A St. Patrick's Day Joke

Hello future readers!

I hope all of you had a good St. Patty's Day. Mine was.....well.......interesting. Let me clue you in.

First of all, all of the 4th graders remembered to wear green, so no one go pinched! Since Friday is test day at our school, Miss LaSalle and Mrs. Johnson gave us our tests in the morning, so we could have our parties in the afternoon. Right on!  After our Math test, we went down to the lunchroom. Both classes were sitting in the 4th grade section.

We opened our lunches and started rapping and swapping sandwiches and stuff like that.

We didn't know it at the time, but Jason was about to play a joke on one of us.

"Hey Danny...see this toy snake?"

"I'm gonna put it in Kim's lunchbox when she's not looking."

"Hey man, I don't think you should do that", Danny said.

"Yeah, Jason. Kim will blow her top and give it to you, but good", Kyle added.
"Nah.. she'll probably scream and swat me, but that's all. I'm gonna do it."

So Jason put the snake in Kim's lunchbox and waited.

Kim was sitting next to me drinking her pink lemonade. She reached into her lunchbox for her sandwich and shrieked, spilling her lemonade all over her face!

"EEEEEEEKKKK!" *sputter, choke*

Jason just looked at her and laughed.

I gave Kim my extra napkin to wipe off her face.

"Jason you turkey!" Kim yelled. "If I catch you alone today, you're really gonna get creamed!"

"How do you know it was me?" Jason asked, trying to act all innocent.
"Because you're the only one who plays dumb jokes on everybody", I answered.

"That was a really crummy thing to do, Jason", said Kim. "You're lucky I didn't get any lemonade on my clothes, or  I'd have to really pound you!" Jason took the toy snake out of Kim's lunchbox.

"Wow Jason, how dumb can you get?" Shante' asked.
"That was a really dirty trick", said Susan, giving Jason the "stink-eye".

"Geez! What's everybody getting so sore about? It was just a stupid toy snake! Here I'll give you my green cupcake my dad got me for St. Patrick's Day! Will that make you happy?"
"Well, I guess it's a start", said Kim. "But what I really want is an apology".
"Oh OK, I'm sorry I made you spill your drink on yourself."
"And no more stupid tricks?"
"All right, no more stupid tricks."

"You gonna let him off the hook that easy?", I asked Kim giving her my extra Twinkie.
"Maybe...if he carries my books home from school today", she answered, shooting Jason a wicked smile.

Jason just sighed. He knew he was licked. "OK, I'll carry your books home.", he mumbled.
"Never mess with a girl, Jason", Kim told him. " 'Cos we'll make you pay!"
"Man, don't I know it!", he mumbled again.

Do kids still play dumb practical jokes in the future? I think it will be a long time before Jason pulls one on Kim again! Happy (late) St. Patrick's Day!

Until next time, future readers,
Your friend,
Julie Newman

The Springfield Burger Bowl

Hello future readers,

Well, it's been raining for 3 straight days here in Springfield, but for once, I'm not complaining, (much), because our town has something brand new! I'm talking about the "Springfield Burger Bowl"!

It's a groovy new bowling alley that just opened up on the edge of town! Far out! On Thursday after school, I did some extra chores around the house, and my mom gave me some extra money besides my allowance. so I could go with my friends! My mom is the greatest! So this past Saturday, Stephanie, Melody Jennifer and I went down to the "Burger Bowl"!

I'm not really much of a bowler. But I like watching "Celebrity Bowling" on television. On one show, I saw the guy who played Pete on "The Mod Squad" make so many strikes, he won a car for a lady in the studio audience! He was dynamite! I've never seen anything like it! Even though I never be anywhere close to being as super as he is, I still wanted to check out this new place.

None of us have our own shoes or balls, so we rented them there. They have lightweight balls just for kids. Stephanie chose a pair of shoes.

I helped Melody find the right size, and Jennifer checked out the balls.

I'm not really crazy about wearing shoes other people have worn, but since this was a new place, I don't think they've been worn a lot yet.

We got a score sheet and wrote in our names. We really weren't all that sure how to keep score, but I remember a little from "Celebrity Bowling". It didn't matter anyway, we just wanted to have fun!

I wanted to play "Best Ball" like they do on the TV show, but Stephanie reminded me that this bowling alley isn't set up like that.

So we decided to play 2 at a time and take turns keeping score. Steph and I were up first.

Hey! I knocked down some pins! All right!

So did Stephanie! Right on!

Next we tried to get spares. I didn't knock down any more of mine.

But Stephanie did.

Melody and Jennifer were up next. Stephanie kept score.

They did pretty alright, too.

We all had a dynamite time! Bowling is a pretty groovy way to spend a Saturday afternoon. I only got one spare, but once I knocked down 9 pins! And Stephanie got a strike! We all cheered like crazy! It was so much fun!

My final score was 48 (I think!), but I didn't care. It was fun just to bowl!

After all that bowling, we were all pretty hungry. Since this place was called the "Burger Bowl" we wanted to see how good the hamburgers were!

The burgers were OK, but I like the ones at Sam's Snack Shack better.  The french fries and milkshakes were pretty good, though.

Do people still go bowling in the future? Maybe you just play on a computer screen, or maybe you have robots that play for you. I hope not, because it wouldn't be as much fun as playing for real. I know the other kids are gonna like this place.  I hope I'm able to come back soon.

Until next time, future readers,
Your friend,
Julie Newman