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

Short one tonight just to let you know that I'm still alive and kicking, but I'm beat as all heck and have been working on pc's for 12 hours a day lately :( My first Sales Strategy Meeting of the week is done and it went mucho better than last week's, and I have the other one tomorrow and then the week will be pretty much over at that point. Not much else to report though, it rained all afternoon but was warmer - I didn't even think that it was going to rain even though they said it would. I'm also not sure what the forecast is for the weekend but I think that the wet stuff has moved on, so if we are lucky it might be somewhat of a decent weekend.

I still haven't started my Business Plan that is due tomorrow, but guess that was the unofficial dream date and isn't being mailed until next Friday so that might be my project for the weekend. I've opened up the file a few times but I get this wrenching feeling in my tummy as to how long it's going to take and what a waste of time it's going to be ...... certainly not looking forward to it that's for sure. I also have to do a presentation at our Sales Rally come the end of February, I'm trying not to think about it yet so that I don't freak out but I need to work on that sometime soon too. My office is full of trainees too, and it's starting to bother me how weak most of my staff is these days - just another thing to add to my plate.

I guess that's about all that I can think to report on, I just hope that I can get lots of sleep this weekend as I can tell that I really need it. It might also be a Monto-Haircut weekend too (by moi :), plus my front lawn could use a mowing if I get around to it. So, I guess that I'll end this now and talk with you another day - hope you have a GREAT weekend and hope that all is well with you.

posted by Scott @ 10:22 PM

Today was like Springtime in Florida ..... blue skies and highs in the 60's, still a tad bit chilly but mucho better than a week ago. And not too bad a day at that, at least thus far I'm still on schedule and got my to-do list done for the day but we'll see how the rest of the week pans out. I still haven't even started my Business Plan and that's due on Friday, but I guess that's what they get for giving me one weeks notice for something that's been around for the last three.

I was watching the President's State of the Union Address for a while and he's convinced me that we need to take out Saddam, then I got bored listening to him and all of the clapping and found Happy Gilmore on USA and that's a heck of a good movie. Not too much else to report though other than we got our W2's yesterday so I guess that I can get started on completing my taxes, guess there is no rush but I'm always pretty prompt ...... but I guess that all depends on whether I'm getting a refund or paying this year. One of my friends also sent me a couple of dvd's to copy for her and spent the evening trying to get one of them to rip but couldn't do it even with my little dvd-fixer machine ....... had a crack in the edge I think that was what was throwing me. In finally gave up and got the other one to work but it's still kind of frustrating.

Not much else to report though other than I tried shaving Montie's ears as they are all bushy and he all ready has issues with his ears not breathing (think it's a cocker breed thing) and he took it ok and now it's getting close to doing the rest of his body ...... but that'll probably be this weekend before I get around to it. I do really like my new clippers though, nice and quiet and Montie barely knows that they are running, so I think that I might have him in tip-top shape in no time. And my office is like one big training program as I've to two new agents and another that I promoted to a new position so it's like everyone is in training ...... take alot out of you if you know what I mean. I also didn't even have enough working computers yesterday for everyone to work on - so now I've got to try and buy a new terminal sometime soon.

Well, I guess that's it for another day - time to kick back and watch a little Happy before it's time to call it a night. I'll talk with you soon, and I hope that all is well with you too ....... all's kewl with me today :) Good Night.

posted by Scott @ 10:22 PM

I guess that this weekend is just about done, not too bad of one but didn't do a whole lot. Yesterday I spent 1/2 my day trying to get caught up on work, then we all went bowling at Rocket Lanes which was kind of fun. And man if there weren't alot of people from the Marriott there - don't think that 1/2 of them knew the other half was even going to be there and it was just a coincidence that everyone showed up. It was a pretty cool place too and have never been there but the place was huge - at least 20 lanes of alleys and a full arcarde, a bar, tons of pool tables and even one of those mechanical bulls but I didn't try that. Even though it's been at least a couple of years since I last bowled, I did pretty well and my moment of fame was getting three strikes in a row in the 10th frame .... but think that my high score was only like 120 or something. It was more fun than it was competition, and no one was even keeping score anyways.

