Yum: pig

Yesterday was Dave's annual birthday pig-pickin', a time when a lot of us get together to celebrate with him and eat a great deal of good but fatty food. The pig was particularly tasty this year, and more people than usual indulged in the old-fashioned approach to sampling the pork: take out your pocketknife, and cut a bit off the pig while it's still sitting on the cooker. I certainly did, and the meat was juicy and delicious.

The weather cooperated by providing a truly beautiful day: clear, warm but not hot, and vibrant with life as the field and flowers and trees glowed with life from the previous day's rainstorms.

I enjoyed a wide variety of conversations with an equally wide variety of people. A few were actually fans of and interested in my books and writing, something that still catches me off guard. I always worry about boring those folks, because if you get a writer started on his or her writing, he or she can talk forever. I tried to control those impulses, but I'm not sure I did a very good job. I need to do a better job of listening.

The sheer quantity of fat I consumed this past weekend is stunning (and nap-inducing), so to help you do the same, let me pass along this article on secret menu items of fast-food restaurants, which Bill first showed to me. The Fatburger Hypocrite is wonderful, and the notion that at In-N-Out Burgers you can order meat like lumber (a 4X4 is four hamburger patties and four slices of cheese) is simply amazing. Go, America!