Recovering Baptist

Sin. It’s not a word most people use on a regular basis. For much of the world it’s generally relegated to Sunday mornings, but then there are others for whom it is a constant focus. It’s not a fun topic because no one wants to be called a sinner.

By most Christian standards, a sin is a wrong committed against God. A person can do wrong to another person or even to himself, but ultimately that’s a sin against God. And, according to the Bible, there is a long list of clearly defined sins, such as murder. The real challenge to Christians, and part of why there are so many different kinds of churches, is to interpret the Bible to figure out what other actions (or non-actions) might be sins, as well. For example, some Christians think the simple act of drinking alcohol is a sin, others don’t. Some Christians think sex exists only for procreation and any sexual act which isn’t intended for that purpose is sinful; others think Christians have varying amounts of liberty there. And then there’s my dad, who I love.

As a little background, while he won’t claim to be a biblical scholar, my dad has served as a deacon at several Baptist churches. He’s taught Sunday School. He’s learned from some excellent Bible scholars. He knows the scriptures.

This is the man who, on Saturday while laying tile, said, “I’ll have another Diet Coke, even though it’s sinful.” Huh? The real shock is that he was serious. Somehow he’s come to the conclusion that drinking too many Diet Cokes is a sin against his body and therefore against God.

Look, I’m not a big Diet Coke fan. I think Nutrasweet is an awful product, and I’m trying to only consume ingredients that I can visualize or at least pronounce (water, malt, yeast, and hops, for example). But there’s a huge gap between something being marginally bad for you when consumed in massive quantities and being sinful.

Is it any wonder that this man doesn’t see his church (or worse yet, the one I grew up in) as legalistic?

There was this teacher guy once. He had some pretty wise things to say. One of them was that what you eat really isn’t that important in the eyes of God. You know, my Baptist father would do well to listen to him and relax a little bit. That guy’s name was Jesus; he might be worth listening to.

Thirty three tiles; seventy four and a quarter square feet. That’s how much tile my dad and I managed to lay today. We’ve now laid a total of 59 tiles and covered a total of just over 132 sq ft (for you keeping score at home, my calculations earlier this week were wrong). The wild thing is that for most of this week the tile work didn’t start until just after 9:00; I’m sitting on the couch and feeling like I ought to be laying tile despite having spent all day finishing the uncut tiles in the kitchen and breakfast area.

All in all it’s gone pretty well. I’m pretty proud with how the tile is looking so far. I think there are maybe three tiles that I wish I could redo, but I’m too picky about my work.

So we’ve still got the entryway and all of the cutting (which I actually like), but at least we’re more than half-way through with the floor.

As if reporting on the status of my floors isn’t boring enough, I’m going to write a little bit about tips on tiling. This is for me to refer back to and not really for my three or four readers, but you’re welcome to keep reading if you’d like. Laying tile consists of spreading mortar, placing the tile on the mortar, and then ensuring the tile is properly oriented and level. Spreading the mortar requires the right trowels. Orienting the tiles is best done by first snapping a chalk line so your initial tiles are straight and then using spacers to keep thing square and properly spaced. Leveling the tiles is the difficult part, and that’s where the right tools come in handy. When the mortar is spread too thick the best tool is body weight. You can simply push down on the tile and watch the mortar ooze out, but when you push down on one corner the opposite one will rise up, so proper balance is important. But when you need to raise a corner there are only two tools to do the trick. You can use a pry bar, but there are times you can’t get the bar in there, and that’s when the secret tiling weapon is used - a paint can key. You know, the one they give you for free at Lowe’s when you buy a can of paint. It takes a lot of strength, but you can use the lip of the key to grab the edge of the tile and lift it straight up without pushing the other corner down. If you ever lay tile, especially on an unlevel floor, you will thank me for this tip.

The other banal detail is how I’m spreading the motar. Since we’re using 18″ x 18″ tiles, we’re taking extra steps. To spread the thin set, fist spread a very thin layer over the backerboard. Then back butter the tile by spreading a thin layer on the back of the tile so all of the little squares are filled. Then trowel the thinset in the place where the tile will be placed. If leveling is an issue, then it is better to spread the thinset too thick so you can push the tile down than trying to place additional mortar under the tile once you put it into place.

So, for the one reader who managed to get through all of this, thank you for reading. Maybe it will help you some time in the future. If it does, please let me know. Heck , if you’re a personal friend of mine and you read this whole post, let me know and I’ll buy you a beer. You’re obviously in need of something interesting in your day!

The good news is that we laid about 20 square feet of tile last night. It took a while to get our technique back; heck, it took us a while to remember which end faces up. But after a few tiles we were able to pick up the pace.

The bad news is that 20 sq ft represents about 10% of our 200 plus sq ft of tile to lay. And we didn’t even make any cuts! By my math we’ve got another 45 hours of tile laying to go.

Anyone who hasn’t done this sort of work probably doesn’t realize just how physical it is. The next time you hire someone to remodel your house, just remember that the pain of writing the check probably pales in comparison to the pain you would have in every part of your body if you were the one carrying 75 lb buckets of mortar up a flight of stairs so you could then bend over for what feels like an hour to get a single tile to sit in the stuff just right.

Looks like my crew fell through for the night. It’s hard to want to help a friend when your baby’s sick. And my wife’s under the weather, too, so it looks like I’ll be working alone tonight. Oh well. Some progress is better than none, I guess.

