2025 Update
from the Gerbargs in Saratoga, California
2025 Update
Family, Pets, Health & Wellness, Career, Home, Hobbies, Recreation
Family
This year was a big change in our approach to Laura’s health struggles and one of the most notable differences was our tolerance to travel risk. We visited both of our families in Cambridge, MA and Kirkland, WA. It was wonderful to get to spend some in-person time after a long hiatus.
Laura & Maria with plant projects
Maria & Louis off to breakfast, enjoying a meal together at home
In the summer, Laura’s mom, Maria, came to visit. They worked on various plant projects.
Laura with her cousins, Allison & Julia
Laura was spoiled this year getting to see some of her cousins. Allison visited the Bay Area earlier in the year.
The Gerbargs: Bernie, Naomi, Louis & Avi; reunited in Boston
Laura & Louis celebrating Rachel’s Bat Mitzvah | Naomi, Bernie, Rachel, Sarah, Avi, Louis & Latke enjoying dinner together
A beautiful day at the Harvard Museum of Natural History together: Laura, Louis & Louis’ parents, Naomi & Bernie
We celebrated the Bat Mitzvah of our niece, Rachel, in Boston in September. We stayed in downtown Cambridge and had a great time exploring the rich cultural offerings there including the lovely museum of Natural History.
Celebrating Thanksgiving at Laura’s cousin, Julia’s place
Highlights from the Seattle visit with Laura’s Family
Celebrating Christmas with Laura’s brother, Steve, sister-in-law, Mara, niece, Alice and nephew, Henry.
Enjoying a special visit with Laura’s cousins Monica & Tamthy and their son Thai.
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Pets
Cheska, 13 years old, Black Velvet Chinchilla (Chinchilla chinchilla, formerly Chinchilla brevicaudata). Cheska is sassy, stubborn and food-motivated.
Sophie, 12 years old, Violet Chinchilla (Chinchilla chinchilla, formerly Chinchilla brevicaudata). Sophie is energetic, cautious and curious.
Cheska and Sophie are doing well with no changes this year. Despite being well into their years, they show no signs of slowing down or chilling out :) Chinchillas in domesticity can live well into their teens and 20s with the oldest documented chinchilla on record living almost 30 years.
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Health & Wellness
Health remains our top focus.
Laura’s health continues to demand much of our focus and resources. This year we came to what seems to be the end of a very long and meandering path. After a myriad of tests and experiments, she was finally referred to several new specialties to get a fresh and new angle on her case. We still await the most promising of the leads and hopefully the certainty of diagnosis that may come with it. Overall the prognosis of her case feels more optimistic now than how it felt at this same point last year.
In addition to the bigger picture, major gains were made in the ruling out of celiac and gluten sensitivity, which in turn greatly expanded the “safe” list of foods for Laura. We also discovered a tolerable hack for cow’s milk and yogurts using lactaid enzymes and A2/A2 casein protein producing cow breeds. Together, these two food groups being reintroduced to our shared diets dramatically improved the variety and enjoyability of eating together. We are having a blast rediscovering old favorite meals and cooking new dishes.
Although this year has been a big improvement, Laura still struggles with many symptoms with highly unpredictable flares. We are hopeful that there will be a medication in the new year that she tolerates to manage her chronic autoimmune disease. Right now, there is hope that she can restore more of her quality of life back.
Louis watching our friend, Emily, demonstrate proper weight lifting technique. Laura & her sister-in-law, Mara, enjoying pilates practice.
We both continue to enjoy weekly Gyrotonic practice. We also continue to walk together most days in our neighborhood when the sun has gone down for Louis (with a seasonal break for him in the summer). In the fall, we gathered the gumption to resume our pilates memberships and are slowly getting back into the flow of things. In the new year, we are looking forward to more new and returning movement modalities such as weight lifting and acroyoga.
Toe spacers, toe socks and foot-shaped barefoot shoes
Laura has been continuing her journey on improving the functionality of her feet, ankles, etc up the postural chain. It has now been 2 years that she has been in the Correct Toes toe spreaders full time, day and night and the changes have been transformative on her gait and alignment. This year, she scoured high and low looking for shoes to fit her newly expanded feet and straighten toes. Even Louis got roped into some new barefoot, wide toe box shoes.
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Home
New mulch and a fresh stain on the decking
We worked on the outside of the house quite a bit, replacing much of the rock mulch with cedar, restaining the decking, removing the broken hot tub and installing a new irrigation system to the yard. This year was more foundational and we hope next year we can work on more landscaping to build on what we accomplished already.
Louis working on networking gear and structured media cabinet
We got to a few projects around the house this year. Louis made progress on upgrading the network. We also started working with a handyman service this year, which has been great for all those little tasks that seem to pile up effortlessly.
Fiat 500e, a new car leased for Laura
After 8 years of having 1 car to share, we added a 2nd car to the mix for Laura. We have officially become suburban.
Louis and Laura both got new sit-stand desks this year.
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Hobbies
EDC kandi, totem & trades; Halloween kandi; kandi making supplies
Kandi making continued to be a special interest for Laura. This was the 3rd year she made bracelets for Halloween trick-or-treaters. She traded tons of kandi at EDC (recieved kandi & goodies from trades in bottom right). She made a rave totem (top right) which we used to keep track of each other at the festival with great success. Laura also made Bluey backpack charms (center left) for her niece & nephew.
Bonsai & Galatea
We continue our adventures in the world of Azeroth to play World of Warcraft, a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG). Now that a year has passed since we returned, we’re both much more familiar and comfortable with the game. We are super excited to have tickets to the big WoW convention next year, Blizzcon.
The Move Master w Button Commander & Azeron
Louis has been trying on different hardware solutions playing World of Warcraft. He has been equal parts engaged and enraged on his never-ending quest to the perfect peripheral.
Watching K-Pop Demon Hunters, a big hit
This year as in years past, we enjoyed many good movies and TV shows including a few theater screenings. Stand-outs include K-Pop Demon Hunters, Severance S2, Foundation S3
Some of Laura’s makeup looks and favorite products from this year
Makeup tools, techniques and photographing looks continued to be an interest of Laura’s this year. Nail enhancements and art fell off completely, though she still does basic maintenance.
House plants had to share some attention with the outdoor extended family this year
Plants, as always, possibly forever, are a lifestyle. This year Laura was able to share quite a few cuttings with friends.
Laura learned a lot taking care of roses for the first time this year. A major event in our garden was hosting a mating pair of Praying Mantises in the fall.
Some of Laura’s rose flowers from this year
In May, we planted 9 large rose containers for our courtyard. Over the months, every possible aliment has felled these plants: squirrels, caterpillars, moths, black spot, powdery mildew, spider mites, thrips, drought, sunburn- you name it, it has happened to these roses. This project was both a source of joy and growth for Laura but also a lot of frustration and labor.
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Fun
Having fun with our friends this year.
This year we enjoyed being more extroverted than we have in quite some time.
Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas, with our friends Sean, Emily and Myke.
In May we took our first vacation in 4 years, EDC LV. This was our 4th time attending this unique music festival at the speedway, our first was 2017. While the trip was a big challenge, we had a lot of fun and managed a lot of different scenarios that proved that we could push forward with more travel plans later in the year.
We hosted a World Wide Developer’s Conference party for Louis’s team
Louis checking out the new Anova steam oven. Various indulgence foods that were enjoyed including double crab mac n cheese, steak, and homemade bread.
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If you made it this far congratulations, you are all up-to-date on the latest news :)
P.S. Please reach out if your name or address needs changing for next year’s cards
