Oh My goodness...She is so clueless and doesn't know how to do her job and (imho) should be fired! If you mail a Bubble Envelope, regardless of the size or the thickness, it will be charged at the Parcel Rate of $1.22 and up. She said they don't use the device at the counter for measuring a Bubble envelope for thickness, it automatically gets charged the parcel rate. If the Bubble envelope of any size, even empty goes through their machines, it comes out ruined, so they have to put all the bubble envelopes through a different system. She is so wrong! She has been wrong ever since Shape Based pricing went into effect in May 2007...so those employees have ALL been OVERCHARGING now for going on to 4 YEARS! When will this madness end? In order to attempt to get her properly trained (isn't it sad the customers are trying to train USPS supervisors?) I suggest you print out this bulletin...First-Class Mail Fact Sheet At the bottom of it under First-Class Mail Quick Tips, it says"For padded bags (e.g., ReadyPost "cushion mailer"), when the thickness is 3/4" or less and the item is flat-size and somewhat flexible, the item should be classified and priced as a large envelope." Why is that so hard for postal employees to understand? I think even a caveman could understand that! She said that if you put the seeds in a long white envelope, with a small amount of padding in it, and if it is under an ounce, you can put a $.44 cent stamp on it and ask for the 'non machinable' rate. They would charge you another $.20 for that and so the total cost of your envelope would be $.64. hmmm...and we ALL know how well seeds do in regular envelopes with bubble wrap in them. The envelopes end up torn up and the seeds destroyed, if the envelope and seeds even make it to their destination and aren't totally destroyed. What about those who live in the rural and don't have the convenience of getting into the PO very often? What about those that get dropped into the blue mailboxes? Does she think that every envelope is read and sorted by hand so marking something Hand Stamp will be seen? Give me a break. I asked about the little gadget to measure the thickness of the envelope and she said they don't give them out, but they keep one at the counter, but they don't use it to measure bubble envelopes. It seems strange that some of were able to get them from our post offices without any problems. Would you mind posting her name and telephone number here along with her address? I will personally contact her superior from the list at the link below that lists all Vice Presidents and District Managers. It shows the zip code areas that are covered by each one. Imho, she needs to be reported littleonefb, Fran I really don't think anyone associated with the PO is reading this or is attempting to get anything done. I sure wish I could get NBC, CBS, or one of the major networks to pick up on this stealing that has been going on for almost 4 years. A lot of folks should be fired for not knowing how to do their job correctly. In the private sector, a lot of these employees would have been fired long ago. Here is a link that might be useful: USPS Management-it is an 11 page pdf file that will need to load

Stephanie, Keep this page open and "Post a follow-up" to practice. Open another browser window (or tab). Open the web page to the thread or forum you want to link. Click on the url (that http://www.blahblah.com) and it will highlight. Right-click to copy. Come back to the window where you are going to post. In the "optional link URL" box in the posting, right-click and paste that URL. Type a name in the "name of the link" box named accordingly. Hit "Preview Message" to test your link. You can right-click on the URL you've linked to "open in a new window" to see if it works. If it works, you're ready to "Submit Message" Hope this helps -- I used to run an IT department, but it's been awhile since I've written technical documentation! Cameron

We own our land and are doing a custom build. We go by every day but also ran that by our GC as a courtesy. He laughed and said "It's your house, of course". A lot of times I go by after everyone has left so I can walk through it myself and see what has been done or catch any issues. I definitely find this easier to do when no one is there. We also set up a once a week meeting where we know everyone necessary will be there with my husband and me. During that time we can discuss more of the down the line stuff, i.e., they can give us a heads up on what we need to pick out, etc. or tell us about any snafus. I will note that I probably talk to my GC on the phone every other day as well. I *do not* bring my kids when people are working and while they love seeing things in progress, I either have them wait in the car or bring someone with me as a second set of eyes. Lastly, I usually bring a box of Dunkin Donuts coffee when I go in the morning; sometimes muffins too. And I always make sure there is water on site. We have a greenhouse on our property so I leave them there and let our GC tell the other guys so I don't interrupt their work. Good Luck and Have Fun!

To use picasa, once you have on your screen the photo you want to use, go to the right and click "link to this photo". You can choose the size of the photo as well as your privacy level. Then it spits out some HTML for link to or embed. Copy the stuff in the embed box. Then stick that into a post. I'm old school and use (img src=whateverthatstuffintheboxwas) using the pointy carets (sp?) instead of parentheses.