With 2 consecutive weeks of retina call and both my wife and me intermittently out of town this month, my parents’ presence has been a godsend. Despite the late-night surgeries and busy clinics as I transitioned to a new scribe, we still managed a few dinner dates after work, although our regular favorites like Taylor’s Kitchen and Ryujin felt a bit less exciting to me now. Back home, we were also able to get our taxes done, and embark on a new Uncharted game that refreshingly featured female leads. Last weekend, we took Westley to Ginger Elizabeth’s “Chocolate for Breakfast” event that required a 1.5-hour wait before we could enjoy the decadent breakfast affogato, hazelnut waffle, and pan au chocolate. We supplemented with a poke bowl and oily pork belly fries from Make Fish before returning for a delayed nap for Westley, followed by dinner with Melody’s new fellow over more raw fish at Lou’s Sushi. In the meantime, we also tried to keep my folks company by exploring spicy Asian fare in Davis from Uniboil and Chengdu Style. With Melody gone for the Harvard-Macy course this week, I abandoned the baby again and drove down to the SF Lighthouse to give a talk on gene therapy for the Foundation Fighting Blindness. On the way back, I stopped by the Japan Center for hakata tonkotsu ramen at Marufuku Ramen and some Daiso shopping over another 1.5-hour wait. I also stopped by the CB outlet in Berkeley for a geometric camel statue to go with our new macrame wall hanging in the guest room. I tried to make up family time on Sunday morning playing tennis with my dad and hanging out with Westley at the renovated Pioneer Park playground. In the afternoon, we revisited Old Sac and the Railroad Museum, followed by dinner at New HK Wok where the wok hay is still going strong. With NIH grant reviews and another grant application due this week, I’m just glad that we’ve got excellent family support.