A Day (or Two) in the Life of Scott Hanno

Well, this week is just about done and today was one of those meeting days, spent all morning getting ready for them and then spent all afternoon attending them ...... not one of my more productive days. But it's all downhill into a three day weekend, still don't have too much planned although I'm pretty determined that I'm going to find my ceramic tile & BUY it! I spoke with my Chief Engineer who knows the owner at another store here in town and was asking him what they thought about them, then he had me conference call the guy and they seem to know each other pretty well. So, I think that if I go there and find something that he'll hook me up pretty sweetly, I ask way too many favors of my Chief Engineer, but I don't really ask, it just happens that way where it all works out for the best.

This holiday weekend should make for a pretty crazy weekend around this town, I kind of dread them as it changes our little town into a freak show with massive traffic that our roads can't handle, guess that I'll be glad to see Monday come and they all go home. Panama City Beach was suppose to be hosting a "Military Beach Weekend" thing, but after all of the bad press that they group got (and it got ugly) they decided to cancel it and didn't want to come where they weren't wanted but rumor has it that they are still coming unofficially but know one really knows for sure. I know that the cops are still looking into it as I got a call yesterday to determine our mix of business at work, but we've got a Baptist group in all weekend so I don't think that they should be much trouble. I guess that it's almost a racial thing, no one would officially come out and say it but it's still sad in this day and age to still profile people like that - but it is what it is and guess that they group itself hasn't done much to improve their "image" either. I just hope for a nice, quiet weekend and we'll go from there.

Oh, and I finally got my year end forecast approved with really no major changes, just shifting a few things around to keep everyone happy and now it's on to next year ....... hope to find some time this weekend to work on that. I'm still watching those two other hotels in Virginia and hasn't been too much trouble thus far but I can tell that they are getting antsy to give me stuff to do, but they are kind of afraid to ask. I'm just thankfull that I don't have those hotels full-time as I think they would really give me a run for my money, but it's a good thing that they ain't paying me anything so they can't ask for much more than that :) I'm also making a name for myself at corporate and not even trying with the SOP guy that I mentioned a few days ago, but I can see it growing into a major project in the next couple of months if it keeps going where it looks like it's going to. I also got my RAM upgraded on my work pc from 64k to 364k but that didn't really seem to help any, thought that it was gonna solve my "out of memory" issues but now I'm kind of doubting it - but I still won't ask for a new pc, kind of a stubborn pride thing at this point. Oh, and that reminds me of one more thing, I was finally successful in getting copies of our IPIX's from the hotel to be able to use them on other websites, was like pulling teeth to even find out who had them and sometimes dealing with Marriott is worse than the government :( But hey, click here if ya wanna take a 360' tour of Teddy Tuckers, our outdoor bar out on the beach!

I guess that's it for now, suppose to be the normal weather weekend and in the 90's and sunny with some rain, just another weekend in paradise. We've got a tropical depression that we are watching off of Africa, and they say that the longer it is before we have a few hurricanes the worse that we'll pay for it later - so I say bring 'em on and lets get them over with. I live for adventure, well kind of any way :) I'll try and write more over the weekend - but just try not to Labor too hard if I don't hear from you before then. Night!

posted by Scott @ 10:26 PM

Dang, it's only Tuesday and things are getting pretty deep all ready, had a meeting to review our Year End Forecast and the "big people" didn't quite agree with my projections so I ended up bringing that home and revising it tonight. And I'm trying to do inventory (you know, setting strategies & restrictions and selling rooms while not selling too many to get us too oversold that we walk people) for four hotels all week while my friend is on vacation, so instead of my two I'm really juggling things to get it all done. And to top that off I got a note back from one of our Regionals who's trying to write some SOP's and he liked my ideas and wants to move forward with them ...... and with budgets due in less than a month now is probably not the bestest time to be thinking about that! But as long as I can hold it all together for a week or two it'll all get better, and I should come out on top of all of it in the end!

