Too late.

If I'm very persuasive, I might get Mom to give the thirty-three, but it'll take some luck. I hope Dad gets that job with Halliburton. I understand the pay is very good, and he'd be gone for two weeks, then home for one, and he'd stiil get paid for the week at home. But in the meantime, I'm out nearly four hundred bucks. And it would have taken me a very long time to spend it all. Dad suggested that I buy more ECU. Is this in that distant and fantastic future where I am reimbursed? They owe Doug two hundred, too.

Annie, the Schultzes' collie mix, is driving me nuts. She nags me to go upstairs, my room being a safe haven, and she tries to stay next to me all the time. Furthermore, she has to go outside in the middle of the night. And she's a really nice dog, which makes it worse.