July 9, 2019

Tuesday - Hot and sunny

I went to bed rather late last night but still woke up early to make a trip downstairs. When I woke up again later I was alone in the bedroom.

I had a bit of a draggy morning. I got up, but couldn’t feel motivated. I did a load of laundry and hung it up around the room. Yay me.

I watched a few of the programmes from this weekend during the day and deleted them from the DVR. A little before 4 pm, I went downstairs and did some prep for dinner. I made a bowl of guacamole and I grated some carrots to make ninjin shiri-shiri. Unfortunately, I grated my knuckle too, so I had to get a bandage and then put my hand in a glove to keep on cooking. 

I went upstairs after my prep as I didn’t know when F was coming back. He called me around 5:30 and said he’d bring something from the store to have with dinner.

After F arrived, I went downstairs and started setting the table and putting food out.  I put out the guacamole and chips, I cooked a frozen chichimi and I made my carrot, tuna and egg dish. It went over very well.  F contributed some tuna sashimi, but it was nice.  We all had quite a big dinner, and there were even a few leftovers for tomorrow for K.

I asked F to wash the dishes for me, which he did. I dried them. I just didn’t want to get my finger wet as it would hurt. 

F asked if I’d like to go to the Internet Cafe after dinner and I said yes.  We went out there and were both able to get massaging chairs.  We spent the next three hours at opposite ends of the hallway.  I watched a travel guide show and then some episodes of a show a friend recommended to me. Some of it was hilarious!

We came back to the house after our time was up. F and I both took showers and then F fell asleep on the bed.  He’s still there.  

Not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. You might have to come back and find out! Until tomorrow….

September 30, 2010

Thursday - Warm and sunny

An okay day today. I did oversleep a bit, but not like yesterday. I also managed to shower earlier today too. I’m not sure what’s wrong with me these days, I just feel run down. I feel a bit like I need a good dose of tonic to make me feel better!

I had a fairly quiet afternoon at home, I wrote a bit of email, and just relaxed as much as possible.

I went over to the school before 4 pm and made good time. I set up and when my student came we had a good lesson. He hadn’t been around for a bit as he had some sports thing. All of my classes today went fairly well. We had some good conversations.

After work, F called me and I was ready to go, so he came over. That was nice as we went to a restaurant earlier than usual for Thursday. We drove over to Moku Moku and had pasta. I had salmon cream which was nice, and F had chicken and eggplant in a wafu (Japanese) sauce.

We bought groceries at MaxValu afterwards. We’re going to have steak tomorrow night. I’ve not really cooked steak, so I’m afraid of mucking it up. Any one have any tips for me?

We came home and had a really quiet evening, before F went to bed. I had planned to watch a bit of TV, but reconsidered. Sleep might be smarter!

Anyway, I’ll most likely update tomorrow night, but I’ll be away this weekend in Sendai. Don’t miss me too much! Night.

September 29, 2010

Wednesday - Sunny but not too warm

Had an odd sort of day today. I got up early then went back to sleep for a bit. Got up to check on news but there was only baseball, so I ended up going back to bed. I slept for a good long time, even oversleeping through the alarm I’d set.

When I got up I started to do laundry and also watched some news. I made the bed, and spent time on my computer. I really just had a quiet day at home. I thought about going to the lobby of the building and sweeping and did in fact do that after 5 pm.

Oh, and at 5 pm something happened. I had the TV on and they showed an earthquake bulletin. Just after that, my cell phone’s earthquake alarm went off and sure enough, I could feel a slight earthquake. I was worried in case it got worse, but it didn’t.

I went out to sweep the lobby. Today is most likely the last time I’ll do it for a while. October someone else is supposed to take over. Hurray and I hope they really do.

F came home around 7 and immediately went into the kitchen rather than saying hello to me. I was a touch miffed, but then I got my hug. He started working on dinner and I got a massive headache. I took a couple of Bufferin and had a lie-down for a few minutes. It seemed to help.

F’s nabe was very nice. He did make the sauce too strong as usual, but noticed it himself. He made up a second nabe later and the sauce wasn’t as strong and was much better. To be honest, I don’t like his sauce, but after last year when I complained and he refused to make any more, I decided to keep my mouth shut. Hopefully I can persuade him to use a commercial mix once in a while!

I did the dishes and what a rigamarole that was. He’d stuffed half of the dishes in to the basin in the sink. The one full of cold water. I emptied it out and then the drain got plugged. I had to clean out the drain before I could do the dishes. F went to bed and that basically was the last that I’ve seen of him.

