Missing Memories

Merci:  2015 was a year of injuries, sadness and blessings for us.  In February Jan flew solo across the room and crashed, leaving her with multiple injuries, including a bad head injury and two black eyes. 

Percy:  In March Cameron died, was buried, dug up by a coyote during the night, his body retrieved and re-buried.

Merci:  Jan dug up the dog pen to plant grass that didn't grow.

Taylor:   I barely had opportunity to get to know Sam.  I arrived in mid-November.  He had a stroke in early December and died January 5, 2016. 

Percy:  It was a painful, sad year that Jan doesn't want to repeat.  She survived and we lost two of our furry brothers.  Our old posts are sometimes sprinkled with fairy dust but they are also a diary of sorts.  Memories.

Merci:  We don't know if anyone has noticed yet, but all of our 2015 photos have been missing from our blog for a month or two.  There are no photos from our 2015 album in any posts they were used in, whether in 2015 or 2016.  Ever since Google switched our blog photo albums from Picasa to Google Archives.

Percy:  Please don't tell us not to worry, they're not lost, they're somewhere.  We know they aren't lost!  We know where they are.  What we can not do is see them on the blog - because of a setting which we can not access because Picasa no longer exists and there is no way to change the setting.  All the other albums have a different setting and are fine.

Taylor:  Jan had contact with someone in a forum that was going to pass the problem up to Google.  We don't know if we reached the end of the line with this, or if our problem is stalled in line with many others.  We do know Google has no end of Bloggers needing some kind of help.

Merci:  And there may be nothing that can be done!  We can only wait.  And pray for help to resolve this.  We have so many memories in our 2015 blog posts.

Percy:  Jan thought of trying to reinsert pictures into the old posts but re-posting stories for a year would not only be a monumental task, getting the right pictures in the correct places would be nearly impossible.

Taylor:  We had no idea we would not be able to make changes to our Google Photos settings, or that the Archives would be managed by GP settings, so we have been very discouraged about this whole situation.  We seriously considered closing the blog when we first saw all those blank photo holders.

Merci:  Here is one of our 2015 posts (Surprising Update on Cameron).  Notice the missing photos.  

Percy:  There are crucial, life-changing events happening in the world - for example, the catastrophic flooding and rescue efforts in Louisiana - so we feel a bit selfish desiring a solution to what is, in comparison, a minor problem.

Taylor:  Still, we pray for a positive outcome.  And for the people of Louisiana.

Panic Alert

Taylor:  Panic alert!  Panic alert!  Everyone hide.  Jan's on the warpath.  Or maybe not.  Has Jan calmed down?   Is it safe to come out now?

Merci:  What's the problem?

Taylor:  Haven't you heard?  Last night we tried to do a post and discovered Google had made some major changes in how our post photos work. 

Merci:  Yes, and after hours of trying to help us figure out the new system, we all gave up and went to bed.

Taylor:  And when Jan got on the computer this morning, most of our photos had disappeared from our blogs.  There was little left except place markers. 

Merci:  Oh, that must be why those strange sounds were coming from the living room.  I was afraid to come see what Jan was --   What was she doing?

Taylor:  After the initial shock - moaning, crying, ranting?  I have no idea.  I've been hiding and feared this was the end of our blogging.  I haven't been here but a few months, but for you guys, losing years of photos could kill your desire to blog.

Merci:  So why are we posting now?

Taylor:  Jan went round and round until she was dizzy, and she's not sure which setting change was successful, but suddenly all our pictures were back.

Merci:  Oh, so this is a victory post.  Good let's break out the champagne and celebrate our rapid return to blogging.

Taylor:  We don't have any champagne. 

Merci:  Well, the least Jan could do is to split a t-bone steak with us.

Taylor:  You know we never have steak around here.

Merci:  Okay, well break out a -  What do we have to celebrate?

Taylor:  Hope for a blogging future?

Funny Farm Woofies and Picasa

Hey, it's us, the 3 stooges ... um, the 3 woofies of the funny farm.  We've been doing a lot of this (napping, not shredding cushions) and plan to do a lot more this winter.

As you already know, in December a lot of bloggers were hit with monthly storage charges for their Picasa account and some were forced to sign up with Google+ just to access their account.  It was not a fun time for many.  We were particularly upset that there was a problem over Google+ and Poppy Q's blog was deleted on the very day our Mousebreath interview with her published.  It was restored a couple of days later, but she missed out on the fun part of being interviewed.  (You can still read her interview here.)

