I've got one of those pit-of-the-stomach things going now. Clearly, it's from a lack of sleep. I was up until 5 last night, working on my shelf/table thing and watching the Sopranos. I don't think the show ever got better than the last few episodes of Season 2.

The shelf/table thing (since I brought it up) was a brain fart I had when looking at the extra branches from the bedframe project. I didn't want to waste the wood, considering the hassle it was to get it:

See, when I was cutting down the tree with my reciprocating saw on Friday afternoon, our maintenance guy for the apartment drove by along the street. I saw him go by and thought "he's going to be pretty impressed that I'm getting rid of this fallen tree for him and doing something constructive with it." I went back to sawing.

A few minutes later, he drove back and started to approach me and the fallen tree. (Recall that the tree had been down since November 12th at the very latest.) "What the hell are you doing?" he asked. I didn't think anything of his tone. It was cold out, and this wasn't a normal thing for a tenant to do, so I didn't think anything of it. "Well, this tree was down two months ago, so I'm getting rid of it for you," I said proudly.

He said nothing, so I continued. "I saw this down after vacationing in November, and since I needed a headboard I thought I'd take some of the branches, especially since your landscapers missed this yesterday when they came by with the wood chipper." He looked puzzled. Then he looked angry. It was the same look he had a few night's before when his little son was screwing around on the microphone at Karaoke night...it was that paternal "quit horsing around and act your age. I know you're 5, but I'm gonna pick on you anyhow, damned little punk. I had a hard day!" kind of look. And now, he was giving it to me. "Why the hell would you do something like this?" he asked. I stood there wondering if he had not heard my reasoning.

"They're coming by next week to replant this thing. It's been growing horizontally since it fell, and they're coming next week to replant it." he said, matter-of-factly.

My heart sunk. I was mortified. I asked him to repeat himself just so I could take in what I had done. It was a live tree, and I had just sawed it down. Nevermind that it was down two months and ignored. Nevermind that the ground was frozen and it was highly unlikely that they would be digging. Nevermind logic. I didn't think of any of these things to say. Instead, I got that notion that I was a complete asshole, and now I owed this man a new tree.

(and this project was supposed to cost me nothing.)

I apologized profusely. He was still in shock as to wy someone would cut down a perfectly good tree. In my mind, I was just confused more than anything. If they cared so much, why was this ignored for so long, and why was he making me to be the fool because of it? I felt like such a jerk. I offered to pay for it and make things right. I told him that I had the time, and if they were going to chrage to haul it away, I'd haul it myself to save money. He gave me the "we'll see" (a clear indication that he's a daddy) and left.

I looked up at Chris Hollomon, who witnessed the whole thing from my deck. I had been cutting the branches and hoisting them to him on my deck so I didn't have to carry them all the way around my building one-by-one and through the front door. I finished tossing him the brnahces downed, and called it a day.

...So you see.. after all that trouble, I didn't want to waste any of the wood. I thought it would be really cool to keep with the gnarled wood look and make a table to fill the wall adjeacent to the bed. And with the new bedframe there too, it'll ook as if I have some sort of bedroom set, when in reality, I have a bedframe that cost me nothing (but grief and time) and a table/shelf that cost about 6 bucks at Lowe's.

Yesterday was a good day. I ran 6.25 miles (that's a full 10k) in the slushy snow at the high school track. Full story's online at my workout blog. Then, I cleaned up and went to Chris's place to practice for the next Legitimate Beef performance. Based on last night, I can tell you that it is going to kick butt.

When the table's set up, I'll share some photos. It'll complete the bedroom, so I'll finally get it photographed for you to enjoy. Have a great weekend.