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

I started the diet doing a program called medifast. I would drink a shake at 6am, oatmeal at 9am, soup or tuna salad at noon, protein bar at 3pm, then 4-5 ounces of lean meat plus a vegetable serving at 6pm, then another shake at 9pm (or bedtime). All the meals except the 6pm dinner were meals I purchased from medifast, but when I transitioned off their program, I knew I wanted to lose more weight, so I pretty much eat the same things now, just with products I buy at the store. I replaced the shakes with either 8oz skim milk or 8oz lite soy milk. I replaced the oatmeal with yogurt or kashi cereal. For lunch I usually eat packaged tuna, canned chicken or lite cottage cheese, plus veggies, for the protein bar I eat different low carb low fat store bought bars. I still eat lean meat and veggies for supper. I know it may not sound like alot of food, but really I felt and still feel like I'm always eating. It's just a plan that really works for me because I pretty much never get hungry so I have much less tendancy to snack on something that I shouldn't have.

Curiosity got the best of me this morning so I climbed up onto the scale. 159.5 lbs! Yippee! It does work. That is a 4 lb loss from what I weighed on Friday or Saturday last week. Unfortunately, I did not write it down. I remember 163.5, but I can't remember which day it was. I am just happy to be under 160. I sure did learn a lot this past week. Especially about eating the right portions. I don't have that stuffed feeling after I eat dinner that I use to have either. Tonight we went to TGI Friday's. I planned out what I would have before we left the house and I stuck to it. I especially used to overeat at restaurants because they give you such large portions. Well, I really noticed that when I finished eating what I wanted, that I didn't feel so full. It is a good thing. Interestingly, I feel somewhat lighter, but not skinnier. Well, while it is amazing that I lost those 4 lbs, I'm not overly impressed by it. I mean, I am glad that I lost it and it was a really great start. I certainly don't expect to lose this weight too fast. I just mean that I can see my weight fluctuating 4 or 5 lbs for no reason at all. What I am really looking forward to seeing is 10 lbs come off. Not at once, but a total of 10 lbs. Then it will seem real to me. I just think that if I could lose 4 lbs in one week, I could just as easily gain 4 lbs in one week. I'm skeptical of my ability to stick with it, I guess. Or maybe I just have a teensy bit of doubt that it is really due to the changes I made.

As PP mentioned above, the average joe just doesn't care - they load the machine, drop in a dose of detergent (and in a lot of cases, actually overdose above what the manufacture states) comeback to wet clothes to move to the dryer and as long as look and smell clean - they're happy/not bothered. However, for those who do care, it becomes just like chemistry - everybodys laundry is completely different: detergent type, water type/temp/level, machine type, cycle type/temp, load size, fabric type in the load (and what's loaded in together or not), stain types and even down to how long an article has gone between last wash, what its been subjected to, and even what its made of (2 items of 100% cotton could be different due to manufacturing processes and dyes etc) - I'm waffling, but this list won't even be all that's at play. Detergent manufacturers are a business, they need to make money; they have stakeholders, employees, suppliers, contractors and marketers to pay - so they must drive value and revenues. Don't' suppose it'll ever be proven (or ever admitted), but it's in their interest to give customers what they're happy with/what is acceptable, whilst maximising revenue - end of the day, if they dont make money, what are they doing it for? I did read somewhere (and I wish I could remember where) that a certain big manufacturer of a very famous detergent was starting to see revenues drop to a level below what they were aiming for/happy with, and it was centred around the launch of single dose detergents - on the one hand, they carry a premium price tag and it guarantees that a user gets no more than the stated amount of loads - but what they actually found was customers weren't purchasing detergent at the store as often due to the fact that compared to when the same users were using powder/liquid format, the overdoing (just dumping 1 full cap in) was causing people to repeat purchase more often than that of pod users. And what do you know, the dosing recommendations for pods were increased - going from 1 pod for any load, to 1 for medium, 2 for large and 3 for high capacity/extra dirty. The same has now become true of liquids - dose increased - line 1 for medium, 3 for large and line 5 for "full he loads" as "they are a higher capacity than standard top loaders and of course more clothes = more dirt)" --their tag line-- All this in a time when detergents are becoming more "concentrated" and front loaders use as much as a quarter the amount of water than that of a TL. Now how can detergents be being concentrated, Used in machines that use less water (which is what will ultimately determine the strength of the solution that detergents are dissolved within) and the doses are going up? Add this to the fact that washer manufacturers often say use less than recommended. Makes you think.