Otherwise it wasn't the best day I've had lately, as our MARSHA reservation system was down for the first four hours of the day due to some cut in a fiber optic line and that finally came up around noon but that pretty much put me way behind the rest of the day. I'm just hoping that things go smoother tomorrow and I'll leave it at that - and call it a day, k :?) Oh, and no call from my Tile Lady, so I think that I'll just move on to someone else who actually wants to take my money - with a smile no less!!! Night :)

posted by Scott @ 10:21 PM

Not too much to report tonight but tv sucks again, so I figured that I might as well keep myself occupied while I watch nothing. I did end up calling Panama City Tile today, the store that I went to on Saturday and talked to the woman in charge. I don't think that I mentioned it last night but when I went in on Saturday she was off and her husband was covering the store, guess that he didn't work there very often as he knew nothing about anything that they carried. As I had said, I found one color that I kind of liked but it was way to expensive and when I called I asked if they had something like the same thing but at a lesser price. The woman said "well, you were here so you know what we've got", almost ticked me off to tell her how unhelpful the dude was that was working the other day and what it meant to be in the service business in the first place. But then she chilled out and said that she'd take my name and number and look into it and call me back, but I haven't heard from her yet - I'll probably only give her till tomorrow before I tell where she can go. Home Depot is looking more and more like my best option, but I think that I need to take one of the girls from work with me to help me "color coordinate" things.

The phones today were crazy again all day as we've got a GA Baptist group checking in on Friday for the weekend and I swear that they've all got at least 9 people in each room, and all that they do is switch roommates, we've been pulling our hair out (well, not me cuz I ain't got none!) with them for the last week. And I'm working on trying to set up a new golf package that I think that I got in the loop on too late as I don't quite know what's going on with it - but now I've got to set it all up. I'd rather just be in on it from start to finish - certainly does make things run alot more smoothly. Other than that work was fine, I'm beat all ready and it's only Monday - but only a few more days and it'll be a THREE DAY weekend :) No plans really, just gonna kick back I guess at this point. I did realize that I had a free round trip ticket on Delta, should have used it when I flew them last week but didn't realize that I even had enough points but I'll have to look into using it to go somewhere fun ......but I don't think that my life was meant for all that much fun, ya know :?) I also realized that I had about 30k in amex points too, didn't find anything interesting to turn them in for but maybe some day I will, guess the best way to build up the points is to not even know they're there, go figure.

Well, that's it for another day, August will be over before you know it and Fall is right around the corner - and trust me, I can't wait for cooler weather!!! Talk to you again soon, stay you till then :)

posted by Scott @ 10:40 PM

Uuugh, it's Sunday night again and another weekend is over and done with ...... dang if they don't go by quickly! At least I can report that my life is once again back to normal and is organized in the fashion that I enjoy, did loads of laundry and cleaned the house and paid some bills and shopped the groceries - I guess that I'm ready to get back to work again. At least I'll have 5 days to accomplish everything this week instead of 3 or 4 days as in the last couple of weeks, so all in all it should be a pretty good week.

I also worked on my full-year forecast and pretty much finalized that this weekend (no chance of getting it done on Friday :( so I'll have to get that approved and move on from there into the next year. I've also been working on the budget again, am going to enter the group rooms to-be's as my boss is off again to Jax all this week and I can't really wait for him to get back. At least I get to fit them in where there's room for it instead of lowering my numbers when they throw them in where there's no rooms to be had so that's to my benefit and shouldn't be all that bad. Man, I can't believe that in another week it'll be September - and this budget thing will be due before I know it.

Oh, I went and looked at floor tile on Saturday morning, and guess that it's not going to be as easy picking the stuff out as I had thought. I did find some that I think that I like but it's twice as expensive as I had planned on. And it's not really the price that's throwing me but I went to Home Depot right after that and found some that was half as expensive and can't really figure out what the difference there was between the two. I also am having a hard time choosing the color of the grout as if I go with the Asian Beige I can either choose one that is close to that color or one that is alot darker ...... if anyone wants to give me their opinion please leave me a comment. From the feedback that I've gotten all ready everyone is telling me that the darker grout is the way to go, but I just can't picture what it'll look like once its all installed. At least I've come to the decision that there's no reason to rush into it, I'm going to do it but only when I'm good and ready.

And it poured rain here tonight for about an hour, the winds were whipping before then and you could tell it was coming, then we probably got an inch or two in a very short period of time - thunder & lightning too. My lawn is definitely looking better and I think that it did it good to not mow the back yard for two weeks as it gave it time to grow in and think that the Chemlawn guys are slowly making a comeback where I couldn't. The sad part is that by the time that I have it looking half way decent again, it'll all die off for the winter and then I can start it all again next year.

