Every 4 years, the Olympics give us the opportunity for 2 weeks to stay up watching gymnastics, swimming, and other sports that we’d otherwise never see on TV. This year’s summer games in Paris kicked off with a rainy opening ceremony of athletes sailing down the Seine River. Besides the usual sporting events, we checked out soccer, basketball, volleyball, fencing, air rifle, surfing, and even breakdancing, for the first time. The games inspired us to stay consistent with swimming, tennis, and barre exercises, and also the grit to return to the Lands Between. A glitch with my PS5 had led me to reset the console without a backup, causing me to lose over 300 hours of Elden Ring progress. To prepare for the upcoming expansion pack, I paid a seller $45 on Ebay to drop me 2 billion runes along with all the base weapons and armor, but still required me to replay through the main mission to restore my spells, sprit ashes, and story progression. The additional game time did not help with tackling our deadlines at work, but gave us a chance to start bonding with our new rats. After months of coordinating with a breeder and preparing their home, we finally adopted Nico and Remy. It has been almost a decade since our last pair, so we expect to take time to earn their trust and learn their new personalities. We enjoyed the final weeks of summer with Westley over Magic the Gathering, backyard camping, another piano recital, and a Korean-themed backyard BBQ with cousin Pam and Eric. After an exhaustive string of consecutive late nights and stuffing ourselves with hotpot, we left Westley with grandpa as we drove to SFO to embark on our trip to Spain & Portugal.

We decided to combine this year’s ASRS meeting in Stockholm with a visit to Copenhagen for a week-long Scandinavian vacation. Melody and I split the work planning the two cities, but between the Copenhagen Card and Stockholm Pass, our itineraries felt very similar. Our flight via Toronto got cancelled after a long delay, necessitating a frantic Uber ride from SMF to SFO for another flight via Frankfurt, arriving in Copenhagen only 4 hours behind schedule. After checking into our artsy and audiophilic Airbnb, we climbed the Round Tower and ducked under bridges on a canal tour before queuing for ramen for dinner. We awoke Monday to visit the genetically-modified Little Mermaid on the way to the more touristy landmark, then passed through the Kastellet and City Hall to learn more about Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tales. Lunch at the Tivoli Food Hall included smørrebrød, hot dog, pizza, and a wasp sting (my first!) that fortunately did not distract from the festive Tivoli Gardens. Westley was not yet tall enough for the Demon, but hauled me up Temple Tower, drove a Vintage Car, piloted a Dragon Boat, and went trigger-happy at the Mine. We pigged out over Ma Poule’s duck confit sandwich, Sushi Lover’s sushi, and Il Mattarello’s pasta carbonara at Torvehallerne Market before returning to Tivoli to enjoy the park’s nighttime magic. On Tuesday we explored Rosenborg Castle and Amalienborg Palace to learn about the old and newly-crowned Danish kings, then strolled through their gardens and Nyhaven for street art and street food, including Poulette’s chicken sandwich, Haddock’s fish & chips, and Pasta la Pasta’s pasta. We browsed plaster sculptures at the colorful Thorvaldsen Museum and more opulent chambers at Christiansborg Palace before joining my co-fellow Francisco for a seafood feast at Kødbyens Fiskebar. In the morning we supplemented our daily breakfast pastries from Buka with congee and risotto from Grod before catching our early morning train to Stockholm. We arrived in time for a quick lunch on my way to Stockholmsmässan to give my talk on teleophthalmology. Our evening stroll took us past Norrmalm’s shopping district, Stromgatan’s harbor view, and Kungsträdgården’s giant fountains to Ostermalms Food Hall for Lisa Elmqvist’s toast skagen, mussels, and fish soup. Our hotel offered free breakfast but poor security, leaving Melody bagless for our day at Gamla Stan. We walked through Old Town snapping photos of the narrow Marten Trotzigs Grand and mysterious Stortorget cannonballs, enjoyed hot and cold chocolate drinks at Chokoladkoppen, and swung by Storkyrkan to see the sundog painting on the way to the Nobel Prize Museum. Here, we read the stories behind the artifacts of past laureates, and was surprised by a chance encounter with my med school classmate Jai. After traditional Swedish meatballs and dumplings, we caught the end of the changing of the guards, then explored the Royal Palace before our guided tour of City Hall and its impressive Golden Hall. With canal tours canceled and most restaurants requiring reservations, we settled for nearby Stockholm Fisk before turning in. On Friday, we visited the Vasa Museum to witness the impressive recovery and preservation of the 17th-century ship that sank 25 minutes into its maiden voyage, along with details from other shipwrecks at the Lego Brickwrecks exhibit. We filled on wallenbergare and more meatballs at the Viking Museum, then toured its exhibits and dark ride. The nearby Skansen open-air museum gave us a chance to see arctic foxes, pet reindeer, and practice walking on stilts until our timed entry to ABBA The Museum. After our Dancing Queen sing-alongs, we dined at Tak for rooftop Scandinavian-Japanese fare. We kept Saturday light with a ferry to explore Drottningholm Palace’s expansive gardens and Chinese Pavilion, followed by ramen, gelato, milk tea, and Westley’s first try of black licorice. After a hot pot dinner with my vegetarian collaborator, we picked up Vete-Katten pastries for dessert and airport snacks next morning. Fortunately, our flights were not impacted by the Microsoft outage, giving us time at our Toronto layover to complete Westley’s Global Entry interview and his first taste of poutine. With one trip down and two to go this year, we immediately got back to planning our upcoming trips abroad.

