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pretty sure Manny charges interest on his loans anyway. I'm trying to figure out a way to earn money without doing any actual work. But when I told Mom what I was thinking, she said I'm just "lazy." OK, so maybe I Am lazy, but it's not really my fault. I've been lazy ever since I was a little kid, and if someone had caught it early on, maybe I wouldn't be the way I am now. I remember in preschool, when playtime was over, the teacher would tell everyone to put away their toys, and we would all sing the "Cleanup Song" while we did it. Well, I sang the song with everyone else, but I didn't do any of the actual cleaning.

So if you want to find somebody to blame for the way I am, I guess you'd have to start with the public education system. Sunday Mom came into my room this morning and woke me up for church. I was glad to go, because I knew I was gonna have to turn to a higher power to get this fruit smoothie bill paid off. Whenever Gramma needs anything she just prays, and she gets it right away. I think she has a direct pipeline to God or something.

DEAR LORD, PLEASE LET ME FIND MY DOLLAR SAVERS COUPON BOOK. For some reason I don't have that same kind of pull. But that doesn't mean I'm gonna quit trying. DEAR LORD, PLEASE LET MR. JEFFERSON GET HIT ON THE HEAD SO HE FORGETS ABOUT THE MONEY I OWE HIM. AND PLEASE LET ME GET PAST THE THIRD LEVEL OF TWISTED WIZARD WITHOUT HAVING TO USE ANY OF MY BONUS HEALTH PACKS. AMEN, AND THANK YOU IN ADVANCE. Today's sermon was called "Jesus in Disguise," and it was about how you should treat everyone you meet with kindness because you never know which person

is really Jesus pretending to be someone else. I guess that's supposed to make you wanna be a better person, but all it does is make me paranoid because I know I'm gonna just end up guessing wrong. They passed the donation basket around like they do every week, and all I could think was how I needed that money a lot more than whoever it was going to. nkledc. But Mom must've seen the look in my eye, because she passed the basket to the row behind us before I could take what I needed.

Monday My birthday's coming up this weekend, and it can't get here quick enough for me. This year I'm gonna have a FAMILY party. I'm still really burned up with Rowley for bailing out on our lawn care business, so I don't want him thinking he can come over and eat my birthday cake. Plus, I've learned my lesson about friend parties. When you have a friend party, all your guests think they have the right to play with your presents. And every time I have a friend party, Mom invites HER friends' kids, so I end up with a bunch of people

at my party I barely even know. And those kids don't buy the gifts, their moms do. So even if you get something like a video game, it's not a video game you'd actually want to play FROGGIE + RUFF learn about SHARING I'm just glad I'm not on the swim team this summer. Last year I had practice on my birthday, and Mom dropped me off at the pool.