I'm watching two other hotels for a girl from Virginia while she's vacationing this week so I've got to remember that, plus my two hotels but I think that the hotel in Atlanta is no longer under my control as their girl is back sometime this week. Oh, and I got another out of the blue e-mail on Saturday from another one of my second cousins - Mary who is the daughter of my first cousin and she was telling me that they were all together for my Aunt & Uncle's 50th Anniversery party and they wished that I was there ...... it's really kind of weird to hear from them after all this time but think that my website might have something to do with it ....... go figure.

And that's it for another day, I think that I've completely worn out my Montie as he's been deep sleeping since last night as he was out running around all day with me while I was working on the lawn, and he's still worn out tonight ....... he's not the pup that he once was but he's still kewt as all heck :) Have another GREAT week and Happy Monday to everyone, that is if there ever was a happy Monday to be found ...... just make the bestest of it!!! Talk to you sometime soon.

posted by Scott @ 10:32 PM

Well, another day and another dollar ...... didn't get nearly everything that needs to be done done but overall it was an ok day. I really, really need to work on my Year End Forecast tomorrow so I'm hoping that it's quiet enough so that I can finish it - otherwise it'll be another weekend project. And speaking of weekend projects I need to get to work on Budget 2003 again as it's been a few weeks since I last worked on it and I'm running out of time again, needs to be pretty much finalized by the end of the month. My Sales Strategy Meeting went well and I was all ready for it - but it's pretty depressing when business isn't doing all too well (which of course isn't really all MY fault but I always take things personally, probably not a good thing).

I came home and found that my lawn service aerated my lawn and while I knew that it was going to happen in the next couple of weeks I didn't expect it so soon. You know, it's where they plug and rake the lawn and is suppose to help strenghten the roots of the lawn and leaves those loose little dirt chunks all over the place, but I didn't see all too many of them. They do it once a year and I think that they came at the right time as the grass plugs that I put in have rooted so they didn't come out and I really think that it's going to help me with my bare spots and make the rest of the lawn look mucho better. I also spent last evening cutting up a couple of tree limbs that I trimmed off one of the trees in my side yard that I cut down two weekends ago and has been sitting in the ditch but wanted to get it in the garbage pick up this morning, so I'm glad that I got rid of that too. I also met one of my neighbors from across the street, and I've lived here for two years but have never really talked to her - just the usual wave hello when one of us drives by or are out front at the same time. She made me go over to her house and she gave me a tour of her garden, then made my take two of these palm-type plants home with me to plant in my yard. She was nice ...... Mary, kind of talked a little too much but it was nice to meet her.

I also got an e-mail out of the blue tonight from my cousin's daughter. She said that her Mom told her about how I used to spend all of my summer's growing up staying with their family on a dairy farm in Upstate NY and that she did the same thing now, it was just kind of neat to hear from her. I really haven't talked to my cousin Becky since her wedding - and bet that it's been at least 15 years since and have never talked to her daughter, so that in itself is really pretty kewl. And the coincidence is that my cousin just went to her 20th high school reunion two weekends ago in NY too .......guess that I just missed her while I was up there for mine (although she lived about an hour north of Sherrill).

And tomorrow is Friday - YAHOO!!! :o) It's been a short week but think that I probably worked just as hard in 4 days as I would have normally worked in five ..... so much for taking some time off huh? And I need to go and buy my ceramic tile Saturday morning as the place that I want to get it from is only open from 8am - 1pm so I need to make it there early and then come home and hit the lawn, no rest of the wary as usual. Then I wanna schedule my Tile Guy to do the install as soon as possible after then - just DO IT and be done with it as they say :) Happy Friday to ya though, have a wonderful weekend & I'll talk to ya'll again sometime soon.

posted by Scott @ 10:26 PM

Dang, what a day ...... not only was I overtired from travelling and getting to bed late last night but I had pounds of paperwork and e-mails to catch up on. I was caught up on my in-box up until yesterday from dialing in while I was in NY, but had 29 new issues to deal with today ...... think that I got most of them cleared up. And I got through the day and was just about caught up - then got roped in to attending a meeting with our Regional tomorrow morning to explain our shortfall in revenues ....... so that will be 3 hours spent when I could be doing bigger and better things. I've got so much to do, watching two other hotels in addition to mine and taking on two more come Saturday for another week while a friend goes on vacation in the lovely Northeast - hopefully she'll have cooler weather than what I experienced as those 100' temps weren't much of a relief.

