I’m not much of a mix-tape maker. Same goes with playlists. I feel a responsibility to listen to albums in their entirety. You know, as the artist intended and to prove my devotion. (As if they would know in what order I consume their craft.) I don’t mingle with single jingles.

I was recently asked to make a list of songs by one of my favorite artists for a friend’s birthday. Perhaps your heard of her (the artist, not my friend)?

Here’s a mini-setlist for Dar Williams were she to play for your happy day:

• When I Was a Boy
• You’re Aging Well
• Midnight Radio (cover from Hedwig and the Angry Inch)
• What Do You Hear in these Sounds
• It’s Alright
• Better Things
• As Cool as I Am
• The Babysitter’s Here

There are plenty of other amazing songs (February, The Ocean, The Great Unknown, Iowa), but, if it were my birthday, I maybe wouldn’t want to be sobbing. (Dar has had that effect on me.)

So use your favorite music consumption vehicle (YouTube, Spotify, iTunes) and have yourself an upbeat little birthday party with Dar.

Surprise scamper buddy for SF half today: Tara. We broke 2 hours, running every step together. I hadn’t done today’s race since 2003, and I probably haven’t run with Tara for equally as long, if not longer. I truly miss working at Clif Bar. I am fortunate for so many wonderful friendships and memories from my nine years there. It made me who I am today. Getting to revisit it and catch up with a friend as we scampered made today feel more like hanging out than an effort. It also underscored my belief that a half marathon is a sensible, yet significant enough distance to have in one’s life.

More runs like that, please.

Scampering a half-marathon tomorrow. A swim teammate of C’s enjoys fishing and crabbing, only he’s allergic to shellfish. Lucky for us he’s not selfish with his crustaceans.

Happy 9th birthday, Janie Sparkles. You’re the prettiest princess in all the land.

Wicked me. This is the ceiling of The Orpheum theater. Photography was not allowed there. It was my first time seeing Wicked. It wasn’t Wicked good, but nor was it Misérable(s).

I haven’t really updated the look of this site much since I launched the domain. Tweaked the words in the sidebar, here and there, but that’s it.

Back in 2009, while watching a documentary about the font Helvetica, the idea for a hizknits logo came to me. I sketched it out for a friend and designer at work, and within less than an hour, I had my own visual identity! Mark is responsible for adding in the “bathroom” guy and making the whole thing look amazing.

Just as my knitting has progressed from my first 2×2 chunky hat back in 2004, it was time to remove the old photo-based banner (which was a detail of that first hat). I’ve finally changed the header to “my” logo. If you view the non-mobile version of this site (not in an RSS feed), you can see what I’m talking about in the upper right corner.

Never would I have predicted where knitting has taken me, who it’s brought into my life and whether I’d be still doing it after starting in 2004. But I’m sure glad it done all that and more.

Here’s to at least eight more years!

See, here’s the problem with sharing an idea. If you say aloud, you’re giving it one more atom of realness. Willing it into existence. Pulling it from the sterile confines of the theoretical into this world, and breathing life into it, such that it may take root and become something, either to you or the person to whom you mentioned it.

Twelve12s has not yet happened as conceived. To be honest, it’s barely happened at all. I haven’t even finished defining my original twelve projects to pursue, let alone gotten going on them, taking pictures of them, making notes about them. That said, a little bit of the inspiration has been with me since I started making gestures toward the larger goal.

At its essence, tweve12s is simply culling down the overwhelming of world of possibility, desires, dreams and demands into specific actions, quantifying them, and ultimately doing them. Over the past year I’ve successfully added a few habits to my life, such as flossing, running, weaving in ends and finishing lingering knitting projects, posting more regularly here. I’m pretty darn proud of myself for them. They are proof of my NOT being an utter and complete failure. Of my agency against the tide of the easy way out or the stress of the day-to-day. A glimmer of hope that I can set out to accomplish SOMETHING. A little bit is better than none, and eventually they add up.

I shared my theory behind the twelve12s project with Kristine, an inspirational friend over the year-end winter break. She is a kindred spirit in an overachieving, driven, artistic kind of way. We both want to leave a mark on the world and live creative lives and grow and give back and be mindful and all that good stuff.

On twitter today, she mentioned she had been using my “12 x 12 methodology” and loved it. (Mind you, there is no methodology, nor have I been “doing” it myself, rather lamenting I haven’t given it a proper go.) She said, “It’s really helping my perfectionism.” I totally get that, in the same way the kernel of the idea has helped me embrace baby steps of my own. That was kick enough in the pants for me to dust it off once again, try the motor and see if I can get it to run this year.

Mention an idea, and it just may happen. Learn more at twelve12s.com.

My day was made up of:

• baking bread
• laundry
• knitting
• a long run
• doggie playtime
• ballet in Berkeley (watching, not taking a class)
• homemade soup and dinner with a friend
• falling asleep on the couch with a pup on my chest

Pretty much a perfect day in my book.

I’ve been in and out of my work’s blog so often today that I find myself at a loss for things to type here. I was going to post a cute dog photo with a caption that I was all ears, but that felt a bit lazy. (Would still love to hear from anyone!) What to share?

If you don’t have anything to say… there’s nothing I could say about the speaker on happiness I saw this morning. As much as I scoff at it, I’ve seen a few gems coming out of Alt Summit that make me feel, I’ll say it, inspired. But I’m not there, and sharing 140 characters of hearsay doesn’t seem worthwhile. Although I’m pretty sure Sagmeister’s happiness chat may have been more focused and useful.

Last night’s late night writing annual goals (for work—you think I’m anywhere near that organized in my personal life?) is taking its toll. I need to join the snoring masses upstairs. Bread dough prep and deeper thoughts will just have to wait until tomorrow.

I saw IrishGirlie’s (re)tweet this morning about little birdie’s 52 weeks of happiness. Now that’s something I could get into.

Here goes:

1. running hills, or, more accurately, the feeling after said scamper.
2. not being called in to report for jury duty.
3. a nod and a “hi” while passing the American Grilled Cheese Kitchen guy on the street.
4. a wee dram of whisky at a work Burns supper celebration (no haggis, thank you).

(1/52)

Note: Apropos to yesterday’s VisitScotland’s pony pics I posted, I didn’t realize Jen of Little Birdie was also a glaswegian lassie, so it’s a lovely coincidence that we had a Scottish shindig at work today, in honor of poet Robert “Rabbie” Burns. I am not intimate with Mr. Burns’ oeuvre, but I look forward to learning more before next year. Scotland remains on my list of places I’d like to visit one day.