At 11 pm I put on American Idol and watched the show. Adam performed tonight and the way he presented the song was very different from the cd. It was okay, just wish I’d seen him do it the way it goes in my head.

And that’s about it for today. I have a busy day at the school tomorrow, so I should really get some sleep. I’m honestly not feeling that well and need all the beauty sleep I can get. Night!

September 28, 2010

Tuesday - Cold and rainy

Today was okay. It was hard getting up this morning, but I finally managed. I never know if I wake up early if I should just get up, or go back to sleep. I should get up, but likely won’t.

I had a quiet morning around the apartment. I showered, got ready for work and then left. It was raining when I left and I did get a bit wet. Still, I had to get to work.

At the school I did a bit of dusting and other cleaning as it was needed. I checked everything and got ready for my first student.

She was a little late, but not too much. We didn’t do the work I’d planned, instead we ended up talking about Jazz Chants and I discussed a few things that I’d tried in the past. I think she’s planning to “steal” my ideas!

I had a long break in the middle which I used to drink tea and read newspapers. I didn’t quite get done. F called me in the middle and it was nice to hear from him. He was still working at 6:00 pm. He said he’d phone me at 8:15 after my student left.

My student and I had a great time talking about various trips and about Hong Kong. She’d never been there and was interested in it. We didn’t get around to the text either. Sigh.

After class I cleaned up, did a little paperwork and then waited for F to call. He didn’t so I assumed that he was working. I called him at 8:50 and he was really sleeping. Ahem. Poor thing was tired.

He picked me up and we went to New York, New York for dinner. F had udon, I had chicken that was quite nice.

We came home via the grocery store. F suggested making a nabe tomorrow so that’s what we’re going to do. It is getting colder.

We settled in to watch American Idol. Adam Lambert was the mentor this week and it was nice to see him again. When we were in Hong Kong, there were posters up in the train station for a concert he’s giving there on October 12 and I was thinking we arrived just a bit too early. I also wanted to steal the posters, but didn’t.

At 1:15 I started watching Dustin Hoffman on the Actor’s Studio. He’s very interesting. There was a second episode right after it, but I decided to tape it as I wasn’t blogging the way I should.

Anyway, that’s it for me. It was an okay day. Tomorrow I have a few things to do if the weather cooperates, so wish me luck on that. Night!

September 27, 2010

Monday - Sunny and warmish

An okay day. I went to bed late last night, but had to get up early today. Why? The fire alarm inspection guys were supposed to come. F had done a bit more cleaning this morning so things looked fairly decent. We waited and waited for the inspectors to come but they didn’t. Around 11 am I told F that I was taking a shower and if they did show up to please ask them to wait 10 minutes while I finished my shower.

When I came out of the shower F had a sheepish look on his face. He’d found the original note about the men and they weren’t supposed to come until the afternoon. Argh! Still, at least I was done with the shower.

We had to run a few errands this morning, so did that. I went by my school to pick up my hanko then to the post office. I cashed in my old money order, got a new one, and then used the extra money from that to pay for sending my forms off by registered mail. I ended up getting a grand total of 120 yen back, but at least I didn’t have to pay more!

We went for lunch then to the Sweeney Todd restaurant. I wrote about it before, a little restaurant where no-one ever seems to go. Again, there was no one there! The food was good too, so I’m not sure what is happening.

F wanted to go and get a massage so he made an appointment and went off for an hour. I stayed home and watched a bit of TV, nothing major. F came back for a while and then went out again to visit his mother and check that she was okay.

We had dinner tonight in Grado, the local Italian place and it was lovely. I had the pasta special which was mushroom pasta in a creamy wasabi sauce. It was amazing. F had a chicken stew dish that looked good except it had too much tomato for me.

We bought a few groceries at the store as I had to get new supplies for my school, and then came home. At home I watched a Miss Marple episode that was rather good. It had Polly Walker from Enchanted April and Martine McCutcheon from Love, Actually in it.

F went to bed, but got up a bit later to have a drink and some medicine. His back isn’t doing well I’m afraid. He’s finally asleep now.

And that’s it for me. A nice quiet day. I’ll be a little sad to get back to work, but on the other hand, I have bills to pay! Night.

September 26, 2010

Sunday - Sunny and warmish

Today was a quite good day. I slept in quite late and only really woke up when the census form was delivered. I did have a nasty dream while I was in the land between being awake and asleep. I dreamt that I had to put my dog down. As I really did have to do that once it was quite horrible to relive.

I got up and did a bit of email and internet reading before we went out for lunch.

Lunch was at Kintaro Sushi and was quite nice. I tried a new type for me, engawa. I didn’t really like it, but F said it wasn’t as good as usual. I’m very funny about textures in my mouth and it just didn’t do anything for me.

