This year, Westley’s Halloween costume came together at the last minute as we assembled the white posterboard, black mesh, blue fabric, white sweatsuit, and color-changing LED puck lights into an Astrobot suit that drew much attention and compliments from other trick-or-treaters. Melody and I also enjoyed our own fright-fest at Sacramento Ballet’s performance of Michael Pink’s Dracula. The stage set, fog machines, and focal lighting helped create an aura of mystique surrounding the title character to complement the choreography that was both creepy and beautiful. Back home, I finally set up a Synology NAS server for Plex that allowed me to recycle a pair of 10-year-old WD Red HDDs. The unfamiliar Linux interface was a learning curve for me, but definitely worth the QoL improvement of not having to send WoL packages every time we wanted to watch something. Last week, I traveled to Ann Arbor to give a research seminar at Kellogg. After filling on a chorizo burger and coconut milkshake from Frita Batidos and relaxing among vintage collegiate decor at the Graduate hotel, I powered through two days of back-to-back meetings, breaking briefly for Zingerman’s pastrami sandwich, Knight’s ribeye, and a visit to my friend Raj’s home, before returning to my family for the long weekend. We set up our holiday decor early, and caught up on Miyazaki films including Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and Castle in the Sky to prepare for our upcoming visit to the World of Studio Ghibli exhibit. This weekend, I returned to Seattle to give the keynote at the ACVP primate workshop, which also gave me a chance to go all out at DTF, savor a cold brew malt from Starbucks Reserve, and catch up with my college friend Keith at his house with his son and dog. The trip left me little time to prep for our lab holiday gathering at home this evening, where we shared soups and stews followed by a game of Azul. With days left before our SE Asia trip, we felt our mounting excitement for our fourth and final trip aboard this year.