How many toes does a dog have on its front paws?

Answer: A dog has FIVE DIGITS on its front paw.

How does that relate to You're Just A Pup?

Answer:

You're Just A Pup Facebook page is in the FIVE DIGITS. We've had over 10,000 views of our Facebook page between 1-24-11 and 2-22-11. Whopeeee!!!! High five me!

Alexa Who? and Report Cards. Ashlye Who? and Grammys

Pup got a first report card this weekend. It was issued by a lady named Alexa. Frankly I never heard of Alexa before but I guarantee you I know who she is now. Alexa is a subsidiary of Amazon.com and the company grades web sites. Who knew? So, I put www.yourejustapup.com through the Alexa evaluation process and guess what spit out the back end?

We are in the top 18% of web sites! Now there are millions and millions of web sites of course. The usual suspects are in the top top tier: Google, Amazon, etc etc. But in the top 18% in our first month? Well I'll be darned. It isn't based on number of hits but based on an analysis of the structure ( links, pictures, blogs, re-tweets, blah blah blah) that will allow one to get a lot of hits. Pup is smiling today. Wait till I tell our sponsors and potential sponsors about this. $$$$$

Tune in Saturday to hear Ashlye Keaton talk about copyright law for amateur photography. I just read her bio and it really rocks. Literally rocks. She is a practicing entertainment and copyright lawyer in NOLA and has been on the board of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. For us lay people, that is the GRAMMYs.

Calling in all the chits

I snagged two great on air guests for an early March show. I called, I wrote, I cajoled, I begged, I threatened......what are kids for if you can't lean on them when you need them, right?
So, we are getting the Executive Chef of the Mandalay Bay Casino and Resort from Las Vegas to talk about foodie vacations in Las Vegas and the latest in food and wine pairings. Did I mention he is our son?
So, we are getting an emergency room doc to talk about symptoms of a heart attack and how to improve your chances of survival until the EMS crew arrives. She will also tell you what to expect when you enter the ER with heart attack symptoms. Did I mention she is our daughter-in-law?

We are having a lot of fun putting our lists together for on air guests. Just to tease a little, we plan on having a person talk about Community Gardens, an architect talk about Universal Design and the movement called "Aging in Place", a New Orleans lawyer talk about copyrighting (or not) your beautiful amateur photos that you might post on Facebook or Flickr, a yoga teacher talk about staying flexible, and many more. We are fine-tuning our production activities so that we have more flexibility during production to hold a guest over into the next segment if the conversation is really really rolling.
I spoke with a Houston friend today who I talk with only occasionally. I told her about the show and she said she really heard a relaxed happiness in my voice. :-)
See you on the radio. Love, Pup

My Ah-ha Moment: You are Captain of the Ship

I posted our first podcast last night. So what's the big deal? It is an audio file of the radio show. Well, not really. It is separate files of the four radio show segments that are marked with the content of each. Ok. So what?
When you listen to terrestrial radio, the old fashion kind out of a box with a dial, the show starts at a set time and "pushes" the content to you in a fashion determined by some pup at the radio station. If the phone rings, you are in trouble if your favorite part is coming up. If you need a potty break you have to bring the radio to the bathroom with you...and so forth. Some pin head pup at a radio station controls your entire experience. Now for the podcast. You decide when to listen. You decide if you want to stop mid segment and continue tomorrow. You decide to listen only to the health segment and not the legislative segment. You decide to listen to one segment from this week and one segment from last week. You decide to listen to Jack Kingston five times. YOU ARE THE CAPTAIN OF THE (RADIO) SHIP. I think the media gurus call this "pull". You are in control.
In fact, once we have bunches of podcasts loaded, what we have is an audio magazine on Podbean called You're Just a Pup, not a radio show in the conventional sense. We can categorize them by content categories. On a rainy day you can scroll thru the "health" section and only listen to health segments should you choose to. I think this is SO cool, I can't stand it!!! My hubby is lucky that so little makes me happy.
See you on the radio.
Love, Pup

The Perks of the Job

Well, the radio station doesn't send a limo to pick us up for the show. We don't get free tickets to any events ( yet). Audrey is going to get a press pass to a conference. Hmmmmm.
We get to spend time with Bill---now that is priceless!

