I have news, GOOD news, but I'm going to get the Friday night humor out of the way first and make you wait :)
So I walk in the door Friday after work, in a rather unpleasant frame of mind (I won't detail my little jealous drama), and dig right into making dinner. I'm working rather furiously when the phone rings, and after a minute of Michael talking to whoever it was, he hands the phone over with "my wife understands computers and all that better than I do, why don't you talk to her?". I muttered "who is it?" and got the baffling "some guy whose wife thinks he's having an affair with you, he can explain it better than I can."
Ok. Some stranger on the phone talking about an affair? Did I just warp into some other world somewhere? Completely confused, I took the phone.
"Hello Bethany? That your name? This is Robert ..."
"My wife thinks I've got something going on with you because she got an e-mail that came from your address, and I don't even know who you are!"
His voice was hurried, frustrated, and a bit angry. He launched into a rapid-fire explanation that he'd gotten my phone number by tracing the e-mail back to my web site which has my phone # on it, and his wife wouldn't listen to explanations that he had no idea who I was and it must be spam of some sort.
I tried to explain spoofing in a sentence or two, and narrow it down to the likelihood that both our e-mail addresses were in some mutual address book or database somewhere and that the e-mail didn't even have to have come from my computer. After repeated explanations and assurances he admitted that his wife didn't REALLY think we were having an affair, but she wasn't being reasonable and wouldn't listen to his explanations.
I offered to explain it to her (for humor's sake) but said that might not make things any better?? Perhaps he should have her google "spoofing" and "e-mail virus types" to get a clear explanation. He calmed down enough to sound a little less angry, and feeling justified for his frustration he got off the phone.
Lovely way to start the weekend :)