Yum

Last night's experimental "no-tv" was a success. I had the best chicken noodle alfredo casserole made for dinner. Of course it was out of one of those all-in-one boxes, but I did put it together and bake it for 45 minutes! It was really good, and there is enough for us to heat it back up and have another good dinner.
I had left work shortly after noon and had went home in an absolutely pissy mood. Things at work have been very trying. So, I took all of my frustrations out on the house and came home and swept the kitchen and bathroom, did 3 small loads of laundry, vacuumed the entire house, dusted, and did 2 loads of dishes (by hand), scrubbed the table and counter tops, took out all of the trash, and waited for Matthew to get home.
By the time he came home I was in a completely different mood and we ate dinner, and he changed out the storm door handle and installed his magnetic knife holder strips into the pantry. We listened to a little music and read for the rest of the evening in the living room. I finished my book, and he finished his.
Now I am well into this book:

From Publishers Weekly
This fifth volume in the Queens of England Series is devoted to Eleanor of Aquitaine. Evoking the beautiful, tempestuous and sensual woman who divorced the King of France and married the King of England, Plaidy employs the ingratiating domestic details that are characteristic of her historical storytelling. Despite a hobbling first-person narrative that tends to repetition, the novel is dramatic in the sweep of its background and in the vividly realized events of Eleanor's long life. Raised with the Provencal languor of the courtly love tradition in her native Aquitaine, her beauty the toast of jongleurs, Eleanor relieves the tedium of her marriage to the pious French King Louis by daringly joining the Crusaders. She further shocks by pursuing her attraction to unattractive Henry Plantagenet, lured as much by the English crown as by the mutual sensuality that produces her favorite son, the enigmatic Richard the Lionhearted. Later, ambitious, headstrong Eleanor locks wills with Henry, leading to her imprisonment for many years. Even then, Eleanor remains central to the tumultuous epoch that witnessed the murder of Thomas a Becket and other royal infamies. Plaidy's prose style is serviceable at best, lacking in grace and nuance. Readers who enjoy easily accessible historical fiction, however, will find Eleanor's story adequately told.

So far this book is very good, including all of the historical elements and storytelling I enjoy and not cheapening itself by being a "smutty historical romance" like most books out there think they have to be. I am very impressed with this author and she has an entire biographical novel series of European women I am adding to my list of books!!! She wrote mainly under her pen name, but authored over 200 books in her lifetime! Check her out HERE.