We went for a drive after lunch. It was supposedly to the beach, but we mysteriously ended up at a port to check out the fishing. It looked like some people were doing really well while the people next to them didn’t catch anything. Strange. I asked the hubster if he wants to go tomorrow. That’s to be announced I think.

We came home and did a bit of cleaning. Tomorrow we have the fire alarm check and I told F that he had to clean out the Tatami room. He’s been using it as a dumping place for our no longer working equipment and I don’t like it! To be fair, he did a great job in the room. I’m sure we’ll never find anything again, but it looks good for now. I vacuumed the apartment and then worked on clearing off my computer desk. I didn’t manage, but did find a lot of things and threw out tons of junk.

We had dinner at Cocos and it was nice. They have a new menu with the season and I had the chicken with Genovase sauce, while F had a Japanese dish.

We came home and I put all my passport things together. I filled in the money order that I bought and then thought I’d better check the net to make sure that everything has to be sent by registered mail. While I was there, I discovered that the fee amount had been changed….on the actual day that I bought the old money order….and I’ll have to cash it in and get a new one. Oh what fun! At least F will be with me to help me out. I also have to hanko the form, so I’ll need to run to the school to grab my hanko.

I watched last night’s Cold Case. It was about Stewardesses in the 60’s and some of the guest stars were quite famous. They had Lee Majors (Six Million Dollar Man), Adrienne Barbeau (Maude), and Mariette Hartley (Polaroid Commercials with James Garner). Quite interesting. F even stayed up to watch it with me.

And that’s it. Tomorrow I have to try to get up early and then get my blooming passport off in the mail. I didn’t have any problems with it during our trip, but I was pretty nervous about the whole thing.

Got to go. Night!

September 25, 2010

Saturday - Rainy and cool

So very glad to be home. The trip wasn’t all bad, but the last day was very long and by the time we got back to Haneda, F & I weren’t even talking to each other. You can imagine how much fun the flight back to Tsuruoka was…I slept through it.

We got home and I turned on the water, put on my P.J’s and went to sleep for about 6 hours. I didn’t get up until 8 pm. F ate and then went to bed too. I woke him up around 10 and suggested going out for food.

We had a quick and not bad meal at Gusto and then hit the grocery store. F went back to bed almost immediately. I stayed up to watch House and Top Gear.

I plan to update a bit more on our trip. I think Friday was just a long long day. We had to check out of our hotel at 12 and then we literally had nothing to do for 10 and a half hours. It was hot and sunny and I spent more time outside than I have in ages. I was dehydrated, sunburnt and my foot which had been better was really hurting again. I had a meltdown and then F started being all passive aggressive on me and the whole thing was awful.

Anyway, we’re back and pictures may follow soon if I can get them out of my phone!

Night.

September 20, 2010

Monday - Cooler but rainy and humid.

An okay day. I slept in late today and just after I got up, F came back. He’d gone back to his mother’s and had taken her shopping and to his father’s grave. Sweet guy.

After our showers and a bit of news on the TV, we went for lunch. Today we tried the Grand El Son and had a nice lunch. I had Shonai Pork with spicy apple sauce, F had Italian Curry. I’m not sure how Italian curry is, but they decorated his plate to look like the Italian flag!

We ran around a bit after lunch trying to find folding umbrellas, since the weather report for HK wasn’t good. We couldn’t find any good ones, so we chucked it and went home.

I swept the apartment lobby as I’m not going to be here for a while and then came in the apartment. I was sweating. It was so humid out there. Bleck.

We both worked on packing. I’m mostly done. I need to put my toiletries case in my suitcase as I’ll need some of the stuff tomorrow morning. My suitcase isn’t crammed full, so I’m rather happy with myself.

We went out again at 7-ish and went to the drugstore. We found some better made folding umbrellas so I bought us a couple. Then we went on for dinner. Tonight it was courtesy of New York, New York. We both had grilled chicken, F with rice, me with salad. It was nice. The menu has changed a little and we saw the nice waitress that used to work for M’s Dining tonight. She hasn’t been there in a while.

We stopped by my school briefly so I could pick up flyers and make sure there were no problems. Everything looked fine, so we came home. We both did more packing. I got my backpack packed up for the plane. I never know how much to take and what to leave behind. Probably should leave more than I do!

Had a quiet night really. We didn’t even turn on the TV, although I did turn on the AC because I was sweating a lot.

So, I’ll be gone from tomorrow until Saturday if all goes well. If it doesn’t I’ll probably be back in a couple of days! Don’t miss me too much….and take care. Night!

