MetaChat - T-2 days: Walrus-evoking bags and praise for the United States Postal Service

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02 September 2008

T-2 days: Walrus-evoking bags and praise for the United States Postal Service →[More:]

So I'm mailing some stuff to Poland, where I'm headed on Wednesday. I was super-afraid I'd be charged an arm and a leg for it all, but it turns out there are free Priority Mail International Flat-Rate boxes at the post office! I picked one up, and even though I'm sending a good eighteen pounds of documents and other things, it's only $50 - actually cheaper than Media Mail or an M-Bag would be, and it'll be there in a week! Whoo!

This is a major headache-avoider: I'm taking two flights, staying overnight in Berlin, and then taking two trains, so smaller/less luggage is better. Now that I'm 18 pounds lighter, I don't need to worry about hauling anything more than a carry-on-sized-suitcase with some compression-bagged clothes (OMG, those things SAVE MY LIFE!) and my laptop bag. How awesome is that!

Link for those of you who wish to partake of the flat-rate goodness to send me 18 pounds of OMG[ANIMAL]-shaped cookies. Link to the compression bags I got at Target: they are amazing and require no vacuum! (My preferred method for expelling the air is to flop upon a filled bag with my torso, walrus-like.)

This message has been approved by the Campaign for People to Be Very Excited About Mundane Things.

post by: mdonley at: 00:08 | 3 comments

Flat rate is the best. I send packages overseas to military folks (APO/FPO), and I could do it for the cost of a US flat rate priority mail box. You can cram a lot of good stuff into those boxes!

And if we're getting excited about mundane things, I'm excited that Kiva.org has started releasing loan payments as they come in, instead of holding them until the full loan is repaid (or not- if a loan defaults, you still get whatever was repaid). Less turnaround time to use that money to make more loans! Everybody wins!

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 02 September | 00:13

I'm still happy (15 to 20 years later) that long-distance telephone rates have plummeted. ("You kids, you don't remember ...")

I'm still happy that ibuprofen is over the counter. (Yup, it used to be prescription.)

Re USPS, I'm pretty happy about Forever Stamps. And I love media mail. (I've never used flat rate.)

posted by Claudia_SF 02 September | 00:30

OOOh! kiva.org is cool, TPS!

and mdonley, I looooove the space bags.

posted by lysdexic 02 September | 06:02

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