Zebrawood and Purpleheart....

1. The Competitor - Sports
2. Mr. Muscle - Fitness and Health
3. Your Ride- Cars
4. Greenbacks - Career/Money/Finance
5. Toys - Gadgets (i.e. boys toys)
6. Tasty Licks - Music, Movies, Books and other Entertainment
7. Arguing - Politics
8. The Great Outdoors - hunting, camping, extreme sports
9. WWWD? (What Would Ward Do?...think about it, it'll come to you) - Family
10. Black Socks & Flip-Flops - Personal Appearance
11. Honeydew - Home Improvement/Tools
12. The Wide World - Travel/Vacation
13. Eye Candy

OK, so I'm not really sure where to put this blurb since it doesn't seem to fit under any of my usual ones. Even "Honeydew" doesn't really work nor does "Toys". Therefore I've decided to just put it at the top. The picture doesn't do this place justice, this place being Willard Brothers Domestic & Exotic Lumber. If you're a woodworker in the Central Jersey area, this place is heaven; if you like fine furniture this place is heaven; if you just like cool places, this place is heaven. I've taken both my wife and kids there separately and they all came away thinking it was just simply very cool. Regardless, I'll file it under one of my favorite places in the region.

Here's the gig - Willard sells lengths of lumber - all kinds of lumber: domestic and exotic. All cuts: lumber, burls, blocks, quarter-sawn. through-sawn, you name it. Some of the pieces are 3 or 4 feet across. They specialize in historic trees. Don't worry, they don't go cutting down historic trees willy-nilly. When a special tree dies or it otherwise has to come down due to disease, damage from storms or other reasons Willard steps in, takes it down in large sections and turns it into lumber to be used to craft beautiful furniture. Maybe you graduated from Princeton University and remember a beautiful tree on campus. There's a good chance Willard Brothers has lumber from that tree if it died or had to come down. Furthermore, you're in luck if you'd like to have a desk or table made from that very tree because you can buy the lumber from that tree and have a custom furniture-maker craft you a one-of-a-kind piece of furniture for your office or home.

Kids (and even you) will find the "showroom" fascinating. If you've never really been aware of it, wood naturally comes in all the colors of the rainbow. You can find wood in yellow, orange, red, brown, white, green, ebony, and even purple...yes, purple (it's called, not surprisingly, "purpleheart"). There's also zebrawood, which as the name implies, is black and white striped. It's all simply gorgeous with each wood having a distinct texture and scent.

One of the things I like best about Willard Brothers - it's not corporate. It's down-home, gritty and dirty, and careful-or-you-might-actually-pinch your fingers-or-bump your head. If you decide to go, they're located on Basin Road in Trenton. That's off of Baker's Basin Road which crosses Route 1 where Mrs. G's Appliances's are. Well, worth a Saturday afternoon visit.

Congress, football and George Washington.

OK...no long intros this time around. Let's just get into it....

1. The Competitor - Sports
2. Mr. Muscle - Fitness and Health
3. Your Ride - Cars
4. Greenbacks - Career/Money/Finance
5. Toys - Gadgets (i.e. boys toys)
6. Tasty Licks - Music, Movies, Books and other Entertainment
   
7. Arguing - Politics
8. The Great Outdoors - hunting, camping, extreme sports
   
9. WWWD? (What Would Ward Do?...think about it, it'll come to you) - Family
10. Black Socks & Flip-Flops - Personal Appearance
    
11. Honeydew - Home Improvement/Tools
12. The Wide World - Travel/Vacation
13. Eye Candy

The Competitor – Sports

You’ve probably heard the news but in case you haven’t, it seems Congress is taking up the issue of the college football BCS. While I’m not a big fan of the current system (I mean c’mon, how can either Texas or Alabama in good conscience lay claim to the title of “National Champion” when at least one other team will finish the season unbeaten? – TCU or Boise St and possibly Cincinnati), I think lawmakers in Washington have bigger issues to deal with. But who knows? Maybe it’s their way of blowing off steam with all of the pressure they’ve been under to right the economy but not too sure what President Washington would think of this...more on him below.

Greenbacks - Career/Money/Finance

While it’s not as though Princeton University is hurting for cash in the way that many Americans are, its endowment took a significant hit over the past year falling nearly 23% between June 2008 and June 2009 to $12.9 billion (I should be so lucky to have such problems) . Considering that almost half of its operating budget comes from its endowment that can put a crimp in its style, especially the style of one of the higher-flying universities in the country.

