Bryce Moore's Blog, page 333

Masons (Free Would be Preferrable, but We're Talking Chimneys Here, Folks)

So my chimney has a 1/2 inch crack in it that runs for three feet or so. You don't want that when you're using the chimney to burn 4 cord of wood a winter, or at least that's what they tell me. I'm in the process of getting masons to come to my house and give me estimates. Here's the thing--what estimate do I go with? Should I take el cheapo or the el expensivo? (My Spanish is clearly lacking here--sorry.) I mean, the cheap one would be great for my pocketbook, but why is it so cheap? I don't...

Internet Connections and Fair Observations

Still pretty slow on the typing front, so today will be short, again. I just wanted to know how you all connect to the internet, and how satisfied you are with that connection. Right now we're on cable, and I like it fine--except at night, when the speed seems to plummet because everyone else is on at the same time. Does that happen to you, too? I'm thinking about switching, but I don't want to if it's just to end up with the same problem. However, paying for 4mb/s and getting .5 is not my id...

Officially 31

That's right. I'm almost through with 31 years of life. Better yet, I'm not feeling like I'm in agony any time I move anymore. You might have noticed I disappeared from the face of the earth last week--my flu or whatever it was returned with a vengeance. For four days, all my muscles felt like someone was trying to stab them with daggers anytime I moved. Now they're all just really tired. Tired enough that typing this isn't the easiest thing in the world for me. (I'm going to keep this short ...

The Joys of Home Ownership

Today was supposed to be pretty straightforward. We were going to have an outlet put in for the wood stove, and double check that the chimney was okay to have a wood stove on it.

But the chimney is not okay.

There's a big half inch cracking running through it, and you can see the lining through it. That's not exactly something that says "your house won't burn down," which means there's no way in Hades I'm going to run a wood stove until it's fixed. Calls are out now to local masons to come and ...

Movie Review: My Dinner with Andre

So I'd been hearing more and more about how great My Dinner with Andre is, making me break down and move it up in my Netflix queue. I'm happy to report that the buzz was true: it really is a fantastic movie. But at the same time, it's not necessarily a movie. It's one long dinner scene, consisting almost solely of two characters (Wallace Shawn--better known as Vizzini from Princess Bride) and Andre Gregory) talking to each other. That's it. It's not a film you watch to really be entertained b...

Me and Sick

So I got sick again Friday night. Some sort of strange flu-thing that lasted all of 12 hours or so. (Is there a 12 hour flu?) Anyway--I debated even mentioning it, but hey--it's my blog, so I can mention what I want.

That said, I also wanted to make a general announcement:

I'm well aware that I get sick a lot.

Really. You don't need to point it out to me. I've heard most of it before, and when you catch colds and flus and whatnot all the time, it gets a little old when people remind you that "Ge...

Book Review: Knife of Dreams

Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What a relief. I so did not want to hate Robert Jordan's last book, and I'm happy to be able to report that, on the contrary, I enjoyed the book very much. In fact, if GoodReads would let me, I think I'd give it 4.5 stars. Why, you ask?

Well, I'll admit that some of it might well have to do with expectations. After the Epic Fail that was Crossroads of Twilight, my expectations for this book were right around the level of "hope and a praye...

Two Definitions

Definition of a good feeling: when you go to your Kindergartener's school's open house, and you talk to his teacher to see how he's doing, and she has nothing but glowing things to say about him. Now granted, I expect she tries to have nothing but glowing things to say about all her students, but still . . .

I think I'm allowed a bit of fatherly pride.

Definition of a bad feeling: when you get an installation cost estimate for that wood stove you're planning on getting, and the installation co...

Sunny Weather and a Movie Review: Chisum

It's definitely getting fallish outside--can even see some leaves changing colors already. Can I say how much I love fall? If only I didn't have 80,000,000 things to do at work, life would be very pleasant right now. By the end of September, we should have the siding on our garage repaired and painted, a new wood stove installed, and maybe even some of the floors inside our house un-paintified. (Paint + hardwood = fail, IMHO.) At any rate--we should be plenty busy in the weeks to come. Wish u...

How I Got Really Sick, then Better, then Proceeded to Do Something Really Stupid

The first part of this story is fairly easy to tell. Last Tuesday, I started getting this itch in the back of my throat. A little tingle of things to come. By Wednesday morning, it had ballooned into the full flu, and I spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday completely focused on Not Dying. I'm happy to report I was successful. By Saturday, I was starting to feel at least 25% better, which was something. (It really helped that BYU beat Oklahoma that evening--what a game!) Sunday took care of an...