I came home tonight and mowed the front and side yards and that took me nearly an hour but it couldn't wait until the weekend or it'd be overgrown so bad that it'd chunk up and I'd have to end up raking the whole thing. My side yard is almost back, still having a few issues out back and still need to mow that - not sure if I'll get to it though so I might end up dealing with the clumps. I talked to my lawn service today and told them about my crabgrass issues - and the chickie that I talked to actually laughed in my face ...... she's like didn't they tell you not to use the spray in hot weather? Ticked me off, she could have been at least a little more understanding & show some consideration towards my issues.

And dang if I didn't miss my quiet life of sitting in my living room the last hour of my evening, didn't even get a chance last night as I was working and ironing up until bedtime ........ but I guess that I really do miss it when it's not here. I like organization and a set schedule, guess I'm set in my ways but I'm not happy if I don't know what I'm going to be doing when - I guess that most people would call that boring but hey, that's me :) And good night for now - tomorrow is the hump and this week should fly right by, hoping it does for you too! LATER Gator, enjoy your potaters and I'll see you on the flip-side :)~

posted by Scott @ 10:24 PM

I'm back :) But my flight was delayed by three hours so instead of landing at 6:30 I landed at 9:30pm and that totally messed me up, but what is a guy to do :?) I've still got to unpack and iron something to wear tomorrow so I can't stay long tonight, other than to tell you that that airline sucked - delayed the first time cuz they didn't have a crew to fly it, then the thunder and lightning storm shut down the runways ......... and the free beers that they were offering on the flight to make up for it certainly didn't go far as they ran out by row 10, not that I would have had one but it was pretty lame of them to offer it in the first place.

So, it's back to work for me first thing in the morning and my schedule is all ready shot, didn't get nearly as much work done as I had wanted to so I'm going to be behind the rest of the week ....... aren't vacations just grand!!! But Montie is home and happy and healthy so I guess that's a good thing, he's sitting by my side no worse for the wear so I guess that I shouldn't complain. I'll write more later when I can - but I've got stuff that needs to be done and I'm back home in Panama City Beach tonight! Just remind me not to go anywhere else for a very, VERY long time. Night :o)

posted by Scott @ 11:01 PM

I'm back, well almost back ....... still need to fly home tomorrow morning and get my pup back! And it's Sunday night and the reunion party is over - and it was quite the long strange trip at that! I'm glad that I went though as I had a good time both at the reception Friday night and the dinner on Saturday - even closed the Mable Hill Inn last night and dang if I haven't been feeling it all day today! I'll be glad to come home to my own house tomorrow, been staying with a friend that I grew up with and his wife, a six year old boy and a four year old ....... dang I never realized how much quiet time goes out the door when you have kids. But that was kind of fun too, the kids thought that I was new toy or something so they were always wanting to play - I just don't think that I could do it full time but I certainly do give them credit for going through that for the next 18 years.

The reunion was fun, last night was probably the best time that I've had in a while and while I was dreading going to it, it turned out ok. I guess that I figured out that all the people that I didn't think that I liked all that much turned to be a great bunch of people, and I was glad to get to know them, even if it was for only one night. We had to wear these names tags last night with pictures from our year book, the one that I had up on my home page a few days ago and that made things alot easier as we didn't wear them on Friday night. So it was like, hmmm yes you look familiar but dang if I know your name, it was kind of like that all weekend. All in all I'm glad that I went, hopefully I'll make another one before the next 20 years are up.

I also went to my brothers house and had dinner tonight, good to see them again and the new baby Gavin is only 11 days old. My brother is starting to travel again so I guess that business at Lockheed Martin is doing better and he's going to be travelling to Atlanta one week per month which I'm sure beats the 3 weeks that he was doing before. He's almost recovered from the appendex thing but still has a bandage, lucky for me he didn't open it up. We even vacumned the pool together and it was kind of nice out this afternoon, and there is a cold front moving in so tomorrow is going to be a whole new weather ball game. It was 101' on Thursday when I got here but I swear that it felt nothing like the heat of Florida, I'm like what are these people complaining about as they should live where I'm living. And I guess that it hasn't rained in like the last 2 months but think that since I've been here it rained just about every day - maybe I should come home more often :)

I am kind of bummed that I never hooked up with my brother in law and my neice while I was here, didn't even call them to tell them but they live in Albany and there was really no way that I could get down there to see them. I did get an e-mail from him on Friday asking when I was gonna call and I invited him to do dinner at my bro's house today but we never did connect. I do feel bad though, and John if you are reading this I hope that you can understand that it was a full weekend.

