Pas de flop, s'il vous plaît.

For those of you who are not interested in my rant about lap swimming, you can skip the first paragraph.

I am a swimmer. I'm not a great swimmer or a fast swimmer, but I have been a swimmer my whole life. I did try diving in high school for a couple of years, but that ended badly... With two knees that contain parts that were not original to my body, swimming is one of the best things I can do to avoid replacing those parts again. Everywhere we've lived, I've found a place to swim laps. I have NEVER been more frustrated with my fellow swimmers than I am here...and I've been to at least 5 different pools around my  house. If you are one of the swimmers that I have seen around the Montreal area, please take note of the following:  I honestly don't mind sharing a lane...to some degree. Here's the deal...the lanes are usually identified as "lent/slow", "moyen/medium", and "rapide/fast".  These signs are NOT for decoration. The labels can be simplified into "flopping/no flopping".  (Hint: if you are not wearing goggles and/or swim cap, you belong in the flopping lane.) I often do not feel that I belong in the rapide lane either, as the super triathletes (who have nothing better to do than to train 24 hours a day) are tearing that lane up. So, fellow swimmers...I'm glad that you are taking the initiative to get out and swim...really. But if you happen to be the third or fourth person to get into my lane and flop, I will vent my frustration by kicking wildly every time I have to pass you and get water into your un-goggled eyes. Thanks for understanding.

Here's a funny take on public rec swimming:
Lap Swimming at the YMCA

<<end of rant>>

In addition to lap swimming, I have started doing water aerobics again, now that I can't take my 2 mile walks every day. I guess I could, but the slush/ice/subzero temps make me want to go back to bed. Hard to walk a dog through all that too. So, the water aerobics are keeping me moving. I don't understand much of what our instructor tells us to do, but I figure it out for the most part. I understand the word "jogging" (pronounced ja-GING) and "spaghetti"-which is what they call the pool noodles :) ...but do the francophones need to sing the YMCA song out loud? It's just wrong.  

The "Village sirènes"?

So...every once in a while we need to drive to New York or Vermont, and, of course we need to go through Customs. L has decided that he doesn't like waiting for the Customs officer to ask him questions, and became a "proactive" participant in the Customs process. From the back seat he'll announce (unsolicited), "We're going to the airport to get my sister", or offer to tell the officer his birthdate. A few weeks ago, my nook stopped working so L and I hopped in the car and drove to the nearest Barnes & Noble in Burlington, Vermont. It's a two hour drive one way, so once we got there we looked around a bit and L bought a $5 lego kit to supplement his lego haul from Christmas. On the way back into Canada, the Customs officer asked if we had purchased anything, and I promptly said no (because unless you've spent over $70 or so, they really don't care). After being dismissed I began rolling up my window and the voice from the back seat loudly stated, "YES WE DID!"