It's still working for me, and I have heard of no notifications. Try reinstalling.
Don't delete the folders/data though - Picasa will have saved all your edits. Picasa doesn't "keep" your pictures, by default they are all in your Pictures folder. Unless you actively 'save' it doesn't change the picture files either, it just remembers your edits and displays the pictures accordingly.
If you really can't email from Picasa, then you can "export" the pictures at the size (pixel width) and quality you want into a folder on your desktop say, then create an email, attach the picture(s) and send it from whatever mail client or webmail you are using.
On any Windows PC that has an email system on it; find the photo you want to email via Windows Explorer, hover the mouse pointer over it, right click, select 'send to' then 'Mail Recipient' from the options that appear. That should fire up an email with the photo already attached.