I was fortunate to be accepted into the Macula Society this year which held its annual meeting in Singapore for its 40th anniversary. Although Melody could not join me, I was excited to experience the city’s unique blend of cultures and cuisines, with many similarities to Hong Kong from British colonial influence. I departed Monday afternoon and slept through 12 of the 15-hour flight from SFO thanks to my recent sleep deprivation. Since my room was not yet ready, I found an ATM and some laksa at a nearby food court for breakfast, then made my way to the Jurong Bird Park. After a morning of avian photography and high-flying bird shows, I checked into the hotel, then lunched at Chatterbox for their famed chicken rice before attending the meeting’s first session. Our lavish welcome dinner took place at the hotel’s Line buffet, which left me uncomfortably stuffed before bedtime. Next day, I felt like a kid in a candy store at Food Republic, but only had room for chicken rice and tea rice. I walked off my lunch with a visit to the Raffles Hotel and Merlion Park, navigating the vast underground malls and sipping milk tea until I reached Chinatown. Here, I checked out the Thian Hock Keng and Buddha Tooth Relic temples, took an audioguide tour at the Chinatown Heritage Center, and shopped for Chinese imports at Yue Hwa. The long day left me less social at the New Member reception, but I redeemed myself at dinner with my mentors by breaking out the Cantonese and ordering a spread of seafood ranging from giant prawns to chili crab. On Friday, I awoke in time to receive my travel grant, then went to sample the world’s cheapest Michelin-starred meal at Liao Fan Hawker Chan. From there, I hopped on the clean, efficient subway to the Gardens by the Bay, where I endured the summer heat to peruse the impressive horticultural display before joining the evening gala in the Flower Dome. My basic science talk was relegated to the last morning of the conference, but I was happy with the positive feedback. With the meeting’s conclusion, we celebrated our fellow’s award over dim sum, then headed to the Singapore Zoo. Despite the intermittent rain, we appreciated the unique fauna like giant fruit bats and pygmy hippos. Having purchased tickets in advance, I stayed to visit the Night Safari also, completing my comprehensive yet exhausting wildlife tour. I spent my last day back in the city to round out my culinary adventures, starting with kaya toast and soft-boiled eggs with milk tea for breakfast in Kampong Glam. From the Sultan Mosque, I made my way to Tai Hwa Pork Noodle for my second Michelin-starred hawker meal. The two-hour wait got me behind schedule, so I skipped my laksa stop for delicious, aromatic bak kut teh. I returned to the hotel to pack my stash of Prima Taste packets from the Mustafa Center, then joined my friend Yvette for a light dinner followed by drinks at Ce La Vi atop the Marina Bay Sands. Our view of the city from above on this last night was breathtaking, and I was left with fond memories of this jewel of a city.

With summer weather approaching and many personnel changes in lab, I decided to host a lab BBQ at my house to let people hang out outside of work. Having learned from hosting a BBQ with the retina folks last year, we didn’t bother with homemade skewers or quiche, sticking instead with burgers, hot dogs, and prepared salads from Costco, along with some curried wings which were a hit. We assigned drinks and desserts to guests, which led to a glut of extra sweets that fortunately the undergrads were more than willing to take home. Sadly, Westley broke out in a heat rash and did not cope well with all the new faces. He managed to warm up a bit when we invited our in-laws afterwards to tackle the leftovers. My call week for the Memorial Day weekend was quite busy, but we did manage to enjoy some dim sum with the fellows, having missed Chinese New Year earlier this year. We also stopped by Planet Granite and Medimer to browse marble remnants, and took advantage of online holiday deals for more compact luggages for work travel. Having pulled several late nights to catch up with clinical duties and manuscript preparation, I ran on little sleep and ended up losing my wallet last week. Between getting my credit cards and wallets replaced, and squeezing in a DMV visit for a new license, I felt ill prepared for this whirlwind weekend of our department’s Napa symposium and the iOCT Summit in Cleveland. After Friday morning clinic, I drove to Napa for some oysters and chowder, only to suffer from food poisoning that kept me from enjoying dinner and left me dehydrated on my red-eye to Cleveland. I arrived at the Cole Eye Institute at the crack of dawn Sunday, and relied on coffee to keep me awake through North Coast Retina in the morning and my talk in the afternoon. With little time to catch up with friends, I flew back to SFO that evening, briefly dining on delicious beer-battered cod with rosemary fries at Bar Symon at CLE. I had trouble keeping my eyes open on the drive back to Napa for my quick overnight Airbnb stay before my Sunday morning talk to the department. Exhausted, I was relieved to return home for lunch with my family and my friend Yao, before having to pack again for a trip to Singapore tomorrow. While it feels nice to be popular at times, I just don’t think I’m cut out for the jetset life.

