If there's one thing I can't stand, it's a snob. Well, actually, there are a lot of other things I can't stand. Cabbage, blood, people who chew with their mouths open, and squirrels are a few of them. But snobs are way up there on the list.

This is unfortunate since I have moved to a wealthy neighborhood here inStoneybrook,Connecticut , recently, and it is overrun with snobs. What happened was that my mom, who used to be divorced, got remarried to Watson Brewer, this rich guy. Since my mom had a little house for the six of us (Mom, me, my three brothers, and our dog, Louie), and Watson had this mansion all to himself (his two kids only live with him every other weekend), it made more sense for us Thomases to move in with Watson than for him to move in with us.

So we did.

Watson's house is so big that my brothers and I, and Karen and Andrew (our stepsister and stepbrother, who live with us every other weekend), each have a room of our own. Mom and Watson share a room, of course, but their "room" is really a suite about the size of a landing field.

Anyway, to get back to the snobs - I'm surrounded. They're everywhere in Watson's neighborhood. The teenagers around here get their own cars (fancy ones) as soon as they're able to drive. They spin along with the radios blaring, looking fresh and sophisticated. I am so glad my big brothers, Sam and Charlie, aren't like that. Charlie can drive now, but the only thing he drives is Mom's beat-up station wagon. And my brothers and I still go to public school, not to snobby private schools. Guess what most families on our street have: (a) a swimming pool (b) tennis courts (c) a cook named Agnes (d) all of the above. The answer is (d) all of the above.

So far, Watson has (e) none of the above, which is one of the things I'm learning to like about him. However, he's been talking about putting in a pool, now that Karen and Andrew are older, so we'll see.