FINALLY! It is ready...

...ready to use... Task 2 - BRING IT ON! :)

It was quite the chore. I really thought it would never be working. We got it all over here, only to end up in a month long decision making process as to where it was going to be set-up.

We finally picked the spot... we were going to have it run parallel to the house. We hired the electrician to come put in the wiring. After some back and forth, it was decided that it was ok to install a plug on the pumps.

So... pool in general area, pump has a plug... 220V installed... check. We decided to try the pump. It was a good thing we did... it did not take long to realize that the system was busted. It was the water pouring out of the bottom of the heater that was the dead give-away.

Apparently, the heater needs the tube to actually be ATTACHED in order for it to work right.  It did not take us (the royal 'us') to fix that and get it all put back together... gave it a day to make sure it was all hooked up, gave it a test and, voila!... everything seemed to be ready to go.

We decided to change the orientation of the pool because the way it ended up was a lot more level. It would have taken a lot of work to even it out the other way.

We got it filled... it took about a day and a half with one hose, but it was full! Unfortunately, it was also sinking into the ground in a way that was, shall we say... not good. Apparently, the mass of the weight sits on the OUTSIDE of the feet. We then spent a day or so draining the pool... *sigh*.

Once it was drained, we dug out around each of the feet, installed 2x8 planks for the feet to sit on. Once that was done, it was just a matter of getting it filled again and turning on the system. We had a bit of a problem the first day with the heater. There is a little dial inside the heater that sets the pressure at which the heater turns off if the pressure drops. For some reason, it was set all the way open, so there was not enough pressure to allow it to turn on. Once I figured that out, it was just a matter of waiting a few days for the water to get warm enough to be able to swim.

I have been swimming since Sunday and it is wonderful. I started out with about 10 minutes. The next day, I was able to swim for 15. Yesterday, I turned up the current a bit and swam for 30 minutes. Today, I was up to 35. Tomorrow, I am going for the grand total of 45. We will see how that goes. :)

It makes me feel so much better to be exercising again.  I only hope I do not disappoint myself and stop.  Going to work on that.

Reminds me "Why"

People ask me how I can do what I do for a  living... I think they only see the death.

Which is why it is nice to every once in a while to see the other side of it all:

"This patient is a 9-year old girl.  She was having trouble reading her schoolwork.  She is now literally the top student in her class!  Thanks for the great tissue."

I love my job.

It is a fine line between Gingerbread and Pumpkin Pie

I made gingerbread the other day... not the cookies, but the cake.  Of course, I could not simply follow the recipe... oh no... that would be too easy!

So lets see... increase the ginger and cinnamon (they never put in enough of that)... oops... no 'light' molasses, so what can we do?  Hummm.. ok, dilute the regular molasses with some light corn syrup... that might work.

It actually turned out ok.  Not enough spice flavor for me... after I was done, I realized that I really did not want gingerbread but spice cake.... heh.

I tried another batch yesterday.  I went with the higher level of ginger and cinnamon, the diluted molasses and added nutmeg, allspice and cloves.


Result?  A ginger bread cake that tastes like pumpkin pie... this time it seemed a little dry to me... I think I need to cut back the baking time, but it does give me an idea... maybe I will add some pumpkin next time!