I settled into my new lab office with a new desk and couch, along with a snazzy canvas to show off the suprachoroidal space that my lab is researching.  I also built a new PC for my home office using a Ryzen 7900X3D on a ROG STRIX B650E-F mobo with Trident Z5 RAM, SN850x NVMe, and TUF Gaming TX4070 Ti graphics, all inside an H7 Flow case with Kraken Elite cooling that let me trick out the LCD display with an animated eyeball. I tested my new rig with the copy of MWII that I purchased more than a year ago. The exhilarating stealth missions and sting operations got my adrenaline going, and even gave Westley a go at PC gaming piloting a missile strike. For July 4th weekend, my friend Brenda cancelled on our plans for a Korean-themed BBQ due to the hot weather, so we stayed cool indoors teaching Westley Scrabble then headed out in the evening to the Davis Aquadart Pool Party. Unfortunately, Westley had his first bee sting by the pool, but a popsicle and pool time with friends helped him recover in time to enjoy the fireworks. With Melody out of town this past week, we enjoyed father-son time watching Din Djarrin and Bo Katan retake Mandalore in season 3 of the Mandalorian and trading camels in Jaipur. We also decided to geek out as a family by introducing Westley to Star Trek TNG. After rewatching Q judge humanity at Farpoint station, we hastily packed for our upcoming trip to Scandinavia.

June has been another busy month for conference travel. Earlier this month, I flew to LAX for Pacific Retina Club at UCLA’s Luskin Conference Center. The two-day meeting was jam packed, including my clinical case and presentation on photoreceptor reprogramming, and delightful dinners at Wolfsglen and the Brentwood Country Club. I spent my free Sunday afternoon in K-town, enjoying gukbap from Jinsol, a full-body scrub at Wi Spa, and jampong from Zzamong before flying home. Unfortunately, I caught COVID when I got back, requiring me to cancel clinic and OR, but at least provided some time to work on my R01 resubmission. A course of Paxlovid helped me recover quickly, and I was off again next weekend to Clinical Trials at the Summit in Park City. The even more jam-packed one-day meeting concluded with a lavish dinner at Tupelo, followed by an after-party in a secluded luxe cabin where the Kardashians had recently stayed. I picked up baked treats from Fillings & Emulsions at SLC and caught up on episodes of 3 Body Problem on my flight home. We celebrated Father’s Day with tennis, video games, and swimming, after having missed Manor Pool’s summer reopening for an afternoon of arcade gaming in Vacaville with the Deas. Westley successfully reached level 8 at Swim America, and gave a masterful performance of Fur Elise at Atria Covell Gardens. We also continued our Star Wars marathon watching episodes 1-3, completed the newest seasons of Masterchef Junior and SYTYCD, and checked out the TV adaptation of Fallout. Following the adventures of vault-dweller Lucy and BOS Maximus in a post-apocalyptic LA, the show painstakingly recreated details like stimpacks, radroaches, and Mr. Handy to help us relive fond memories of the video game franchise. At work, we celebrated our residents’ research and graduation at the usual venue. The retina division even took our fellows for Blue House BBQ, which was on par with the Yummy Fusion AYCE Korean BBQ that recently opened in Davis. Between grant writing and planning our three international trips this fall, we may need some actual vacation time beside our upcoming vacations.

