I returned to the normal of life after a fun birthday weekend but it is not a bad thing.

I cleaned the apartment, did laundry and ran the dishwasher. The three activities basically take the entire day. Not that I have to do anything why the dishwasher takes 3 hours to run but it is still part of the process.

I have really embraced line or rack drying of clothes. It takes longer but they feel better and I am sure it reduces wear and tear on the clothes. I have always rack dried sports clothes and my delicate napkins and placemats but not really underwear and such. I definitely like it and will try to do more of it when I am back in Alexandria.

I made a non-French dinner, spaghetti with clam sauce. I definitely am trying to eat as much seafood as I can as the options at the market are definitely more varied and interesting than where I shop for seafood in Alexandria.

I had bought a piece of cake for my birthday but did not end up eating on my birthday as I had indulged a lot so saved it for today.

I do find at times the ratio of cooking/clean up to eat is very disproportionate. I think sometimes I spend a lot of time cooking a meal and then do not spend nearly as much time eating it. I do not complain as I like to cook and the process is relaxing and interesting to me but just find it amusing. I have gotten much better at cleaning as I go when cooking so the after dinner clean up does not take so long.

I, also, have to be much more efficient and creative in the apartment in Toulouse. In Alexandria, I have a large stove/oven with four burners and a grill on top and a very large oven. Here in Toulouse, I have a two burner induction stove and a small oven. I have to figure out how to cook all the different things I want and get them to be done at the same time. I do have a microwave so that is used when I want to cook steamed vegetables. It all works.

I did sign up a for an Urban Trail run on April 19th. Enzo had told me about it and it is a run that goes through the city and you get to run through some museums, hotels, restaurants and other things. Not sure exactly how it works but thought it would be a good way to see the city and some things I have not seen before. I signed up for the 24K because the 14k (ideal) was full and the 9k did not seem to cover enough activities. I am not sure how I will do running a half marathon but it is not a race so I figure I will make it. Back to more training over the next weeks.