September 19, 2010

Sunday - She be a rainy one today, mateys.

I got up this morning around 11 and F was out. He’d gone over to his house to help his mother with something. Good for him. He came back and we vegged for a bit before going out for lunch. He wanted yakiniku, so we went to a local place. We didn’t really have yakiniku, we had lunch specials. I had bibinba, the Korean dish. It came with a little meat to grill, soup and a salad. It was okay. F had noodles, of course.

We were going to have coffee in the afternoon, but when we got to the mall couldn’t find parking under cover and I didn’t want to run for the door of the mall. It was really coming down. I suggested going home and I would make tea. We did and I did.

We zoomed out again for a while to go to Yamaya. The reason? To buy some fake souvenirs for our trip. F has told his office we’re going to Canada so we got some maple cookies. Shh! Don’t tell on him. We picked up some decaf as well. We drove over to the gas station, filled the car and then went to the camera shop. I was drooling over the Pentax cameras on offer, but I don’t really need one…just want a new one. Mine is a little old and clunky now. My cellphone is a better camera in many ways!

We came home again.

After a long time at home where we both did a lot of packing and I watched Virtuosity (Russell baby au naturel - woot!) F wanted dinner of course so we went to Aki for okonomiyaki. I had curry cheese with udon for a change and F had noodles. What else? Bleck.

We came home and have spent the evening doing sundry things for our trip. F got his computer out and made us a schedule of the trip. I’m really glad because I didn’t know when any of our flights were. He kept asking me spelling questions until I introduced him to Dashboard and the handy dandy little dictionary there! His even has Japanese to English capabilities.

And that’s about it. I’ve been on my computer for a bit, but I really should get some sleep soon. I’m a tad tired and I’d really like to get some sleep. F never seems tired in the daytime and since I’ll be with him for the next week will need to keep a sense of humour going.

Probably update tomorrow night…unless something comes up. Night!

September 18, 2010

Saturday - Warm and sunny.

A good day. I know it’s rare, and on a Saturday too, but it was a good, reasonably productive day.

I got up on time and took a shower. The news wasn’t on. Sigh. F came back from the doctor and after we watched an episode of Royal Pains, we left for brunch.

We had a nice meal in Gusto and then F took me to my school. He came in today for a few minutes to write a letter to my student’s mother, but then left. I was busy while he was doing that.

When my student and her mother came we had a good lesson and then I was alone for a few hours. It was nice! I tried to do some accounting but realised that I didn’t have all the receipts yet, so read the papers and finished sewing the hat I’ve been making. I have one more project to do on it, I have to make the tie for it. That won’t take long.

My last lesson went well too. We were learning about using adverbs and adjectives. It wasn’t as easy as you might think.

After classes I finished up, washed dishes and basically prepped my school for me not being there for a while. I called F and he came to get me.

For dinner tonight we went to Jiro and it was nice. We both had the same, pork saute with garlic oil. Yum. F had the version with bread, I didn’t.

We came home and had a quiet evening. I asked if we could watch my detective shows “live” as I usually tape them. F doesn’t really approve. F went to bed a bit before midnight and of course I’m still up. I watched CSI: Las Vegas, Cold Case, another episode of Royal Pains and then House. Wow. I usually don’t watch this much English TV in one day.

Anyway, that’s it for me. I’m going to try to get to bed soon. I think we have an exciting day of laundry planned for us. After that, I’m not sure what we’ll be doing. Maybe we’ll do something fun. Check in tomorrow night and find out! Night.

September 17, 2010

Friday - Clear and sunny.

A good day. When I woke up this morning it was a little late, but I got up. I checked some of the internet sites that I use, but my favourite gaming site was down and continued to stay down for much of the day. Grr. I made the bed and then took a bit of a nap on it!

Around 2 pm today I decided to have an adventure. I grabbed my bike and went off to the Tsuruoka cinema. I wanted to see The A-Team again. It was fun, but really wasn’t worth watching again. However, this time I knew about the two scenes at the end and was able to watch them more closely than I did the first time.

I visited the bank and then the mall for a bit. I didn’t find anything I wanted to buy at the mall, so I just came home. I didn’t even have my tea as it was starting to get dark.

F came home tonight around 7 and immediately went to the bedroom and had a lie down. I wasn’t best pleased as he didn’t even talk to me. I went to talk to him and my stomach started growling. I was hungry.

We went for dinner to the new sushi restaurant that just opened today. We had to wait about 15 minutes, so not bad. F said not to worry about price, so I took him at his word. I had a lot of sushi, some of it was really good. Some of it was okay. They do have a drink bar which is a nice thing for those of us who don’t really like green tea. Our bill afterwards was about double the bill at our usual place, so I’m not really sure if we’ll go back or not.