And I got my haircut yesterday too but I'm still working on getting one for the Hairbag that I call Montie, but did buy a dog grooming kit at Walmart tonight so I think that I'll give it a try myself. Anything is better than taking him back to that place that he hates, and I can't put him through that again. I did shave his nose tonight as it was all sticking up all over the place and I'm surprised that he could even see through all of the hair, and he took it rather well so I think that he might let me do the rest of him. I think that it's one of those things that I need to do outside, otherwise my house would be covered with hair that I'd never be able to get rid of.

I didn't watch any of the Superbowl but that's ok, at least I've still got NBC with my regular shows on so I'm doing ok - no Boomtown on tonight but at least Law & Order is so that's just about as well. And I think that it's going to be another busy week - I have this stupid Marketing Plan that is suppose to be due on Friday that is going to take hours to complete. And the stupid thing is is that we did one when we were completing our budget and now that that's approved this is pretty much just a waste of time. But that'll be my week me thinks, I don't think that there is any way of getting out of it. I'm also in the process of helping a girl from work set up a website to help her rent her property rentals and this challenge might be kind of fun, but first I had to pick out a Dell pc for her and her husband to buy and then we'll go from there. We'll see if they end up buying the computer that I recommended - or if they go with the Compaq that they found at al local store.

And I guess that's about it - sorry but no exciting news to report this evening. So, I'll talk with you in another day or two - things are warming up slightly here and think that one day last week it got down to 16' ...... and like 11' is the lowest it's ever been. We are back in the 50's for this week I think - cool but at least it's not freezing cold. I'll talk with you all again - and hope that you have a GREAT beginning to the new week. Good night.

ps ..... I had someone tell me today that when they go to my Daily Life thing that some days the comments for the new day are on top of the prior day and I'm not too sure why that's happening, maybe it's cuz they are using Netscape and not MS Explorer ..... but I am wondering if you could leave me a note in the comment section if that's happening to you too and I'll have to look into it.

posted by Scott @ 10:24 PM

Sorry, not comments tonight as I ended up updating the bios on my laptop instead, plus I had a really crappy day and don't want to share ..... at least if nothing else tomorrow is finally Friday!!! But it'll be another rough one, got Sales Strategy Meeting for my other hotel and both Year End Forecasts are due - so if I don't finish that tomorrow that'll be my weekend ........ seems like all I do these days is work :(

At least we are having a bowling party on Saturday night between my office and Accounting - so at least that'll be a little fun even if it is bowling ....... I used to be ok at it but it's been a couple of years. And dang if it's not cold here - suppose to be 20' so most likely it's a tad bit chilly in your world as well. Well, the news is just about on so I'm gonna run - all is kewl with me otherwise. Good night for now, talk with you later.

posted by Scott @ 11:00 PM

Man if I'm not over all of these "reality" shows that they've got on these days - and can't find anything on tv to watch tonight other than the movie The Others ...... I've seen it before and it's a pretty freaky movie but I've only got time to watch the first half of it. And it was a beautiful weather day, mid to upper 60's and felt just like spring had arrived - much different than our weather from only two days ago!

And the days are getting longer too, as it used to be pitch black at 5:30 pm when I'd drive home but now it's barely dark by the time that I get home so I know that things are changing for the better ...... only a couple of more months and the trees will be blooming once again. That's all that I've got to say tonight though - I hope that you have a great rest of the week and that you keep on smiling as it's almost downhill into another weekend ...... well, kind of anyways :o)~

posted by Scott @ 10:32 PM

Evening everyone, and dang if there isn't anything to watch on tv tonight! And the weekend is just about over, guess that it was ok but didn't do all too much as it was mighty cold yesterday and didn't allow me to do much outside. I think that it barely got over 40' yesterday and think that it was down to like 24' Friday night, but at least today it was back into the 50's with 60' temps here again by the end of the week.

