Outside, the lake is dark. We've just finished dinner. Across several empty wine bottles, I watch my sister-in-law recruit you to sell cosmetics in some multilevel marketing scheme. She's pressing, starting over at 51 after losing her mid-six-figure sales job.

You look toward the window and say, "Isn't this peaceful? The Johnsons are so giving to let us use their house."

"You're also very giving," she says. "You're a nurse. You could sell to women you meet at the hospital." Then she sees me staring. "And what do you give?"

I think of my dogs, kenneled back in the city for this.

"You mean today?"