We came home and watched a couple of episodes of Desperate Housewives that I had on tape. Things are getting weirder on Wisteria Lane. I do wish they’d wrap up this whole Dave Williams story. It’s getting rather tiresome.

F went back to bed after the programmes finished and went to sleep. It’s a little sad because he barely talked to me today. Oh well. I suppose we have the next few days to talk to each other.

That’s it for me. Tomorrow I have two classes at work, hours apart so I’m hoping to get a lot of work done. Please wish me luck! Night!

September 16, 2010

Thursday - Rainy day.

I had a good but quiet morning today. I didn’t really get roused until noon. Oh well. I showered and then watched a movie from last night. It was Cadillac Records and was about how Rhythm and Blues and Rock and Roll got its start. It starred Adrien Brody which of course was the real reason that I wanted to watch it. However, it did have a lot of great music. I was nervous when I realised that Beyonce was going to be in it as I’m not a fan, but she didn’t show up for ages, so it was okay. Adrien was wonderful of course. Played a real shady character.

I went over to the school via the drugstore today. I picked up a few things for myself and then got to the school. It was raining, but not pouring, so I just wore my raincoat and was fine. I didn’t want to wear my rain cape unless I had to.

Classes tonight were fine and the students did well. After class I tidied up and read the paper. F called a bit early for me, so I called him back when I was done. He picked me up and we had dinner at Grado. They had a different waiter there tonight and he was pretty good. Such a difference from the other one. Tonight’s waiter told us what the appetisers were before we ate them, the other guy doesn’t.

We did a brief grocery store run and then came home. F went to bed fairly soon. I’m glad that he’s going to be off work for a while. He’s had a pretty stressful time of it at work. It sounds like one co-worker gives him a hard time and F doesn’t have the knack for handling the situation.

Anyway, that’s it for me. Tomorrow if the weather is nice I’ll go out. I may go out even if it isn’t nice as I really need to run a few errands! Night.

September 15, 2010

Wednesday, a lovely and sunny day.

I had a good day today. I did oversleep a bit, but it didn’t matter much. I got up and got on with my day.

I was at home for most of the day. It was fairly quiet. I was keeping an eye on a situation in one of my groups. Things are a bit difficult at the moment.

I had planned to go out in the afternoon, but didn’t get around to it. I did 3 loads of laundry so hopefully the things I need will be dry for our trip.

I had some of my lovely soup for lunch today. It was so good. I really loved it. I might be able to finish it tomorrow.

In the evening, F called me to say that he’d talked to the restaurant and made a reservation for us for 7 pm tonight. He came home around 6:15 or so and changed out of his work clothes. We dressed up a little and then drove out to Mikawa to Bistrot de Ponts.

We had a lovely meal. We started with sashimi and a salad with sauerkraut and balsamic vinegar. Then, we were served kabocha soup, followed by sea bream with a mushroom sauce. Both were wonderful.

Our main course was either steak for F or local Shonai pork for me. The dishes came with mashed potatoes and a few veggies. We also had the restaurant’s lovely bread on the side. Mmm.

Our dessert was a Mango Mousse with black sesame ice cream, mango slices on the side plus a sugary web on top. It was a treat for the eyes and the mouth. We were served coffee with it too. A lovely meal, really.

Smile!  Dessert was so yummy.

We came home afterwards and I watched an Hercules Poirot on the telly that was good. We settled in to watch American Idol afterwards. We enjoyed the show, although F went to bed on it. I darned in the loose ends of my hat and also sewed it up about halfway. It was a bit difficult as our light isn’t that great for close work. I might try and work on it again tomorrow in the daytime if I have time.

And that was my day. Mostly lovely and quiet, with some amazing food. Night!

September 14, 2010

Tuesday - Lovely and sunny, not overly hot.

Happy Anniversary to us. Dear F and I registered our marriage 9 years ago today. The world has never been the same since. The biggest thing I remember about that day arriving at City Hall and telling F I needed to use the washroom first. He didn’t listen and barrelled on up to the counter to take in the forms. Basically our marriage hasn’t changed much since then. He’s always in a hurry and I always need to pee!

On with today. I managed to get up this morning but was terribly sleepy. I even fell asleep during the news, so had to rewatch it later. Sigh. There was nothing on telly today, so disappointing.

I spent time on line and also took a brief nap on the couch. It was 5 minutes long, I set my timer. It did help a bit. I lunched and then rode over to my school.

