The Renaissance Woman

I really enjoy baking. I’ve enjoyed reading blogs like Bakerella’s and there’s just so much you can do with decorations and style. Unfortunately, my husband was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes this year, which limits what I can bake.

I really don’t want to just make the usual with sugar substitutes, because those types of dishes always taste like a pale imitation of what they are supposed to be. I want to make dishes that are good in their own right.

This had led me to cheesecake. My husband enjoys cheesecake and it’s very simple to make cheesecakes that don’t have a high impact on blood sugar. So I am now wanting to experiment with this dessert genre. I want to learn to make a killer basic cheesecake that I can put fruits on or decorate with some syrups. And then I’d love to learn some good basic variations. I have a pumpkin cheesecake recipe, but I’d love to find a good mint cheesecake, and a solid chocolate cheesecake. Someday, I’d love to create a carrot cheesecake as well.

Anyone out there have some good go-to cheesecake recipes? Feel free to share!

Thankful:  feeling or expressing gratitude; appreciative

During this time of year, I do enjoy taking stock of the people and things I am thankful to have in my life. Some if it is thanking the people directly – for continuing to choose be part of my life as well as for being such exemplary people in the first place. For the things, some of it is thanking the people who invented them, and some of it is more expressing the joy of having such things in my life. And some if it is remembering to take time to thank myself for things I have accomplished. I have an issue I am working on of not being able to recognize or downplaying my own accomplishments, so it is good for my soul to take time to remember them.

So this year, a few things I am thankful for:

·         That I don’t have to travel this holiday season: I’m very grateful (for MANY reasons) that my family came to see me this November, and that I can avoid traveling this Thanksgiving and Christmas.

·         The internet: Seriously, the internet makes life so easy and opens up so many new possibilities.

·         The Microsoft Theater Troupe: A great group of people putting on fun shows. It’s always an incredible experience working with them and so many good things have come into my life that came directly from people I meet there.

·         Our home: It may only be a rental, but it has been so nice to move up from the apartment world into a home. The privacy is especially lovely.

·         Our cats: I love our two cats, Jayne and Vera. Very few things are nicer than relaxing on the couch with a good movie or tv show, some food and drink, and a warm kitty curled up on your lap.

·         My family: I have always been close to my mother and I am happy that hasn’t changed. She is a wonderful confidant and advisor when needed. I love how my brother always lights up a room and the joy he exudes. My dad and I have had our rocky moments, but our relationship has gotten so much better over the years and I’m so happy how transparent he can be with his pride in me.

·         My husband: I have to save the best for last. My husband is my absolute favorite person in the world. There are mundane things about him I am thankful for (he has a stable, good job that allows me to use my time to explore career and other life options, he is tech-saavy which means we have tons of fun toys at home, etc.), but I mostly am thankful he continues to choose to be with me and share his time and life with me. He’s made great efforts to be supportive and comforting when I had a challenging couple  of years. He continually compliments me and reminds me I am loved. He has high standards for himself and continually lives up to them. He knows how to relax and have fun and also how to live with integrity. I can go on and on, but to put it simply; I am happy to have such a great love in my life.

I know there is much more, but these are the stand-out items as of this moment in time. We’ll see what next year brings.

A picture of the first snowfall of the season at our house today.

So things got shaken up here in the last month or so. Just as my show (The Wild Party) was winding down, I was getting ready to have more free time again just in time for the holidays when a job opportunity presented itself. I decided to pursue the opportunity and was hired.

The job is back on Microsoft campus, this time as an a- employee. This basically means I work for an agency that Microsoft contracts with. So not quite a MS FTE, but this is a common first step to becoming one if that was an interest I had.

Is that an interest of mine? Perhaps. It really depends on the job. I enjoy the Microsoft Community and am enjoying being in that world again. And, of course, extra cash is always nice. However, I did enjoy the free time I’ve had the past year – who wouldn’t?!  While I didn’t use all that free time as productively as I had hoped, I did a fair amount of self-exploration, managed to design and build one set for a local movie that was filming, and direct a full length musical for MSTT.

The good thing about the contract gig is that it had a one year expiration date. If the job turns out to not be a good fit for me, it’s only for a year. At (or before) that point, I could try to get a similar FTE position, or I can just leave and go back to having scads of free time again.

I have decided to take a break from the Daring Kitchen for now, due to the lack of free time. But other than that, I have several new projects in the pipeline including quilted Christmas Stockings, a privacy screen makeover, Thanksgiving for Two, and a new bedroom quilt. Also, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm comes out on Dec 7th and I will be purchasing that at a midnight release as well as taking the 7th-12th off from work as my holiday time to play the new expansion, make some headway on the projects mentioned above, and decorate the house for the holidays.

All in all, it should be an interesting year!

Ari Armstrong writes a great guest column at the Colorado Springs Gazette about why Harry Potter is so wonderful – and the reasons are deeper than you’d think.

Oh, and he also has a fabulous book on this topic available on Amazon (also on the Kindle).