After many months of negotiations and awaiting a “partners of opportunity” waiver to go through, I’ve finally signed my contract to join the staff at UC Davis. The process has been so dragged out that the moment seemed anti-climactic in retrospect, but it does make for a nice holiday present. Meanwhile, with online sales abound, I’ve also treated myself to a few new toys, including Google’s Chromecast and a new Harmony remote to replace my dead one. Despite the bluetooth capability, I still can’t shake the habit of pointing it at the TV. With many of our faculty gone for the holidays, I was also able to spend my extra hours harvesting research data and catching up with my colleagues in training. Last weekend, my co-fellows and I spent a 7-hour pow-wow session banging out ideas for the upcoming AVS skit over take-out Italian. This followed our residents and fellows holiday bash, where the annual white elephant gift exchange left me with more junk (this time with hyphema-inducing capability). Despite the meager turn-out this year, we had our customary night out in Chapel Hill after the shindig. Sadly, my other holiday outings have been lackluster – subpar paella at Taberna Tapas, salty pho at Sushi Love, and wok hay-lacking drunken noodles from Pad Thai – one of few places open in my local ghetto on Christmas Day. I will definitely need to redeem myself over my upcoming vacation week. My stomach demands satisfaction, sir!