Playing Catch Up

We are 111 days from Christmas. 110 days until finalizing our move. I am very excited. Actually I think I'm nesting. I bought a coffee table this last week, received it on Friday and had it in the door and put together in under an hour. Today, I bought a small side table... but I probably won't get it. It'd be nice to replace the big hunker that's next to the couch, but the last time I checked there were only two left.

Other than shopping -- which is always a wonderful thing when you have some money to do so. Especially, when the company is buying. -- I've been working, cooking, cleaning and watching Covert Affairs.

So the working has been okay. I'm looking forward to not working weekends anymore. Saturdays and Sundays are so slow that they let us off early. I am let off last of the morning shift, because my hours go through first shift and into second. The calls sometimes have 4-7 minutes between them. Today I sang "Dancing By My Self" at least 20 times while waiting. I ate some cookies... and attempted doing the crossword.

Cooking wise I made a Greek dish from allrecipes.com for the work week's lunch.

Greek Penne and Chicken

Ingredients

1 (16 ounce) package penne pasta

2 1/2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup chopped red onion

4 cloves garlic, minced

1.7 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into bite-size pieces

1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts in water

1 can diced tomato

1 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 teaspoon dried oregano

Directions

Marinade chicken bites in parsley, oregano, lemon juice, 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter while noodles boil. (About half an hour)

In a large pot with boiling salted water cook penne pasta until al dente. Drain.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium-high heat melt butter, add onion and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add chopped chicken and continue cooking, stirring occasionally until golden brown, about 10 minutes.

Reduce heat to medium- low. Drain and chop artichoke hearts and add them, diced tomato, feta cheese, and drained penne pasta to the large skillet. Cook until heated through, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Serve warm.

Here is the original recipe. My version makes over 12 servings.

Cleaning is never-ending and not worth talking about.

Covert Affairs is worth talking about. It's an excellent addition to television. It's sharp, action packed and the blind tech guy is hilarious. I like it a lot more than the Bourne Identity movies.

On a side note: Jared and I are constantly battling with our city planning office, and Water and Sewer. First they dug up our yard. Then, they put gigantic concrete tubey things on our yard for three weeks. Then they filled the holes with sand and gravel instead of dirt. Plus, the people across the street believe it's better to park in our driveway instead of the numerous parking spots on the street. Now, the workers went into our backyard and took a hose from the house. They hooked that hose to a fire hydrant. Jared was really angry when he saw it. He made the rounds of calls the figure out what was going on. Apparently, the construction workers are running water to our house with that hose. Jared is still kind of riled about them not asking permission.

Also, our microwave has gone rogue. We have the breaker off to stop it from beeping loudly unendingly.

We start our new work schedule tomorrow. Jared works 6am to 4pm, and I work 4:30pm to midnight. We have weekends off. We should do something this weekend.