We marked our decade-long marriage together this past Friday with some sparkle. My planning for the occasion began as early as February, when I sought to replace the engagement ring that Melody had lost a few years back. After many covert trips to Roseville and downtown Sacramento to browse diamonds from various vendors – Shane Co., Bianca’s, Santillan, and Sharif’s, I ultimately chose a Blue Nile stone that nearly matched the original diamond’s specs, and worked with their custom department to recreate my design. Having failed to score a French Laundry reservation from our concierge service due to their change to a new ticket system, we instead booked Date Night at 3-Michelin-starred Benu in San Francisco, asking our in-laws to cover baby duty at home. Corey Lee’s Asian-style tasting menu provided a unique take on very familiar flavors as we smiled at each other over Melody’s new ring. We started with delicacies of 1000-year old quail egg, tuna marrow, oyster and pork belly foam, squid on a blood sausage, barbecued abalone with abalone liver, and “shark fin” crab egg custard before finally getting to the bread course featuring the Best Bread Ever. Then the real journey began: foie gras xiao long bao, seasonal caviar and uni, geoduck clam, fried eel with lip-numbing pepper leaf and szechuan peppercorns; a fat juicy barbecued quail with a steamed truffled bao, a lobster-stuffed sea cucumber, and a beef course featuring steak, a galbi-jim-styled riblet, and banchan. We cleared our palates with an omija sorbet before the chocolate acorn dessert and a pricey vintage pu-erh tea. But things weren’t over yet – a final anniversary cake was presented within a music box playing Love Me Tender, which we enjoyed with a sweet rice water drink. After another marble-hunting trek with some Korean food in Rancho Cordova on Saturday, we celebrated Mother’s Day over hot pot and another cheese trip for Melody. Recounting our journey over past 10 years, and with Westley now finally walking, we look forward to many more adventures ahead.

This year’s ARVO meeting took me back to sunny Baltimore. My last visit to the city was 10 years ago when I spent a month at Wilmer for an Ophthalmology rotation that left me with memories of Subway sandwiches, sketchy neighborhoods, and unsatisfying blue crabs. I departed last Friday on a red-eye after dropping Melody off for her 7am flight and blasting through afternoon clinic, leaving me exhausted by the time I arrived. Rather than taking a nap as I should have, I decided to get breakfast with my roommate in nearby Lexington Market for chicken & waffles, which provided a rather authentic Baltimore experience, but was no match for Dame’s. We returned to our hotel for a 6-hour-long Allergan meeting before I took a breather over small plates at Salt Tavern with some Duke friends. I presented my poster on Sunday, but overall felt that the meeting was less satisfying than previous years perhaps due to the meeting location and lower turnout. I also caught up with friends from residency, and ended the evening at Cinghiale for a delicious 4-course prezzo fisso, and nearly 3 hours of waxing philosophical with colleagues over our careers as clinician-scientists. On Monday, I spent the morning interviewing a post-doc candidate, interfacing with industry leadership, and lunching with an old lab mate over harborside crab cakes, then hosted an inaugural networking dinner with sponsorship from Alcon for clinician-scientists in Ophthalmology. Continuing our prior night’s dinner topic, we had 30 participants from different career stages share their advice for succeeding in an academic career combining research with clinical practice. Afterwards, I hung out with some students until the wee hours that night. Despite a late start next morning, I joined the CAOS folks for a crab feast luncheon at Bo Brooks before my flight home. I made use of my Priority Pass again at BWI, and was glad to see my new Sapphire Reserve really starting to pay for itself. With all my upcoming travel, I’m hoping to get more use out of it this summer.