My biggest accomplishment yesterday was that I went out and painted one side of the garage door, took it off the hinges and layed it out in the garage and took two coats before the white paint actually covered the gray door. The thing was that I wasn't even sure that the paint was going to dry with it being so cold out, but I went out there today and it actually turned out pretty good. You can see my door by clicking here, and another one by clicking here ...... so tell me - do you think the white door looks better than a gray one? At least I think that it does.

Today I pretty much spent the entire day just cleaning the house and doing laundry and went and shopped for groceries. And for some reason, I've been hot all day and kept turning the heat down and think that it was cuz I was wearing a sweatshirt but not too sure if that was it - who knows, maybe I'm running a fever or something and have been pretty stuffy the last couple of mornings. I just hope that's the worst that it gets and that I'll be back to normal tomorrow - guess I'll find out soon enough.

Oh, and my brother-in-law called me today (and I was thinking about that term and don't really like it, it's like he's my brother by law, now how personal is that :?). He wanted to make sure that I tried to come up to Albany for the 4th of July weekend as they are throwing a party for my neice's graduation and wanted me to know that I was invited. I'll have to see how it goes as we get closer, I would like to try and make it if I can. I was also filling him in on dvd burners and home theater systems - and once again if you need anything for your computer buy it at Tigerdirect.com as I swear that they have the lowest prices for everything that you need.

I guess that's about it for another day, should be a pretty normal week other than we've got Staff and Credit meeting on Tuesday along with the normal Forecast Meeting, so that'll make for somewhat of a useless day. And I've hired everyone that I need and guess that I have another week before everyone is in place and begin their training programs. And dang - just in time as it's starting to really get rather busy as we begin to get ready for Spring Break which is right around the corner. So, good night and I'll talk with you another day - and hope you have a GREAT week. Ta-ta till then :)

posted by Scott @ 10:25 PM

I guess that there's just one more day and another one will be done, and not too bad a week at that I guess. We were really oversold last night and tonight but luckily we had a bunch of noshows last night and we fit them all in ....... I kind of like it when my gut feeling comes out right! The desk had originally wanted to start relocating people first thing yesterday morning and I didn't quite agree and don't think that I made too many friends but at least it worked out exactly like I had thought - and tonight dropped along with it perfectly and it was a pretty calm day. Still pretty busy through Saturday - then I don't think that we have another sellout until like March 1st.

I also made some major headway on filling my vacant positions, one started yesterday and I promoted another one to fill the coordinator slot and I had all ready had their replacement hired by the time that we made the decision to put the promotion through. So I am happy to report that I'll be full staffed come another week - not that anyone will know what they are doing but that's a different story all together :)

Oh, and while I'm watching this tax commercial, I wanted to recommend another site that I've used for at least the last three years, last year they saved me some big bucks that I hadn't even realized and I really like how they work things. It's H&R Block on-line, you answer the survey and fill in the blanks - they check it and tell you if you missed anything and then when you are ready they file it and you have your refund in no time. You can even ask them questions along the way if there is stuff that you aren't sure of, all done on the web and through e-mail. If you do it though, get the $49 version versus the $19 one especially if you think that you want them to review it and have someone to ask questions to - they give you your own personal tax adviser. The link is H&R Block.com and they even preloaded all of my information from last year into this year's return so I don't even have to fill in all that much stuff.

And I also had a friend mail me back a couple of dvd's that I had sent but her dvd player couldn't read - guess that she has a dvd- player and I have a dvd+ burner and thought that I might be able to figure something out, but after reading stuff on it last night it's like vhs & beta - they compete directly with each other and they aren't compatible. So I guess the only solution is that I either buy a dvd- burner or she buys a dvd+ player, guess that's no solution at all. It's amazing at how new all of that technology is though, started in like 1999 and the dvd+ came out in 2000, started at thousands of dollars and all ready it's down to a couple of hundred bucks. They also figured that in another couple of years the compatibility issue would be a mute point - or they would have a new media format out to replace dvd's so it wouldn't matter anyways.

