1--The bad news is that the local postmaster who has been so helpful in the past is no longer there. He is no longer employed by the USPS....sigh 2--This AM I called about making an appointment with the person in charge. I spoke with the 'officer in charge'. When I asked his name, he gave me his first name, and would not give me his last name. Why would he have refused me that info? 3--I explained that I had several padded mailers that I had received in and they were unopened, and the customers who had sent them had been overcharged. I was wanting to bring them in, and have him (or anyone for that matter) inspect them and determine that they had indeed been overcharged. I explained that I then wanted a signed piece of paper saying that they were overcharged. He said he could not help me and gave me the telephone number of Consumer Affairs in Louisville. Well, I know from talking to someone down there a while back that there was at that time no Consumer Affairs Manager and that NO ONE was even an acting manager. gggrrrrrrrr........ 4--This week I received in a bubblie from Williamsport OH 46134 that was overcharged. It weighed .7 OZ yet was charged $1.05, which is for a 2 OZ large envelope. That means that either the clerk failed to weigh it, or else their scale needs calibration, thus is overcharging a lot of customers. I got a tel# for that PO, and when I called it, I get a non working # recording.........ggggrrrrrrr.........shot down on getting that done. 5--I was on the phone probably 30 minutes or so this AM with the USPS complaint #, getting 3 separate complaints filed. I have the confirmation numbers on all 3 of them and someone is supposed to call me back within 2 business days. Yeah right. I'm not holding my breath on that one. On the one report that was filed for overcharge, I have asked that the overcharge be sent to me. I wonder how they are going to handle that. shall I go on? Anyway, I this AM I learned about Restricted Delivery. Below is the info on that. Restricted Delivery Be sure your mail gets into the right hands. When you want your mail to reach a specific recipient, use Restricted Delivery. Sometimes, you might have private or highly classified documents that you require to be seen only by the addressee. Restricted Delivery ensures that your mail is only delivered to the person you specify, or to the person authorized in writing to sign for intended recipient. I just checked and the cost on a 13 OZ First Class Parcel, sent Certified, with Restricted Delivery signature and signed receipt of the person that accepted it being sent back to me would be less than $11. The exact amount escapes me now. What a bargain, huh, if the Parcel gets to someone who does their job? I have started to compose my letter to The Honorable John E. Potter..but will have to abandon that until I am feeling better. Postmaster General U.S. Postal Service 475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW Washington, DC 20260-0010 I also found an email address for him this AM, not that anyone would even really read any of the complaint emails and actually respond. I found the addy at the Answers.com site, so don't put much faith in it being up to date or valid. E-mail: pmgceo@usps.gov Light bulb moment. I can try taking in the overcharged envelopes, (one at a time might be best) along with an email from the member who sent them and they can authorize me to file for and collect the overcharged amount. I would think that would generate paperwork and that paperwork could then be used as additional evidence (proof) of the 2 year 9 month old problems of post offices across the US overcharging.

Kat's right, that IS a great box, gals! But....I'm envious over the Amaryllis! :O) I've been eyeballing them for a few weeks now. I found a gorgeous striped one, and a double red that I am hankering for. Just haven't gotten around to buying any plants for myself lately, it's all going for the swaps & Christmas gifts! LOL Kat, just what DID you put in Dan's box to make you so excited??? You've got ME excited, now! Well, with you, I KNOW it will be something awesome. You ALWAYS pack a great box! :O)

I would really consider un-installing Limewire p2p file share is a problem a lot of infections come from here. damccoy is right your best Virus protection is between your ears. SuperAntispyware is more of an on demand scanner when you think you need to run do so by redownloading it and updating it.. Here is what is recommend by the folks that work with stuff. 1. antivirus Avg or Avast these can be you choice, Norton/Macfee frowned upon although these programs work well for some but you have to pay and they don't offer any more protection, the word is if you have strange problems on a pc that can not be explained un-install these products. 2. A software firewall and a hardware firewall like a router is great. Zone Alarm is free and is most recommend 3.Spywareblaster. 4.spywareguard 5. Spybotsearch&destroy, This tool can be used as an on demand scanner and should be run once a week, by using the Teatimer function you can set spybot to run at startup. 6. ccleaner install and use it once a week cleans temp files history. 7. This comes from the professionals and is a suprise to many Do not run registry cleaners on xp including the one built into ccleaner called the Issues button. Windows xp/2000 is not performance degraded by a clogged registry like 98, 95 were. Better to leave the registry alone. Now to get some of these programs go to the link above (help2go) enter the spyware forum no need to sign up, now look for any post by Steamwiz in his signature you will see a link "Ways to keep your computer safe" click it--Steamwiz is Microsoft certified security spyware remover and well known in the Malware removal community.

Argh! Nothing's easy. If you notice a dimple in the brass bracket above, it's actually a hole. I've waited a month to get a replacement and the replacement doesn't match! So it's back to the drawing board with the brackets. Has me rethinking the whole design. Scroll brackets would go with Art Deco style railing and vertical volute. I picked up some 5" box newels at HD today and definitely way too big. Might still consider 3.5" box newels but since I have to hide a gap between the tread and the wall (on the right side going up), a 3.5" newel isn't going to do it. Maybe a 4.5"? And then how would it look to have one newel on that top step on the right, one matching on the left and one on the bottom step on the left? Also, carpenter wanted me to find round-bottom baluster b/c it's easier to install than square unless I do show rail, but if we do box newels I don't think I'd like round balusters and I can't find square balusters with round pegs. I had really decided to do the Art Deco (slimmer, 3.5" bottom with tapered top newel and tapered balusters, would still have to trim out top step to hide gap) until this replacement bracket came in the mail, now I don't know what to do if we're not using those.