Opening Baggage...

It's funny in a way. We all think we're safe in our own little world, with our collection of locks and keys and safety devices. The truth can be somewhat different, as evidenced by a how-to video. An artful thief can be in and out with valuables in the blink of an eye!
The trick is in using a pen to pry apart the zipper of a locked suitcase so that items contained within can be removed. The suitcase can then be zipped up again using the locked up zipper ends. And the suitcase does zip up perfectly, making it impossible to tell visually that the suitcase has been tampered with!
So perhaps the answer lies in leaving everything unlocked and expecting thefts rather than fearing what "might" happen...

Enrhumé

C'était fatal: lorsque Simone a vu l'enfant au nez qui coulait comme une fontaine bien sale, elle savait qu'il y aurait des répercussions. Simone et le petit B était alors dans la piscine municipale pour le cour de natation du petit B.

Donc pas de grosse surprise quand le petit B s'est mis à toussoter en fin de semaine.

Pourtant, à part ces quelques symptomes, il ne se comportait pas comme un enfant malade. Il mangeait à sa faim (donc beaucoup), courrait comme d'habitude et ne semblait pas du tout fatigué.

Quelques jours plus tard, au Coin des petits, il toussait un peu plus fort, éternuait régulièrement et c'était à son tour de jouer à la fontaine sale. Contrairement à la majorité des enfants, le petit B n'aimait pas jouer à la fontaine sale.

"Essuie-mon nez, Naan-Naan."

Et Simone le fit. Avec un mouchoir. Sans doute inspiré par la netteté du petit B, le petit J, habillé en robe de Blanche-Neige, vint essuyer le sien sur la manche de Simone.

Il risque d'y avoir plusieurs enfants enrhumés la semaine prochaine...

After the January thaw...

For the past two weeks, Simone has been enjoying the unseasonably warm temperatures. In fact, when walking the dog, she was seen on several occasions venturing forth without her snow pants!

Perhaps she felt that wearing full snow gear might seem a tad ridiculous in the rain...

Nonetheless, she can fully resume wearing snow gear as of today. One cm of snow is expected! Woo-hoo! Maybe she can pull out the cross-country skis? Likely she'll wait until the dog stops slipping every time he ventures outside. That'll mean that the layer of ice under the snow is thoroughly covered and it is now safe to ski without risking life and limb.

Ah qu'on est bien lorsqu'on est dans son bain...

C'est l'hiver au Canada et même si les températures ressemblent à tout cracher à un hiver français pour l'instant, cela n'empêche pas qu'il y a de la neige et de la glace à revendre.

Donc lorsque le mari de Simone a ouvert le spa en fin de semaine, Simone a sauté sur l'occasion de porter un maillot de bain dehors. Les baignades polaires n'étant pas du tout son genre, le mari de Simone avait ajusté la température de l'eau à 103 degrés Farenheit.

Et dix minutes plus tard, ils sortaient tous les deux: malgré la neige qui les entourait, la pluie fine glaciale qui tombait et la glace qui s'était formé entre le spa et la porte patio, ils avaient tous les deux... trop chaud!

Out with the old...

Simone's life is presently undergoing some drastic changes. And, as is often the case when drastic changes occur, a thorough review of what works in her life and what doesn't has ensued.

One of major time "eaters" in her life was a little photo sharing website called Flickr. It also proved to be a source of friction between her husband and herself. Since Simone can ill afford time losses and friction, she has made a difficult decision: to stop using Flickr altogether. This precedes her decision to stop using the internet for Lent and will, sadly, last beyond it.

However, in the interest of entertaining her loyal friends and fans, Simone is currently considering starting a blog, with a daily picture, once the sediment settles at the bottom of this very murky pond. If this interests you, please do let her know...

Et pour une liste compréhensive...

Il y a certains jours ou Simone aurait bien envie de rester au lit. Surtout lorsqu'elle se lève et remarque que, encore une fois, personne n'a tiré la chasse depuis hier. Et que deux heures plus tard, quelqu'un a encore oublié de la tirer.

Qu'un bol qui rempli de salade de thon a été laissé toute la nuit sur le comptoir.

Que quelqu'un a ingurgité un contenant de 2 litres de jus en 24 heures.

Tout cela pour que Papa fasse attention alors que Papa ne veut plus rien savoir. C'est tellement morose que Simone a presque envie de pleurer...

Au moins il aura posé la question avant de boire ce qui restait du lait. "Euh," a dit Simone. "Je préférerais que tu n'y touches pas car le lait doit servir pour tout le monde dans la maison demain et c'est tout ce qu'il reste."

Lorsqu'un adolescent male rôde dans la maison, il vaut mieux mettre sous clef tout ce qui peut être ingurgité...

Ice skating at City Hall

Simone pondered the question long and hard. While the outing sounded fun, theoretically speaking, would taking a group of three year olds to an outdoor skating rink translate into an actual fun experience?

In the end, Simone purchased a pair of bob skates for the little guy and decided to gamely forge ahead. After all, if everything hit the fan, the library was only a couple of door's down...

So, dressed in full snow gear (snow pants, snow jacket, snow buits, huge mittens and a warm, wool hat) in spite of the relatively balmy 0 degree temperature, Simone and little B drove to the skating rink. Simone parked the car and the two hobbled over to the skating rink. Little B took a tentative step on the ice. His feet went flying and his behind landed with a thud on the ice.

He laughed. Lucky for him, he still wears a diaper.

Cautiously, he inched over to the edge of he rink where Simone proceeded to attach the bob skates onto little B's boots. He protested vociferously to this outrage. This delayed take-off by considerable minutes because he kept kicking the bob skates. When little B finally realized that the skates were not an ancient torture device (little did he know), he managed to take three steps before the bob skates became undone.

Sighing, Simone pulled off her mitts and attempted to re-attach the skates on the wriggling child. Five minutes and two frostbitten fingers later, she tried to hoist the child to his feet and the bob skates fell off again. In the end, it took nearly an hour but they made their way around the skating rink... once.

Thank goodness there was hot chocolate at the end of the run to warm those frozen fingers of Simone's!