The best part of the job so far is the cool people we get access to. We get to talk to Rep Jack Kingston on Saturday but honestly I've seen him in his workout clothes at Cutters Point Coffee before. He is so approachable in the 'hood. On Saturday we will talk to Mary Kay Morrison who laughs for a living. I am not kidding; this is serious stuff for medicine, education, and therapy. Laughter makes us feel good and is good for us.

She will talk about The Association of Applied and Therapeutic Humor. She has a video on YouTube called Humor Quest 2. Her blog is www.humor-quest.blogspot.com.

A Work in Progress

Bill said, "The show is a work in progress". Yep. Bill did his great editing job---taking out semi-graphic references to bowel problems during the Peter Broadhead interview. Yea for Bill!!! I can't imagine real live radio----you are hanging out there regarding what is said when you talk about medical problems.
We've had one snafu getting the podcast up today. I am hoping for tomorrow. Behind the scenes we are on NewsRadio 1290 WTKS and they promote the show. But, we own the show so we have to figure this stuff out. The radio station forgot to put our show on the written web site schedule but that is now being fixed. YUK. Wasn't this supposed to be all glamour? Be patient as we sort out these details.

Speaking of glamour, one of the local TV stations is stalking us---I'd like to think of it as paparazzi. One of the editors at the Savannah Morning News wants to talk to us. I was hoping for the Wall St Journal but this is a good start.
Audrey and I worked on our advertising today. Many entrepreneurs focus on the fun stuff and overlook the business end. We are trying to focus focus focus on business. I love Audrey's eternal optimism.

I will give you one tease. We scored BIG today on a guest for the Feb 12th show. The word glamour comes to mind---think Beverly Hills and Valentine's Day. I will reveal more tomorrow.

See you on the radio (did you figure out who I "borrowed" this from?),
Pup

Game Day

Best black post-holiday slimming pants fresh from the cleaners:  Check
Favorite earrings, gift on 10th wedding anniversary:   Check
Nice pocketbook:  Check
Best eyeliner for blue eyes:  Check
A little extra mousse for hair:  Check
Final decision on which sweater to wear.  Going for Steelers gold:   Check

Hold on....wait......it's radio.....

This brings me to Audrey-isms.   One of her best is telling people that she and Bill have perfect faces for radio.  

See you on the radio.

Eve of First Show Jitters

We are busy finishing all the last minute details for the show.   We will be recording the shows on Fridays for Saturday airing.   Many shows are done this way.   Consider  Car Talk on NPR.  It is done this way and there are many production advantages for this.      We pre-screen callers and ask them to call in at a predetermined time.   It keeps the wackos out.....     It allows us to have the appropriate experts lined up to match with the callers questions.
We have our fingers crossed tonight 'cause Audrey has laryngitis and had virtually no voice today.   She went to our favorite guy,  Peter Broadhead, who fixed her up with a super duper throat spray.   I've never spoken on the radio before so am getting mentally prepared to help out on air tomorrow if required.  YIKES! Bill does a solo show every day for three hours so no doubt he can carry on but we want Audrey in good shape for tomorrow.   The whole "pup" stuff was her idea.

I asked Joe if wanted to go with me to the station tomorrow for the debut show---in part to hold my hand and in part to be part of the fun.  I think he will go along.  We are going to our favorite watering hole, The Driftaway tomorrow night to celebrate.

I plan to use this blog to give an insider's view of what it is like to do this show and the web site, Facebook, etc.     I predict we will have plenty of flubs and funny things to share with you.
Tomorrow we have Peter Broadhead who will talk about gluten intolerance and the variety of food to deal with that.   Have you noticed how much gluten free is used in marketing now?   Dr. Robert Pawlicki will talk about happiness.   We have one caller that wants to know if happiness can be learned.  I am curious about that too.    Robert was part of a multi-disciplinary practice at the medical school in Cincinnati that dealt with patients with chronic pain.    Also, Wendy Williamson will talk about mediation.  I became a registered mediator in 2010 so am a big Wendy fan.   Her organization has performed over 8000 mediations with 5000 settlements.   She is very passionate about this topic and will talk about how mediation can be used to settled disputes about elder care.
See you on the radio!

Radio Show Inauguration

Our first radio show will air on Clear Channel WTKS, 1290 AM, Savannah,  GA on February 5, 2011 at 3pm.   Tune in and join us.

We picked our tag line today:   "about active aging"

What do you think about that?