11

OCTOBER Friday If Dad was on my case BEFORE, he's a hundred times worse NOW. After the town park incident last weekend, it's pretty obvious he thinks I can't be trusted. And whenever he's home, he likes to have me and Grandpa in the same room so he can keep an eye on BOTH of us. I wish I never knew about the webcam, though, because it's got me really paranoid. There could actually be MULTIPLE cameras in the house. I'm pretty sure there's one in Manny's stuffed duck, because its eyes seem to follow me.

If there's NOT a camera in there, then I've been making a pretty big fool out of myself the past few days. Luckily, Mom took Dad to the airport to go on a business trip this morning, and I know he can't monitor me the whole time he's away. Still, I've been extra careful not to screw up, just in case he's got one of those webcams recording to a hard drive somewhere. This morning when I was brushing my teeth, I made sure to put the toothpaste cap back on the tube the way Dad always tells me. But my fingers were slippery, and I dropped the cap in the sink.

It bounced around a few times, then it went right down the drain. OOPS! I knew that the SECOND dad got home from his trip he'd go to the upstairs bathroom to make sure the cap was on the toothpaste. So I had to get it BACK. The first thing I did was try and fish the cap out of the drain with a cotton swab. But all I managed to pull up was a bunch of hair and other gunk.

And now that I know what's in people's sinks, I guarantee you I'll never be a plumber. I figured I probably pushed the toothpaste cap even FARTHER down the drain with that cotton swab, so I opened the cabinet under the sink to see if I could figure out where it ended up. I knew Dad had a bunch of do-it-yourself books on plumbing in the basement, and I figured there'd be some step-by-step instructions to show exactly how to fix this sort of thing. I couldn't make heads or tails of the diagrams in the book, so I took my best shot at it. There was a plastic tube underneath the sink, and I figured the toothpaste cap must be somewhere inside.

So I loosened the nut that held the tube to the metal pipe, and the tube came out pretty easily. I guess I was supposed to turn off a valve or something, though, because the next thing I knew, water was spraying out all over the place. It took me a minute to figure out how to shut off the valve, and by the time I did, there was a huge puddle on the floor.

I soaked up as much water as I could with the towels that were in the bathroom. Then I ran down the stairs to get some more out of the laundry room. But when I got down to the kitchen, I realized I had a BIGGER problem. I told Grandpa where the water was coming from, but he didn't seem too concerned. He said the only REAL damage would be a water stain on the kitchen ceiling. I'm glad Grandpa thought it was no big deal, but I'm sure Dad would see the situation DIFFERENTLY.