We keep a close eye on our Picasa storage use and it went from 8 mb to 26 mb in the wink of an eye.  There was no way!  So Jan sat and added up the total size of all the blogs we own or help and guess what ....?  Yep, they'd counted every single photo in every album, most of which should not have counted. This is why the directions we posted a while back on how to resize your Picasa photos to make room for more did not work.

Before we continue, we'd like to say how grateful we are that Google allows us to blog and post photos for free.  This fits perfectly into our budget.  But we don't understand how and why this happened and so many bloggers were charged for extra storage when Google was planning to upgrade.

A couple of weeks after finding we'd evidently been posting huge photos in our sleep (8 to 26 mb, remember!), our storage suddenly went from 1 gb to 5 gb.  Thank you, Google!  We are so grateful to have even more free storage.  But what went wrong in your upgrade of our accounts that our storage was first downgraded?  What about all those bloggers who had to pay or sign up for Google+, which they didn't want?

Well, the good news is that you need to check your Picasa storage use again and make sure your account has been upgraded (5 gb free storage + whatever storage you paid for = ) and then you can cancel your paid storage before the next payment comes due.  (JB Bean canceled her extra storage plan without a problem.)

We were suggesting bloggers who don't have Photoshop or another photo editor to resize the photos they post download the free Picasa for their computer.  Some of you didn't want a big program or want to fool with learning it just to resize photos, so have we got good news for you!

Mr. Doug (Jan's brother) sent her a link last month to a free resize program and after protesting she didn't need another photo program, she watched the video and then downloaded the program to try it.  She loves it.  See, this is just a little program that does absolutely nothing except resize photos for posting, emailing, etc.

It is so easy to use!  Just drag photo(s) into it.  The first time she tried it, she resized 30 Christmas ecards in a second. It retains the same file name and adds "resized" to the file to ID it.  (Jan changed it to "rszd" for our photos.)  It does not alter your original and adds the rszd copy to the same folder unless you tell it differently.

You can resize for email (we use this setting for Blogger photos), instant messenger,  social networks, iPhone/iPod, original size compressed, or custom.

The program is called Freesizer.  You can watch a video of how easy it is to use here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zpl5d379p0

And if you like it, you can download it here - http://www.freesizer.com/

The photo of us at the top of this post was resized in Picasa which we have on our computer.  It is 800 x 451 pixels and 213 kb.

Then we ran it through Freesizer for "email" and it is now 800 x 451 pixels and 73 kb. (Click on it to enlarge.)

This is not a review.  We are using this program and find it helpful, so we're sharing with you in case you'd like to try it.

Oh, a quick review, in case you don't know or have forgotten how to find your storage use.

Go to Google.com
Top -  click on "More"
Click on "Photos" in drop down box

If you're signed into your blog, Picasa will open.  If not signed in, you'll need to sign in.

At the very bottom of the page, you should find these two lines  ---

You are currently using "X" MB (X.XX %) of your 5120 MB. Upgrade Storage
(Google copyright info line)

In the event you can't find it at the very bottom of the main page (where you see all your albums)  ---

Go to the top of that page and click on "Upload"
Look in the sidebar on the right.  There should be a bar showing your online storage and useage.
(Mine goes from 0 to 5120 mb -- do you have the same??????)

Online storage:
0  -   5120 MB
  "X" MB Storage used
5112 MB Storage remaining

Hope 2013 started off well for you.  Have a good day.

Something Broke and Jan Forgot

Hey, thanks to all you who saw our comment on the CB and let us know what you see on jff when you visit.  At least we know this black nightmare background isn't our imagination.  It isn't our browser or antivirus either.  Our Blogger Template Designer is broken and we can't do anything about the blog till they can fix it.  At least we put in a "something is broken" in the Google Blogger group (used to be help forum) and hope they will fix it. 

Meanwhile, please bear with us.  We realize the blog is a bit hard to read.  At least we have begun to see a flash of our background when our blog loads before it disappears again. We downloaded a copy of our blog - in case. Let's hope it won't be needed. 

This has been a very traumatic day for us.  First thing this morning, the missing blog background reared its ugly head and cost us LOTS of time trying to find where / how to report it.

