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

Ouch!I'm sorry I stirred up this mess. Hi Alice, I was the one that mentioned you had the beautiful brug seedlings of Monica Gottschalk. I started this thread. Several of us had been trying to find a source for some of her babies. I was drooling all over the place when I stopped by to look at some of your cannas. I love cannas and anything that looks tropical. Then I looked and you had brugmansia too, I just had to take a look. Those are some beautiful brugs you have there and the cannas are out of this world too. I saw my first brugmansia or angel trumpet October 6, 2007 I'll never forget it. With the wonderful folks here on this forum I have been able to obtain a few, learn about the brugs for sale on ebay. I have purchased more than a handful from several different vendors along with some brug seeds. Please let me tell you a little about myself and this site. I am an older lady, most of these folks on here are my childrens age or younger. I know very little about the computer and my memory isn't very good anymore. Yet these wonderful people on this forum are like family and I wouldn't trade any of them for a million brugs are all of Monika's Brugs. Please take a few minutes to get to know everyone here. We all share the same passion as you. We LOVE BRUGS, we love flowers, plants, and just talking to one another about what works best for us with all our plants. We are like one big HAPPY FAMILY and I myself would dearly love for you to become part of our BRUG family here on this forum. I hope that you don't think I'm being rude, that is not my intention at all. Since you have explained the situation about the brugs I'm sure everyone will be much more understanding. Besides, we will be some of the people buying your babies and what better than to have you here once in awhile to let us know what's going on with you and your latest brugmansias. I look forward to seeing you post here and helping us newbies learn more about brugs. I apoligize to everyone for starting this thread but now we all know we can get some of Monika's Brugs through Alice. Happy Gardening, Happy Brugging, and Happy Easter, Love Marian

If some of you missed this before - it's still available - for another three weeks. How about making some charitable donations instead of giving gifts to some of our usual gift beneficiaries, this year? The sufferers from the hurricane will need help for some time - as will many of the millions whose homes (and much of whose stuff) was destroyed in that terrible earthquake in Pakistan. And it's on the edge of severe winter in that area. Their need is far greater and more immediate than almost all of ours, I think. Not a pleasant boat to be in, if you'll pardon the variation in metaphor. Good wishes to everyone for the rest of the year. ole joyful

I must be the oddball, I'm willing to overlook a bad floor plan, if the space, location, view is good, I'll remodel the interior. To me, bad layout is one of the deal breakers, if it cant be fixed/changed. That would bug me forever. What did you see from the floor plans that eliminated the homes? One of my dealbreakers is running into the stairs when you open the front door (crowds the foyer too much). This can be shown in photos, but often is not. Layout would show it and save a trip. Example 1: A house had 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and I think 3 living areas mentioned. Upon viewing, the bedrooms were tiny and the living areas were oversized, and the layout was such that you couldn't carve from the living areas to make another bedroom. Example 2: A house had 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and living and family rooms. But the 2nd bath was a tiny powder room off the master bedroom, and expanding it would have meant cutting into the kitchen. In both cases, a floor plan would have let me play with remodeling options, and I would have been able to quickly figure out that it wasn't feasible. And no, the room sizes in and of themselves aren't sufficient info. Because we moved walls to right-size rooms before. But until you see the floor plan, you don't know if walls can be moved.