I'd like to start by saying, yes, I have completed a woodworking project.  Just let that sink in.   But like most things, it didn't happen the way I planned.  

It began with a goal of painting the entertainment cabinet over this past weekend.  I fortunately had Friday off so I was going to get a jump start on sanding and prep work.   Thursday night Laura and I decided it would be fun to watch the Disney classic The Jungle Book.   Since I was all entertainment-cabineted-up, I figured why not elevate our TV (on an old Power Mac Box no less) so we could bask in just how awesome the soon to be completed entertainment cabinet would be!   Sounds good, and in fact it was a good idea, but by the time "Bear Necessities" came on I was experiencing a not so good pain in the neck.   That's when a simple fact of TV viewing hit me:

Epic TV viewing fail in easy to interpret graphic format

The "lightning bolts" of pain depicted above may be the result of my own failing physiology or the same effect sitting in the front row of a movie theater elicits, either way, something had to change. 
Balloo is not pleased and doesn't like change!
The next morning I was tasked with converting my gloriously proportioned entertainment cabinet into something more practical from an ergonomic standpoint.

The entertainment cabinet before it's ergonomic makeover
With the help of a saber saw and some well placed circular saw work a large chunk of the entertainment cabinet was severed and replaced with a jaunty piece of popular moulding to finish off my now leg-less entertainment cabinet.  

Post-op cabinet with severed appendage still fresh on the ground
With a now drawer-less and considerably shorter cabinet, 26 inches total height to be exact, I was off to the Soule Designs paint shop.  What follows is an attempt to capture all the stages of painting outlined here via my always blurry iPhone camera:
Brick red portion of the paint job
Half way through the millstone paint over

Millstone portion of the paint job complete

After arm-crippling levels of  distressing via sanding and glazing

The finished product in place

Doors opened revealing cable box, hackintosh and xbox 360.  Don't tell anyone how I live.

Honestly, I'm not too happy with the distressing effect on the cabinet.   Either it's a bunch of blotchy inane red scratching that I will quickly build a seething hatred for or is it a cozy piece that I'll gradually adore.  At this point I really don't care because it's done.  Next!