So Jan was running a bit late when the shelter called.  She said she needed half an hour at least (she was cleaning cat boxes).  She rushed and just as she was about to shut down the computer, there was some loud, impatient horn blowing.  They were 10 minutes early.  She grabbed her fanny pack / camera bag and rushed out the door.

(Now if you remember last week when Jan was rushing around, she tried to attend Bible study / pot luck supper wearing two different shoes.  Hereditary and Matching Shoes)

When they arrived at the shelter, she slid down and out (it's a H-I-G-H truck) and saw her camera bag flop open. 

Yep, the camera was home on the computer desk where she last downloaded photos.  The AC / shelter manager couldn't yell at her or say what he was likely thinking - he messed up last week.  But it was pretty embarrassing to have to be driven back home to pick up the camera. 

And now we've got to let Jan post them to Petfinder, so we'll make a couple of quick comments and sign off.

 

We continue to pray for Ann and her family.  Our hearts are too heavy to say more. 

Squashie has found two blood donors.  You can read about it on the TK & Squashie blog.

We're sorry Tamir is sick. He gave his mom quite a scare.

Guillotine Blogger WV

Hey, Merci here with today's news from the Funny Farmers.  It's really too hot to type but I have a mission so I got stuck with the post. Well, actually it's a mission for all of us but those lazy bums um, hot and tired furries forgot we were supposed to meet at the typing chair at 12 noon and they're all sacked out.  So here goes, but this is from all of us.

This is what we think of Google / Blogger's illegible word verification.  Send it to the guillotine!  The mess across the center is an actual word verification.  Even borrowing Jan's reading glasses and magnifying glass didn't help us. So we made this graphic to help spread the word that readers are tired of dealing with it.

Please note that Eric and Flynn are correct in their comment that this wv is easier to read than most.  But that's because it's been blown up in this post.    

Blog owners can't see wv on their own blogs; they must be signed out, clean their cache and cookies, then go to their own blog and click on comments.  If they use the full page comments, wv will not show up until after they click to publish, so be sure to actually leave yourself a comment.

It doesn't matter whether you did not have wv on in the past.  Blogger turned a lot on by default when they made the big switch to the new interface about 3 (?) months ago.  We can not stress this enough: CHECK YOUR BLOG FOR WV!!!!!!  

Well, if you really don't want comments or visitors, don't check.  Leave wv on.

We continued to visit and read but Friday we visited yet another kazillion blogs with wv on, many of them with the big SURPRISE wv after we wrote a comment and clicked on "publish."  We reached the snapping point.  We are now in process of deleting blogs using wv from our Google Reader and moving their blog link to a WV folder in bookmarks so we don't bookmark them or visit again. Not even if there will be serious illness or a death because, frankly, they've put out the UNWELCOME mat and we can't leave a message anyway.

Kimo & Sabi, Bogden - old or new friends, they're removed from our reading list.  We're not being mean.  We have been blogging about this for months.  When we were still able to struggle through, we left hundreds of comments and wrote innumerable emails (if we could find an email address).  Now we're pulling the plug.

We've seen long discussions on facebook about hating wv and not leaving comments on those blogs that use it, so we know we're not alone.  But are you willing to do something about it besides complain?  We made the word verification guillotine graphic.  You are welcome to use it if you want to help stop the spreading use of this frustrating, time-wasting menace.  There is a smaller size in our sidebar.

Guillotine Blogger word verification!

UPDATE:  A suggestion for setting changes to stop the spam when word verification is off is in tomorrow's post, WV Support and Riding Thunder.  

Yesterday was Gracie's mom's birthday.  Percy and Rusty asked Jan to throw something together to post on the Tabby Cat Club since her mom has helped her set up and keep the TCC running.  This is on the TCC but we didn't do a post yesterday so we thought we'd share this today.  One can't ever have too many birthday cards and we do love Gracie and her mom. 

Incognito Buddy, GV and WV

Hey, Buddy here, incognito again because I figure some of you are going to want to throw rotten tomatoes at me before I finish this post.  But one of us had to volunteer and I drew the shortest whisker from the mug.  I'm speaking for all of us, including the other 6 cowards ... um, furries on the Funny Farm, hence the use of "we."


Today, we have a warning to share with all Google / Blogger bloggers.

We all like to add cute gadgets to our blogs, but we have to be very careful of what we post, not merely for our own safety but because we are responsible for the safety of our visitors.

