A little more normal all the time, but still not quite. This weekend we had actual company at the house for the first time in a while. Our small group, which has been meeting only virtually for a while, and for some reason sparsely attended at that, met at our house today for a cookout. Only two other families came but that's about what we've been getting for attendance on Zoom too. Beth and I provided and grilled the burgers and hot dogs, everyone else brought a side and drinks, and we played bean bag toss and frisbee cricket and just visited with actual human contact for the first time in a while. Good times.....I put up the pool this week. The kids and I got it hauled into the backyard and I spent a couple days getting it filled up. Saturday was awfully hot so it was looking like a good call to get it up, but it had cooled off a lot by today so the pool was still barely higher than freezing. With another several months of storage for the pool under the belt, it also has another many leaks. Just little ones for the most part, tiny trickles really, but still should be fixed. I used the last of my Flex Tape to patch most of them, but the tap was old so I don't think it was sticking very well and most of them are still leaking a tiny bit. I also tried sealing up the inflatable ring with some Gorilla silicone sealant, we'll see how successful that turns out to be. Missy hopes to use the pool for her birthday in a couple weeks.....Ruby is still missing. She disappeared a week ago, and hasn't been seen since. I hate not knowing what happened to her! It doesn't make any sense, any of it. She never leaves the yard. She never jumps the fence. She's scared of everything and never stays outside more than a couple hours. Did someone take her? Why would they? There are maybe 8 cats that roam the neighborhood, why would someone snatch Ruby? We never heard a cat fight. Ruby just went outside and basically vanished. Alex and I put up some posters around the neighborhood, and Beth and Missy checked with the shelter, but so far it just seems like she is gone. Iris however is much more friendly now, so we wonder if she was behind it.....We all went to the beach at Waubee Lake on Saturday for something to do and because it was so hot. The water was cool but not cold, but there were too many people there for Nat, so we didn't stay too long. Some people there gave us a couple of inflatables because they didn't want them any more, so that was nice.....The new grass in the yard still seems to be growing all right.....