For those that are interested, I did a bit of research yesterday, and found a method of "stabilizing" wood at home:

1.) Heat the piece at low temp (hair dryer, heat gun, toaster oven, etc) to get as much moisture out as possible.
2.) Place the piece of wood in a glass jar big enough so that the piece can lay flat when the jar is turned side-ways.
3.) Pour in enough wood-hardener to cover the piece. (I found a pint of MinWax Wood Hardener for around 10 bucks)
4.) Seal up the jar as tight as possible and let the piece soak in the wood-hardener until it is completely saturated (until it sinks to the bottom plus one day)
5.) Remove from solution and let dry in a brown paper bag for about a week, or until completely dry.

There were other ways to do it using vacuum pumps and pressure pots, and I'm guessing you could rig up quite the apparatus if you were planning on doing it all the time. But for a first crack, the Pickle-Jar-Soak Method seems to be ok.

I'll be sure and post on the results.

Enjoy!