For several years now, we have been coming across a number of blogs that have a popunder when we click to leave a comment.  Always before our anti virus has kept whatever site the popunder is to from loading.  The popunder will load but with a message from our antivirus the site is blocked because it's potentially dangerous.  

A couple of days ago, we came across the same problem but with a new twist.  What loaded was a popunder that was literally and visibly counting down the seconds to installing a downloading program that would not be flagged by our (or your) av because it is a legitimate program (although we'd never heard of it before) -- a downloading program that enables an easy, fast download of videos or multiple programs.  So why was it about to download and why was it "necessary" to download it at all, especially on the sly?  We can only think of one reason.

If you are wondering what's the problem if the program is harmless, remember this is done without visitors knowing it.  And just because the program itself is supposedly safe, doesn't mean anything downloaded with it would be. We have a good av, but not everyone does. And things can happen.

We try to remember to watch the bottom of our monitor screen to see what's loading and to count the new windows because of past experience, so we brought up the window, saw the counter and closed the window in time.  But most visitors would not notice the extra open window, especially since there might be a delay in opening..

We always notified the blog owner and when a particular globe widget (often two separate globes) were deleted from the sidebar, the popunders stopped.  The same thing happened last night.  The blog owner deleted the 2 globes from the blog and the problem was resolved  Any time the blog owner has refused to delete the globes, we have deleted their blog from our bookmarks.  Online safety is that important! 

Over the course of several years,  the comment popunders we've run into have all been associated with the same widget -  a spinning globe counter from Geovisite.  We hope this post will serve as a warning to those who are considering installing it or those who already have it posted on their site.  And also to remind you to be alert to what is happening as you surf the web. 


On another blog subject, as much as we'd like to do a tirade on the evil's of the Blogger word verification and why it is totally unnecessary to use it and chases off many visitors who would like to comment, we won't   But when Blogger made the mass switch to the new interface, word verification was turned on by default.  So we will admonish you to go to your own blog while NOT signed in to Google / Blogger and click on comments to check your own blog. You keep annoying your visitors and they will stop returning.

Go ahead, try to tell us you don't care your visitors are facing this kind of crap because you don't want to check out your spam options without it when they want to tell you they're sorry your Fluffercat or Roverdog died.  They not only have to love you, they have to have x-ray vision.

We just took the following off a blog comment form.  We didn't make them up. 


Or how about this one -


Okay, so we did a tirade anyway.  Sorry about that.  No, actually we're not. We're most annoyed with those who use full page comments because wv doesn't show up until after one has written a note of condolence or get well  or .... and clicked "publish comment."  And then we find we have just wasted our time.  

Oh, and Brandi reminded us of what we forgot to include.  We've checked this link several times already and our av sent a reminded this morning because if your computer is infected with the DNS Changer, your internet will be shut down on Monday..  You can find the link for various countries where you can check your computer, if you haven't already.   http://www.dcwg.org/detect/  Once you read the material, it only takes one click and a second to find out.

Just a reminder that the auction for Krasota Castle will be closing soon, so be sure to stop by Furriends of the CB and check out the items up for bids.

Dr. Seuss Day Challenge

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

We wanted to participate in the Dr. Seuss Day Challenge but we couldn't think of anything and Jan didn't have time to help us.  But we finally came up with something perfect for us. And we even convinced Jan to create it for us.  So ..... drum roll, please ... here are Percy, Sam, Buddy and Cotton all dressed for Dr. Seuss Day.  Well, sorta, kinda, maybe .... almost.

This event is hosted by Zoolatry and Amber DaWeenie.  Be sure to stop by their blogs and see who else is participating. 

**************************

Did you have trouble finding your Google account web history after we posted Wednesday, February 29? Some have had a problem finding their web history from the directions in the Facecrooks link. (Facecrooks is a good site, one we try to keep up with because it posts good information on facebook scams.) We had a slight problem when we tried.  It says to "navigate to" but we couldn't find web history until we typed a specific url into the browser. So just in case anyone else is having a problem, we're posting a direct link and detailed directions.

Log into your Google account through gmail or Blogger or other Google app,
1) copy and paste this into your browser -
 http://google.com/history.

This will take you to a page where you will be asked to retype your password before you can enter this part of your profile.

2) There is a history list to the left. You want web history.

