Raccoons and Uncle Jake

The raccoons are going a little nutty in our neighborhood. It must be Spring Fever. Besides looking for good take out from our garbage, they like to pound away at the cans and lids like they're some kind of a rock band.

P.J. offered to sleep over to stand watch and, as he put it, "Run those Yankee raccoons back to the woods they came from!" I've stopped reminding him that he's from New Jersey.

He thinks he's pretty cool with his single shot cap gun. It is kinda neat and loud, but he's never seen my cap gun. Mom doesn't like guns and she only lets me play with it when my Uncle Jake comes over. He gave me the gun.

Uncle Jake is Mom's brother and he doesn't think there's anything wrong with cap guns. He and Mom disagree on a lot of stuff like that. Dad just stays out of it - I get the feeling he thinks Uncle Jake is cool, too.

Luckily, Mom didn't make me get rid of the cap gun. She didn't want to hurt Uncle Jake's feelings, but like I said, it can only come out when he's around.

Anyway, it's a sort of machine cap gun and it blows off about 50 caps a second. So if P.J. decides he's going to start some kind of uprising, I'm pretty sure I can handle it.

That reminds me, I have to add the cap gun to the list of things to bring to Mars. You never know what you might find up there.

The Reb

Parent's Night is only a couple of weeks away and there is still so much to do on the rocket ship. The body is pretty much complete, but we haven't gotten anywhere on the engine. It didn't help that P.J. wasn't talking to me for a few days.

He was mad because Grandpa told him I might ask Melanie to go to Mars with me. That was supposed to be private, but I think Grandpa forgot I asked him not to tell. Although, he might have told because he was upset that I didn't ask him to go. We all can't go! I think I'll stick to the original plan of just me going.

Things got better between me and P.J. when he got back from vacation. He went to Gettysburg over Memorial Day weekend and he didn't seem as upset when he got home. He got a Confederate hat and a cap gun rifle and he seems a little preoccupied  with fighting for his state's rights. I'm not sure which state though - he's originally from New Jersey.

Anyway, he wants me to call him The Rebel or just Reb, which is fine with me so long as we can get back to building the rocket.