Our tax return was really jarring this year as we had to shell out an extra $60k in taxes owed and late payment penalties, which we attributed to more consulting gigs, new capital gains, and lower tax withholdings from our paychecks. Despite setting up a Solo 401k account and tax loss harvest, the unanticipated dent in our bank accounts added to the stress of my back-to-back NEI review meetings and Melody’s pre-clerkship course this month. To relax in the evenings, we started watching the meditative Midnight Diner drama series while trying out their simple recipes like yakisoba, pork miso soup, butter rice, ochazuke, and octopus wieners. I also found good tonkotsu ramen at Fukumi Ramen while helping to cover clinic in Roseville before the new retina faculty begins. Last weekend, we organized our first socially-distanced, in-person lab gathering for my post-doc Sook’s last week at work. We kept it simple with grilled wings and burgers from Costco, which also gave us an excuse to revisit Elk Grove for soup dumplings from Journey to the Dumpling and Ah-Boong from SomiSomi. At home, I installed new LED lights for the crown molding in our dining room to help brighten our days. With such taxing times, we are all looking forward to our next family retreat in Manchester.