Weekend Roundup

I just got the asparagus in the oven and thought I'd start on my weekend post.

Asparagus in the oven? What the...?

I'm glad you asked, here, let me show you:

Oven-Roasted Asparagus

Preheat oven to 425° (roasting setting if you have it)
Trim, clean and pat dry a bunch of asparagus



Place in a baking pan and drizzle with olive oil




Roll the pan back and forth so the oil covers the stalks


Roast for 10 minutes
In the mean time, thinly slice 1-3 cloves of garlic


After the first 10 minutes toss the asparagus and garlic together and return to the oven for 10 more minutes


Voila!

Increase the time if you have thick stalks, decrease if thin.

 

Anyway, the weekend. Dan left for Florida Friday for a golf trip and Fern went to a friend's house for the evening so I took Kevin to the mall to eat at Red Robin. We then headed off to the book store and I popped into a new shop: Bare Escentuals. It's a mineral make-up shop. Kevin was behaving so I got a demo. I don't normally do a lot of make-up, but the display of colors was very inviting.

The first step with their system is a silicon "primer" so the mineral powder will "stick." Then you put on your foundation color. I looked at myself in the mirror at that point and it looked like I had funeral home make-up on, just no color at all. After that a veil goes on, followed by "warmth." It's to add color back to your face, applied in the shape of a "3" to your forehead, cheeks and chin, it is supposed to highlight the areas touched by the sun. After all those steps, you get to add blush and color to your eyes. I still don't understand what all those steps were doing, but when I got home later, it looked like I'd aged about five years, all that stuff had settled into every fine line I had and magnified it. No. Thank. You. The five steps was the first killer anyway, but I know I didn't need the extra years on my face.

Saturday I carted Fern off to ice skating lessons and team practice. Kevin didn't have his activity because the schools had been closed the day before so he got to run errands with me: milk and gas at BJ's and 150 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, only 20 of which have homes. I ordered a lot on faith, I hope I'm not stuck for the balance. Cookies anyone?

Fern's iPod has been shocking her, she says she can feel electric current in her ears so Saturday afternoon we went back to the mall, this time to the Apple store. I expected them to test it and figure out what was wrong, but they just gave her a new one. Without the inscription on the back. And no music. She's bummed because she has to re-do all her on-the-go playlists. I'm bummed about the inscription.

Sunday I took Kevin to his last Sunday of skiing. Then I drove Fern to Sunday school, then I drove myself home for a shower, then back to church. After church Fern went to another friend's house for several hours and I quilted for a while and went to work on a problem.

I realized a couple days ago I kept waking up to the feeling of rolling. And I was rolling, right to the center of the mattress. Kinda like that old bed at your grandmother's or in-law's house that no-one sleeps on often and if they do, they don't complain it needs to be replaced. Our king-sized bed is too new to be sagging already, we just got it a couple years ago.

I look under the bed and notice all the center support legs were not where they were supposed to be, they were not supporting anything lying flat on the carpet. Their screws had pulled away from the wood cross-beam leaving big holes. And before you get any bright ideas on why the supports were not in place, we had the bedroom painted and painters must have drug the bed away from the wall instead of lifting it. Great. No easy fix, like just screwing them back in place.




Lying prostrate on my belly with the flashlight on the situation, I come up with a brilliant solution. I'd replace the legs.

How would you lift the bed so you could get under it? I got the hydraulic car jack from the trunk and lugged it upstairs, but the edge of the bed is too low to slide the jack under. So I jacked up the end of the bed and stuck the jack box under the side so now I could get the jack under the side. With the bed up in the air I was able to retrieve broken legs. Eight and three quarters inches long.

After a quick trip to Home Depot and the help from Henry, I got a 4x4 post cut up into pieces the right length.

I figured a post this size had little chance of falling over because of the larger surface area holding up the bed frame. But I don't want the raw cut end sitting directly on the carpet. Another brilliant idea: cover the end of each post.

But how? Aha! I iron the viagra stuff (which has a fusible coating on each side) and a square of fabric to each post.
Back on my belly to place the posts right over the indentions in the carpet left by the previous supports, and TaaDaa!



After that, I slid everything back under there I've been hiding from the kids, like the hair clippers so Kevin doesn't shave himself bald, or the electric piano so I don't have to listen to the Beer Barrel Polka ever again.

Wonder if Dan will notice?
Yeah, I know he will after he reads this.