I just got my Gmail inbox down to zero for the first time in nearly two years.

After Mom died, I left the last few notes she sent me in my inbox, even though they were just pointers to funny things on the web. But last month, I finally felt able to read and archive them. However, while they were in the inbox, I didn’t feel any pressure to keep it clear (there is a big difference between an empty inbox and one with even one item in it), and even after archiving them, it took quite a while for me to get around to processing everything.

Tonight, I took advantage of some free time and the new Remember The Milk plugin for GMail to get those last few items out of the inbox (and I actually took care of all but one!).

When I left work last Friday, that inbox was empty, too. I haven’t connected to work since then, so, as far as I know, it’s still empty.

If you can’t see the fnord email, it can’t eat you!

My wife has an LLBean credit card. And, most months, the statement is accompanied by a sheet of “access checks”. She’s been trying to get them to stop sending then forever — without success. But now that BofA is behind the card (instead of MBNA), she tried again this afternoon.

Susan at the toll-free number tried to talk her out of it, claiming that their “zero liability policy” made sending the checks safe — but she reluctantly admitted that they could be “suppressed” but it would take 60 days.

Let’s see…they can authorize transactions in milliseconds, but it takes 60 days to stop sending something that the customer Absolutely Does Not Want? Tells you where their priorities are…

(If it weren’t for the free shipping from Bean, the card would have been shredded long ago on this issue — “zero liability” does not mean “zero hassle”)