Back from a week at the cottage, that started with beautiful summer heat (breakfast in the garden, swimming pool for the kids and barbecue at night) and turned into some gruel cold. Dad the builder, assisted by myself, made huge progress in the dormitory, with a new window being installed as well as a the first part of a new floor. I’m pretty done after this combination of work, babysitting and kids entertainment, thankfully Mathilde avait tout prévue and took care of basically everything. Next week the three radiators, that froze to death over a year ago, will be replaced, and then that big new space will be open to public throughout the summer. Five months Effi today, and back into work routine to switch from exercising my muscles to exercising my brain.

Already April, and I haven’t posted much recently. Since my return to routine about a month ago everything was pretty much… routine.

• The baby is growing, the kids too.
• The freelance work keeps going strong, I’m now ten month into the game.
• The banks are prudent and don’t want us to buy that apartment next door.
• The entire family has traveled to Germany for some Easter chocolate mania.
• The 16-week-long marathon preparation is basically done, Sunday’s race day.
• The N26 banking app pushed me to buy some crypto currency, it’s never too late ;).
• The summer vacation planning has started, including the Tour, the Olympics, and more.
• The Silberpfeil feels alone, I haven’t ridden a single meter on it since October.
• The good news: les 7 majeurs are already planned for June with friends.
• And last but not least: it’s the final year of my Tour de France, Annecy to Paris!

One could think I didn’t survive my return flight from the US, but I did. Back to routine work, and routine run since, despite a week with an unpleasant cold. This is the last day of winter, and the weather is improving accordingly. High hopes for yet another beautiful year, with many plans being made right now: cycling the 7 Majeurs with friends in June, somehow being able to have Max join Adam & family and myself for some days with the Tour, and much more that has already its place in my calendar. Spending Easter with family in Germany, by May I planned to have the dormitory in Maupertuis ready-ish, and hopefully having managed to get a loan for a new apartment. It’s happening right now, 2024 starts for real tomorrow.

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.

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.