iCal is not sending any email alerts

I am pretty sure I have all my settings correct - my address card is "me," my notifications are turned on in the notifications center (don't think that should matter for sending) and the "alerts" preference pane of iCal has the bottom two topics NOT selected....

I am trying to have iCal send an email two days prior to the event. It won't do it at any time (I've tried many options) - though I do see the alerts at the proper time in Notification Center - just no emails go out.

I do use mail.app as my primary email application.

I am using 10.9 Mavericks which is up to date on 2012 Mac Mini.

I have deleted the iCal calendar cache file as well as the com.apple.ical.plist file, and no improvement.

Any help is greatly appreciated!