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YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HIM! Well, once Mom put that thought in Manny's head, it was all over. See? This is the reason I keep my distance from Manny. Every time I try to have a little fun with him, I end up regretting it. I remember when I was younger, and Mom and Dad told me I was getting a little brother. I was REALLY excited. After all those years of getting pushed around by Rodrick, I was definitely ready to move up a notch on the totem pole.

But Mom and Dad have always been SUPER protective of Manny, and they won't let me lay a finger on him, even if he totally deserves it. Like the other day, I plugged in my video game system, and it wouldn't start. I opened it up and found out that Manny had stuffed a chocolate-chip cookie in the disc drive. And of course Manny used the same excuse he ALWAYS uses when he breaks my stuff.

I'M OWNWY THWEE! I really wanted to let Manny have it, but I couldn't do anything with Mom standing right there. Mom said she would have a "talk" with Manny, and they went downstairs. A half hour later, they came back up to my room, and Manny was holding something in his hands. I'M SOWWY, BUBBY. It was a ball of tinfoil with a bunch of toothpicks sticking out of it.

Don't ask me how that was supposed to make up for my broken video game system. I went to throw the stupid thing away, but Mom wouldn't even let me do THAT. YOUR BROTHER MADE THAT FOR YOU! The first chance I get, that thing's going in the trash. Because mark my words, if I don't get rid of it, I'm gonna end up sitting on it. Even though Manny drives me totally nuts, there is ONE reason I like having him around. Ever since

Manny started talking, Rodrick has stopped making me sell chocolate bars for his school fund-raisers. And believe me, I'm grateful for THAT. BEFORE... UM... HELLO, SIR... WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP SUPPORT... NOT INTERESTED! NOW... WOOD YOU WIKE SOME CHOKWITS? HOW PRECIOUS! Monday

Madame Lefrere made us write our first pen-pal letters today. I got assigned to this kid named Mamadou Montpierre, and I guess he lives someplace in France. I know I'm supposed to write in French and Mamadou is supposed to write in English, but to be honest with you, writing in a foreign language is pretty hard. So I really don't see the need for both of us to stress out over this whole pen-pal thing. Dear Mamadou, First of all, I think we should both just write in English to keep things simple. By the way, remember how I said I was gonna end up sitting on Manny's spiky tinfoil ball thing? Well, I was half right. Rowley came over today to play video games, and HE ended up sitting on it. I'm actually kind of relieved, to be honest with you. I lost track of that thing a couple of days ago, and I'm