As a matter of fact, former Newtown Bee assistant editor Kaaren Valenta (now merrily settled in Florida) tells me that her Chicago-based sister visited Florida recently and is ready to put her Chicago home on the market and join Kaaren. Chicago is enduring the same lovely winter we New Englanders are going through.

I have had a nomination for The Good Egg — this goes out to all of our postal delivery people who, despite the snow, plowed-in mail boxes, icy roads, and treacherous snow banks, have managed, by and large, to get the mail delivered. Thank you, Newtown postal employees. You are Good Eggs.

The mail delivery personnel have had a little assistance from some residents, though, when mailboxes have been buried in drifts or knocked flat by plows. Karen McKnight captured a photo of this novel mail arrangement on Ashford Lane. Sometimes, it just takes a little cooperation and creativity.

Once you dig out, you’ll want to dance for joy this weekend, and Newtown Congregational Church is providing just that opportunity. The public is invited to join NCC members for a 1960s-theme dance and fundraiser in the Great Room of the church at 14 West Street, from 6 to 10 pm. Enjoy live music and a DJ, hot dogs, light refreshments, and desserts. The proceeds of the $10 tickets ($30 cap for families) benefit the Friends of Autistic People’s Farm Project, a therapeutic organic farm for young adults with autism, to be founded in Sandy Hook. Call 203-426-9024 or visit NewCong@sbcglobal.net for ticket information. For information about the farm, visit AutisticAdults.net.

If you are seeking a gift for that special Valentine who is maybe a little less than conventional, a friend put me on to a website recently that might be just the site for you. It’s called thinkgeek.com and is a trove of wondrously weird and fabulously cool ideas for your favorite geek. Personally, I’m in love with the emergency kit in a sardine can. I just wish that they actually included the sardines.

It is never slow around The Bee office, but hypothetically, if it were ever a bit slow, the worker Bees might be checking out www.dearblankpleaseblank.com, where there are some hilarious examples of missives of the imagination. In this slow period (also of the imagination) these worker Bees have come up with some of their own suggestions: “Dear Snow Plow, Good job. Sincerely, My Driveway.” “Dear Newtown, I’m baaaaaaack! Sincerely, Snow.” (That last one with a Jack Nicholson-type voice — the one where he’s looking through the broken door in The Shining.) Or this one, “Dear Snow, Your cold heart killed our love. Sincerely, A Newtown Resident.” You get the idea, but you’ll find some oh so very clever ones at this website…. Should you get bored… wherever you are. Check it out, then feel free to share your own “Dear Blank” notations with me at Nancy@thebee.com. We’ll print some in an upcoming column. When it’s slow…

It looks like Santa’s reindeer have escaped. Late last week, Brian Sacco, pressman at The Bee’s Commerce Road printing plant, spotted a herd of 15 deer in front of the plant, chowing down on the shrubs there. The deer have even been climbing on top of the snow banks to get to higher branches, says Brian. In this weather, it is hard to resent the shrub damage.

I know one education reporter who is itching to have all this snowy weather and school interruptions stopped. Besides canceling all the fun school events that Eliza Hallabeck covers, the snow sometimes forces her to work from home, where I understand her cat, Pearl, has been lying on her keyboard as she tries to type her stories. I hear other home office cats love that same trick. If that is how other cats act near a keyboard, I think my job here is safe. Msfohewiohguh. Hey, get off the keyboard!

Here’s a little advice for pet owners, by the way. Cats may be inclined to sleep away (on keyboards or what have you) the snow days, but not our canine friends. Every snowstorm makes fences a little shorter. One eager chocolate Lab that lives on Great Quarter Road popped over her fence this week, struggled through a yard that has not seen footprints since the snow climbed past knee height, and pranced up to meet her owners, as they arrived home from work. Good dog? Lucky, at any rate. Please check that your pet containments are working so that Fido doesn’t go AWOL.

Just like the postal employees, neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep me from writing next week’s column. So be sure to… Read me again.