Well, it worked!

Lynnette over at Rebellin Woman is right - you raise some hell in a blog and people sit up and notice! This time, the person that noticed was Lynette herself!!

Thanks girl!!

Google finally emailed me on Thursday with "the message" I could have my account back. A mere hour or so after I filed a report with the IC3. Yeah!! So - a total of 4 days before I got my identity back.

I spent the rest of the evening making sure that everything was clean in my mailbox. The only strange messages were a request for login info from Orkut and from eHarmony. I have to tell ya - There are a couple of dozen guys in New Jersey that want me baby!! (had to cancel that account - sorry fellas...)

OK - so some lessons learned here:

1. diversify passwords!! Often! (being brain dead is not an excuse!)
2. email passwords should always be distinct from any others you use!
3. Don't upload your Outlook contacts into an online mail server! Those cleverly hidden Amex account numbers won't fool anyone.
4. If you are a Gmail user - make sure you have a back up email address. You can find this under Google account settings.

I was shocked at how this consumed my life this week. OK - yes, I can be just a tad obsessive - but... I do a great deal of business online and securing all of that took a lot of time and energy.
(maybe I should use the phone more...)

So - this weekend we are hanging out, listening to the rain and I have a stack of books to read, a Grey's Anatomy and several movies to watch and my child's Pinewood Derby car to root for!

Ahhhhhh....it's nice to be out of computer hell.