don't fall down - extra post

this is an extra post being wedged in between the regularly scheduled posts - to cover some non-envelope topics.

number one:
https://www.yahoo.com/food/the-woman-behind-the-post-offices-gingerbread-104784842991.html

an article about the lady who created these stamps, which i love, and i will resist the temptation to babble on about all the years i spent making gingerbread houses with my kids and how it might have been the most fun i ever had (outside of envelopes)



number two:
mail from the exchange has been pouring in. i am currently scanning and they will appear in my january posts. there is some really great stuff on the way.

number two-and-a-half: one person was excited to find me on the list. i always exchange with everyone. so, if there are others out there who just want to exchange with me, it's easy, you send me an envelope and then i send one back. be sure to use the current address for me which appears on any envelope posted in 2014 (except the ones where people did not write my address correctly, but those still got to me - maybe we should have an exchange where we see how far off you can be with my address and still have it get to me - will someone please send me an envelope that says:
Jean Wilson
400 block of 44th Street
Red brick house that gets all the pretty mail
The carrier on that route will know which one
I know this is asking a lot, but people like us are keeping you in business
so it will be really nice if you go to the trouble of figuring it out.
Thanks. It is the third house on the west side of the street, south of Grand.
Des Moines, Iowa 50312

number three:
if you live in an area with ice and snow, please be careful. so far this winter, (and technically it is not even winter yet) i have had two friends slip and fall on the ice resulting in one broken leg and one arm broken both above and below the elbow. so please be extra careful - and then there is ashley brilliant who fell on a patch of ice, and broke an arm.... ashleigh is not exactly a *friend* but he did come to iowa on a speaking engagement and he did contact me and we did have lunch and he did ask me to write with a dip pen while he watched because he had never seen anyone do that before and i did spell his name *ashley* and he did speak up and i did write it over and mrs guss was my english teacher and i did always get As in her class and i do know that a run-on sentence is not kosher -but- i do drink coffee and i do feel like busting a few rules every once in a while and i do think all y'all look to me for permission to break rules once in a while and this is my official permission to you at this overloaded time of year to just bust some rules if you feel overloaded. period.

number four:
yes, brother, one person is enjoying our conversation about the projects that we are discussing. i might as well clarify that one of my side hobbies is trying to see what i can trick my brother into doing. brace yourself, brother, now that we have an audience, i might have to take this to the next level.