9:50 am. Due to unfortunate circumstance, Tammy and David and Shirley didn't get in until one o'clock this morning. Apparently the boat they were to be dragging up to Shasta Lake from Cotati wasn't ready to go when they were ready to leave. There was some kind of dispute, since David was hauling the boat as a kind of a favor, but it was eventually resolved. (Or not. We'll find out later if there are any lingering repercussion.)

But at least they had that ski boat to get from the marina to the cove where the houseboat is tied up, so we didn't have to go out and find them (on the lake in the dark). Instead, they found us (on the lake in the dark).

If you think sleeping patterns might have been somewhat interrupted by this late arrival, you're right. It took a while for them to settle in, and of course even after they were all securely zipped into their sleeping bags, there had to be a round of jokes before we were ready to go back to sleep. It seems every zinger requires another one in response. I'm afraid I'm no exception to that rule.

Today, even this early, there has been all manner of activity. We had two ski boats with us, and now there are none. John took off in one direction for a meeting and some errands, while Mike and Debbie just went off the other way for a visit with her grandparents in a town an hour's drive north of the lake.

It was very windy through most of the night, which isn't unusual, and all morning, which is. It's calmed down now, and it's heating up. I'm going to have to go jump in the lake soon. We've already moved the houseboat amid all this commotion, but only one cove away. We'd spotted this beach yesterday, but there was already a houseboat tied up on it. When Suzanne noticed the other houseboat moving out, we geared up and moved in. Now we're set. For a while.

7:00 pm. We've been in our special cove (as yet unnamed) all day now. Two other houseboats are tied up next to us. David is cooking dinner on the front deck. The little girls (three of them) are swimming off Bev's houseboat. Mike, Eric and Tammy have gone on a ski run. It was hot today, but we have shade now and it's beautiful.

I love watching the girls play. And they love having me watch them. They play very well to an audience, especially a willing and attentive one. Katie will smile in my direction every time she dives off the swim platform. Jayci wants me to know how far she can jump. Alexa has already told me, "See you at dinner," and reminded me of a dinner conversation we had three years ago, when she was six.

(It was a one-sided conversation, of course. Once Alexa gets going she gets in her special zone. If you ask her a question it had better be the right one. If it's not the question she wants to hear, she'll make up one in her head and answer that.)