At the school I got ready for my class. I wore my new shirt that F bought me a couple of weeks ago and it was fine. I also got a call from my student who’s in the hospital. She will be there for a few weeks, but she sounded quite chipper today. Yay for that.

My first class was good and my student and I had some amazing chats. Last class I’d sent her home with a copy of Matilda by Roald Dahl (the one for learners of English) and she loved it! Today she asked if she could try the real (not for learners) version of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, so I sent her home with that. She’s read the learners version, in fact she’s read all three of the stories available. I told her not to worry too much about all of the vocabulary. A lot of words are African words and I wouldn’t even know what they are. She should just guess from context what they mean. Hope she’ll manage. (Her reading ability is obviously quite high or I wouldn’t let her try it.)
In my break time I did a bit of paperwork, a bit of prep and read the newspapers, so enjoyed myself.

My other student came on time and we had a good class too. We talked about my anniversary and her weekend before getting down to work.

After class I finished up and continued reading the Sunday newspaper. I didn’t quite finish, but F called me and then came to get me.

For our anniversary dinner F suggested ramen and I nearly suggested he find a new wife. Yuck. We did try to go to a new sushi restaurant, but it wasn’t open yet. I suggested our favourite yakiniku place which was open and nearby, so we went there. We had quite a nice meal. We didn’t overeat as much as we do sometimes. We had one assortment platter and then each picked another type of meat. I had chicken, F some yucky organ stuff. We didn’t share those! It was nice and then we came home.

We watched American Idol at 11. I did more crocheting and I think I have done enough to call my hat finished. I’ll have to start sewing it together tomorrow. My only problem? Which is the right side? They both look good. I’ll still have to do a chain and I’m thinking of putting pom-poms on the ends of the chain so it’ll look cute. Idol was good too. I didn’t agree with the judges much tonight, but it was okay. The good people were very good, the medium people I was a bit “meh” about.

And that was my day. It was nice. We may have a lovely romantic dinner tomorrow night, or we may not. It depends if “our” restaurant is open and if F can get off work early enough! Night.

September 13, 2010

Monday - Rain…under a weather advisory.

We were woken up this morning by a really bad thunderstorm with rain that sounded like hail. Scary!

When I woke up the next time, F had gone to work and it was time for me to get up. I did get up and proceeded to have a busy day. I checked email, then got to work.

In the kitchen today I made vegetable soup in my crockpot. Last time the potatoes and carrots stayed quite firm, so today I parboiled them in my frypan before putting them in the crockpot. Success! I cut up potatoes, a carrot, celery, an onion and a quarter of a cabbage. I should probably have parboiled the cabbage too, but really it didn’t matter. Into the crock with it all, plus some reconstituted chicken stock cubes and water.

I also prepped the ginger pork for tonight. I grated the ginger, added some soy sauce to it, and spread it over the thin pork pieces we bought last night. Stuck it all back in the fridge to marinate.

I did some computer work while I watched this weekend’s TV. CSI: Vegas was cool as it had Henry (E.T.) Thomas on and Cold Case was interesting as it was about a pin-up girl. Royal Pains was okay too. I’m still debating about that show. I think it’s a good summer replacement, I’m not sure if it’s worthy of a long run. We’ll see.

Before 4 pm I noticed the rain was mostly stopped so I took a quick ride over to the post office. I cashed in more of Fumihiko’s coins and also got a postal money order to pay for my passport renewal. Hurray for me. I took the total of the coins out of my account then. We decided we’d use the money to pay for our fancy dinner out this week. The rain came on really strong when I was in the post office, but then thankfully stopped when I finished. I got back home mostly unscathed.

When I was home, I parked my bike and then swept the lobby of our apartment building again. It still didn’t seem that bad, but did need doing. It took me ages and I was sweating profusely when I finished. It was so humid.

I came back in and got out my shredder and started to use it. Fun! I shredded a lot of old envelopes with my name and address on them, and also a few requests for money from various charities.

I went back on my computer for a while until F came home. When he did, I kicked dinner into high gear. We had soup, followed by ginger pork with salad and celery sticks and dressing to dip. It was good. F bugged off at the end, so I did the dishes. To be fair, he did come back and offer to do them, but I knew he was tired. After they were done, I had more coffee and then computer time.

This evening has been quiet. We watched That 70’s Show and then the rain came back and our TV died for a bit. Didn’t matter as I turned it off anyway.

That’s it for me. Tomorrow I’m back at work, but I have an earlier class. I’ll have to get to my school earlier then. I hope it doesn’t rain too much tomorrow. I don’t like getting wet before work. Talk to you later. Bye.

September 12, 2010

Sunday - Rainy and more rainy.

