Wednesday, May 28, 2008

A is for alphabetization

I have a random question ... does anyone else alphabetize things? My DVDs and books are alphabetized - well, except for my travel books, cookbooks and journalism books, those are on their own shelves. And knitting books are in my knitting corner, not on a shelf. My boyfriend teases me about my alphabetizing tendencies every time we pick out a movie to watch.

Today, while I was doing my big pre-weekend clean, I dusted them for the first time in too long, and I decided to move some books to make room for some that were not in the shelf. So it required moving an arms-length of books down, and down, and down, onto each of the next shelves. It was rather annoying, and for half a second, I thought I should just give up the alphabetizing. It's rather charming to have bookshelves that are scattered and in no order. But I've been alphabetizing since I was little (especially when I had dozens of "Babysitters Club" books), why stop now.

I've had a little cough the past two days, but that didn't stop me from my Wednesday clean. I cleaned out the coat closet (goodbye, hat I took from a bar in college) and got started on the laundry room. I found an entire bottle of detergent in there. Between that and emptying the various trash cans, I have three bags to take out to the garbage!

Last night I got home from work to find two boxes outside the door. My Knitpicks and Amazon orders! I am now the proud owner of an Options set. I can't wait to cast on ... something. Maybe a baby surprise jacket for a co-worker who's pregnant. "Knitting Workshop" was one of the books in my Amazon order.

Oh yeah - a question for Options owners. Can someone explain to me how the key tightens the needle? I screwed a needle on one of the cables and it felt pretty darn tight. I stuck the key in, and it just went all the way through the hole on the other side. I feel pretty dumb.

2 comments:

  1. I alphabetize CDs and DVDs, but after moving a couple of years ago I never got around to alphabetizing my books. It's on my summer to-do list. But you could always combine the charm of random books and alphabetics by sorting them by genre first (classics, fantasy, reference, etc.) and within each genre alphabetize them by author (or title). I think that's what I might do.

    And for the Options kit, don't feel dumb, it gave me pause too! The key is supposed to stick all the way through. When the round, curled-in end is flush against the needle, you pull the straight end on the other side in whatever direction seems to tighten it all up (can't remember if it's CW or CCW) and the round end just provides leverage for you to do this. Pretty simple after you get the hang of it!

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  2. I typically alphabetize my CDs and arrange my books in subject order - not by LC or Dewey or anything quite that crazy, just a general arrangement. Do you know about Library Thing? You can create your own library (and do lots more that I haven't had time to learn!) for free, up to 500 books. It's pretty neat.

    I took a huge pilsner beer glass from a Chili's when I was in grad school at Pitt. I'll never get rid of that sucker. My first and only time stealing. Now you know my deep dark secrets!

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