Check the little box and click Remove all history. It will then say:

"Remove all Web History for (name of your google account here)
Are you sure you want to clear your entire web history? Your web history will also be paused."

3) click Okay.

It will then say Web History is paused. Your search history is currently empty.

In the upper right you'll see "Your web history is limited to searches." That means you're done. :)

4) Click on drop down menu next to the name of your account in the upper right and click "Sign Out." Do not use the back button.

You are now logged out of your profile but not out of your Google account. So do not try to sign back in on that page.

5) Close that tab or window. Open another tab or window to return to your blog or gmail without having to sign back in.

You're done. You'll have to sign back in to your blog but your web history is cleared and will not be tracking you.

Hope this helps you find and clear your web history before Google initiates privacy changes.

Rusty Occupies His Doghouse

Hey, Rusty here.  I've seen Occupy the Couch and Occupy the Toys postings around Blogville recently.  I am Occupying My Doghouse!  Yes, my doghouse!  I am an honorary dog with outdoor pen privileges.  The others are afraid of the doghouse, so I claimed it and it's mine.

So what's the problem?

The first thing Jan saw this morning through the open bedroom door was Sam moving something across the kitchen floor as he licked it. Jan hollered.  Sam disappeared.  Jan got up to investigate.  And then she really hollered, SAAAAAAAM!  It was the butter dish with what had been a fresh stick of real butter in it. It was now a long, short stick.  The top half was in Sam's tummy.  

Sam claims he's been framed.  That he didn't steal it off the table, one of us kitties knocked it down, the lid fell off and ... well, what's a guy to do when presented with something edible and tasty before breakfast?  I will neither confirm nor deny Sam's allegation one of the kitties knocked it on the floor.  I don't tattle.  I'll just stick to the known facts.  Sam was caught eating the butter.  The lid was under the table. 

Jan wants him to reimburse her for the butter he ate but Sam doesn't have any cash or credit.  She refused a well-chewed stuffie toy as payment.  Now Jan wants me to move over or vacate my doghouse so Sam can squeeze in. 

Let Jan find another jail cell to for Sam.  This one's mine.  Um, I mean, this doghouse is mine.  

I am blocking the doorway and I refuse to budge. I will not move over and I will not move out!

 

Uh, Sam, you need to look a little more penitent.  Jan isn't buying your sad face. 


The Google Privacy policy will be changing soon.  If you have a Google account and would like to clear your web history and stop Google from saving it, we recommend you read this article and follow their directions to clear / stop the collection of your web history, which is on by default.
 
We did it.  It's very easy.  Just follow the directions. After everything is cleared, it should tell you your history is empty and it's been paused. 

How to delete your Google Web History.

Old Dogs, Google and Lautrec Updated

Hey, Merci here.  Just a quick post and I'll be back to napping.

I am the oldest dog here, and if this is how we'd know we're old, Buddy, Sam and I are far from there!  


If the video doesn't play, click here.

We are really disheartened with Google/Blogger.  Our last post addressed the problem of Google deleting blogs and forcing bloggers to give them a cell phone number - ANYONE"S cell phone number! - in order to contact them to get their Google Account (gmail, Blogger, Picasa & any other Google apps being used) reinstated with a text messaged code.  We consider it on a par with Google telling users to ask a friend to let the user give Google their friend's credit card number.

Just yesterday another blogger we know had their blog deleted and were forced to come up with a cell phone # in order to contact Google to get it reinstated. 

We were asked to remind folks how to back up their blogs and we just tried to walk through the steps with the new interface and we were shocked to find how much is missing from this new dashboard setup.  We googled for directions and did find the new place to back up the template.

But when we followed the directions to find the import/export/delete tool, it isn't there. Not for a single one of our own blogs. So where did this and other tools and information disappear?  Check your new Blogger dashboard .  Do you have import/export/delete in your new interface Settings/Basic?  You need to be able to export to save a copy of your blog posts.

You might want to find out, even if you aren't using the new interface yet. You will be when everyone is switched to it, so now is the time to learn it. Our settings options have been greatly reduced in the new one.  But to not be able to import, export or even delete our own blog(s)?

UPDATE:  Fuzzy Tales sent us a screen shot of where import/export/delete is located in the new interface.  How strange that it is in the first place we looked last night - Settings/Other - and it wasn't there.  Not on JFF and not on any of our other blogs.  So we googled Blogger Help and they sent us to Settings/Basic. We looked through every settings tab on each of our blogs and it was not to be found.

