Updates

First, I have been promoted to a Director position with my organization. The position will be challenging in that the work will be fairly different from what I do now and also because I'll be supervising staff for the first time. Right now I'm simultaneously training my replacement and starting down the path of a big learning curve for my new position. In short, I'm working long days and weekends in hopes of a smooth transition. It is an exciting opportunity for me, and it has been interesting to notice how much more grown up I feel in this formal leadership position.

Second, after finishing another narrative nonfiction book by Jon Krakauer (Into the Wild, which I liked, but not as much as Into Thin Air) and partially due to the stress of my transition at work, I decided to jump to a fluffy, easy, escape of a book and happened to stumble upon The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler. It seems to be much like Water for Elephants, which I enjoyed reading. We'll see how it plays out. I'm also reading the newest Fannie Flagg novel, mostly because my boss loaned it to me. It is not really my style; hence I'm starting a few other books in the meantime.

Third, it was SB's birthday recently and I made a tiered cake from the Homemade Decadence cookbook (from Joy the Baker). It turned out pretty beautifully and was so fun to make! The salted peanut butter buttercream was easily the best part. The recipe called for three tiers but instead I made two cakes -- one with two tiers and the other with just one. I actually liked the simple one-tier cake best, which was essentially a fluffy chocolate cake with frosting and crunchy toppings (chopped peanuts/pretzels/dark chocolate). The cake was a perfect match for a gift I got SB -- a Bialetti Moka Express.