The ever-expanding world of artisanal cheese both delights and baffles me. I love the growing number of cheese makers and cheeses out there, but, as with wine, I get a little overwhelmed and intimidated by it all. Also, when you live alone, there is nothing more depressing than buying a hunk of beautiful cheese, taking it home, realizing you are an abysmal failure of a person who cannot, in fact, eat a quarter pound of cheese that quickly, then finding the sad, forgotten remainder of said cheese in your fridge sporting a white-mold Afro a few weeks later. Sigh.

My interest in cheese was renewed on a recent trip to New York City where my generous, cheese-adoring host fed me aged goat cheese that blew me away. I know nothing about it except that it was hard, salty, nutty, a little gristly toward the rind, and that I ate five slices of it each night before I went to bed.

I'm excited and grateful for the opportunity to bone up on my cheese knowledge and sample the hell out of the over 200 cheeses available Friday, May 18, through Sunday, May 20, at the Seattle Cheese Festival at Pike Place Market. The festival features two days of cheese tasting, a wine tent, and educational seminars, including one early Saturday morning given by "The Cheese Nun," Sister Noella Marcellino, who'll be holding forth on her area of expertise: mold. (For more information, visit: www.seattlecheesefestival.com.)