I guess that's all she wrote for tonight, it's been one long week and I'll be glad once tomorrow is over. If I don't write more before the weekend I hope that you have a GREAT one, and I'll talk with you again one of these days. Night for now, stay warm wherever you may live ...... and also - remember to SMILE :o)

posted by Scott @ 10:26 PM

Not too much to report today but thought that I should write, the week is busy and I'm short staffed but other than that no major issues to report. My weekly meeting schedule is all messed up as we had a pre-con for a group today when we would normally have our Forecast Meeting, so that got moved until tomorrow morning so tomorrow is going to be messed up too. I did get more than the normal done today which is a good thing - so as long as I can keep up on the trend than all is well.

I also got a new laser jet cartridge for my home pc printer today as I got sick of trying to shake it up time and time again. And I'd recommend Office Depot for that sort of thing, order it yesterday and it's at my door today - and is even less expensive than if I had taken my old one in to be refilled. I also got a DVD Doctor thing to fix dvd's that I have errors with and can't read, and while I was a little skeptical about it working I had issues with another one tonight and that fixed me right up - think that it might do the trick for any of those more challenging ones that I come across. And for only $15 if it works most of the time it's definitely worth the frustration that I experience when I get 90% through one of them and it errors out on me.

I also have a new girl starting tomorrow and it could make for an interesting office, not too sure how well she will "gel" with the rest of the gang but guess that time will tell soon enough. I think that she'll do find and pick up things quickly and guess that in the end that's all that really matters ....... besides, I'm sure that the others will come to accept her at some point. Still need to hire someone for my other position and if I promote one than that opens up another position to fill ...... won't things ever end! And this week is dang busy as I'm VERY oversold for tomorrow and Thursday, I still think that it'll wash but guess that I'll know for sure in another day or so.

And I guess that's about all I've got for today - but oh, before I forget here are a couple of kewl links (Pam, you've seen them before as you sent them to me!) .........

Earth view from space at night...... http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg AND
AC-130 gun ship's 105 mm howitzer video http://www.kingstonco.com/images/ac130_gunshipMed.wmv

Big files so you might need broadband to enjoy - and speakers wouldn't hurt for the video either! Good night from PCB - best wishes on your hump and I'll talk with you sometime soon. Good night.

posted by Scott @ 10:30 PM

Well, another weekend has come and gone and it's back to the grind in the morning. I didn't end up doing all that much either but did finally go out yesterday and took the side door on my garage off and painted the frame ...... about six months overdue but it does look beautiful at this point. I still need to paint the actual door too as the one that I bought is gray and it should be white, so I bought some rustolium paint tonight so at least I can just go out and do the rest of it one of these days. Oh, and I got my car adapter for my cell phone yesterday and it's really kewl, it takes my startac phone and the thing plugs into the cigarette lighter and then turns it into a speaker phone and even works very well too ..... looks pretty darn cool too. I also ordered a new battery for it as it wasn't holding a charge but that hasn't come yet, but now I'm not even sure if I need it for the car as it's always charging when it's in it's thing. Oh well, at least it'll be charged if I take it out of the thing.

I also bought some steaks at the grocery store today too and grilled one up on my new George Forman grill and the thing is sweet, heats up in less than 5 minutes and is done in another five, so Montie and I blew off our usual Sunday night Wendy's dinner and ate very well tonight. I think that I'm going to like the thing very much and even the clean up is a breeze! I also ended up shredding a bunch of old bills today too, can't believe how big one pile of bills gets after it's shredded as it filled an entire garbage bag.

Not all that much else to report though, the house is clean and all of my homework is done and guess that I'm ready to get back at it and do it all over again. At least I'm thinking that it's going to be a normal week, still need to hire two new people and get them trained before things will be back to normal. It's cold around these parts too, it was close to 70' on Friday and then it has been down in the 30's each night since - and even sprinkled a little bit this evening too but never did really rain. I'm not even sure what the forecast is for the rest of the week, but guess that it really doesn't matter anyways.

