flea

I am not going to the b.org F2F in SF this weekend. And I am a deeply practical packer and traveler - I could pack for a 4 week trip doing fieldwork in the Mediterranean in an hour, whatever the weather forecast, and a 5-day trip including my child would mean more stuff but very little more hassle - so I find the pre-flight panics of others to be rather charming and silly. (My pre-flight panic tends to run to being very stressed out about missing the plane, as opposed to whether or not I have the right outfit or forgot my blank CDRoms, which is much less charming, especially when you have to be around me.)

I have two first cousins - our fathers are brothers - who were born and raised in Montreal. Both are girls, aged 26 and 23 or so at this writing. They are/were both star university-level hockey players. The elder holds the current record at McGill for number of goals scored in her liftime as a player, and the younger seems to be currently playing and also a high-scorer, so I guess they're both forwards. They're both mid-sized women, maybe 5'7" and don't appear to be bruisers when you meet them.

The idea of anyone sharing that many genes with me being that sporty in that kind of a sport just sort of boggles me. I am so unsporty, and if I were sporty, I can only imagine myself being, I don't know, an orienteering champion or something.

Sadly, despite some speculation that she might be tapped, the elder is not on the 2006 Olympic roster for Canada.

Yes, my branch of the family is the underachieveing one.