Wednesday, 28 February 2024 Playa Del Rey.us

In LA, and inside a massive villa with the entire TopScore crew for retreat number 19 (my sixths). My last one dates back over five years, back than I named our Deep Creek Lake mansion “biggest house ever”, a title that’s now easily been claimed by our current place. Even three days into the retreat I continue to get lost inside the 7300 square foot house with 6.5 baths! I’m having a good time collaborating and working with my TopScore teammates/friends that I haven’t met in person for many years but who still are the coolest colleagues ever! With all year in full-remote mode we’re making best use of our day, collaborative all-hands sessions in the morning, tech sessions in the afternoon and cooking and chatting in the evening. I even managed to keep my marathon preparation up and running, with an early-morning two hours run along the beach front of this massive city. The tourism part has been checked instantly by taking a look at the Hollywood sign, which is visible from our balcony despite being about 20k away. It’s also my first return to the US since leaving Pittsburgh early July 2019! Two more days to go before returning home, and going straight back to my ever more modern cottage with its recently installed remote-controllable gas boiler to be with friends & family.

Saturday, 24 February 2024 Pantin.fr

Just got back home from a week of vacationing with the kids (Zoo Beauval, Blois, Chambord, Maupertuis), and will be leaving tomorrow morning for LA for yet another TopScore retreat.

Sunday, 28 January 2024 Mutigny.fr

It’s early 2024 and I’m surfing through a beautiful life. Everything’s finally just right (took me 45 years to get there…), I am perfectly happy with how things go with the my old family life. Too bad that the world around is falling apart, but there’s not too much I can do about at the moment. I count on things turning out to best less awful then they look right now, we’ll see what this decade still holds for us. Feels like everything is possible from a third world war to humanity that manages to be reasonable and fair. A week-end of sitting back and relaxing (while continuing with my marathon preparation though) in an almost too fancy hotel inside beautiful Champagne vineyards. Effi is growing (fat) and starting to be less disturbing at night, Max grew already into being a big boy who’s smiling ever more (it suits him). And life with Mathilde continues to be a treat, I feel so lucky to have met her. More to come!

Friday, 12 January 2024 Mailly-le-Château.fr

A routine day for the guy who installed my fiber optic connection today at the cottage, a giant leap of connectivity for the house! On average over the last five years, according to the guy from Orange, he creates five new fiber optic internet connections per day, well over a thousand per year! These are big numbers, but how to label that 200+ times speed increase that he brought to my house today? Indeed, with around 1 Mbps download and a much lower upload connection, my ADSL copper looks seriously bad next to the new fiber optic with over 200 Mbps download as well as upload. Welcome to the future, finally!

Monday, 8 January 2024 Pantin.fr

It’s 2024, for over a week already. One of my favorite months has started (January is definitely on my TOP12), the month of la galette des rois ! And as tradition wants I already got my first fève, poor kids who desperately wanted to bite on that piece of hidden surprise and be crowned instead of king Christian. Three weeks of prepping for my second marathon went by like a jog, I’m starting to feel fitter and more confident on longer distances. If I keep sticking to the training plan I should be cruising through that April 7 Paris marathon, as opposed to the drama I had to cramp through fours years ago in Berlin. Effi is growing fast, and screaming ever louder at night. Some say this will cease in a couple of months, which makes me hopeful. Back to work, it’s TopScore day… followed by NW… followed by TopScore, followed by NW, followed by a split day: half TopScore, half NW. It’s routine time.