>  ML> We're thinking about band-aid solutions here,
>  ML> designed to last until someone else can take
>  ML> custody of the structures.
> The Minwax (or similar) is your stuff, then.

It looks that way - there's a hardener product
that was along my line of thought, but the
filler followup would no doubt be a good idea.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.02

      Title: Nam Prik Pao
 Categories: Thai, Spice
      Yield: 1 batch

      6    Large garlic cloves
      2    Medium onions
      1 tb Kapee or minced dried
           - shrimp soaked in sherry
      5    Large dried hot peppers
      2 tb Orange juice concentrate

 Dry roast garlic and onion until skins are dark. Peel and chop. Put
 kapee into aluminum foil and dry fry packet for 2 min on each side;
 remove from foil. Grind all ingredients together.

 Adapted from Jennifer Brennan, I think

 [I posted this in February 1995 (a quarter of a century
 ago!) and found it meal-mastered on the Internet some
 large number of years later.]

 Notes on adaptations - I was cooking at the home of a colleague
 who has a well-stocked larder that is very weak on Asian
 ingredients. I used only foods that can be found in the local
 supermarkets, and substitutions are as follows:

 lemon juice and/or peel for lemon grass
 orange juice concentrate for tamarind - reduced the sugar in the recipe
 minced dried shrimp soaked in sherry for kapee
 canned coconut milk for fresh
 heavy cream for coconut cream
 brown sugar for palm sugar

 [I believe this was at Nicholas's, where I also made
 sticky rice with mango for the guests, and that went
 over like a lead balloon, especially with a young and
 quite wealthy lady I sas trying to impress at the time.
 It's okay, she turned out to be a bit of a miser, being
 from Florida and all.]

MMMMM

 It needs to be said that gaining power over others,
 even in seizing a kingdom by force, is among the
 coarsest of human accomplishments and does not
 indicate any high level of attainment.
 - J. Barrington Bayley