To make the afternoon more fun, our two year old got ahold of a sharpie and started decorating my wife’s laptop. The dry erase trick (draw over the permanent marks with a dry erase marker) worked great on the screen, but it didn’t quite work on the case. That was cleaned with a combination of rubbing alcohol and WD-40. Note to self - hide all the markers once the new floor is installed!

OK, so only my project manager friends who happen to enjoy music will really get the headline joke. The point is that our kitchen project keeps growing. It all started with some floor tile and laminate countertops. Then it grew bit by bit. Now it looks like the plan to have the cabinets painted may change; instead, we’re thinking about stripping the paint off the cabinets and staining them ourselves.

So the bad news is that we’ve got more work to do. The good news is that this is going to be one hell of a kitchen when all is said and done.

The better news is that I’ve got some friends lined up to help out tonight. My dream of having a tiled kitchen by Sunday morning may become a reality.

Right now you’re not allowed to walk in our entryway; our refrigerator is in the living room; and we’re actually eating in our dining room, right next to the stove. Yep, that’s right, the RB family is back at one of our favorite hobbies - home renovation. Wow, we really are white, aren’t we?

Here’s the to do list:

• Tear out the shelves and brick “planter” in the entryway
• Remove the ugly wallpaper
• Remove the uglier wallpaper underneath the ugly stuff
• Remove the peninsula, complete with the counter top, dish washer, and cabinets
• Tile the kitchen and ugly granite/concrete foyer
• Move dish washer to another part of the cabinets
• Replace counter tops with granite (hopefully we’ll find an inexpensive piece) or new laminate
• Build new cabinet doors and hang with new, hidden hinges - yes, we’ll build the doors ourselves
• Install new lighting
• Paint ceiling and walls
• Hire professional painters to sand and paint cabinets white (a change from their current beige)

So far, all of the demo work is complete, thanks in part to my kids who can swing a small sledge pretty well. The backerboard and underlayment are down for the tile. All of the wallpaper has been removed. The peninsula has been removed. It’s time to start cutting tile and painting. If we’re lucky then we might have tile in place by this weekend. Of course, that means more nights like last night when I stayed up until 4:00. I don’t know how much of that I’ll be able to handle.

A second week of American Idol covering Beatles tunes shows why Apple Corp is in desperate need of ending its long running feud with Apple Inc. Last week’s finalists could get by on their cursory knowledge of the Fab Four, but this week required a better knowledge of the band’s material. And never has an age gap been more apparent on Idol than this week when the CD generation (who can legally buy Beatles music in this country) showed that they knew their stuff while the iPod generation really had no idea who they were.

Apple Inc. and iTunes really don’t need the Beatles catalog. Sure, it would be nice to have the top selling band available, and it would bring in some older customers. But let’s face it, a full 1/3 of the customers will be buying the proverbial White Album for the fourth time. The stewards of the Beatles music, however, needs to wake up. While their albums are great and literally changed music for generations, there is no compelling reason for kids to go out of their way to get it, either through legal or illegal means. And the result is that the Beatles, dare I say it, are at risk of quickly becoming footnotes in music history. The argument (before it became blatant that the real issue is money) has always been that the classic albums were meant to be enjoyed as entire works (try getting Revolution 9 in a random mix to understand why), but the greater loss is that without some serious marketing and easy availability, the legacy might soon be lost.

Last week of Idol gave us a few nice performances. This week was just plain awful. Let’s hope that AI doesn’t bother to try extending a theme for two weeks again in the future. And it would be nice for the contestants to get to perform music that is relevant to them more than once or twice in a season. But for the sake of us music buffs, let’s hope that the Apples can put their grievances behind them.

Probability states that at every point in the SouthEast will be hit by a tornado at some point in its history. Tonight that time came for Downtown Atlanta. I’m a bit nervous right now because a friend of mine lives in the Stacks at the old Fulton Cotton Mill. I think the collapse happened in a different building, but I’m praying nonetheless.

If there’s one good thing in all this, it’s the Georgia Dome. I’ve disliked that place from the first time I laid eyes on it. It’s ugly on the outside and an embarrassment on the inside. During the NCAA regionals a few years ago the venue showed its pathetic side when the scoreboard stopped working and time had to be kept on the court. The teflon roof has always scared me. On the one hand, kudos to the engineers who designed that place, as the roof mostly held up through a confirmed tornado. On the other hand, the place has been torn up. It’s due for remodeling anyway. With more storms on the way, maybe this time it will take a direct hit while everyone else is watching basketball at my alma mater and the Dome will meet its doom. Even if the storms headed our way peter out, it looks like that exterior facelift will be accelerated a bit.

As an aside - I’m afraid that this shows that it really is time for the Thriller Dome to go. It’s a place with great memories for all of us Yellow Jackets, but it’s a real shame that the SEC tournament is only getting a minor upgrade due to the weather. If we had a real arena there wouldn’t be too much concern about moving from the Dome to Tenth Street, but as it is, well, let’s just say that I’m glad I’m not holding tickets.

Between my wife and me, there are very few things that we cannot do in a house. But there are some times when it makes sense to hire a contractor, and today is one of them. He’s just knocking out some electrical work and hiding some cables in my office, which means a lot of banging and cutting. So I’ve been forced to my alternative office for the first time this spring. Honestly, it doesn’t get much better than sitting outside on a beautiful day and calling it “work.” Now if only I could get rid of that pesky work aspect and have a beer, the afternoon would be just about perfect.

You know you spend too much time in front of the computer when you get the jitters because your home network was down for an hour.