We enjoyed the recent spring weather by firing up our grill and inviting neighbors like Jamie and Ying’s families over for wings and burgers on our patio. To avoid getting cooped up at home over Memorial Day weekend, we made a last-minute booking for an overnight stay in San Jose. We headed out early Sunday for breakfast pho and bun rieu at Pho Kim Long, then drove to the Winchester Mystery House to tour the Victorian mansion. The widow of the famed rifle maker was purportedly told to continue building the house to escape evil spirits, leaving many rooms unfinished or oddly laid-out, with doors to nowhere, low-rise staircases, spiderweb windows, and base-13 motifs that lend itself well to ghost stories. For lunch, we went to Udon Mugizo, followed by strawberry sandos from Clover Bakery, and matcha soft-serve and mango mochi from Mochi-Ya Ren. Entrance to the Tech Interactive Museum was delayed by an unsupervised ticket booth newbie, but we at least made it to the Cities of the Future IMAX film before checking out the Space Exploration, Body Motion, Social Robots, and BioDesign exhibits. A trail of costumed individuals led us to crowds taking photos outside FanimeCon on the way to the parking lot. We surprised Westley with our overnight stay aboard a school bus on a farm. Matt the owner gave us a tour of the rescue horses, chickens, ducks, turkey, llamas, dogs, goats, pigs, and cats that call the place home, and even let us feed the chickens before we fed ourselves hearty kalbi jim at Daeho for dinner. We juiced up our car at a charging station over Tong Sui’s coconut pudding before returning to the bus. We awoke Monday to stroll the wildflower fields with the goats and dogs, then enjoyed poolside bun cuon and cream buns. The Computer History Museum gave us the chance to geek out to vintage computers, mainframes, disk drives, and search engines, although Westley was more interested in the Retro Games exhibit. Given the 2-hour wait for dim sum in Milpitas, we opted instead for hand-pulled DH Noodles on the way to relive Melody’s childhood memories at California’s Great America. For only an afternoon, we went without a lightning pass, but was glad that Westley finally made the 48″ cutoff to enjoy Whitewater Falls, Barney Oldfield’s Redwood Rally, Rue le Dodge, Mass Effect: New Earth, both levels of the Double-Decker Carousel Columbia, and even the Demon roller coaster. We concluded our micro-getaway with Ramen Shu and treats from Sheng Kee to join our stash of leftovers for the following week.

We kicked off this month celebrating Star Wars day by watching A New Hope before I flew off to Seattle for ARVO. I mistakenly drove to the airport without my laptop, but Melody came to my rescue and delivered it to me before boarding. The conference was busy as usual, with 18 posters this year that had me scuttling around the convention center to snap photos with trainees, while my department sent our own photographer for my award for our website. I took a half-afternoon off to relax and visit Chihuly’s Garden & Glass and enjoy a dark chocolate mocha at Starbucks Reserve Roastery. My meals were otherwise diverse, excellent, and mostly work-related, with few ventures on my own to compare XLBs from Dough Zone vs. Ding Tai Fung, sushi from Sushi Kashiba vs. Shiro’s Sushi, and noodles from Biang Biang Noodles vs. MKT. I returned home to celebrate our wedding anniversary and Mother’s Day by camping in our backyard, watching the Empire Strikes Back, and visiting Foodieland at Cal Expo where we joined Emmeline to share grilled calamari, curry shrimp wrap, corndog, pho soup dumplings, pork bao buns, filipino shortbreak cookies, grilled oysters, sushi tacos, ube mochi, mango-passionfruit tea, buttered lobster roll, hand rolls, sugarcane juice, mochi skewers, freeze dried candy, and Hawaiian honey cones. With bellies full, we embarked together on Assassin’s Creed Mirage. This newest iteration of the franchise was a return to form, focusing on stealth over RPG elements, although playing on the PS5 took some getting used to. We completed the original Star Wars trilogy this evening watching Return of the Jedi in our backyard. With a new Chromecast 4K, mosquito repellent, and lots of blankets, we kicked back to enjoy our last few weeks of spring weather.

With our RH Cloud sofa finally delivered, we spent our recent weeks decking out our second-floor landing with a new coffee table, sideboard, storage shelf, and even an ultra-short-throw projector. The ceiling-mounted projector was aimed at displaying virtual workout classes from Yolo Barre, but the project was more complex than I had hoped, requiring custom wiring in our attic crawl space and fashioning a ceiling mount out of a wall mount and VESA brackets. Melody focused on gathering supplies for her rat palace, while Westley managed to reach endgame in TOTK and level 7 at Swim America. At work, I attended mostly to our lab move to the top floor of Tupper Hall. I thanked the team with a lunch outing, followed by a gathering at my place to officially send off Lien, Mini, and Nicole over an Italian-themed spread of garlic bread, pasta, and tiramisu. Between grant preparation and reviewing student posters, I squeezed in an overnight trip to give grand rounds at Emory, where my hosts showed me MLK’s birth home and historical park, treated me to fancy Italian, and showcased their clinics, trainees, and research facilities. I enjoyed my view of the Rockies aboard my flight home to catch up on episodes of Shogun and The Brothers Sun, and to revisit Picnic Day for lessons on lab animals and beef cows. New eats this month included banh mi pate muoi from Di Kitchen, chicken-n-waffle sandwiches from Bruxie, and XLBs from Journey to the Dumpling’s new midtown location. The meals did not, however, make up for the torturous bowel prep for my first colonoscopy. Our first visit to our PCP in years reminded us of our age, and importantly, the need to spend more time with each other.

