Making Things

I realized this year that my hobby making things actually has a lot of output.  I’m constantly making—I love it. This year was heavily focused of the baked variety but I did get around to some artwork as well.

King cakes of course had to happen along with lots of pastries. I decided to learn how to make a soufflé which obviously required I get a special soufflé dish. I either got extremely lucky or they aren’t as hard I as expected. They are a lot like eating fluff and there are only so many varieties of fluff you want to eat before it’s time to move on to something else.

The pinnacle of my baking year was through a three-day class at King Arthur Baking Company in Vermont on pies and tarts. I feel significantly more knowledgeable about making pastry than I ever imagined and was able to nail down some basics like the best way to roll dough.

I also made cheesecakes, an odd saltine crust pie, pesto bread, popovers (oh so good) and an elaborate Baked Alaska for my birthday. I made each of the two ice creams that went into it as well. I celebrated Christmas with a yule log, cookies upon cookies, orange cinnamon rolls, and a gingerbread house. I also fit in a cranberry curd tart somewhere along the way.

Art projects were much further spread apart than typical. But I did pick up my loom and made a tapestry of Mardi Gras memoirs. It’s one of my favorite art pieces to date; so filled with memories, mementos and color! I tried cross-stitching, did a little painting and made some Paris themed zipper bags. There must have been more but no record of what in my photos but 2023 also involved a conscious effort to not reach for the phone as much.  Not all memories need to be photographs and sometimes the documenting gets in the way of the experience itself.

Fitness

A few years ago, I started on a long journey to deal with some physical issues that were causing a lot of pain and difficulty with certain activities. I really dedicated myself to this in 2023 and continued to make progress towards better body mechanics.  I still struggle with pain but less often and I’m hopeful I can reduce that even further.

I spent over 220 hours working out over the year! Some of my favorites were cycling and pilates but I also started weight training, reintroduced yoga into my life, took advantage of my easy access to snow skiing and played a lot of fitness games. 

Career

This will be the biggest success that I will probably have the least to say about. Something that, in a lot of ways, was many years in the making was my transition into a software developer role. However it was also the culmination of one year of concentrated work in our developer apprenticeship program that made the change possible. I learned so much that it’s hard to even describe here but I’m psyched to be able to contribute a larger and larger impact with my work.

Travel

This was the first “normal” travel year for us since the pandemic and I ventured around the country several times for work and to visit family. We visited Asheville (and later moved there!), Texas twice, Vermont, and upstate New York. I went to Denver for work and spent time on a river with family. We didn’t make it anywhere international but got much needed time with people we hadn’t seen in a while.