I started shopping online and found this pretty cool furniture series from MASH Studios. But, the series didn’t have a bench in the size I needed. I decided I could probably make one easily. I went to Reno Depot and bought some lag bolts and a hunk of wood. I went home, cut it into some sizes I’d need, bolted it together, sanded it down, and threw on a few coats of Polyurethane (enviro friendly and Sheri approved). It took a few hours over a couple of days and I have a bench that fits perfectly into the little entry space.

Inspiration	My bench
Previous Next Close Inspiration bench	Previous Next Close My DIY bench

Bonus. My bench cost $25 versus the Mash bench at $500. I like the richer colour of the Mash bench, and I suppose I could have found a stain to simulate the tone of the walnut wood. I don’t know anything about building furniture, so I couldn’t make hidden joints. I just lag bolted my bench together, but I like that sort of industrial simple look of the exposed lag bolts.

Bench 1

Bench 2

Bench 3

Bench 4

Bench 5

Mash Studio LAX Bench

Not one to panic about such things I casually meander upstairs to check out the situation. Sheri is panicking. “I heard the sounds too” I say, “where do you think they came from?”. “Upstairs!” she screams. “Well I understand, but where, the bathroom, bedroom or office?” I ask. “I dunno, I dunno, just go quick, fire! fire! fire!”.

Office seemed OK, nothing in the bathroom. Oh, bad smell in the bedroom. Snap, crackle, bang some more and I see sparks and smoke coming out of the Bell Expressvu Satellite receiver. I quickly turned off the power bar to the TV electronics and then unplugged the receiver. Then I look. I see little puddles of Fred’s vomit on the DVD player and receiver. The vomit had spilled through the vents on the receiver body into the inner electronics… and well I guess electricity and water, or emmm vomit, don’t mix.

I guess in some ways it’s kind of cute… in other ways I’ve about had it with poor little Fred. So, I’m re-upping my offer for the cat. If anyone wants to give her a nice home, I’ll give you $100 to take her away.

Here’s what I did, we’ll see how it tastes. I laughed to myself as I made this soup–remembering the things I’ve read at stuffwhitepeoplelike.com.

Fatman’s Tomato Lentil soup

• About 1.5 litre of distilled water
• 2 cans of organic diced tomatos
• 1 spoonful of organic pesto
• 2 small red onions
• 2 cubes of Kallo organic soup stock
• 1 can of President’s choice organic bean medely
• 2 large organic carrots
• Some kind of expensive sea salt (I used Eden Organic French Celtic Hand Harvested Sea Salt)
• Organic butter (about 1/3 cup)
• Really good cold pressed olive oil (I used colavita)
• About 1/2 cup of dry red lentils
• About 1/2 cup of basmati rice
• Some fresh basil (organic if you have it)

Pour some oil in a pot, throw in about 3tbsp of butter and heat it. Chop up your onions and throw it in. Let it simmer for a bit. dump in the tomatos, water, chopped up carrots, rice, lentils, well everything else.

Bring the brew to a hearty boil. Turn the pot down to ‘simmer’ and let it cook for a few hours with the lid on. From time to time stir, taste it, salt and pepper it to your taste.

I laughed because everything in my house seems to be organic, and is on/or seems to be on Christian Lander’s list. Tomorrow I’m going to head out for a cross country ski–it’s not -40C here anymore–and when I come home I’ll have a big bowl of the soup with some fresh bread from the bakery and a mug of STASH organic earl grey black-green tea. I’ll twitter about whether the soup is any good or not so you can all read about it on Facebook.

Oh and a I’ll finish it all of with a good beer. Hmmm shoulda put that in the soup.

Tip: when your chain breaks with 1.2km to go in a Grand Tour stage and you are in the winning break, it’s OK to yell f*ck at the top of your lungs and hurl your bike as far as your rage driven might possibly can.

Donations are made through OneFatMan’s company PayPal account. 100% of the amount is transfered to the team. Read more about it here.

LIFE TIP: sometimes its good to be drunk, as long as it’s done in moderation.

Here's the stuck leg

Stuck

Two weeks ago I would have drunk 4-6 beer, gone to bed late and woke up with a headache. After two weeks of no drinking and four days of consistent exercise I’m feeling less stress, sleeping better, and recovering from challenging situations with more ease. Hmmm…. maybe there is something to this exercise stuff?

I’ll ‘prolly still go to bed too late tonight.