I'm probably less adventurous than you with my browsing, since I seldom visit sites with a lot of the Java/Flash etc junk - and even less often re-visit them or want to save anything from them. If I do save bits from a funky page, I usually paste as unformatted text directly into Word, since Word has powerful find/replace functions that notepad doesn't have. It's plain text either way, and all the garbage gets stripped out.
HH -
I'd agree with Clinton that you're probably hitting a glitch in your connection to mudcat. When you click on "send page as email" a fresh copy of the page is downloaded to your "email program," even if it's the same browser you're using to view the page.
If the site was just "busy" and didn't respond, just trying again may work. You can also hit the "Refresh" button on the IE toolbar, and if you've lost the connection (or mudcat's gone to sleep) you'll get the same page not found or something similar. If the connection is lost you won't be able to send the page as email - I think. The solution is to try again later when mudcat is in better health (or better humor).