Well, I guess that I'll end this now kick back for a while, and while I'm sitting in Eastern Time I still feel like it's Central ...... and it's only 9pm for me at home but looking at my watch it's just about my bedtime. The good news is that my flight isn't until around 2pm, so I will definitely be sleeping in :o) Talk to you again from Panama City Beach - it's been a long trip but will be good to get back home once again. Talk to you later .......

posted by Scott @ 10:00 PM

Well, tomorrow is the day and I'm off to Sherrill at like 8:30am, guess they are saying that you should get to the port at least 2 hours early - what are they crazy :?) At least it's only about 15 minutes away so if I'm lucky I'll leave here by 7 and be there shortly after and they should be happy with that. It's gonna be a long, strange trip - got an e-mail from another one of my friends who wants to rescue us from the "cocktail party" Friday night if we need it and then go bar hopping from there. The bags aren't packed yet but I've pretty much got it all laid out so I'll do that in the morning and go from there. And it's funny cuz I couldn't pull out my suitcase till the very end as then Montie knew that something was up - and ever since it's been the evil eye and I probably won't hear the end of it till I'm gone.

I've got some work to do while I'm away so that should at least keep me busy during the downtime, and besides it's more of a hobby with me so I don't mind it in the very least. Not much else to mention tonight though other than it was 95' in Syracuse today, at least it's suppose to be in the 80's the next five days but the good news is that the nights are in the 50's - nothing like the weather we find here in Florida. I'll try and keep this up to date if I can, and I'll talk to you again another day. Night for now and just remember, it's downhill into the weekend for you from here :) And PGJ, thanks for the comment this morning, my first post of many more to come (I hope!). Good night!

posted by Scott @ 10:27 PM

Hey all, how did your Tuesday go :?) And not too bad a day, the monthly Staff Meeting and the weekly Forecast Meeting kind of ate up all of the afternoon but oh well, what is a manager to do? And I had to rush home and meet up with contractor #02 to give me another estimate on installing the ceramic floor in half of my house and dang glad I did as the price went from $1100 to $700, think that he threw me a bone as he does alot of work at the hotel and wants to take care of the Director of Engineering. I'll take it though and will allow me to upgrade my tile that I choose if I choose to do so - so that'll be my next priority when I get back from New York is to go and buy 350' of tile and 50 lbs of grout. The guy even told me where to go and to mention his name and that they would give me his 20% discount ....... gotta like that!

And my GM was in heaven today as he called me this morning to ask me about buying a new computer for his house as I guess that his 7 year old one that he now has finally died, and I'm like you sure did get your money's worth out of that one. He was looking at a Sony Viao and thought he had found quite the deal but then I hooked him up with Dell.com and walked him through configuring one to his liking. Then I told him to buy it from the small business section and that was even $100 less, then I told him to think about it and left it at that. He called me later this afternoon to tell me that he bought himself a Dell and would be there in 10 days, and you could hear the excitement in his voice - I swear I should get a commission selling them things if I sell one more to someone else. And to tell you the truth it made me feel good that he'd come to me for advice on something for his family instead of asking our MIS person, not that I'm reading anything into that ......

Oh, and before I forget to recommend another service - it's Privista Credit Reporting but it's more than just a credit report, it watches out for your identity and grades your credit score, lists any credit inquiries either hard or soft and even gives you an opt-out to telemarketers ....... all for just $50 a year (only $4 something a month!). Check them out as they offer a 30 day free trial - click this to go to their website. The best thing is that in this day and age you can feel safe that nothing is slipping by you and they give you tips on improving your rating, and it's helped me alot to focus on improving my score. Let me know what you think - like the sonicare toothbrush this is another Shanno favorite!!!

