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They said there were rules in our neighborhood against having a boat parked in front of your house and told Dad he had to move it to the back. The boat sat in the backyard for the whole summer because Dad was too busy and didn't have time to use it. Then, in the fall, one of Dad's coworkers told him he'd have to WINTERIZE the boat to protect it from the cold weather. Dad found out it would cost more to winterize the boat than it cost him to BUY it, so he decided he'd take his chances. And sure enough, two weeks later, when the temperature dropped below freezing, a big crack appeared in the hull.

When it started to snow, Dad rolled the boat under the back deck, and it sat there all winter. In the spring, Mom started using it to store all sorts of junk from the house. The next summer, Dad decided he was gonna fix the boat.

But when he went to pull it out from under the deck, he discovered a family of raccoons living in our old washing machine. Dad called an exterminator to get rid of the raccoons, but when he heard how much THAT was gonna cost, he decided to take care of it himself. By then Manny had heard about the baby raccoons living in the washing machine, and Mom had to step in.

The boat's been sitting there ever since. I haven't heard any scurrying sounds coming from under the deck for a while, so I'm guessing the raccoons moved out. Today, Mom told Dad he had the whole rest of the summer to get his boat out on the water, and he pretty much gave up after that. Mom said we were gonna leave first thing in the morning, so we needed to start packing for the trip. She told everyone to bring the "bare essentials" so we could fit everything in the minivan.

But by the time we got all our stuff out in the driveway, it was pretty clear we had a space problem. Mom started going through everything and sorting it into two piles—the things we needed and the things we didn't. Rodrick was pretty disappointed when some of his "essentials" didn't make the cut.

Mom made me leave a bunch of small stuff behind, which seemed pretty ridiculous considering that Manny's plastic potty was coming along for the ride. Whenever we take a trip that's longer than fifteen minutes, Mom brings Manny's potty "just in case." But I get really uncomfortable whenever Manny uses it. PUSSSHHHH! Mom wouldn't let me and Rodrick take any electronics on the trip, even though they barely take up any space.