Computer and Web Articles

So I was sitting here at my office desk, furiously typing away, being my productive self when, out of absolutely nowhere, it hits me: her birthday was 3 days ago.

Of course I hadn’t forgotten my dear mother’s birthday. I’d learned a long time ago that to do such a thing was considered as wrong as . . . robbing a bank or . . . kicking a puppy dog.  It was something that I simply could not do.

However, though I’m fairly responsible when it comes to remembering my friends’ birthdays, during especially busy or hectic times I’ve been known to forget one or two as the years have gone by.

And that’s what I’d done. My dear friend Mona’s birthday had passed and I’d not sent her so much as a card.

I stopped typing for a moment. I had to bide some time while I shopped for a present and card, so I decided to immediately send her a Happy Belated Birthday note. And flowers.

Yes, flowers!  I went to my online “virtual florist” at http://tinyurl.com/2vdqn and sent her a gorgeous virtual arrangement of her favorite: pink roses.  For free!

I wanted to include something that would make her laugh in the note that accompanied the flowers.  So I told her to visit a website that held, um, “important significance” as it was dedicated to her year of birth (1974).

What I didn’t tell her was that the website, www.candyboots.com/wwcards.html, was nothing more than a visual collection of Weight Watchers recipe cards from 1974!  I KNOW she got a hoot when she took a look at that site!  I sure did.  There are hideous, HIDEOUS photographs of menu items such as Fluffy Mackerel Pudding, Caucasian Shashlik, and Frankfurter Spectacular–all accompanied by fantastic commentary.  I do not believe that it is humanly possible to view this site without cracking a grin.

After I sent my dear Mona her virtual flowers and silly link, I decided I no longer wanted to forget any of my friends’ birthdays.  So I did what I had to do:  I signed up for Birthday Alarm.

At www.birthdayalarm.com, members receive email reminders of friends’ and families’ birthdays (for free, of course).  From now on, I’ll always be given reminder emails one week in advance of all my good friends’ birthdays.  Phew.

Next I did some online shopping for Mona and, if you can believe it, ended up finding both of her birthday gifts on the same website!  In her emails to me, Mona often complains of her office desk clutter.  She sits in a sweltering hot, non-air-conditioned  office out in Southern California for 9 hours a day. . . and types for hours on end. By the end of the day she’s hot and cranky and her wrists and forearms ache.

So I decided to get her a MouseBungee and a CompuSooth Cooling Wrist Rest.  How perfect!  Both products, marketed as “comfort technology”, can be ordered online at the Soothsoft website, www.soothsoft.com.

The MouseBungee is going to apparently free her wrist and her desk from tangled cords as it offers her “effective and affordable ergonomic relief from mouse cord drag, snags, and tangles.”

Meanwhile, the CompSooth Cooling Wrist Rest is going to cool her wrists and comfort her Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and repetitive motion stress with fluid-cool cushion action that will support and contour her pressure points!  Alright!

Mona will be getting her treats in a few days.  She said she loved the virtual flowers and laughed herself silly while looking at the 1974 Weight Watchers website.  Maybe I’m not such a bad friend, after all, eh? And hopefully my birthday-forgetting experience taught you a thing or two as well.