Singapore has been a dream destination for my family ever since my recent work trips. What began as a winter break idea became reality when we scored deals for business class seats and a student’s list of must-try restaurants to create a week-long itinerary of the garden city over spring break. We drove to SFO early Monday to enjoy the Polaris lounge ahead of our 17-hour flight complete with fish congee, PJs, and movies galore. The automated immigration counter got us through quickly to our Chinatown Airbnb to reset our clocks. We swiped our credit cards at the MRT on Wednesday to begin our walking tour through Kamplong Glam to Sultan Mosque, where the heat and humidity called for multiple stops for char siu bao and kaya toast on the way to Little India for Muthu’s fish head curry and biryani. We passed the former house of Tan Teng Niah and Sri Veeramakalamman Temple en route to the National Museum of Singapore, where touring the city’s colonial past concluded with exhibits on dementia awareness and recycling plastics. We skipped the Instagram line at Fort Canning’s tree tunnel for the air-conditioned Children’s Museum, then toured the gilded Buddha Tooth Relic Temple before they closed. For dinner, we got Westley a pork floss roll then went to Hong Lim Market for Ah Heng’s curry chicken bee hoon mee and Liao Fan Hawker Chan’s soy sauce chicken, and brought mangosteens back for dessert. We kicked off Thursday with congee, yam balls, and fresh soy milk from Maxwell Food Centre to tackle Singapore Zoo. Chatting with the docent here rewarded us with a private tour of gharials, anoas, pygmy hippos, hyraxes, langurs, and elephants. Lunch at Ah Meng Restaurant was surprisingly good, but the showstoppers were the zoo’s expansive primate collection of baboons, lemurs, and proboscis monkeys, and display of giant fruit bats that flip right-side up to urinate. Our next stop at River Wonders and Bird Paradise included interesting shows that featured capybaras and singing birds, but our exhaustion set in after dinner and put us to sleep aboard the Night Safari tram ride. We awoke Friday to Nanyang Old Coffee and Tong Heng’s diamond egg tarts for our walk to Gardens by the Bay, where we switched from fauna to flora at the Cloud Forest, Flower Dome, and Floral Fantasy. We ran into my one Singapore friend at the bustling Raspura Masters food court, then retreated home to rest up for our evening food tour in Katong including no-chopstick 328 Katong Laksa, the OG Eng’s Wantan Noodle, and long-queue Ponggol Nasi Lemak. On Saturday, we filled on Koo Kee Yong Tow Foo Mee for our visit to Sentosa Island. The S.E.A. Aquarium provided reprieve from the heat as we watched hungry blue lobsters and elusive manta rays. Lunch at Putien included their signature bian rou soup, ‘100-second’ yellow croaker, Fujian red mushroom seafood lor mee, and my first try of Buddha Jumps over the Wall. We burned it off bouncing on the inflatable Hydrodash course, but was disappointed by sold-out tickets at Skyline Luge. Instead, we returned to HarbourFront for Don Don Donki shopping, Dian Xiao Er roast duck, and Song Fa bak kut teh. We slept in next morning for a relaxed start at Haw Par Villa, where Chinese folklore and traditional principles are brought to life in colorful dioramas commissioned by the founder of Tiger Balm. The chili crab at Legacy Seafood kept us warm as we explored Science Center Singapore’s mirror and laser mazes, which ended with an uplifting IMAX show on Jane Goodall. We spent the evening window shopping on Orchard Road, enjoyed Singapore-style afternoon tea at Violet Oon, paused at a rooftop garden and library@orchard, then dined on pricey chicken rice at Chatterbox. We returned to Sentosa on Monday for Universal Studios, where highlights included the action-packed Waterworld show, Transformers ride, and roller coasters that warranted a second go thanks to our Unlimited Express pass. We were glad to return to Skyline Luge for the Dragon trail, but sad that we got rained out from additional runs. We dried off over rich, quad-broth hot pot at Haidilao, then checked into the Marina Bay Sands where our upgraded Premier Suite featured a marble bathroom, leather-bound appliances, a mini bar with instant noodles, and two balconies that rivaled the impressive views from the observation deck and infinity pool. We awoke our last day to duck noodle, fried carrot cakes, and egg tarts from Lau Pa Sat, then took selfies at iconic Merlion Park before heading to Jewel Changi Airport to spend the afternoon at Canopy Park’s hedge maze, mirror maze, and walking net while enjoying Mr. Coconut, Jollibean, and Frozen Heart treats. The SilverKris lounge buffet helped us sleep through our return flight, making it hard to shake off jetlag back home, but thankful to have tasted a glimpse of life as Crazy Rich Asians.

