3

So Mom helped Rodrick go through the Help Wanted section of the newspaper to find him a job that doesn't require any skills or experience. They finally found an ad for a restaurant that's about fifteen minutes from our house. WANTED! Seeking motivated individuals to join the team at the OLD-TIMEY ICE CREAM PARLOUR! Old-Timey Tobias I went to the Old-Timey Ice Cream Parlour for Rowley's last birthday party, and that experience may have PERMANENTLY ruined ice cream for me.

They have this one dessert on the menu called the "Feeding Trough," which is FORTY scoops of ice cream all in one long tray. And when you mix different flavors of ice cream together, it just turns into gray slop. The Old-Timey Ice Cream Parlour is one of those places where the whole staff comes to your table to sing for your birthday. That makes me really uncomfortable, because it's pretty obvious they'd rather be doing ANYTHING else. IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY AND WE'RE HERE TO SAY WE HOPE YOUR DAY IS DANDY IN AN OLD-FASHIONED WAY

Rodrick had an interview at the restaurant earlier in the week, and believe it or not, he got the job. Saturday was his first night of work, and Mom thought it would be a good idea for the rest of us to surprise Rodrick and cheer him on. But when we got to the restaurant, we couldn't find him anywhere. Mom was pretty worried, but eventually we found him out back. TOSS Mom wasn't happy that Rodrick was on trash duty, and she gave the manager a piece of her mind.

But the manager said Rodrick was an "entry level" employee and that everyone who works at the restaurant has to pay their dues. I'm pretty sure Rodrick was hoping we'd all just go home and leave him alone after that, but Mom wanted to stick around. And when Rodrick went on his fifteen-minute break, we hung out with him in the employee lounge. Rodrick spent the rest of the night taking the trash from the kitchen out to the Dumpster, and I guess Mom wanted to see him one more time before we left. So she told our waiter it was Manny's birthday, and the waiter called the whole staff to our table.

But I wish Mom didn't go and do that, because there's something about the smell of garbage juice that really ruins your appetite. ...AND IF YOU'RE FEELIN' HUNGRY YOURE AT THE PERFECT PLACE NOW JUST BLOW OUT THAT CANDLE SO YOU CAN STUFF YER FACE! Monday. Lately, Mom's been trying to get Grandpa to tell us kids about what life was like when HE was growing up. Grandpa says that when he was young they didn't have televisions or anything like that, so kids spent most of their time outdoors playing games like Kick the Can.

Grown-ups are ALWAYS talking about playing Kick the Can. One time me and Rowley actually gave it a try to see what the big deal was, but we quit after about thirty seconds. WANNA GO INSIDE AND PLAY TWISTED WIZARD? YEAH. Dad says when he was a kid, he and his best friend, Giles, would just use their imaginations and play all day in the woods.