A good day. I went to bed horribly late last night. It was after 4 before I finished up all the things I wanted to before bed. I set my alarm for 11 and went to sleep. When I woke up at 10:30 it was to an empty apartment. F had gone out. That made me glad. I never want him to stay at home and wait for me, so knowing he was out doing something necessary was good.

He came back around 11 and we had a snuggle before getting up. I checked email, did the usual stuff. After a while we went out for lunch and errand running. We had a nice lunch in New York, New York and then went to K’s Denki. I needed new ink for my school’s photocopier and I wanted to get a shredder too. Well, we ended up getting both. F bought me the shredder, which really surprised me as I plan to get it for myself. I have a bunch of papers with my name on them that I want to shred. Not important stuff, just things like envelopes, that kind of thing. The one we got was on sale, it didn’t come with a box so it was cheaper than the exact same model with a box. Who needs a box?

We also went to the drugstore again, and then the travel company for our trip’s stuff. We came home for a bit after that.

In the evening, F suggested going for pizza for dinner. I was worried about the tomato sauce, but we ended up getting a half and half pizza with no tomatoes on it, so that was a bonus. After dinner, we bought a few groceries for tomorrow night’s dinner. I think I’m going to cook again. Looks like vegetable soup and ginger pork.

We came home and had a quiet evening. F put on the TV and tried to watch a Biohazard film but I begged off. We saw that one in the theatre and it gave me nightmares for weeks. He put a show on about rock guitarists and it was cool. I had no idea what they were saying about the musicians, but it sounded ilke an intelligent show instead of the usual fawning/over the top thing. Plus, they showed clips of people performing and that was neat.

That’s about it for me. F has gone to bed, and I’m thinking to get to sleep fairly soon. Hopefully, talk to you later! Night.

September 11, 2010

Saturday - Rainy all day.

Today was a good day. I was very nervous as the last two Saturdays have tanked for me, but today was okay. I woke up to find F watching Back to the Future on telly. Good for him. He actually got off the TV long enough to let me see if there was news. There wasn’t, so we continued with Back to the Future.

I showered and then made us some breakfast while The Rock was on. Dumb movie, but Sean is so watchable.

We had lunch in Grado. The food was good, the service less so. We got soaked going out to the car, and then the rain slowed down five minutes later. Sigh. Hubby is such a “Go! Go! Go!” guy that he can’t wait five minutes to see what the weather will do.

After a brief trip to the drugstore for essentials, I got F to drop me at my school. He had planned to take his mother out to do a bit of shopping. I went to my school, cooled it down a bit…no sun but it was still too warm for me…and then read the newspapers for a while. I checked my student’s class and did a little craft work too. Yay.

My student came and we had a fun lesson. There was one point though when I realised that I’m not so with it any more. One of the text’s questions that we had to discuss was, “ How many cd’s do you own?” She’s a teenager, so I thought she’d probably have a few. Her answer was zero. She has an iPod and uses the iTunes store for her music! Oh my! What a difference from me. I have probably 200 or so? I have one cd rack completely full and another half full. Interesting!

After work I finished up, washed some dishes and checked my first class on Tuesday. It should be okay. I called F and he picked me up. He chose a Chinese restaurant tonight. I really didn’t want to go there, but didn’t have any idea where I did want to go, so let him. He had noodles and I had some pork-onion stir-fry thing and fried rice. I shared mine, he didn’t.

After dinner, we made a brief stop at home and then went to karaoke for a few hours. It was fun and we both sang a lot of songs. I tried to do a few that my Mum would have liked, seeing as how today would have been her birthday.

And that’s about it. We came home, I watched House and then F went to bed. It’s really late now and I should get some sleep soon too. Night!

For the other event that happened on September 11, here is my blog post from that day. I was on my way to Tsuruoka the next day in preparation for getting married on the 16th. Until I saw the TV at the restaurant, my biggest worry was a threatening typhoon. I was worried I wouldn't be able to fly to Tsuruoka. I was keeping my upcoming nuptials a secret at my company's request.

September 10, 2010

Friday - Hot and sunny.

I overslept by a long mile today. I’m not sure what happened but I got up much later than usual. I just couldn’t wake up. Sigh. And then, when I turned on my computer, I sort of wished I hadn’t woken up.

For a lot of today there was a kerfuffle on one of the groups I moderate. I can’t really go into it, but I had to consult with the other moderator and do a bit of behind the scenes work to try to calm the situation down. Don’t know how we’re doing yet. Sigh.

There was absolutely nothing on TV today until noon, then it was news. Later on I watched CSI: El Orange, or whatever it’s called. I started watching an interesting bit on Japan’s hotel culture, but decided to tape it. I wanted to go out.

