UPDATE! UPDATE!

I received another missive from MSN tech support. Much more encouraging. I quote (without their permission, but it is so nice that I'm sure that they won't mind).

Hotmail Customer Support wrote:
Dear Mark,

Thank you for writing back to MSN Hotmail Technical Support about your address book.

I regret for the delay in responding to your e-mail.

Mark, in order to assist you further I would require some more information from you. Please respond to this e-mail with the following information.

- Do you want to transfer your contacts from your old account to the new one?
- What do you refer to unanswered e-mail?

- Are you missing some of your contact addresses?

We are eager to resolve your issue on hand and look forward to receive your e-mail with the above requested information.

Sincerely,

Sirisha
MSN Hotmail Technical Support Representative).

And my slobbering response?

Dear Sirisha,
If you can fix all this for me, I shall light a candle for you in my personal sanctuary located in an isolated forest in central Mexico (well, actually, its a bar). Specifically,

(well, blah, blah, blah, a lot of highly technical terms, descriptions and instructions to Microsoft as to exactly what they need to do. I left out enough detailed technical instructions so that they would not feel completely useless.)

It sounds like you are going to help me. I have not yet opened a new account. Tell me when to GO!
Sincerely,
Mark in Mexico (Mark A. Moore)
PS.: Visit markinmexico.blogspot.com for blow-by-blow description of this issue

Heh, heh, see how I managed to cleverly insert a plug for the ol' blog? Imagine if every Microsoft employee visited my blog just once daily in order to update themselves on the latest technical developements in this now bipartisan effort to recover my missing Hotmail data. Why, I'd be hotter than, say, a well known Hollywood mystery novelist and screenwriter.

Sirisha is such a sexy name, too, don't you think?

Tune in tomorrow, same time, same station, for the latest developments in this rapidly heating relationship between Siri...uh, I mean, MSN and Mark in Mexico.