I'm a big fan of the charity Heifer International. As a matter of fact, when I did the twenty-four hour Project Blog, they were the charity that I blogged for, raising over $400 in donations.

Right now, Heifer has become the beneficiary of a Million Dollar Matching Gift Challenge. This means that every dollar they raise between now and April 25th will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to $1 million.

Their success stories are truly inspirational; you can see what a difference Heifer has made throughout the world.

If you've got a little extra money, even if it's just a few dollars, please consider donating something to help their cause.

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Today, a gift from an unknown person (Admirer? Friend? Blogger?) arrived; something very special for my birthday season.

When I went out to check the mail, I noticed a large box (think almost up to my hip) sitting at the gate. As I got closer, I noticed that it said "Perishable" and "Fresh flowers," which caused me to squel in delight. Aside from my stay in the hospital with that pesky pulmonary embolism, I've only had flowers sent to me two other times.

I took it inside and opened it up to find twenty pink tulips, so fresh from the grower that they still had dirt clinging to their stems.

They are absolutely beautiful, but since there was no card inside, I have no idea who they are from. If you sent them, please let me know so I can thank you; they so made my day.

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For those of us not lucky enough to be attending South by Southwest this year (I swear, next year I am definitely going!), you can get 750 songs from their Showcasing Artists library for free, via BitTorrent. In addition, you can also get the music festival schedule for your iPod as well.

Also, I don't think I've ever mentioned it, but every Tuesday, iTunes has a free single for download. I haven't been crazy about a lot of them, but it's still free music and you never know what you're going to find.

(Link courtesy of iPodlounge, a great resource for information on iPods and music.)

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Today, I received not one, but two gifts to help me celebrate my birthday season!

The first was yet another gift from Howard. He sent me George Michael's CD single "Amazing." Thanks yet again, Howard! You so rock!

Amber, another March 18th birthday, sent me Top Secret! on DVD which immediately brought back a ton of memories.

When I was in middle school, my best friend Rebecca had the biggest crush on Val Kilmer. We watched Top Secret!, Real Genius, and Top Gun on an endless loop. She had a big, soft stuffed bear that we named Val and, if was lucky, she would let me sleep with him when I spent the night at her house. We were silly kids.

Thanks so much, Amber, for both the present and the fond flashback!

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Today is Katie's birthday.

Katie is smart, beautiful, funny, interesting, and a bunch of other adjectives that would take up too much space to list. I always joke that if she was a man (and not married), she'd be my ideal boyfriend.

I love you, Katiebug, and I hope you have the best birthday yet!

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For quite some time now, I've been coveting the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-P150, a 7 megapixel digital camera that's small enough to fit in my tiny purse.

As bad as I want it, though, I haven't been able to justify buying one. I have a digital camera already (another Cyber-Shot, the DSC-P71). Plus, I'm going to have to pay taxes and I was out of work for about a year.

However, it looks like I may be able to make this camera mine. I've been patiently waiting and I've finally gotten enough people so that I'm being processed at DVRs4Free.com and MP3Playsers4Free.com for a $275 PayPal payment on each. Provided that no one on my list gets disqualified, I'll actually have enough to get my camera.

I still need to get people for the bonus cash, but I'm closer to getting there. I also just need a few more people for DS4Free.com, so if I can just remain patient, that cute little camera will be in my hot little hands.

Must. Remain. Patient.

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