However, the university reported this past week that its returns for the fiscal quarter ending September 30, 2009 rose a modest 5%. What does this mean to you or me? Well, for starters it’s hopefully yet another sign that both the domestic and world economy is on the mend. You might also be able to take a few lessons from some expert investment professionals who, as caretakers of large sums with a very long-term view, allocate and choose differently than many other investors.

That being said, I’ve just added to my reading list When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change by Mohamed El-Erian (who also happens to have run Harvard’s endowment for a year just prior to the market collapse). It’s won numerous awards, including the 2008 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award as well as being selected as a 2008 Best Business Book of the Year by The Economist.

Tasty Licks - Music, Movies, Books and other Entertainment

If you’ve got young boys (or even girls) amongst your brood, you might want to check out G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra on DVD. While there are certainly better action movies out there, I’d be willing to bet that the majority of the 5-15 year old set will find the 118 minute high-action adventure quite smashing – I know my three guys did. The special effects were great, especially the sequence where the G.I. Joe team is racing through Paris trying to stop the destruction of the Eiffel Tower.

As an adult, the movie was ok (don’t look for any Oscar-worthy performances) and I’m not quite sure it matched my expectations with regard to the G.I Joe I grew up with – the big ones from the 1970’s, not the smaller ones popular in the 1980’s which is the G.I. Joe the movie is based on. And while I’m a big fan of action-adventure, sci-fi and fantasy movies and more than willing to suspend disbelief as needed in terms of technology and/or magic; I have a harder time when movies decide to blatantly ignore the laws of physics – really basic ones at that. Without giving any plot away, let’s just say that if you blow up parts of an ice cap, big chucks of ice are not going to sink and potentially crush whatever is below them – there is a reason the Titanic sank: icebergs float.

Arguing – Politics

While I like to keep The Balanced Guy as politically neutral as possible, I can’t help but recommend you read (and not just listen to) the entire text of President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech no matter which side of the aisle you align yourself with. While there will always be those at both ends of the political spectrum that will criticize any president no matter what he says, in this case his speech is garnering praise from such Republicans as Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich. You can find the text in full here.

While extolling the virtue of reaching for “the world that ought to be”, he asserts the right of a country to defend itself and aid and assist other nations and people while reminding the world that for the past 60+ years, the United States has kept the peace around the globe. In short, the world would be a much less-secure place today it if hadn’t been for American blood spilled, hard work and justified use of force.

WWWD? (What Would Ward Do?...think about it, it'll come to you) – Family

Looking for something a bit off the usual path to do with the family on Christmas Day? If you’re in the NJ/PA area why not try attending the Annual Christmas Day Crossing at Washington Crossing State Park in PA commemorating the 1776 Christmas Day crossing by General George Washington, the Continental Army, and militia. From here, they marched to Trenton where they took the British and Hessians by surprise and captured not only the barracks and city of Trenton but also the imagination of the American people and reinvigorated what had been a failing war.

The reenactment opens (fortunately for us and the actors) at 11 AM with the crossing commencing at 1 PM. This allows the kids to wake up (at 6 AM or sooner no doubt), find that Santa has visited and open their presents before you get them dressed and take a drive to watch the Crossing. Washington and his men were not so lucky as they crossed during the dead of night in a storm – we should feel fortunate they were so committed to the ideals many Americans today unfortunately often take for granted.

Honeydew - Home Improvement/Tools

Tiling – Part II. Last time around I discussed installing a tile backsplash in your kitchen between your countertop and cabinets. I took you through installing the tile, cleaning up and grabbing a beer. In the second part I’m going to discuss the really “fun” part – grouting. Now I know you’re thinking to yourself “There’s nothing I’d like to do more on a Friday night than grout tile except maybe read about grouting tile”. So, since you’re looking forward to this, settle back, grab (another) beer and read on.

Your tile is up on the wall (level and flush), the mastic has set, and you’ve cleaned up. Great. Now prepare for one of the biggest messes you’ve ever made in home improvement. Grouting is a messy job, no way around it. While professional tile guys will usually do the job with minimal mess, face it – you’re not a professional tile installer and neither am I despite having installed quite a bit of it. A few pointers before starting: 1) WEAR GLOVES!!! Grout is very caustic, having a fairly high pH level (meaning it’s an alkaline) so it will burn your hands if you don’t protect them – I speak from painful experience…2) Cover your countertops with heavy plastic, butcher paper, cardboard or something else you can tape down and then throw away. Don’t use a tarp or paint drop cloths you want to use some other time.

