How Much Can You Fit in a Flat Rate Box?

My mother's 81st birthday is coming up so my daughter, Tif and her family sent a flat rate box full of goodies not just for KC's great grandmother (we're not letting her open her gifts until it's her actual birthday), but all of us.

Tif packed a whole bunch of (dark chocolate covered) fruits and nuts from Trader Joes. There's also Hendrikson's dressing which we like, but can't get here. She made an assortment of gorgeous handmade birthday cards for me to send. There's also foam corners for the shelves in the tool shed so Art doesn't bump his head.

Would you believe she sent (empty)SunChips bags so we could really hear how loud it is? Ummm... I wonder why she sent three of them. She knows we don't buy chips and wanted us to have the audible experience. They ARE loud. Fun though. Oh I see. She wanted the three of us to crunch them together! Ahhhh...

We had a lot of fun seeing a bag decorated by our imaginative three year old granddaughter as well as a mobile she colored in.


Art put it up right away so that KC will be able to see it when she arrives in December.

And if you think Tiffany can pack a flat rate box really efficiently, you should she see her suitcase!

Yup! A chip off the ol' block.

I Love Flat Rate Boxes!

I love flat rate boxes! They are the greatest idea since Portuguese sweet bread for island folks. The U.S. Postal department have three shapes of these flat rate boxes that can be sent anywhere in the U.S. for a flat rate. The two smaller sizes go for $9.80 ($9.30 on-line) and $12.95 ($12.50 on-line) for the larger size. You are allowed to fill the box up to 70 pounds which is pretty hard to do unless you’re mailing gold bullions, but I still try. You can look up more information about flat rate boxes on www.usps.com. I just read that 40% of the packages being sent these days are flat rate boxes. However, you have to be careful that your box is not too light because you may get a better deal just paying your postage the regular way without using the flat rate box.

The only problem for us now is to figure out what kind of holiday gifts can fit into a flat rate box. Still…you know the old adage that the best gifts might come in small packages.

(For my kids:) Actually, I was hoping somebody would send me cookie sheets but they're too big for the flat rate boxes. However, that new 20X zoom, 10 megapixel Canon point and shoot would fit...

Juuuust kidding...

My Tuesday

It's been a rather full Tuesday. Here's what I've been up to.



Woke up at 5:30 and got ourselves over to the Open Market. That's Hawaii's term for Farmer's Market. The produce always seems fresher than what we see at the supermarket.



Came home and Art worked on the doors again. He has put up the folding doors for the linen closet and we worked all afternoon yesterday to get the guest bathroom door up. It's still a work in progress. So he tweaked it some more. (We've got about 12 doors that need to be put up.)



We made a special stop at Costco to get gas. It cost around $3.37 everywhere else on the island but was $2.66 at Costco and well worth the trip. I don't know when I saw gas under $3.00. WOW!

We still decided to do all our errands in one trip to Honolulu to conserve gas.



It's another voggy day. We could not even see the Koolau mountain range that is usually crystal clear. The sun was barely able to break through. That volcanic smoke from the Big Island is no fun at all.



We made a quick stop to drop off some lettuce we got for our sister-in-law, Nancy at their apartment. I know she must think I'm crazy when I told her I was blogging this.



And off we were again. We went to Tripler Army Hospital where I dropped off my hemocult slides (you know, poop slides?) and some of my blood. Why they painted a military hospital pink, I have no idea.

Then to the post office. I hope you all know the benefits of the FLAT RATE box. That is a wonderful thing, especially in the islands.



The next stop was lunch with Art's cousins at Gyotaku restaurant in Honolulu. Reminded us of Japan again. Yummm...



Our afternoon had a bright moment when we talked to our daughter and granddaughter on web cam. She's talking now. She says, "Bappa" for Grandpa. But "Um huh" for me. Hmmm... Who, me? Jealous? Nah... I'm still the one she wants to sing Eeensy Weensy Spider.

And the day's not over yet.