@ I love to cook, bake, and collect cookbooks and gadgets. A long time ago, my mother-in-law told me to never be a "slave" to my recipes ~ and ever since I've been a daredevil in the kitchen, playing around with spices both exotic and aromatic.

@ I enjoy learning and playing violin with my daughter, and I recommend Suzuki method for teaching and learning and instrument. *update* My daughter has surpassed my abilities in violin, but she occasionally humors me with a duet or two.

@ I get a kick out of geocaching with my family on hikes in the mountains. As I have said, my sense of direction is strangely lacking (considering I'm a geographer by trade), but my kids enjoy watching me wander around, looking for hidden treasures with our GPS receiver in hand. We have actually hidden our own geocache somewhere in the Rockies, but I'll never tell where it is!

In my everyday life I'm a cartographer ~ I design maps using GIS (geographic information systems). When I'm not sitting at a computer or shlepping my kids, I'm busy being a wife and mother ~ the best job in the world!