I guess that's about it for another day, tomorrow night is going to be a busy one as I need to do a load of laundry and pack so I'm not too sure how my schedule will be - but I am taking my lapper with me so if I can get internet access in the hick town of Sherrill I might update this page, might even be interesting to see what I have to say. So, till another day - smile and be safe! Oh, and isn't anyone gonna leave me a comment ...... I know that someone must have something to say!!! Good night, take care till the next time :p)~

posted by Scott @ 10:26 PM

Well, Monday is done and it wasn't all to bad today, I mean it was busy but it wasn't crazy so you've gotta like 'em when they start out like that! Not too much to report from work today but I did come home and set up my Palm on my laptop as I didn't have any of my address' on my lapper and what easier way is there to copy 250 addresses from one computer to another than my trusty Palm, I love that thing more and more every day. I also made an appointment to meet another tile guy here after work tomorrow, he comes highly recommended from my Director of Engineering so I know that I can trust him and think that his price might actually be more reasonable than the first guy ...... I am really looking forward to having it all done all ready.

Still haven't done anything in preparation for my trip on Thursday, got an e-mail from a girl I went to school with who's coordinating things and she's all ready for the big party to begin - she said that she wasn't gonna wait for someone to make it a good time for her and she was going to make sure that she had a good time herself, kinda liked her grasp on things. I'm starting to get more and more excited while I'm still getting more and more nervous thinking about it, not sure why but I still am. I need to get into the right attitude, that's it - and make the best of the whole trip, still gonna be a strange one me thinks :) And I guess that's about it for another day, if you noticed you can comment on my comments each day - so get to it and leave your thoughts if you'd be so kind :) Good night world - talk to you again sometime soon.

posted by Scott @ 10:44 PM

Well, this weekend is over again but it's not all bad cuz it'll be another weekend for me after only three days of work ...... then it's the big trip home to Sherrill for a weekend of fun (yeah, right :). And it was another crazy day and there never seems to be enough minutes in the day to get everything done, still need to finish my vacumning but that's about the only thing that I didn't get to after spending a few hours at our company picnic today. That was ok, had a nice lunch and saw a bunch of people I normally only see Monday thru Friday so it was different in it's own sort of way. Plus it was in a shaded picnic area at Shipwreck Island, a local waterpark so the temps weren't even that bad and was kind of a nice change to the housecleaning I would have normally been doing. I won a weekend at a hotel in Atlanta, but gave it to one of my girls who has family there as it's only good till the end of the year and I doubt that I'll make it before then.

I also forgot to mention that yesterday while I was mowing the lawn of the duplex next door one of the girls came out and handed me a $20 bill and asked me to mow her backyard for her. I tried my best to refuse as there is no way that it was worth that price but she wouldn't take it back, so I figure that I can mow her yard for the next four weeks and make up for it. And besides it only took like 10 minutes and she seemed to be very nice, so maybe I'll do it from now on, not that I don't have enough to mow all ready. And a few of the other tenants were thanking me as I was weedwacking and blowing of their driveway, at least it's nice that they appreciated my efforts.

And this evening I'm still in the process of bagging my tree trimmings and got another bag full for the garbage man tomorrow to make three big ones and only have another one to go, plus rearranged a few sprinkler heads, spread some insect killer on the lawn and some more grass seed ...... every so slowly my side yard is starting to green up again. While I was out there Friday evening mowing my backyard this old man in a truck drove by, then backed up and rolled down his window only to ask me what happened to my lawn (he's like the 20th person that I've had to tell my crabgrass story to) and he thought that I had mole crickets that did the damage and I'm starting to think more and more that I might have them too. But to top it off he's like "that must have broke your heart to have your lawn ruined" that you worked so hard for ....... made me feel just great! I'll have to look back and see when I sprayed that stuff, bet that it was sometime in June and I'm still dealing with it ........ overcoming challenges that life brings before us makes us stronger and we will succeed ..... not sure where that one came from but thought that I'd throw it in :)

