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Nobody bothered to check on how I was doing after falling off the bed onto my face. Rowley spent the rest of the night sleeping in his parent room, which was fine with me. Because without Rowley and his chicken dreams to keep me awake, I was able to get a good night's sleep. Wednesday I've been stuck inside this cabin for three days now, and I'm really starting to lose my mind. I've been trying to get Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson to take us to the boardwalk, but they say it's too "noisy" there.

I've never gone this long without TV or computers or video games, and I'm starting to feel kind of desperate. When Mr. Jefferson works late at night on his laptop, I sneak downstairs and watch him just to get a glimpse of the outside world. I've tried to get Mr. Jefferson to let me use his laptop a couple of times, but he says it's his "work computer" and he doesn't want me to mess anything up. Last night I was at my breaking point, so I did something a little risky. When Mr. Jefferson got up to use the bathroom, I jumped at my chance.

I rattled off an e-mail to Mom as quick as I could, then ran upstairs and got into bed. TO: Heffley, Susan SUBJECT: SOS HELP HELP GET ME OUT OF HERE THESE PEOPLE ARE DRIVING ME CRAZY When I came downstairs for breakfast this morning, Mr. Jefferson didn't look too happy to see me. It turns out that I sent that e-mail from Mr. Jefferson's work account, and Mom answered back.

TO: Jefferson, Robert SUBJECT: RE: SOS Family vacations can be a challenge! Is Gregory not behaving himself? -Susan I thought Mr. Jefferson was gonna really let me have it, but he didn't say anything at all. Then Mrs. Jefferson said maybe we could go to the boardwalk later on this afternoon and spend an hour or two there. Well, that's all I was ever asking for. A few hours is all I really need. If I can just ride the Cranium Shaker once, I'll feel like this trip wasn't a total waste of time. nkledc. Friday

I'm back home from the beach two days early, and if you wanna know the reason why, it's kind of a long story. The Jefferson's took me and Rowley to the boardwalk yesterday afternoon. I wanted to go on the Cranium Shaker right away, but the line was too long, so we decided to get some food and come back later. We got some ice cream, but Mrs. Jefferson only ordered one cone for the four of us to share. Mom gave me thirty dollars to spend at the beach, and I blew twenty of it on this one carnival game. I was trying to win a giant stuffed caterpillar, but I think they have those games rigged so you can't succeed.

Rowley watched me blow my twenty dollars, and then he asked his dad to buy him the exact same giant caterpillar at a shop next door. And the thing that really stinks is that it only cost him ten bucks. I think Mr. Jefferson is making a big mistake with a move like that. Now Rowley feels like a winner even