C.J.,
I'm sorry to hear about your woes with FedEx. It's really frustrating when stuff that should be simple conspires to put stress in a hobby that's all about relaxation.
I few weeks ago, UPS mashed up an enlarger that was being sent to me. I let it upset me and I shouldn't have.
Sometime you've just got to roll with it. At work, we discovered this week that FedEx had delivered a giant Pelican case full of our body armor and helmets to a random house in Miami. It's $8 or 10 K worth of gear, so we're sweating it. But the thing is, what did the people who got the package by mistake think when they opened it? ;-)
We should make a pilgrimage to HighLife's restaurant one day soon.
-Carl
... gotta dig up an avatar somewhere.....