That's about it, gonna try to get a second estimate on the floor installation but I'm still going to do it - it's just a matter of time before I have them start it ...... and what a mess it'll be for a week while it's being done. I hope that everyone has a great week and don't work to hard ...... just remember to never sweat the small stuff and we'll all be ok. Good night from PCB - till another day, take care and keep smiling :o)~

posted by Scott @ 10:26 PM

Man, what a day and I'm very beat at this point - that's for sure! I mowed the lawn as usual and then raked a little bit, pruned and trimmed a tree, did two loads of laundry and also pressure washed one side of my house. I also had an appointment to meet a guy here to give me an estimate on installing ceramic tiles in the kitchen and hallways and bathrooms too, which was actually a heck of alot more than I would have guessed and the price the guy gave me didn't even include the tiles - I have to buy them myself! But at least he did confirm that the spot on the floor in the kitchen is caused by moisture and at some point it got wet underneath and there's nothing that I can do to get rid of it, other than to replace it so I will mostly do it sometime soon. The hardest part is going to be in picking out the color of the tiles and then the grout to go along with it - I was hoping that I could talk him into it but he wouldn't touch it. I think that I need to get a second estimate and see if it's that much, and my Chief Engineer knew someone so I'll have to get his name from him.

Otherwise besides doing all of that stuff around the house there isn't too much else going on. We have our company picnic at a local waterpark tomorrow that I have to go to so I tried to get some of the stuff that I usually do tomorrow done today. I'll probably only go for a couple of hours and have lunch and make an appearance, then come home and finish up cleaning the house and other stuff. Oh, and I also got my haircut again today, was a week earlier than usual but I leave for Syracuse on Thursday and didn't want to wait another week. I need to start thinking about what I need to take but guess not yet - but a few more days I'll have to for sure.

And I guess that I should go get my clothes out of the dryer and fluff and fold them before I forget about them and leave them in there all night. So, I'll try to write more tomorrow and let you know how the picnic went, and until then take care and enjoy a nice quiet Sunday. Good night for now :)

posted by Scott @ 10:32 PM

It was dental appointment day for me, just the regular six month cleaning and x-rays stuff and it went perfectly - the second one in a row where there was no other work to be done :) And the scraping only lasted about a minute and a half and would have been out of there in like 15 if I didn't have to do the x-rays again and wait for them to develop, then wait other 20 minutes for the doctor to come in and check them out. I attribute both the no-plaque thing and the perfect gums to my Sonicare tooth brush which I bought from a recommendation from my dentist and is one of the bestest investments I've made. My dental assistant told me that if everyone owned a sonicare tooth brush that she wouldn't have a job, and while they cost close to $100 trust me that the expense clearly outweighs the pain and price that you'll pay without one in the long run. I'll even hook you up with the link so you can buy one right now and have it delivered to your door - just click take me there now and check them out ...... you'll thank me the next time you visit the dentist :o) And from the comments I got when I told people I had to go, it seems that everyone hates the dentist - and to me that's the wrong way to think about it as the more regularly you go the easier it is.

And man did it downpour right when I was leaving work tonight and all the way on the drive home, kind of reminded me of driving through whiteouts up north when it's snowing so bad that you can't see 10 feet in front of you (well, not quite that bad). Plus it was thunder & lightning so I knew that Montie wasn't gonna be a happy camper, and when I came in the door he wasn't waiting for me as usual. I ended up walking around the house two times going into each room looking for him as I wanted to know what he was doing, only to find him in my bedroom bathroom bathtub behind the blue shower curtain and he sure was happy to see me. And of course my bed comforter was all tore up again, I kind of think that he hides underneath it thinking that he'll be safe there - and these are all new habits he's picked up over the last year ...... he's becoming more of a baby every day.

Oh, and work went better today, another Sales Strategy Prep day but I'm doing ok and only slightly ahead of schedule. It's going to be another one of those weeks when no one is around and it'll probably be me and two or three others, hardly worth all the work I put into it. But at least I get to blow off next week as I leave town on Thursday, so that was enough of an incentive for me to do this one. Otherwise work has been busy but going ok, things are starting to come together again. And I guess that's about it for now, I should call my brother again to see if his daughter had her baby two days ago as planned, plus I need to write a note to my Uncle who sent me a "what's up" email as I don't hear from all too often. Happy Thursday to ya - remember, it's all downhill from here :)

posted by Scott @ 9:18 PM

God tv sucks these days, between the Fear Factor and Meet my Parents, what is this world coming to :?) Ended up finding a repeat of Law & Order on just now or I'd have nothing to watch, hopefully I won't have seen it more than five times all ready. And it was one of those kind of days where nothing really special happened, didn't have much fun and was just kind of blah all day long. It rained again today just like it monsooned yesterday, probably has something to do with that Big Bertha front that's just to our west. I guess that's it's about that time of year for things to be heating up and heading in our direction, lets just hope that it's nothing major and is a repeat of last year. At least we can use the rain, rained alot this year compared to the last couple which is good to see it back to normal.

