E:\LETTERS\XMAS12.TXT 

Notes for 2012 Christmas Letter: 
    
January:   Dave bought a new air filter, which works much 
better than the one that died.  
    
    I found a pair of shoes that fit!  And I paid about a 
quarter of what I paid for a pair that aggravates my corns. 

February:  a new thermostat that can be controlled from any 
computer in our network.  I'm not sure what the improvement 
over controlling it from the box on the wall is, but Dave is 
having a ball.  
    
    I got an e-mail saying that I passed the emergency-
communications course last summer (how? I aced the multiple-
choice final exam, of course, but I didn't do any of the 
homework!) and that my hardcopy certificate will be along in 
a few weeks. 
    
March:  after ten years of putting stuff we didn't know what 
to do with into the parlor, we buy a new carpet.  All sorts 
of forgotten and missing items turn up.     

April:  New carpet installed.  I get my first ultrasound -- 
nothing found.  I submitted an old story to Ellery Queen. 
    
May:  Story was rejected.   I tried and failed to attend a 
ham-club meeting.   Still un-sorted books on the coffee 
table, but not so many that I can't use the unabridged 
dictionaries we keep on that table.  Dave's web site got 
infested and he had to buy a new one. 

June:  I learned a benefit of the remote-control thermostat.  
I forgot to turn the air conditioner back on, but Dave did 
it on his way home from Muncie. 
    
    We had the old carpets cleaned.  The day after the 
carpet cleaning, Dave bought a generator that he's been 
wanting for a long time.  

July:  we learn a new word:  "derecho".  Stuff moved for the 
carpet cleaning gradually moves back.   

    July is my month for new words:  "epi-retinal membrane" 
could be serious, could clear up on its own.  
    
August:  on the eighth, we celebrated our forty-eighth 
anniversary; on the eleventh, Dann and Emilee were married 
in our back yard.
    
September:   we attended the wedding of another great-
nephew, on my side this time. 
    The follow-up exam showed that my epi-retinal membrane 
hasn't gotten any worse, which surprised the doctor.  
Another follow-up in six months.  But I broke a tooth and 
flossed a crown loose.  Body is always in the shop. 

October:  Dave's soap-making experiment is turning into a 
hobby.