I had wished to spend my birthday quietly at home this year. But as fate would have it, it was my call week and I spent Friday night removing a piece of metal from the back of a patient’s eye. Fortunately, she did surprisingly well considering the injury, and I have been satisfied with the growth of my clinical practice. On the other hand, I had to put much of my lab work on hold this week while I tried desperately to submit my K08 grant on time. This was my first experience submitting an NIH grant, and I had not expected the paperwork to be so overwhelming. Aside from dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s, I had to coordinate a team of mentors, consultants, and referees to have their letters of reference submitted electronically in time. Even my own submission bounced back 3 different times from formatting errors before I was finally able to get it in today – one day before the due date. We celebrated over dim sum with Melody’s cousin, and look forward to my parents driving up from San Jose for their first visit to the area.