July

I know, I get good at posting frequently then.... NOTHING for days and days. Well not much has been happening in our world really. Now that vacation was over it was back to the "ol grind stone." I did get to stay in town for the two weeks after vacation which was nice! After that, I made a marathon trip last week - Flew to Nashville, TN and worked there. I then drove to Memphis, TN and worked there, then drove 5.5 hours to Montgomery, AL and worked and then drove on to Birmingham, AL where I worked and then flew home on Friday. I drove over 650 miles last week but I got to see a few things I wouldnt have seen otherwise, including the town where Elvis was born.

I spent a good amount of time on the pool this month, more than 3 full days actually. Scrubbing, vacuuming, back washing, back washing, vacuuming, brushing, back washing and did I mention that I back washed the pool? I think I kept the water running for the better part of 2 days. I went to Leslies several times, once because I broke the handle on the back wash valve again. This was the second one in only a couple of months and the guy at Leslies said "well I think you probably need new gaskets, when was the last time you changed them out?" Trying to not look TOO stupid I said uhm never? at least not in the past 3 years, are you supposed to change them? not just lube them? Sooo after discovering they didnt have the gaskets OR the handle, off to another Leslie's to get them and the stupid woman there didnt give me the right ones... another trip BACK to Leslies to get the RIGHT ones (side trip to Hart Pool to see if they had what I needed... NOPE but at least THEY offered to order them in for me) and in the process of trying to install the new handle, I broke the pin that secures the handle to the post... GAH!!! Guess what? A nail for hanging pictures works GREAT if you cut it off at the right length! Anyway after 4 trips to Leslies I realize I've forgotten all 4 times to buy DE. big sigh I go back, buy the DE and head back home. I should have taken before and after pictures just so people could see the amazing difference! Well, before I could even take the filter apart to clean the grids, the pump motor went out. I disconnected it from the power supply, took it to Leslies, got a new one and hooked it back up... Im quite proud of myself for doing that without anyone's help (i.e. an electrician or service tech) Kenny even said "hey, you just probably saved us a few hundred dollars in a service call!" After I got that done, I finally disassembled the filter to clean the grids and low and behold, 2 are broken. ANOTHER trip to Leslies and everything is back to running really good. In fact better than it ever has thank you very much. The pool was clear by that next morning (3 days after starting to work on it.) Wheeee we've even gotten to swim in the pool now 3 or 4 times! Time for everyone to come on over and swim!

We had a birthday party on Saturday for a friend's 3 year old at the house. He was so cute as he'd never seen a pool bigger than a "kiddie" pool. He walked out, looked at it, turned around and said SWIM! He was a bit afraid at first but it didnt take long before he was all in on going off the diving board with his dad.

Alright, I said I'd post more pictures of some of our other trips so here are the links to our two Hawaii Trips - 2005 & 2006, Band photos & our weekend trip to Corpus and even some pictures from our wedding in 2004!