Well, I guess that I'm gonna kick back and watch another episode of Boomtown andthen call it a night - so I'll catch ya on the flip side if you know what I mean. Talk with you later, and I hope that you all have a GREAT week.

posted by Scott @ 10:25 PM

I guess that the hump is done, not much to report other than it was a very nice and sunny weather day ....... mid-60's at least. Started out rather cold this morning though as we had frost on the ground early so hopefully that helped to kill off some more of the crabgrass if nothing else. Had a couple of interviews for the postions that I have open and think that I've got a plan, now I just have to see if I can sell it to the rest of the higher-ups. And today we had three meetings that took up about 2 1/2 hours of my day - all on my normal Sales Strategy Meeting prep day at that.

But I guess that I did getting ready for my meeting even with that, and should be ready by the time tomorrow afternoon rolls around. Not much else to report other than I spent last evening trying to copy a couple of dvd's for a friend and after about 4 tries and 2 hours later I finally found out that the error that I was getting was from a bad disk - and it was straight out of the box and it was all ready messed up. Once I tried another one the rest of the process went smoothly - and I got both of them copied and mailed them off this morning.

I also must have slept wrong on my neck as it's been in pain all day, not sure what it is but it's still kind of sore tonight. I'm just hoping that it goes away tomorrow that's for sure. I really guess that's it and about all I have for today - all is still well in the life of the shanno and hope that everything is going well with you too. I'll talk with you in a day or two, we'll see what the ole schedule permits. Nite for now, ta-ta till later :)

posted by Scott @ 10:26 PM

Welcome, Monday is done and it wasn't all that bad - at least I survived the day! And I finally got my Tigerdirect.com order with some more blank dvds that I had been waiting for and I also got my USB hub that takes one USB connector out of the pc and makes it 7 connections - a pretty sweet invention for only $20! As you see, with all of the crap I've got connected to it all ready, like my palm, my scanner, my wireless network, my digital cam not to mention a few other things my poor little webcam has been unplugged for months, beat out by other devices I guess. But I got that working again and even turned it on a little tonight, at least there is a new picture up and think that the the last one was from back in October or something. I'll try to do better from now on - at least it's plugged in now so all I have to do is open up the shutter :)

And the highlight of my day was in saving this poor little bird that was out back at the hotel, he got trapped in a drain bucket and he could have probably crawled out of it but every time he tried to fly out his wings were too wide to make it. I heard something but didn't know what it was - then caught him moving out of the corner of my eye and walked over to see what it was - only to see the poor little guy trapped inside and freaking out. I tried to move the pipe so that he could fly out but didn't have any luck with that - then I radioed one of the Engineers (my hero Jimmy!) who showed up and reached in and picked him up. Then he set him down and he flew away, no worse from the wear as far as I could tell. Made me feel good to help him out though, I was still waiting for him to come back and tell me thanks but he never did ...... but guess that's not why I did it in the first place.

My girls also surprised me with a birthday party with cake and card, and they even gave me a George Forman grill which was awefully sweet. My birthday fell on Sunday this year and I thought when I made it through Friday that I was home free, but nope they couldn't let it pass without doing something. It was a very nice gesture on their part though but I also guess that I expected no less either.

I guess those are about all of the highlights of my day, should be a busy rest of the week and this is the week of our montly Staff Meeting - which got moved for some reason from Tuesday to Wednesday and is even worse in fitting into my schedule. Oh, and I just remembered that I booked the Oscar Mayer Weenie Mobile to stay with us the next few nights starting tomorrow - and their big selling point in getting me to give them a good room rate was parking the thing in our parking lot ....... like that's going to bring me alot of extra business! Well, make it a GREAT week, look for more later one and I'm doing well - and hope that you are doing the same! Good night for now - talk with you again sometime soon.

posted by Scott @ 10:29 PM

Well, I guess that our final holiday weekend is over and it's back to work in the morning, I'm kind of hoping that it's back to business as normal come tomorrow. I didn't do all that much this weekend but the weather sure was nice, mid 60's both yesterday and today and got out there and took down the xmas lights hanging all over the house and things are back to normal - landscaping lights back on and all. I also did a little bit more weeding and raking and have the front yard looking as good as it can for this time of year and guess that it doesn't look all too bad. I was going to pressure wash a little bit of the house too but never got around to it, but guess that there will be other weekends for that.

