Do what with my what?

My life is full of spam. I mostly use my office email address, except when I'm trying to be a bit more anonymous and I use another one. Unfortunately every spammer in the universe also uses my email address. I get, no kidding, about 250-300 emails per day. Maybe 50 of those are picked up by my spam filter, but the rest get through. Of those going into my inbox, 25-30 are real emails that I need to see. I don't know what the parameters of the filter are, but I get almost identical emails in both my inbox and spam filter. I can't do real tight controls because, and I know this will shock you, I buy a lot of stuff on-line and so I get lots of spam-like emails selling me stuff - that I actually want.

But I'll tell ya, I don't need a new Rolex, I have no use for viagra or the ability to please a lady or to last like a porn star, I don't want to purchase worldwide drugs or hoodia or human growth hormone or the latest weight loss program, I don't bank at BB&T or Citi or BofA and I don't want to review my paypal or ebay account, I'm pretty certain I haven't won the UK National Lottery or the Irish National Lottery, I can't read Chinese or Russian, I don't want a dream vacation (that doesn't involve a marathon!), I'm pretty sure that the outstanding contract payment from the Bank of Nigeria for ten and a half million dollars is in error and I'm damn certain sure that I won't be letting Mr. Kosi Zulu or any other civil servant in Cape Town use my account to give me sixteen million dollars. I mean, who DOES fall for this crap??

Meanwhile, every once in a while a business associate sends me an email that I miss, or a friend writes to say hi and I mistakenly delete it, or a company that I love has a big sale and I just can't stand to see another email. So if you've written me and haven't heard back, try again, will ya? Only don't put any of the above matters in the subject line or I may just delete that too!

I had a good run last night with Pam. We ran, yes, our usual short short run. We were chattering away -- ok, I was chattering away -- and my breathing was pretty bad. I couldn't tell if it was because I had forgotten to use my inhaler, or because I was talking, or because I was running too fast. Or some combination of those. Pam's a much faster runner than I am now so she always lets me set the pace. Turned out that I was running fast, I had forgotten my inhaler, and I was talking too much. So nice to solve a mystery. It was the first really warm evening run this year. Yay spring!

Today's Gratuitous Bear of the Day is Sweetie. She's yet another lovely Steiff bear and ... darn, there I go again, mesmerized by their website. Ahem. Alright, I'm ok now. Sweetie is a soft, plush modern Steiff, straight from Germany. My sis-in-law was visiting her family there and I asked her to get me a bear, and described the type I was looking for. She did a great job and brought me this one. So I had to call the bear the same thing my bro calls his wife. Awww!