I timed my second house-hunting trip to Sacramento to coincide with the Memorial Day weekend to allow a few extra days to spend with my wife. Since it was another all-expenses-paid trip, I broke my usual layover fast for Paschal’s salty fried chicken at ATL before arriving late in SMF. After Melody’s morning clinic on Friday, we munched on springy hand-pulled noodles, then checked out a few houses with our broker. For dinner, I was introduced to juicy-fresh snapper sandwich at Fins, then carried home desserts from Ettore. We saved the house we actually bid on for Saturday to give me more time to explore the premises and surrounding neighborhood. Our tour included curry and momos from Kathmandu Kitchen and taro milk tea from Bambu. The afternoon heat left us exhausted, so we cooled off back home where the rats tried to distract me from my exam studying. On Sunday, we drove to San Mateo for Shanghainese food with the in-laws before visiting her grandma’s grave to pray for good fortunes. We grabbed some baked goods on the way back, then concluded the evening with another coma-inducing seafood feast at New HK Wok. With the inspection completed and our loan nearly approved at a record low rate of 3.25%, we breathed a sigh of relief as we munched on HK diner food at Yummy Cafe before my red-eye out on Monday. My connection to LAX was upgraded to first class, where I noticed Andy Samberg playing Scrabble on his iPad a few seats ahead of me. A few other people took notice, but no one had the guts to jump up and sing “I’m on a plane!” with him.

Thanks to a few quiet weekend calls, my oral board studying is finally under way. Progress has been slow, but that did not stop me from continuing my NC culinary tour with fried chicken from Geer St. Garden with my co-fellows last week. Yet the crispy fowl was no match for the foodie delights that awaited in the Windy City. We had the fortune of being invited by our fellowship director to be course faculty for the 4th annual Chicagoland Retina Midwest Update this weekend. It gave us the opportunity not only to visit Chicago with flight, hotel, and car service all included, but also a chance to rub elbows with an international cast of movers and shakers from the retina community. More importantly, I got to sample Chicago-style Italian beef (kind of like French dip but with Italian bread) along with the hot dogs, cheese fries, and a chocolate cake shake from Portillo’s. After the meeting, we were pleasantly surprised by talk of an honorarium, and celebrated over impressive dinner at NoMi atop the Part Hyatt Chicago hotel, where the we experienced chic dining under Chihuly sculptures, before concluding with drinks with some Kresge folks at Lux Bar. By the time I got back, Melody had texted me that our second offer on a house had been accepted. With my upcoming Memorial Day trip to Sac-town next week, the timing is near perfect.