I had little time to celebrate my birthday this year over the few days between unpacking swim gear from Kauai and packing snow gear for the Squaw Valley Retina meeting in Tahoe. After 3 nights of sleeping 3 hours each to finish my grant, I caught a ride with my friend Carlos, checked into the Ritz-Carlton, grabbed a burger at Manzanita, then quickly fell into slumber before the conference began that evening. I was too tired afterwards to hunt for dinner, so I opted for overpriced in-room BBQ wings while watching the new Breaking Bad movie in bed. On Friday, I gave my second talk, took the free gondola to Northstar Village for lunch, then joined colleagues for dinner and drinks while waiting for Melody and Westley to arrive. We had another night of BBQ wings, followed by a morning in the village sipping hot chocolate while watching skiers and snowboarders line up for the slopes. After sushi rolls and dan dan noodles from Drunken Monkey, we headed to the Tahoe Donner SnoPlay area for an afternoon of tubing, sledding, snowmen, snow angels, and snowball fights. The fresh mini donuts from a nearby food truck kept our energy up, but a near-loss with our rental car keys in the snow really got our adrenaline going.  Dinner was at Morgan’s Lobster Shack, where the chowder and lobster rolls reminded us of New England. I gave my last talk Sunday morning before meeting Westley at the resort arcade for some Batman pinball, motorcycle racing, and Jurassic shooting action. After checkout, we lunched at Truckee Tavern & Grill and got hot chocolate and truffles from Sweets for more snow action at the Donner Summit Snopark with our new sled from a local Ace Hardware. With Westley’s new love for Korean food videos, we stopped by KP supermarket to stock on jajangmyeon ingredients and other goodies on the way home.