I'm still watching those two other hotels for a friend while she's away at the funeral for her grandpa, I think that she gets back tomorrow which will be a good thing as covering four hotels is a little too much and I get all confused as to what hotel I'm logged into at the time. And those two hotels sure do have some business on the books, makes my other two hotels look like cake-walk compared to them. It should be a pretty uneventful week though, have a Staff Meeting tomorrow which isn't all that much fun, plus I realized that I've got a dentist appointment Wednesday morning. That should go pretty smooth as I'm not having any troubles, but it's time again for the full xray thing and that's never a ride in the park.

Well, I should end this and give my brother a call to see if he's gotten back to work yet after his appendix surgery - I tried last night but all I got was a busy signal so someone must have been on line all evening. So, until another day I hope that you are happy and that all is well with you. Talk to you later.

posted by Scott @ 10:20 PM

Saturday night and not too much to report, but I think that I did figure out that comment link above where you can leave a comment if you want, that is I did if it's still there when I upload these comments. Go ahead and try it, leave a little mark on the Life of the Shanno - I know that you can do it! And I also fixed my clock on my desktop pc today too, found a fix file on the Dell download site that was for exactly the problem that I was having as sometimes the clock would stop at will whenever it wanted and I'm hoping this fixes it once and for all. I also updated my flash bios file to a much newer one and made it through that upgrade too, it always kind of scares me that I'll make it worse trying to make things better.

I also got my lawn all done again and dang if it ain't hot around these parts, sweated my butt off again but got some pretty good sun. Sunscreen, it's all new to me but works wonders, can't believe that I didn't try it earlier in life! And the yard is making a slow comeback and will probably buy some more grass plugs tomorrow and plant them next week - at least they seem to be helping a little bit, I think. I also raked up some more as that seems to help, but even this evening when I thought that things were cooling down it was still hotter than heck.

Well, I can't think of much else to write other than work is oversold and they called me to make sure that I closed out the hotel. I think that August should be a pretty good month actually - things ain't slowing down yet but September and October should be interesting, especially as compared to last year. Well, I'll talk to you later - have a nice relaxing Sunday and get some rest as Monday will be here before you know it! Good night.

posted by Scott @ 10:35 PM

It was another good day, at least the day went ok and we all made it through it ....... so I guess that's all that we can ever ask for! And tomorrow is all ready Friday again and it's all ready August - two more weeks from today and I'll be off to my reunion :) It should be an interesting trip though, five days in the paradise of Upstate NY!!! All is well really though, everyone showed up for work today so for starters that's enough. But the office is starting to mesh, the new girl is learning more each day and my Supervisor is filling in for my Group Coordinator while she's on vacation and is doing fine and they are leaving me alone for the most part. Oh, and my Sales Strategy Meeting went well, not a whole lot of attendees again but at least most of the important ones showed up.

I did get some bad news though from a friend that her Grandfather passed away today and she asked me to fill in and watch out for her hotels while she is gone this weekend. I said yes without a second thought as I know that she'd do that for me - I just want her to leave and not think about anything other than spending the time with her family. I know it's rough, no matter who it is or how old they are, but the guy was 95 so I guess that it was his time to move on to a better place. I've always said that I only want to live till I'm 58, still say that today and even told my Mom that and while she thought that I was crazy I have my own reasons for it ...... isn't 58 years on this earth long enough to live :?) I know, I'm weird but I don't want to grow old, guess it's the old ladies that I used to watch pushing grocery carts down the streets of LA that were all hunched over and had to be in pain - I say enjoy your health while you're healthy and that's enough, it's downhill from there. How the heck I got started on that conversation or why the heck I'm sharing that tid-bit of my life on here I'm not sure, check back with me in 20 years :)

Not too much going on tomorrow so it should be a good catch up day, need to continue to work on Budget '03 but my boss is working on entering group rooms so I have to wait until he's done. And not all that much out of the ordinary planned for the weekend either but we'll see how it goes. And that's about it for another day, I know that I was all over the place (again!) and I apologize, but hope that you enjoyed reading it just the same. Have a GREAT Friday and a very nice weekend, and I'll talk with you again sometime in the near future. Ta-ta till other day :o)~

posted by Scott @ 10:23 PM