Since I was going to spend my birthday in the bitter cold alone, I decided to go all out this weekend and eat away the pain. Since it happened to be Restaurant Week, I was able to join a few co-fellows for foodie outings on Saturday. For lunch, we went to Tallula’s in Chapel Hill for Turkish pide and lentil soup. Dinner was in the same area, so I stayed at nearby Caffe Driade for a tall cup of hot chocolate while reading my pile of journal articles in lieu of paying for WiFi. Dinner at Il Palio was respectable classic Italian – minestrone, tagliatelle bolognese, and creme brulee, which interestingly was served in a puffed pastry. My binge continued into Sunday, when I tackled the Food Truck Rodeo. Having researched ahead of time, I beelined to the notable stars among the 30 or so participants, downing a quintuplet of juicy buns at Chirba Chirba, a fried green tomato burger with pimento cheese and fried egg at Only Burger, and a “pigs & figs” grilled cheese sandwich (sourdough + goat cheese + speck + figs + balsamic = yummy) at American Meltdown. Satiated, I was pleasantly surprised by another present back home – it’s my captain’s chair! As it turns out, the rocker, a graduation gift courtesy of the MEEI Alumni Association, comes pre-assembled in a giant box that does not fit inside my car in any orientation. I ended up strapping it to the passenger front seat with the door wide opened which made for a precarious drive back in the midst of a sleet storm. Fortunately, the layer of ice let me slide the box back to my apartment with ease. Meanwhile, I also received my new desktop monitor this week. After shipping my previous monitor back and forth three times in a month, Samsung’s repair center finally threw in the towel. But since the company no longer make 30″ monitors, they could only offer a refund with 70% depreciation! Understandingly, I was a little bitter having to chip in another $200 to downgrade to a Dell 27″. The new monitor arrived just in time before the impending demise of Live Mesh, as I migrate my sync folders to Skydrive. Microsoft, why hath thou forsaken peer-to-peer sync?!

Although my birthday wasn’t until next Monday, Melody decided to move up her visit to capitalize on the long weekend. With a co-fellow helping to cover clinic, I sneaked out of work Friday morning to pick up my other half from the airport, left her home to catch some zzz’s, then returned to wrap up at work. Exhausted afterwards, I joined her for an afternoon nap until dinner at the newly-opened Bleu Olive for Mediterranean fare just across the street which included a tasty mussel appetizer with roasted pork belly and gorgonzola cream. The meal put us back in a coma, and we awoke late next morning for shopping at Southpoint Mall. For lunch, we sought out the mysterious hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant tucked inside the local Kroger, where we were greeted by a talkative HK native who served up only mediocre beef chow fun and fried rice. We did score some work clothes for Melody at the mall, but our best discovery was Atomic Empire. This haven for geeks not only featured weekly MTG tournaments and board game nights, but also a library of demos to try out. We broke out their set of Carcasonne, and became quickly immersed in the German board game. We brought home a copy to continue re-building the French medieval town, laying down tiles and meeples over home-cooked bun rieu while watching the third installation of the Batman trilogy. On Sunday, after stuffing our faces with beignets and steak frites from Rue Cler, we celebrated MLK day and Obama’s inauguration by starting our own revolution – against the Templars of Britain. With the end of Ezio and Altair’s story, Assassin’s Creed 3 brings forth a new half-English half-Mohawk hero and moves the setting back home to Boston during the time of the American Revolution. With new features like climbing trees and firing muskets, the game kept us occupied through Monday, with only a brief pause for Indian buffet and locopops, before Melody had to head home.

It’s hard to believe that my website & blog celebrates its 10th anniversary today. I’m amazed to look back at the decade chronicle of my academic progress, culinary expeditions, foreign travels, and gaming adventures. It reminds me of family and friendships, of furry friends that have long passed, and of my journey together with the love of my life. 2013 kicks off with new challenges for both of us. While I will need to push my research forward, refine my microsurgical skills, and prepare for the written boards; Melody will be welcoming some new friends into her home. Adopted from Bleu Royale, Walter and Gus are both American blue dumbos who promise to provide endless hours of ratty company. Meanwhile, my holiday weekend call has been off to a busy start. After a steaming bowl of beef noodle soup from Li Ming’s for my New Year’s Eve dinner, I got called back to work to laser three retinal tears which took until nearly midnight. Fortunately, I rushed home in time to Skype my wife and parents just as the ball dropped to ring in the new year. With so many more adventures ahead, I look forward to what the next 10 years of Xephalon.net will bring.