my father's ski instructor.

When I was 14, I had the privilege of skiing with my father's former ski instructor. Our school had a ski team. That ski instructor also taught some of my father's other classes. He had retired as a teacher, but was still skiing. He joined me for a few runs, and we got to talk on the chairlift.

I asked him about my father. I wanted to know more about the strange man who sometimes occupied our house.

He said, "Well, your father was mostly a good student, but he had a habit of climbing out of the window mid-lesson."

my father's yearbook.

When we were kids, one of my brothers found our father's senior yearbook. His quote was, "Skiing. The only way to fly."

My brother read it out loud, and said, "Wow. That's pretty corny."

Then our mother piped up, "He didn't write that!"

My brother shouted, "Well, who wrote it? What did he actually write?"

She shouted back, "His ski instructor wrote it. He wrote something rude, and they wouldn't publish it."

serves two

My frozen meal: Contains two servings.

Me: Well, I disagree with that.

our French teacher

My brother and I had the same French teacher. The teacher gave an assignment, to draw the classroom and label all the objects in French.

Our French teacher happened to have a receding hairline. My brother drew a caricature of our teacher, with the classroom reflected in his forehead. He did label several things.

They had a parent-teacher conference to discuss respect, and my father assured our teacher that the boy would be disciplined. At the end of the conference, my father requested to have the drawing.

Dad left the school laughing. My brother was never punished. And that drawing ended up on the refrigerator.

The Luge

Jerry Seinfeld has a great bit, about "the involuntary luge".

My family had a luge. My older brother was great at it. It's more complicated than it looks. It's not just a sled, even though it resembles one. To go left, you have to lean right. To go right, you have to lean left. You can also flex the runners, which was a skill I never mastered.

When I finally got my turn, I crashed that luge. I flew off, and smacked my face. Luckily, I was wearing a toque for protection. Blood came pouring out. A man picked me up, and carried me up the hill, dragging the luge behind him. He tried to find my parents, but instead located my brother, who probably recognized the luge before he recognized me. My nose was bleeding so hard, I had blood coming out of my mouth. My brother took me into his arms and said, "Yeah, she sucks at luge."

our social studies teacher

My brothers and I often ended up with the same teachers. Our school wasn't big, and we were close in age. I had to deal with their antics.

Our social studies teacher imposed a rule: No eating in class.

My brother raised his hand and asked, "What about water?"

Our teacher said, "OK, fine. You can have water."

My brother raised his hand again and asked, "What about juice?"

Our teacher said, "OK, fine. You can have juice."

My brother raised his hand a third time and asked, "What about smoothies?"

Our teacher was now getting frustrated, and said, "OK. FINE. You can have a smoothie. Let's just agree on the 'no food' rule. You can have whatever drink you want, just no food."

This satisfied my brother. And the next day, he showed up to class with smoothie ingredients and a blender.

Winter

At this time of year, I set my thermostat to -20 °C. That's money in the bank, right there.

I keep losing toques in my bed.