This afternoon I managed to capture in photo form a mermaid as she emerged from our pool. After careful investigation, I determined that her name is Celeste, she is French, and she is 10 years-old. I understand that her parents are Christine and Bernard, and that she has two older brothers and one younger sister. Their house has been in disarray lately due to a significant remodeling effort taking place (which probably explains why this mermaid was taking a dip in our pool).

Apparently, Celeste is an excellent Monopoly player, can assist American teenagers with their French and in buying cheese at the grocery store, and is a fan of the Twilight series. She has had recent run-ins with a cat and an orthodontist. My observations of her has led me to conclude that she is an exceptionally sweet mermaid, one who is always welcome in our house (and pool). I must admit, however, that in my head I sometimes want to call her Cosette instead of Celeste, despite not catching any glimpses of Jean Valjean. I will keep looking…

By the way, I am turning on the comments feature of the blog so if you want to respond to this or future posts, feel free. I’ve been hesitant to do this, wanting to keep things very simple so let’s look at this as a test.