We attended the March for Science to the State Capitol today. This was our first political march, and we did not come prepared with our own witty nerd sign, but did come dressed for the occasion with my Addgene apparel and Melody’s Schroedinger’s cat T-shirt. Westley enjoyed his new stroller and clapped along with the crowds as they cheered, “What do we want? Evidence-based policy!” and “When do we want it? After peer review!” We met some UCD ophtho folks there, and joined them for lunch over hot pastrami and meatball sandwiches at Sampino’s. Back home, we spent our little spare time killing Kett in the new Mass Effect Andromeda. Although generally panned for its character animations, stilted dialogues, and tedious missions, the game brought enough nostalgia and satisfied enough of Melody’s completionist tendencies to keep us engaged while we waited for our left Joy-Con to be repaired. I also tried to revive my old RC car with a new LiPo battery to play with Westley, only to burn out the motor after just 2 runs. Otherwise, we’ve mostly stayed at home to manage the finishing touches to our window repairs, installation of a motorized sunscreen for our family room, and successful sale of our Sundance Spa, which we sent off with a final late-night soak as its last hurrah.

You know your wife really loves you when she shows up to your work with a new video game console that most people could barely get their hands on. Despite being weeks after its debut, the new Nintendo Switch remained sold out at most stores after many positive reviews for its innovative design. Once we knew a new shipment had arrived at Best Buy, Melody showed up after work that day and scored the last one of the batch. The handsome gadget sat pretty on my desk, but could do very little since the system did not come with a game. So we spent our long weekend mostly taking it easy. Since Westley’s daycare did not have Cesar Chavez Day off, we took the opportunity to lunch out at Station 16 in midtown followed by macarons from Ginger Elizabeth. On Saturday, we stayed at home while painters came to put the finishing touches on our windows, followed by a visit to Ikea to let Westley bounce on various Swedish furnishings. We ended our long weekend with a short field trip to Lake Berryessa, where the heavy rains this winter have allowed the water level to rise above the poorly-named “Glory Hole” spillway, creating a mesmerizing vortex that became the feature of a recent NY Times article. It was not as dramatic by the time we got there, but Westley seemed to enjoy the outing as we stopped for lunch at a local RV resort diner. For Melody’s birthday, I left work early to check out the Davis Co-op to feed her cheese addiction, then grabbed a bite at Tasty Kitchen before picking up the baby. We also ordered our copy of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, so we’ll be putting our Switch to good use after all!

This month has not been kind to our wallets. State Farm’s adjuster had just concluded that most of the water damage to our window areas were not covered by our home insurance, when the contractors discovered dry rot along the entire South-facing elevation, with soaked insulation and drywall mold requiring even more work than our initial $6k estimate. Melody’s car was also in the shop having gotten rear-ended in a Roseville parking lot, when my car was struck by some debris on I-80 on the way to work. By the time I got home, the 8″ crack had extended across the windshield, requiring a second auto claim this month. Add on top of that a $3k bat exclusion project and a $20k tax bill this year, we felt like we were bleeding money. Even with my parents in town to help out with the baby, we were keen to stay indoors as we fought off cold symptoms and the bad karma. Interestingly, the last time I used this blog title was exactly 10 years ago around our wedding. We did manage to squeeze in dinner dates at Boiling Ave and Grange to use our OpenTable GC, and also take my folks out to new restaurants we discovered for dim sum, Cantonese food, Taiwanese hot pot, and XLB. Last week, I attended my first NIH study section in Bethesda. The 20-30 hours I spent on grant review beforehand was barely worth the $200 honorarium, but I was excited to see the review process first-hand. I even got to dine with a collaborator the night before, and chat with one of the scientific officers who generously gave me a ride to IAD early enough to enjoy a Priority Pass lounge before my flight home. With Melody at another conference, Westley mysteriously breaking out in hives again last week (no need for Epi-pen, fortunately), and my parents leaving this evening, I will have to pay extra attention on daddy duty to fend off evil spirits until mom returns.

