"O-o-h-h," said one uncle. "Um-m-m-m," said the other three uncles.

Really only two of my four uncles are currently around. But anyway I had dinner with them tonight, and it is always nice to have uncles around, to buy me dinner and say Ooh and Umm as though I have interesting things to say. And it is nice to listen to all the interesting things they really do have to say. And maybe make fun of members of our family who happen not to be present.

We ate pizza and were surprised by a flash flood on the rooftop of the pizza joint. Some Tom Swifties were exchanged. A good time was had by all. Hooray for uncles!

***

In other news, the BIG BEAR BIRTHDAY OF AMERICA was good. There were explosions, and a lot of meat being cooked in a lot of complicated ways by a lot of people (but mainly by Kriston, who is from Texas, and so scorns other people's misinformed ideas about what one should do with meat) and a lot of beers in coolers and refrigerators and also in my hands.

My favorite part of the night was when one of the neighborhood Officers Of The Peace showed up. It was really not night at all, it was midafternoon, but the cafe was already closed, and there were many neighbors in varying degrees and displays of intoxication rambling around. Plus all the aforementioned meat-cooking devices, cooking their respective meats. And many, many bottles of beer.

We all got nervous that the policeman would be upset (because of the open containers) and that Lana would yell at us (because of the policeman being upset) and our party would be ruined (because of Lana yelling at us).

But instead, the policeman just wanted to know when the brisket was gonna be ready. So he could come back and eat some.

So Kriston told him, and he went off to protect the District from the various forces of evil. And then he came back and we gave him some meat.

The end!