diff --git a/src/erasure.rs b/src/erasure.rs
index 5765770a88..b627728d8d 100644
--- a/src/erasure.rs
+++ b/src/erasure.rs
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 // Support erasure coding
-use packet::{BlobRecycler, SharedBlob, BLOB_HEADER_SIZE, BLOB_SIZE};
+use packet::{BlobRecycler, SharedBlob, BLOB_DATA_SIZE, BLOB_HEADER_SIZE};
 use std::cmp;
 use std::mem;
 use std::result;
diff --git a/src/ledger.rs b/src/ledger.rs
index 34a784e9a4..870aee5d7a 100644
--- a/src/ledger.rs
+++ b/src/ledger.rs
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ pub fn reconstruct_entries_from_blobs(blobs: VecDeque<SharedBlob>) -> bincode::R
     for blob in blobs {
         let entry = {
             let msg = blob.read().unwrap();
-            let msg_size = msg.get_size().unwrap();
+            let msg_size = msg.get_size();
             deserialize(&msg.data()[..msg_size])
         };
 
@@ -200,7 +200,6 @@ mod tests {
         let mut transactions = vec![tx0; 362];
         transactions.extend(vec![tx1; 100]);
         let entries = next_entries(&zero, 0, transactions);
-        eprintln!("entries.len() {}", entries.len());
         let blob_recycler = BlobRecycler::default();
         let mut blob_q = VecDeque::new();
         entries.to_blobs(&blob_recycler, &mut blob_q);
diff --git a/src/packet.rs b/src/packet.rs
index 2c96624536..4015184e44 100644
--- a/src/packet.rs
+++ b/src/packet.rs
@@ -139,6 +139,12 @@ impl Default for Blob {
     }
 }
 
+//#[derive(Debug)]
+//pub enum BlobError {
+//    /// the Blob's meta and data are not self-consistent
+//    BadState,
+//}
+
 pub struct Recycler<T> {
     gc: Arc<Mutex<Vec<Arc<RwLock<T>>>>>,
 }
@@ -373,18 +379,32 @@ impl Blob {
     pub fn data_mut(&mut self) -> &mut [u8] {
         &mut self.data[BLOB_HEADER_SIZE..]
     }
-    pub fn get_size(&self) -> Result<usize> {
-        let size = self.get_data_size()? as usize;
-        assert_eq!(self.meta.size, size);
-        // TODO: return an error instead of panicking
-        Ok(size)
+    pub fn get_size(&self) -> usize {
+        let size = self.get_data_size().unwrap() as usize;
+
+        if self.meta.size == size {
+            size - BLOB_HEADER_SIZE
+        } else {
+            0
+        }
+
+        // TODO: return a Result<usize> instead of
+        //        returning zero
+        //
+        //let size = self.get_data_size()? as usize;
+        //if self.meta.size == size {
+        //    Ok(size - BLOB_HEADER_SIZE)
+        //} else {
+        //    // these don't work...
+        //    Err("bad state")
+        //    // Err(BlobError::BadState)
+        //}
     }
     pub fn set_size(&mut self, size: usize) {
         let new_size = size + BLOB_HEADER_SIZE;
         self.meta.size = new_size;
         self.set_data_size(new_size as u64).unwrap();
     }
-
     pub fn recv_from(re: &BlobRecycler, socket: &UdpSocket) -> Result<SharedBlobs> {
         let mut v = VecDeque::new();
         //DOCUMENTED SIDE-EFFECT