Just the other day, I was emailing with my mother about the relative merits of different exercises. I love running; she is not a fan. She loves the water, and could swim all day. She told me I used to love the pool, too. But I get bored in the pool, I told her. I can listen to my mp3 player when I run, and it keeps me energized and even motivated, sometimes, and you can't do that in the pool, unless you want to electrocute yourself, or buy a case to waterproof your really, really expensive music player. Which, frankly, just sounds nerve-wracking to me. Bring my iPod into the pool? Oh, hell no.

And then, not hours later, Weetabix emailed me with a link to the Intova waterproof mp3 player. Inexpensive, comes with headphones and an armband, cheery yellow, not a lot of room for tunes but how much time, exactly, are you planning on spending in the pool? You will wrinkle up like a little prune. It's pretty much the perfect solution, and I salute serendipity, Weetabix, and the fact that I have no more excuses to not get back into the water and start swimming myself some laps in style. Cross-training! We loves it.