So where was it hiding?  We have no clue!  But it is there today at the top of Settings/Other.

We are grateful to Google for making so many things available to us for free over the years.  We have enjoyed using Blogger, gmail and Picasa, and we hope to be able to continue for a long time.  But we do believe they need to revise their policy on cell phones and find a more reasonable way to verify non-spamming accounts.

We are sad that Lautrec had to leave suddenly for the bridge Sunday.  His family is greatly missing him.  His mom would appreciate a word of encouragement, if you haven't already been by.  His blog is Wees Da Bad Cats & Da Meen Doawgs.

Noms Exercise and Google

Hey, Cyndi here.  Happy Caturday.  We have a funny video for you today, a puppy demonstrating the art of eating and exercising at the same time.  We figure the idea is to burn off the calories as eaten to keep the lean puppy figure.  Watching this not only made us hungry, but tired!


If the video doesn't play, click here.

 Now, we (all us Funny Farmers) would like to get serious for a moment.  Many of you are aware that for some time Blogger blogs have been suddenly deleted for no reason - supposedly for suspicious activity (spam) - and the blog owner has had to request a review and hope the blog reappears soon, even though not in violation of any TOS (terms of service). 

Yesterday "Old Kitty" and Charlie's blog was suddenly deleted.  Now you can't get any more innocuous content than they post.  There is nothing untoward or spammy about their blog.  It has been restored, but what we learned yesterday deeply disturbs us. 

You see, for some reason they could only request a review by giving a mobile (cell) phone number.  When they tried to use the drop down box for their landline number, they were told the number didn't fit the mobile format.  In other words, the only way they could communicate with Google/Blogger was to receive a text message on the cell phone they don't have. 

For months Jan was pestered by Google to give a home phone or cell phone number for 2 step protection, to retrieve her password, for blog identity protection or whatever.  She ignored the requests until she got disgusted and gave them her home LANDLINE phone number.  She didn't think any more about it until yesterday.

She started checking the settings in her two Google accounts.  Not blogs, Google accounts, there's a difference - your blog is part of a Google account but the Google account covers gmail, Blogger, Picasa (and yes, if you have a Google account, you DO have a Picasa account!) and all the other Google-related  applications.  From our understanding and reading, if Google closes your blog, it closes everything related to that Google account.

Jan was shocked to find a reference to her account using text verification, but she doesn't have a cell phone!  So she started digging around in settings and found Google had taken her LANDLINE phone # and marked it as a mobile number to receive text messages. There was no option for a landline, mobile only!  So if something happened to our blog, we would have been in the same boat Old Kitty and Charlie were in yesterday,.  No way to contact Google.  Jan deleted the phone #  and hopes if something happened to her account, Google would use her recovery address. 

Some of you are no more tech-oriented than our Jan, so we're going to explain how to check your settings to be sure you won't have this problem. We don't know whether you are using the old or new dashboard, but there is a means from each to access your settings.  In the new dashboard, just click on the name of your blog in the upper right and click on Account Settings in the drop down menu.  That will take you to Google accounts.

Click on Recovering Your Password.

Email: check your email address.  Do you have a recovery address in case you are using gmail and the gmail has been deleted?  You need a non-gmail address. 

SMS:  This is where your cell # goes if you have one so they can text you a password reset code if necessary. 

Security question: If you haven't set up a security question, this would be a good time to.

If you made changes, click SAVE, if none, click CANCEL to return to your personal settings. 

Now for the part that really upset Jan.  She read a lot of information yesterday that says to open a gmail account now you have to give a cell phone # for verification.  This sound innocent.  Especially when they say it is to cut down on spammers opening blogs and a mobile phone is more reliable than an email address because you keep your phone with you.   But they add, if you don't have a mobile phone, ask a friend to use their cell number to get your verification code. 

Jan read that and said if Google closes her account and tries to blackmail her into doing that, her blog and email will remain deleted.  Because she neither knows anyone who would let her give Google their cell number, nor would she ask anyone to do so. This could cause problems down the road.  We know that once that number went into Google's records, it would be associated with Jan's personal information and never be deleted from Google's files.

We found an interesting article on Gmail SMS verification details and reasons, 

Have a great weekend!  Oh, in case you didn't notice, we asked Jan to give our blog a makeover.  We hope you like it.