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I am awed, humbled, honoured and touched by the generosity of my friends.

To the extent that I'm actually even feeling a little bit more social, despite a really terrible day yesterday.

My older dog (by older I mean one and a half instead of one, they're really both puppies) was adopted from a rescue, and he had a limp when we got him. That's him, Coho, in my icon. It turns out that, at the vet's best guess, he broke his paw before he was rescued and it healed itself, quite badly. Anyhow, while playing in the backyard with Leonard he re-fractured it, and it won't heal itself because there's a bone chip in the way that needs to be removed.

We finally got our surgery estimate yesterday, and it's going to come in at about $3000, although we're checking with other vets to see if there's someone who will give us a lower estimate, even slightly. That's a lot of cash. Because of it, I'm cancelling my trip to New Orleans and possibly my trip to Vegas too, to try and afford this.

While I was freaking out, crying, and screaming FUCK so loudly that it resonated across the intartubes, my friends at the CaliCan dog rescue, who we adopted our other dog from, were putting together a donations page and spreading it out over the internet. Money has come in already, and I cried tears of joy this morning when I saw that there were a few hundred dollars already.

I'd feel too guilty posting that link and just asking for money, BUT I am mounting a fundraiser of my own! I make buttons, magnets and keychains of the 1" variety. I just finished a bunch for Slytherin House at hogwartsishome that I'm going to mail out, but I can put any image at all on them.

So HERE IS YOUR CHANCE to get custom buttons, magnets or keychains AND help my pup get his surgery at the same time! All you have to do is head over to this page, a temporary internet store, where you can place your order for whatever you desire.

Hints: If you've got a treasured pet of your own, get their picture! My keys are on a Coho keychain. If you're a mom, you could make magnets of your kids as a gift for grandparents. If you're a Harry Potter lover like me, how about you get your house crest on a set of one button, one magnet and one keychain?

To go with it, of course, you'd have my eternal love and gratitude.

Again, here's that link to get your own awesome personalized swag and help a very dear, loving pup.



Also: WE STILL LOVE YOU IF YOU DON'T HAVE MONEY! That's totally okay. If you just want to send Coho a virtual tummyrub (AKA his favourite thing in the world) I will pass it on to him as soon as I get home from work. :D

That music meme...

1. Reply to this post and I'll assign you a letter.
2. List (and upload) 5 songs you love that begin with that letter.
3. Post them to your journal with these instructions.

burningxhope gave me G, but I'm going to ask for more letters from more people later so that I can do more of these. :P

So, what are today's songs? G was a hard letter but I came up with some songs that I love love LOVE!

Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On) - Robert Plant and Allison Krauss

A BRILLIANT cover tune (the original is by the Everly Brothers) from Raising Sand, the collaboration that Plant and Krauss released a few years ago. One of my favourite songs because a) they both sing the whole thing, since it's a dual vocal line, and b) you get all sorts of awesome Zeppelin-esque Robert Plant vocalizations. It's way happier than the "careful, I'm going to break up with you!" song that it actually is.

Listen to Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)

Gigantic - Pixies

Lyrically simple, something about the line "walk her every day, into a shady place" always feels good when I hear it. How can a song about "a big, big love" not please you? Anyhow, most will already know this song, I think, so I don't have to touch on it too much.

Listen to Gigantic

Gone! - The Cure

Currently working on a re-arrangement of this for my own album, and Tom and I have both had some great ideas for it for sure. "If you do that, you'll be missing the world - it doesn't stop turning, whatever you've heard." It also has the amazing added bonus of reminding me of an absolutely remarkable girl who introduced me to the Cure, and I smile (however wistfully) every time anything reminds me of her, which is quite often.

Listen to Gone!

Gun Street Girl - Tom Waits

Twangy, earlyearlyearly Tom Waits, which really goes to prove that he was just ON right off the mark at the beginning of his career. "He fell in love with a gun street girl, and now he's danced in a Birmingham jail" is such a quintessential Tom Waits line, and clang-splang kitchen percussion feel of the whole song is such a cobbled together "fuck, I really want to make music RIGHT NOW" feel that I can't help but love it.

Listen to Gun Street Girl

Good Times, Bad Times - Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin makes me think of Tom, especially now that this is my ringtone when he phones me. It's Zeppelin. I don't need a reason to post it on an AWESOME SONG list. So there.

Listen to Good Times, Bad Times

BONUS SONG, because everyone's been doing it and this one is an odd-song-out because it's both a song AND an album:

Graceland - Paul Simon

I FREAKING LOVE PAUL SIMON and this is one of the greatest albums EVER, right from the very first line of the first song: "The Mississippi Delta was shining like a National guitar." National, for anyone who doesn't know, makes resophonic guitars which are usually metal bodies, so they're REALLY REALLY SHINY, so it must have been a brilliantly sunny, gorgeous day when this tune was written. To me it's a song of freedom, of emancipation, of GET UP AND MOVE YOUR BUTT AND YOU'LL FEEL REALLY GOOD. Thanks, Paul, for writing a song that makes me feel so awesome.

Listen to Graceland