We drove to Oakland over Presidents’ Day weekend for the Mammoth fundraiser at the Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt. Following months of failed bonsai hunting, we finally managed to grab a gingko grove, Chinese elm, and mini jade plant, which combined with our recent azalea and ginseng bonsai purchases rounded out our new bonsai collection. We celebrated over delicious shrimp and oxtail with grits at Willow & Pine before returning home. Melody was away at a conference the following weekend, which gave me a chance to help Westley build a mini gundam from his friend Liam and the Guan Yu mecha I brought back from NYC. With the torrential rain, we almost didn’t notice our 20+ year-old water heater leaking onto the garage floor, which we decided to replace with a Navient tankless model. We were thankful to have replaced our Everhot dispenser and serviced our fireplace, which helped us survive the week of cold showers for me and sponge baths for Westley. At work, I was kept busy reviewing applications for our department chair and junior specialist positions, as well as grants for PCORI and NIH. The small business NIH review panel took me to Bethesda, where the hotel’s central location in the Pike & Rose neighborhood allowed me to sample tonkotsu ramen from Jinya, crispy fish and chips from Summer House, and a chirashi bowl from Kusshi Sushi. Back home, we also tried out some new eats including paper-thin XLBs from Yi Long Dumpling and AYCE hot pot at Shabu Shack. Yesterday, I picked up treats from ABC Bakery and akadama soil from the Maruyama Bonsai Nursery for a weekend of repotting the gingko, pulling weeds, and packing for spring break in Singapore. We’ll need to start shifting our sleep patterns for the 17-hour flight and 15-hour time difference.

Both Westley and I were lucky to have extended birthday celebrations this year. We kicked off Westley’s day with the Deas over pho and boba, then drove down to Sausalito with Melody for a romantic bayfront overnight stay. We watched families disembark their seaplane adventures then dined at Fish, where we were reminded of our visit there 6 years ago. We jotted our memory again browsing shops and galleries in Sausalito next morning, but were disappointed by bonsai hunting and lunch in Berkeley. Fortunately, my actual birthday dinner was tasty, and I even got treats from my lab, technician, and scribe to round out the week. After celebrating the return of Pooja’s lunch buffet next weekend, I flew to Palm Springs for the Macula Society meeting. Renting a car to the resort made financial and logistical sense, and allowed me to rush back for Westley’s birthday dinners over more pho and lemongrass pork rolls with E3. His celebration continued through Chinese New Year as we rang in the Year of the Dragon and our lunar birthdays collecting a dragon tear and completing his Wing Gundam. We even donated paper dragons to Catalyst Kids to share the fun with his class. My next trip this month was a visit to Abbvie. The proximity of their campus to the airport, hotel, and restaurant kept the trip short and focused, allowing me to squeeze in clinic on Valentine’s Day before flying to NYC that night. The early hotel check-in didn’t provide much time to rest after my red-eye. I joined my friend Meenakashi for artisan pizza at Jean-George’s abc kitchen, yawned through my meetings and talk at Mt Sinai, then socialized with the faculty over a cozy dinner at Pascalou before staying up late to prep my lecture next morning. By the time I was done touring NYEE with the chair and filling on Soothr’s lunch special, I was ready to conk out. I somehow still managed to flip through vacation photos and chow down on a whole suckling pig with my parents before passing out for 12 hours. I felt refreshed Saturday snacking through Brooklyn Chinatown with my parents. Despite being fooled by fuzhou-style XLB and tiring on pineapple bun comparisons, we were greeted by an exhilarating lion dance heading into Ji Bei Chuan for their lychee shrimp balls, brown sugar rice cakes, and signature fish maw and beef brisket rice noodles. Sadly, my luck turned south when my return flight got delayed by 5 hours and I learned that my R01 submission was not discussed. As my anxiety set in for an inauspicious year, I will keep my fingers crossed for my fortune to change in the near future.