Hotmail's a Tricky Bugger

Sometimes, I feel too much time has passed since my last email. Depending on what programs are being run and using my sound card, I might not hear the New Mail sound. And, my messenger program has been known to not notify me of new emails if it is feeling particularly persnickety that day. So, this means that periodically, I will pull up the Hotmail window to see if any new messages have arrived unbeknownst to me. Usually there is nothing new. But every now and then, Hotmail and the messenger program will join together to mess with my mind. As soon as I leave the page, the New Mail sound will go off. I will return to the page, but Hotmail will decide to hold my new message hostage. I will click on Inbox. It only shows the previous new (now old) message as new. But it isn't. I just checked it. I will click on the Mail tab. This will often fix the problem and display my new message. Sometimes, however, I will show an even older "new" message. I will open these old "new" message and attempt to go to the next message. But it doesn't work. I am either dumped back into the non-new message displaying Inbox or will get taken to my top message (which happens to be from February). That's not the next new message! After much fighting and trickery on my part, I will finally get my new message. Quite an ordeal!

Hotmail is a tricky bugger, and I am an obsessive email checker. One day, Hotmail will probably be the death of me. If