Friday, June 30, 2006

Send a postcard!

I saw a news story on FoxNews this afternoon about this website. The link is http://letssaythanks.com/Home.aspx

When you go to that website you can choose from several different postcard designs and then you can personalize the card with a short note to a serviceman/woman (you cant specify who you want it sent to) Then the postcard is printed out with your message on it, and are placed in care packages that are sent to the soldiers. It's free to do.

I thought it was a cool idea, and have already sent one off. (I put my email address on it too, maybe they'll write me back?)

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My parents have to find a new maid service. (mom always wanted a cleaning service when I was growing up, so dad finally got her one for Xmas a few years ago) Anyways, We got a phone call yesterday from the cleaning service that we've used for the past 3yrs. Seems the owner has been forced to shut down. Her husband used to have a franchise with a nationally known maid service (not naming names) and last winter, he decided he wanted to concentrate more on his carpet cleaning business and so he cancelled his contract with that nationally known maid service franchise and started a new cleaning service, with a new name. (the nationally known franchise was about to start raising the franchise fees, so they'd have either had to raise the rates, or give their cleaning crews a paycut)

When he started the new cleaning business he gave ownership of the business to his wife, who up until that point had been just an employee.

They consulted a lawyer to make sure starting the new business wouldnt be stepping on anyones toes, and they contacted their customers and asked if they wanted to continue on with the nationally known company or stick with their new company.

So now, 6 months later, the nationally known company is now suing them, and they've got some sort of injunction keeping them from running their cleaning business for at least the next year. (her husband's carpet cleaning company is not affected) They had to lay off ALL of their employees too. Which is horrible because a lot of their employees have been with them for years and now they'll have to start all over again with a new job.

This really sucks. They're such nice people, and I know the cleaning company was probably where they got most of their income from. Hopefully they can get things straightened out and can get back to cleaning for my mom. I'll probably start pricing some of the other cleaning companies in town soon. But I'm actually hoping they'll get things straightened out quick and will be back soon. I'd kind of like to stay loyal to these people since they've done such a good job for my parents.

1 comment:

snarflemarfle said...

Ok, not related, but I have a question about a pattern you had on your site back in January (Jan. 12, Granny Square Pattern). If you could email me at snarflemarfle AT gmail DOT com that would be great!

And now back to your regularly scheduled blog