Thursday, November 20, 2008

I Showed IT Who was Boss!

I knew there was a reason for keeping the half ton slab of wood! Let's start at the beginning. (Please clarify this story with my wife.)

In preparation for our, my wife and I, life together (sorry about the grammatical errors) we bought a bed. The bed was a decent deal but it came with a very large, and HEAVY, slab of wood. We used it between the mattresses for a while, it made the bed more firm, although I didn't feel much of a difference except where it ended. My back would hurt when I woke up in the mornings.

When we moved to another apartment we decided to use it as a desktop. As you can see below we place it on top of a desk, file cabinet, and even some boxes, which you can not see. I wish I had a picture of just the slab of wood, it was impressive. (Emphasis on WAS!)


When we found out about the job here in Utah we didn't have much time to go through things like we wanted. We only had a few weeks and both Amanda and I were still working, and ofcourse we had Ella to worry about. Which there was no regrets, just when one of us were at work the other one would try to pack but Ella wanted some attention. Needless to type, we didn't get much done. My point, we took most everything with us instead of getting rid of things that we could, and should have.

(Thinking about it, you can ignore the above paragraph because I still would have brought the half ton slab of wood with us.)

When we arrived here in Utah we did not have our own place. Aunt Pat was kind enough to allow us to live with her until we found a place. She even provided storage space! (THANK-YOU Aunt Pat!) We were able to fit all our belongings in her garage. I do not like asking people for help much, among other things, so Amanda, Ella, Aunt Pat, and I unloaded the truck ourselves. (I would have done it all myself if it was possible.)

May I pose a question? Does anyone get the hint that I have rather ill feelings for this slab? Ok, now let me tell you why.

There was only a few things left to unload from the truck. One was the slab of wood, ofcourse. Another was a bedroom dresser, (THANK-YOU Sheri!). The slab of wood was leaning against the wall of the truck. I had one end of the dresser and Amanda had the other. Walking with the dresser created the truck to sway and the half ton slab of wood landed on my leg. (If only I had a better way with words to share this with you.) Amanda yelled out "Watch OUT!" I asked "What?" but it was too late. It slid down the lateral side of my left calf. BOY did it sting! Amanda felt really bad, although there was no reason for it. With the help of Amanda we finished. Except for the stinging I was fine, until I didn't continue using it. I iced it, at the demand of my wife, and took it easy afterwards. When I tried walking after that, I limped. It left a big bruise and it felt really cool too! (I'll have to ask my wife to expand on this story, she has a much better way with words.)

I'm making this entry too long, I apologize. Getting right to the point, I used a wedding gift (THANK-YOU Foresters!) to saw the slab of wood in pieces. I bought some Gorilla Glue and some screws and used my power drill, that came with the saw, to make a book/shoe shelf. Seen below.

We tried looking for a good sturdy bookshelf at a store but couldn't find a satisfactory candidate, that didn't cost an arm and a leg. I've always wanted to build things with wood and this is my "first" project. I still have all my fingers and the shelf looks half decent, pretty successful in my opinion.