My parents flew in for their semi-annual visit in time to celebrate a belated Chinese New Year and Westley’s 3rd birthday. We kept the festivities low-key, and Westley seemed quite content with his home-made chocolate cake, new jigsaw puzzles, and Nintendo Labo variety kit. The unique combination of origami-like cardboard assembly and interactive video gameplay was a hit, and it was satisfying watching our toddler’s spatial skills develop. Both Melody and I have been feeling burnt out lately, with many changes to her first-year med school course and my upcoming NIH study section and grant due. We were therefore relieved to have additional childcare coverage as we took turns attending conferences this month. The Macula Society annual meeting took place in Bonita Springs in Florida this year, and I had almost thought of skipping it if not for my receiving a research grant from them and committing to present work I did with Genentech. I didn’t venture far from the conference hotel, apart from dinner with Clearside people at an Italian-Sushi place and lunch with my cousin at the hotel restaurant. I did enjoy my return trip, catching a ride to the airport with the editor of Retina, and consuming solid creole fare from Landry’s Seafood during my IAH layover, thanks to Priority Pass’ new inclusion of restaurant offers. Back home, we continued to watch the slow progress of our landscape renovation as we laid down the kurapia, installed a new patio cover, and trimmed the overgrown oak trees in our backyard. Melody and I took the opportunity to dine out a little at Beast+Bounty, Tasty Pot, and Redrum Burger, although they were all too pricey for the quality. We also took my parents out to check out our recent food finds, including Ming Dynasty, Yum Buffet, Macau Café, and the newly opened ramen joint T-Kumi in Davis, which were better options. Between our mounting workload and our increasingly talkative and energetic 3-year-old, we’ll need to maintain a balance between wellness and stress to maintain our sanity.