Swimming in 70 degree weather

Yeah, that was our day.

Well, not the whole thing. We cleaned up the house, because an appraiser was coming at 9. He was friendly and pleasant, asking a few questions about the house but mostly going through his tasks quickly and efficiently. I had a pretty good feeling about it, and although I don't know what he actually set the number at, I got an email from the mortgage consultant that we had initial approval. That's a relief. It will make almost no difference in our monthly budget, but it's going to shave years off our payments.

Anyway, it was cold and gray and weird today. I had signed Zadie up for swim lessons at an outdoor, unheated pool. I wanted to get some variety in her swimming lessons and try out a few different places. This was through the city's Parks and Rec department (and don't get me started on how helpful those fuckers are). I didn't give a second's thought to the weather, as the normal high temperature in July is in the 90s. Not today, though. It was 71 when we pulled up, according to my car.

We had missed the first class on Monday (my fault, but certainly not helped by the impenetrable catalog), so today was our first class, and I seriously considered skipping. But I thought we'd soldier on. We went there, and I saw all the kids start to move in one direction, so I herded Zadie that way, too, but it turned out that it was the older group. She was the only "Blowfish" there so far. The instructor, Rob, looked at me in my fleece sweatshirt and said "Isn't this a Mommy and Me class?" I sighed. "Yeah, but I was kind of hoping I wouldn't have to get in. He actually offered to take her in himself without me, since she was the only one, but she sort of balked and another kid showed up, so I got in, too. Poor Mom, right? I was totally ready to dump her in, but wanted to stay on the side bundled up!

She wasn't super-comfortable at first. She refused to do some of the things she's done in the other class. She did crack me up on a couple occasions, though; he said she had to talk to the fish (by putting her mouth at the water level and blowing bubbles, basically), and she kept her lips about a half inch above the water and yelled, "Hello fishies! What's your name? I love you!" over and over.

I think Friday will be better, and then there are only two more next week. Well, the more experience the better, right?