Tricia, my sister, called me late last week to announce she was pregnant. I'm going to be an uncle!

maybe he won't look like his mom.

It's such an odd feeling. I mean, one of the last remaining conditions that allowed me to delude myself that I was still a teenager was the fact that I was still part of the most recent generation in my family. Now my sister has to go and start a whole new generation, thus severing my last connection to my pleasant delusion. I guess I'm grown up now.

Not that that's such a bad thing. Being an uncle has its perks -- most notably being able to spoil the child and then send it back home to its mommy -- but it also comes with a new set of baggage.

Have you every noticed how all uncles tend to fall into stereotypes even more so than other groups? You've got your rich uncles, your poor uncles who always come around looking for money or food, your crazy uncles playing 'Pull my appendage'.

(Stereotyping uncles is politically correct, of course, since they are a subclass of the main group of people you are still allowed to type -- men. One day we'll be free. Power to the people.)

So what kind of uncle am I going to be? I'm hoping for 'rich, buff uncle' myself, but so far things are leaning towards 'strange computer-using uncle who whines about carpal tunnel all the time.'

Love you, Tricia!

Rich and buff? Yeah, right.

Back up. What was that again?

Bored. Next?

Take me home, big fella