We went to Berkeley on Presidents’ Day weekend to meet up with my college friend for lunch. Her daughter is just a few weeks younger than Westley, so we got to share our experiences as new parents. We also returned to CB2 to buy the Sidera chair that we’ve been eyeing, and more of the Marta glasses that I’ve become obsessed with. Back home, it’s been off-season for our usual TV shows, so we’ve started looking for new things to watch. Thanks to Netflix’s “Suggested for You,” we’ve kept ourselves entertained with stand-up specials from comedians like Ali Wong, Aziz Ansari, Anjelah Johnson, Dana Carvey, Iliza Shlesinger, John Mulaney, Russell Peters, and Trevor Noah. Last weekend, we also binge-watched the critically-acclaimed first season of Stranger Things. With a minimal budget and a nearly-unknown cast, the supernatural tale set in a small town in the 80’s paid homage to a slew of horror and sci-fi flicks from that period like E.T.. In fact, we had to solve our own mystery this weekend with the appearance of animal droppings beside our house and a strange squeak from our kitchen hood vent. A call to a bird specialist led to the discovery of a new bat infestation in our attic, and an intense bat-catching operation from the vent this afternoon. Faced with the need to get rid of the bats, a massive tax bill, and water damage repairs that insurance refuses to pay for, we’ll need to keep our wallets zipped up tightly for now. Fortunately, I’ll be drowned in NIH grant reviews for study section next week, and I’ve got my parents back in town to help out with the baby.

Just weeks after inauguration, the Trump presidency has already offended most of our allied nations, rolled out a xenophobic travel ban, displayed shady links to Russian intelligence, and unveiled blatantly cronyistic cabinet appointments. Between the fear-mongering rhetoric and alternative facts from the White House, SNL and the media have been struggling to expose the emerging bigotry in our country. These uncertain times recall the fascist state in the recent second season of The Man in The High Castle, which showed better pacing this season and led up to a thrilling finale. I also finally got around to watching the last season of Continuum, which also concluded with a satisfying, yet convoluted ending. Finally, this weekend marked the end of our recent adventures with Lara Croft. Her new game was a good exercise in game play and level design, but ultimately was hampered by the bland storytelling. At home, we began planning for new bathroom renovations with visits to Ferguson and Arizona Tile, while also finding more home decor in Roseville from Z Gallerie and Pier 1. On the way back, we discovered a new upscale Chinese restuarant called Yue Huang along I-80, which was surprisingly authentic and served dim sum on a weekday! The recent torrential rain has managed to get us out of the historic drought, but not before causing significant water damage around our windows. Between meeting assessors and contractors, and being inundated with student requests for research projects, I decided to take a day off with Melody on Valentine’s Day to play hookie, lunch out at Davis Noodle City, and stroll around downtown Davis. We also invited the in-laws for a dim sum party to celebrate Westley’s first birthday this weekend, although he seemed more intent on poking the cake than eating it. It didn’t help that he and his mom are still getting over colds, but we hope that his newest set of vaccines from the pediatrician will take care of all that.

This weekend was a confluence of celebrations as my son and I both celebrated our lunar calendar birthdays, which also coincided with my actual birthday this year. On Friday, I brought Westley to his first visit to an allergist to confirm his peanut allergy, then enjoyed cake and balloons from my clinic staff in the afternoon. We braved the crowds the next day to celebrate Chinese New Year with Melody’s cousin at Asian Pearl, making sure our baby gets properly indoctrinated into the habit of collecting red envelopes and ordering dim sum. On Sunday, I volunteered my birthday morning at the Paul Hom clinic before joining Melody for delicious soup dumplings at the aptly named Journey to the Dumpling in Elk Grove. The festivities were not over when I returned to lab on Monday, when I found out that I received the Genentech AMD Fellowship from the ARVO Foundation. I took my technician Eric out for Chengdu Style lunch to celebrate the grant and his acceptance to grad school. With Westley’s recent move to the toddler room at daycare and advancement to more solid foods, we were excited to share more of our meals together. His increased mobility, however, also necessitated new corner protectors for our furniture and baby gates at the top and bottom of our stairs. He has also attained the new skill of pointing with his finger, which has somewhat improved our ability to communicate with him. It’ll be interesting to see what else he can come up with next.