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I am a Merry KrisSmith today. I got a refurbished Acer CPU at Amazon this week. It has Windows 10 on it and is lightning fast compared to the dinosaur I’ve been using for the past four or five years.

 

The external hard drive that someone sold me a year and a half ago is misbehaving mightily, so Lisa is going to bring her external hard drive over Monday morning (she has something else she needs to do today) and get the info off the old machine and put it on this one. Until then, I’m stuck without most of my stuff.

 

It’s a little frustrating. Until we discovered that the external hard drive was messing up (it doesn’t hold a solid connection, so we can’t trust it to maintain contact long enough for the transfer of data, and it appears to be the culprit that has “kicked off” the units in some of my USB ports) we expected to have everything back in place yesterday. I have several things I want to do this weekend, but I can’t do them until the info is brought over from the old one… GRRRR! None of what I want to do is a show stopper, but it’s frustrating anyway. I really expected any issues to be ironed out over this weekend. But at least the new CPU is up and running so I have time to get comfortable with Windows 10 before Monday!

 

I have several pages of copy to write for a client (an auto repair guy in Seattle) who’s adding a second business to his repertoire, but I don’t write on weekends, and he knows that. I’m waiting on him to get some bullet points anyway…unless he gives me carte blanche to fly by the seat of my pants and do it MY way, which is always my favorite way to write: the result is usually far superior to working from inside a straitjacket. (He gave me full freedom with his auto repair shop copy–all I got were keywords and phrases–and I had a whee of a time writing that for him. The result: his site went from “Where the heck are we?” to page one within months, where it remains to this very day, at least two years later.)

 

I’m almost ready for Christmas. I have a few gift cards to get for family members unless they tell me what they want. I no longer guess what people want because money is scarce and when I spend it, I need to feel certain that I’m spending it on things they want and/or need. Guesswork doesn’t cut it anymore. I’m very practical these days (out of need), and figure recipients can use a gift card in any way they see fit, which is a win-win for all concerned.

 

On Thursday Lisa and I are driving to Dupont to have lunch with Chris Pontius and maybe Maggie Connors (not sure what her availability is yet). Lisa has a proposition for Chris. He is an absolutely amazing human being and would be a fabulous podcast interviewer, if he’s interested.

 

We discovered his interviewing skills the first time we went to lunch with him. He is genuinely kind and curious and asks great questions. We both thought (and I think even expressed to him) how great he is as an interviewer. With Lisa’s new endeavor (to be rolled out in January) she’ll be needing someone willing to do five-minute podcast interviews with people and she thought of him immediately. He’d be perfect. Now we just need to find out if he’s interested and what he’d charge to do it…

 

I’m back in contact with Dr. Ned Buyukmihci, an animal rights veterinarian I met during my API days. (You’ll learn more about him in my upcoming KrisandKritters.com blog. He read the first (1980) edition my book Let No Day Dawn that the Animals Cannot Share  and called me at API to express to me immediately how much he loved it and I was utterly floored to find a veterinarian in tears over my book!) Dr. Ned is amenable to doing a Q & A interview with me at some point. I IM’d him via his Facebook page. He sent me his email address so I can reach out when I’m ready to roll. It’ll probably be a written Q & A interview as I’m not much of an interviewer (live).

 

I’m reaching out to other animal advocates to see if they’re amenable to something similar. Heck, if we get Chris as an interviewer, and if he’s an animal lover, maybe I’ll recruit him to do some live interviews (over the phone)!  He could probably use the extra money–he has a wife and children!

 

What else?

 

I made some homemade (crock pot) soup overnight again. It’s delicious. (Yes, I’ve eaten a bowl of it already this morning.) I’m excellent when it comes to creating crock pot soups! And they’re even good for me.

 

I guess that’s about it for this time. I’ve been up for half the night so I think it’s time for a mid-morning nap. See ya later!