As I briefly mentioned last time, there are many color choices for grout and the one you pick will significantly impact the finished look of your project so take time to thoroughly investigate your options. Your standard white grout will certainly brighten the look but will also simply look wrong in many cases. A contrasting or brightly-colored grout may look snappy at first, but make sure you can live with it for the long run. Depending on the size of the job, you can sometimes buy grout pre-mixed in tubs but it is much more expensive than grout you mix yourself. There are also usually more color choices in grout you have to mix. Depending on the joint size between your tiles you may want to use either sanded or unsanded grout. There are also varying types of grout such as cementitious and epoxy. I won’t go into the performance differences here but the main one is that the cement-based ones are mixed using water and the epoxy ones with an additive. Finally, I recommend buy a tube or two of matching caulk. Most grout manufacturers make it so be sure to buy from the same company. You’ll use this in places like where the tile meets the bottom edge of the cabinets or after you’ve cleaned up and the grout has set, there will be those small spots where grout is missing.

The tools you’ll need to do the grouting are mainly a rubber float (to spread the grout on the tile), a large bucket to mix the grout in (buy a cheap one you won’t mind throwing away), a source of clean water (assuming you picked a cement-based grout), a mixing paddle, an electric drill (cordless if it’s fairly high voltage, otherwise a plug-in one) and lots of elbow grease. You can mix the grout by hand but I strongly encourage you to buy a paddle to use in your drill – it saves time and energy. I can’t emphasize enough to follow the directions for mixing on the bag/box of grout in terms of quantity of water, time to mix, standing time, etc. Usually you have to add the water, mix the grout, let it stand for a bit, and then mix it some more before applying it. Pay attention to the working time indicated in the directions otherwise you may have a lot of grout that hardens before you can use it (meaning: don’t mix the whole bag at once!) When properly mixed, it should be roughly “mudpie” consistency – not runny but not so firm that you can make a ball out of it. You have to be able to spread it without it falling out of the joints.

OK. Your first batch of grout is mixed. Now what? Using a wide putty knife or trowel, pick some out of the bucket and while holding your rubber float rubber-side up, plop the grout on the float. Bring it to the tile on the wall and in an arcing motion apply it to the wall in a rainbow shape. Keep the leading edge slightly off the wall while applying pressure to the trailing edge to force the grout between the tiles. Don’t worry about following the grout lines; just go right across the tiles. Once you make the initial pass and your float is empty, go back over the area from a variety of directions to ensure the grout is evenly distributed between the tiles.

As the shampoo bottle says “Rinse and repeat”. Not that you need to rinse but keep on repeating. You’ll find that a lot of grout will fall down onto the countertop; feel free to pick it up and keep using it (unless it’s dried out). Before you get too far along, rinse off the float and go back over the just-completed area while pressing very hard. You want to remove any excess grout from the surface of the tile as well as ensure the grout in the joints is set at relatively even widths (you don’t want to look at a grout line between two tiles and see that it gets thicker and thinner as it runs between them). Discard the excess grout that comes off at this point as it’s been too overworked to use elsewhere.

I’ll jump to the end because the rest is simply doing that over and over until it’s done. When you are finished with initially applying the grout you’ll want to go back and, using a fairly damp cloth, wipe down the newly-grouted tile to remove any excess and even out the joints. There is no secret to it other than having a critical eye and your tolerance for (or intolerance of) of imperfection. However since the grout has still not cured don’t wipe too hard! You’re not trying for a final, clean surface at this point, just one that isn’t covered in scads of extra grout.

Now, stand back and look at the utter disaster of a mess you have created and feel proud of yourself…and grab a beer because you’ve got a lot of cleaning to do. While cleaning up, revel in the wisdom of having used a disposable cover on the countertops. Let the grout cure for 24-hours or as indicated on the directions before a final cleaning. Be warned! The final cleaning is not a one-step process as it usually takes 2 or 3 or even 4 cleanings before it looks good. To aid in the cleaning process, buy some grout haze remover and have plenty of old rags on hand. Finally, you’ll want to seal the grout and if you used stone tile, I recommend a sealer/enhancer for the stone not only to prevent it from being stained but it gives it a “wet” look and brings out the natural color and beauty.

Last but not least, reinstall the outlets, light switches and covers (make sure the breaker is turned off first). Do this before using the tube of matching caulk to spot-fill the inevitable holes since you may also find a switch cover or two where the grout just doesn’t quite look right around the edges.