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was the only thing on his list that he didn't get. Well, I'm glad someone got what they wanted today. New Year's Eve In case you're wondering what I'm doing in my room at 9:00 p.m. on New Year's Eve, let me fill you in. Earlier today, me and Manny were horsing around in the basement. I found a tiny black ball of thread on the carpet, and I told Manny it was a spider. Then I held it over him pretending like I was going to make him eat it.

Right when I was about to let Manny go, he slapped my hand and made me drop the thread. And guess what? That fool swallowed it. Well, Manny completely lost his mind. He ran upstairs to where Mom was, and I knew I was in big trouble. Manny told Mom I made him eat a spider. I told her there was no spider, and that it was just a tiny ball

of thread. Mom brought Manny over to the kitchen table. Then she put a seed, a raisin, and a grape on a plate and told Manny to point to the thing that was the closest in size to the piece of thread he swallowed. Manny took a while to look over the things on the plate. Then he walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out an orange.

So that's why I got sent to bed at 7:00 and I'm not downstairs watching the New Year's Eve special on TV. And that's also why my only New Year's resolution is to never play with Manny again. January Wednesday I found a way to have some fun with the Big Wheel Rowley got me for Christmas. I came up with this game where one guy rides down the hill and the other guy tries to knock him off with a football. nkledc. Rowley was the first one down the hill, and I was the thrower.

It's a lot harder to hit a moving target than I thought. Plus, I didn't get a lot of practice. It took Rowley like ten minutes to walk the Big Wheel back up the hill after every trip down. Rowley kept asking to switch places and have me be the one who rides the Big Wheel, but I'm no fool. That thing was hitting thirty-five miles an hour, and it didn't have any brakes.

Anyway, I never did knock Rowley off the Big Wheel today. But I guess I have something to work at over the rest of Christmas vacation. Thursday I was heading up to Rowley's today to play our Big Wheel game again, but Mom said I had to finish my Christmas thank-you's before I went out anywhere. I thought I could just crank out my thank-you cards in a half hour, but when it came to actually writing them, my mind went blank.