starts helping the people who work in the club and that knew her son. It’s a silly little film, but rather fun.

I watched the news when it was over and then F phoned me around 5:35. He said he was on his way, so I went downstairs and got started on dinner.

Tonight I made curry for dinner. It was Japanese curry and it took quite a while. We didn’t get to eat until almost 8pm. I felt sorry for K but she did enjoy the curry when it was ready. I gave us all big first helpings. K didn’t have more, F had a huge second helping with more rice and I had a small second helping without more rice. Cleaning up afterwards wasn’t bad, but I broke a glass while I was doing the dishes. That was sad. 

I went upstairs when I finished and relaxed for a bit. About 10 pm I realized that I had to do up the garbage for tomorrow. Oops. I did my gomi upstairs and then F took the bag out for me. 

I took a shower and then went upstairs and watched Grey’s Anatomy. It was an okay episode today. It moved the plot along really.

After that, I went downstairs and took care of the bag of garbage in the kitchen. It didn’t get taken out tonight although F said that he would do it. I think he fell asleep too soon. 

I came back upstairs and have started blogging and listening to some YouTube bloggers. It’s been an okay but quiet evening really.

Tomorrow I’m sort of planning to go shopping downtown. I’d like to get a present for F and I might even take myself out for lunch. The funny thing is I would love to go for Indian curry, but we’re going to have curry for dinner again tomorrow night, so not sure if it is a good idea or not!!

Anyway, come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

November 16, 2021

Tuesday - Clear and sunny with a bit of rain.

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. I really, really didn’t want to get up, but I did. Eventually!

I had a quiet morning. I did a few things on my computer and then went downstairs and grabbed my lunch. I came back up and ate it. 

After lunch, I brushed my teeth and then got changed into my work clothes. I did a quick check that I had everything, then I went downstairs and waited for my taxi. It was right on time today.

Work was fine, all the students came and I reminded them all that next Tuesday is a national holiday so there is no class. I left by taxi and was back at the house before I knew it. 

I relaxed at the house for a bit, I changed my clothes and then used my computer for a while as I watched the news. 

F didn’t call me for a while but finally did. He said he was on his way. After a few minutes, I went downstairs and got a start on dinner. Tonight I was making pancakes and we had them with salad, sausages and the gyoza that K didn’t eat for two days! I did the cooking in the kitchen and for some reason, I couldn’t get the temperature right under the pan. Quite a few of the pancakes were a little darker than I would have liked, but they still tasted good! I kept some of them warm in the toaster oven this time, don’t know why I didn’t do that last time!

When I got to the table for my meal, K was nearly finished. She’d eaten a lot of the salad, and apparently, most of the gyoza. F saved me two, which was nice of him. I ate my fill and then started clearing the table to do the dishes. It took a while tonight, but I was able to listen to my podcasts so I didn’t mind too much. I got done dishes somewhere around 9 pm. 

I went upstairs to get changed and relax for a bit. After a few minutes, F and I headed over to the grocery store. Tonight we went to MaxValu. I had decided to make curry if I could get the ingredients at the store. Hurray! They had curry meat available, so I got it. I picked up the veggies that I needed too and then suggested that F get something for his mother’s breakfast and maybe his too. 

We went through the till and F paid. I packed the groceries and then we came back to the house.

We put away the groceries and then came upstairs. I relaxed for a while and watched Prodigal Son. It was rather interesting today. After it finished, I watched part of a movie that was on afterwards, but I recorded the rest because F was going to bed and I didn’t want to keep the TV on while he was sleeping. 

We had a little chat for a few minutes and then I let him get some rest. And, that’s about it. I’m going to finish this blog and hopefully get to be soon. 

Not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I’ll likely do a bit of work because I’d like to take next week off completely. If I have time I hope to do a bit of crafting before I go downstairs to start making dinner.

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

Oh, and it’s my younger sister’s birthday today. She doesn’t read my blog, it would bore her to tears, but I still wish her a happy birthday anyway!

November 15, 2021

Monday - Rainy and cloudy

I didn’t get to bed early last night, and even worse was the fact that F was still awake. He didn’t sleep well at all last night, poor guy.

When I woke up this morning, F had gone to work. I went downstairs and then got back into bed and watched the news. A bit later I snoozed and in fact, snoozed a bit too much. 

I went downstairs around 11 and grabbed breakfast. After that, I came back upstairs and ate. I had a quiet time in my room. I caught up on some YouTube and then around 1 pm I went downstairs and did some work in the kitchen. I washed my dishes from the weekend and breakfast, cleaned out the dish drainer and also washed F’s thermos which he left soaking in the sink. Grr! I also emptied out the corner basket in the sink. K and F fill it up over the weekend, yet neither of them can manage to empty it out. Not too pleased about that.

I went back upstairs and relaxed a bit more. I came back down to grab lunch and then went upstairs again to eat it. I watched one of my shows from the weekend and then watched the news when it was on. I also did some prep work for my classes tomorrow, I checked that I would know what I was doing!

I didn’t hear from F today, so when 5:45 or so came along, I went downstairs to get started on dinner. Tonight I made sweet potato fries again. We had them with baked chicken, macaroni salad (bought), salad (bought) and a garlic aioli for the sweet potatoes. Dinner was good and was quite appreciated. There was only one piece of sweet potato left at the end. 

I did the dishes and listened to my podcasts, as usual, using my new speaker. It was great! The sound was much better than just my iPhone so I was pleased. 

After I finished, I came back upstairs. I had a quiet evening in the room. I showed F a Christmas food catalogue that I picked up from the store yesterday. It’s not so much that I want to order food as I would like some input on what he would like. Last year, our Christmas meal was delayed by a day as F had to work due to a swine flu problem in the area. 

I took a shower and then came upstairs again and watched The Good Wife. I really liked it as usual. The show just kept getting better in the last season. After it finished I watched a fishing show that WOWOW has just started. It’s from New Zealand. 

I turned off the TV and turned to my good friend YouTube! I blogged and now here we are. You’re up to date. 

Tomorrow I have classes in the afternoon and then I’m going to make pancakes for dinner tomorrow. I hope it goes well!

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