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for Manny's first birthday, and it was love at first sight. Manny carried that thing around with him everywhere he went. He wouldn't even let Mom take it away from him so she could wash it. It started falling apart, and by the time Manny was two, his blanket was basically a couple of pieces of yarn held together by raisins and boogers. I think that's when Manny started calling his blanket "Tingy." For the past couple of days, Manny's been dragging Tingy around the house just like he did when he was a baby, and I've been trying to stay out of his way as much as possible.

Wednesday I'm getting really tired of walking to school every day, so this morning I asked Mom if she would drive me and Rowley. The reason I didn't ask her sooner is because Mom's car is covered in all these embarrassing bumper stickers, and kids at my school are brutal when it comes to that sort of thing. I've tried scraping the bumper stickers off, but whatever kind of glue they put on those things is meant to last until the end of time. My child is a graduate of TenderCuddles Preschool

Today me and Rowley got a ride from Mom, but I told her to let us out behind the school. Well, I made the dumb mistake of leaving my backpack in the car, so Mom brought it to me in fourth period. And of course she picked today to finally start going to the gym. YOU FORGOT THIS, SWEETIE!

It was just my luck, too. Fourth period is the only time I have a class with Holly Hills, and I've been trying to make a good impression on her this year. I figure this incident probably set me back about three weeks. I'm not the only one who's trying to impress Holly Hills, either. I think just about every boy in my class has a crush on her. Holly is the fourth-prettiest girl in the class, but the top three all have boyfriends. So a lot of guys like me are doing everything they can to get in good with her. I've been trying to come up with an angle to separate myself from the rest of the goobers who like Holly. And I think I finally figured it out: humor. See, the kids in my class are like Neanderthals when it comes to jokes. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, here's the kind of thing that passes for comedy at my school —

Anytime Holly's in the area, I make sure I use my best material. I've been using Rowley as my comedy partner, and I've actually trained him on a couple of pretty decent jokes. WHATCHYA DOIN'? (EATIN' CHOCOLATE. WHERE'D YA GET IT? A DOGGIE DROPPED IT!

The only problem is, Rowley's starting to get a little greedy about who gets to say what, so I don't know if this partnership is gonna workout long - term. Friday Well, I learned my lesson about getting a ride from Mom, so I'm back to walking to school. But when I was heading home with Rowley this afternoon, I seriously didn't think I had the energy to make it up the hill to my house. So I asked Rowley if he'd give me a piggyback ride. Rowley didn't exactly jump at the idea, so I had to remind him that we're best friends and this is the kind of thing best friends do for each other. He finally caved when I offered to carry his backpack