manders2280

Updated December 31, 2020

Thank you for wearing a mask as we do our best to care for each other!
— Sign spotted at Trader Joe's

We wear masks and practice social distancing and frequently wash our hands reduce our risk of getting COVID-19 and spreading it to others. Now, again, no errands. We order groceries for curbside pickup or delivery and stamps online from USPS.

With an abundance of caution, we take the incoming mail out of our mailbox, dump it in a pile in the front hall, and wash our hands. We open it a couple of days later. See this free article in The Washington Post: "How Fauci, 5 other health specialists deal with covid-19 risks in their everyday lives."

Swap-bot doesn't use HTTPS for secure communications over the internet. Because my Swap-bot profile is public, visible to everyone on the internet, my profile will change with the seasons, with a little information about me that's relevant to swaps.

I swap for blank postcards in envelopes and written, naked postcards. I send the blank postcards I receive to family and friends and people on Postcrossing; I set them aside so I won't send them for Swap-bot swaps. I don't mind gently bent corners; I lop them off with a corner rounder. Please send nice postcards that you'd happily send your family and friends.

If you're sending me a naked postcard, please send one that's a favorite of yours, sender's choice or for a swap with a theme.

No, thank you. Sorry, no hearts. Postcards to color, postcards for Christian holidays and legends, and Zazzle postcards. Those cheap sepia 32-pcs Vintage Travel Sights Landscape Retro Postcards. I have many Pomegranate postcards because I buy their remaindered postcard books at Half Price Books for $3. (Lucky you if there's a Half Price Books near you.)

My favorite kawaii has a face. I love food with faces and anchovies with legs and animals in an unlikely milieu like cat servers at faux Starbucks.

I'd appreciate stickers and memos for mail art: faux postage, letters, writing implements, and stationery.

I enjoy most characters, especially San-X. My favorite characters at the moment are Corocoro Coronya, gudetama lazy (or depressed or fatigued?) egg yolk, Kogepan Burnt Bread, and pastel Sentimental Circus.

I'm looking for kawaii books with faces. And puffins. How could all the kawaii artists have never thought to draw puffins?

No, thanks. Poo and bottoms aren't kawaii to me. 3D stickers from sheets and sticker flakes, especially PVC and puffy. Real photos made cute aren't so cute to me.

• Louise Penny's binge-worthy mysteries featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache.
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.
• I raced through the first two books in the Gunnie Rose series by Charlaine Harris and look forward to the third book, expected in February.
• Book club books: Nemesis by Philip Roth, a novel about the polio epidemic; When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi; Pulitzer Prize winner The Overstory by Richard Powers
• Snow in August by Pete Hamill
• A Promised Land. Barack Obama's memoir, read by Barack Obama
• I'm learning Talmud with a Daf Yomi group.

• Artificial flavors and artificial sweeteners
• Candles. My husband worries that we'll burn the house down.
• Coffee. I never started drinking it.
• Glitter, sequins and other tiny metallic bits
• Washi tape. I have plenty.