I went to S-Mall to get out of the apartment under my own steam! Always important. I got my bus tickets for next month’s trip to Sendai. I’ll have to cancel a couple of classes, sad to say, but it really can’t be helped. I had a lovely iced cafe mocha drink and then came home.

F arrived a few minutes after I did and went to bed right away. I don’t understand that. I asked him about dinner and he said he wanted it so I cooked.

I was quite busy for a while. I steamed some broccoli, stir-fried some asparagus and ham, set the table and the cooked the chicken. I called him several times and he finally came out of the bedroom to eat. Dinner was quite nice and we both enjoyed it. After dinner, F did the dishes.

Hubby put on the TV and watched some bad stuff and then to be fair, put a movie on. However, it was a bilingual movie and he didn’t change the TV to English. I asked him if I could watch something else, and put on the tape about Japan’s hotels. He watched it too, and it was quite interesting. He went to bed after a while and I stayed up.

I watched Top Gear which was really funny as usual. Today they went to Norway and put cars through things like Olympic events. I like the biathlon and the ski-jumping best! Too funny.

Anyway, that was my day. It was a little stressful in the beginning, but fingers crossed, will turn out okay. Night.

September 9, 2010

Thursday - Warm and sunny.

A goodish day. I got up on time today as my phone rang before my alarm did. My missing student phoned to let me know what was happening. She had a really good excuse for missing her class the other day, so I completely understand. Sorry, can’t really go into details or anything.

I had a quiet morning at home. I showered, and did a bunch of usual stuff really. I decided not to go out again today. I left for work around 5, and made a detour into the drugstore today. No problems this time. Yay.

I had two classes at my school tonight and both went well. In the second one we chatted a bit too much, but did a little work as well.

After work, I finished up and called F to come and get me. He did and then we went to Cocos for dinner. We both had the same thing, a beef hamburg steak with drink bar and their mud pie. It was nice, even with bananas on it!

We came home and F watched some horrible show about a woman teaching foreigners Japanese. The acting, if you can call it that was childish and the whole thing looked amateur. After telling my husband that I’d heard it was racist, I put my headphones on and listened to an internet radio station.

And honestly, that’s about all for my day. It was quite good. Talk to you tomorrow night. Have to go. Night!

September 8, 2010

Wednesday - Sunny but cooler. Big smile!

A good day today. I overslept this morning. I was really surprised. I had planned to get up about an hour and a half before I did. Sigh. Put me out a bit during the day.

I had a good day though. I had brunch which was two maple English muffins. They tasted a bit like pancakes. Yum.

I really relaxed today. I even took a mini nap in the afternoon. I did use the air conditioner a bit today, but not this evening. Even though it’s still warm, it isn’t humid at the moment. Yay.

When Hub came home, of course he was starving and wanted to eat soon. His choice was, as always, some kind of noodle dish. Bleck. I didn’t want to go to any of his restaurants, but I sort of made a deal with him. I said if the one he picked was closed, we’d go and have Thai food. He muttered something which I took as agreement and then off we went.

The place he wanted to go was closed, so he kept trying to get me to go to other crappy restaurants. I don’t know, why does he like to go to such dives? Yesterday I had a bit of a stomach problem so didn’t want anything overly greasy or questionable today. We finally were on the way to the Thai restaurant when I said we could keep looking for a good place along the way. He countered with a restaurant near City Hall that is quite good. We went there and had a nice meal.

I had a dadacha-mame* special. I had rice with beans in it, a tiny bean gratin, miso soup, pickles and filet cutlet with salad. It was very tasty. F had the Sashimi set which looked good, except for the turban shell snail. I don’t like them. We were the only couple in the restaurant, but there was a big noisy group in the private room. F eavesdropped on them and they were from a political party that he doesn’t like, so all through the meal I had to listen to him grumble about the party. I don’t care personally!

After dinner, we came home and watched last weeks Desperate Housewives. It was quite good, especially when one of the wives got stopped by the police. She had a picnic basket full of things she’d purloined from someone else’s house. Very funny.

At 11 pm we took a seat on the couch to watch American Idol. Tonight was the send off show. I think the right person went home. They had Miley Cyrus sing on the show and I’m glad she’s not a contestant as they’d probably have kicked her off. I’m not a big fan.

Anyway, that’s about it for me. I had a good day. Tomorrow I’m back to work. I’m hoping today’s nice weather holds. It is so nice to have it a little cooler. Night!

*Dadacha-mame are the local version of edamame. They are supposed to be “the king of edamame”!