I also watched a couple of good movies this weekend too, dvd's actually and Friday night I watched Bad Company and last night I watched John Q and still even have a few more to watch yet too. I'm also in need of a couple of good people as I now have two positions posted and need to fill them rather quickly before we get into Spring Break too deep. So the office is definitely going to be short-handed for the next few weeks but I'm not going to rush in filling one of them as I really need to find the right person as the position makes a huge impact in my life so I have to find someone that I can really work with. But that means interviewing all of these people most of who I wouldn't even consider but guess that the more people I talk to the better my chances are of finding the right people. It's going to be a rough couple of months most likely, but hopefully it'll all work out in the end.

I guess that's about it, nothing else comes to me so I guess that I'll just watch the rest of Boomtown and call it a night. I'll talk with you all again sometime soon - hope you have a GREAT week and that you make the best of what comes your way, at least say you'll try to, ok :?) Good night, talk with you again sometime soon.

posted by Scott @ 10:21 PM

Man, I feel like I got run over by a train today and guess that 1/2 of the world finally went back to work ....... just an overall crazy one for sure. And even though I spent about 3 hours yesterday getting ready for my Strategy Meeting this afternoon I was still scrambling all day to get ready for it, then that put me behind in getting ready for my other one tomorrow and I'm still not ready for that. And e-mail was crazy today - everyone (except Pam) wanted something! At least it's hard to believe that tomorrow is all ready Friday again - seems like it was just a weekend a couple of days ago :)

I also spent yesterday and went out and pressure washed my patio, well more of a cement slab that has been looking kind of nasty with the rust from the sprinklers and other green stuff so that's looking better today - but now that it's dry I might have to go out and try again. And if you hadn't noticed I changed the template on my website yesterday too, have wanted to do it for the past couple of months and finally found one that I could live with. Now I have to change all of the other pages to match it - have all ready done the main pics page and the webcam page - and also redid the Blog page last night too (in case you didn't notice). But I do enjoy doing stuff like that, certainly isn't work to me and is almost kind of fun (well, except for working out all of the bugs!). And that "welcome to scotthanno.com logo at the top of the page took me like an hour and a half before I found the right font, the right color and the right size - that was truly a pain my in butt.

Today was an awesome weather day too, mid 60's and sunshine and wished that it was like that yesterday ...... but oh well and word has it that there is a cold front on the way and will be here like Saturday. Heard it was suppose to be down to like 28' one of these nights - BRRRRR chill :) I need to take down my xmas lights from outside this weekend - but would like to get a picture first at night before I do that. Otherwise no real plans, guess I'll see what comes my way.

And that's it, it's been a long day and I'm just kicking back watching another ER repeat, then the news and then it's off to bed. So, I'll talk with you again one of these days - got lots of movies to watch this weekend so we'll see when I can find the time to write again. Good night and just think - we've only got to wait until Memorial Day before we get another paid holiday off, bummer huh, but that's only five short months away!!! :( Nito for another day!

posted by Scott @ 10:39 PM

Evening all and this will be a short one, was on my way to bed but just wanted to wish everyone a happy and healthy 2003! It's only 11:15pm here but I just watched the ball drop in Times Square a few moments ago, guess that I'm still a native "Eastern Time Zone" kind of guy and it's all ready the New Year for me. I'm also not much of a resolution kind of person, all I can hope for is for more of the same - if not an improvement to our every day lives to make this year an even better year than the last. Sure, I'm sure that I could say a few things that I would like to change, but I guess that my heart ain't in it so I'm not committing - sorry but I'm happy and healthy and that's all that really matters :o)

Work went fine today and it poured here all day ..... more like monsooned and my New Years Eve package sales went great - did alot better than I had even thought we'd do and that's a good way to end another month for sure. No plans for tomorrow but hoping that the rains have moved on and I'd like to spend the day outside - we'll see how things go. Still loving these work two, take a day off, work two and then it's the weekend but I guess that's about to come to an end - bummer is all that I can say!

Night - happy New Year's again and I'll speak with you all in the new year - feel free to leave me a comment as I haven't been getting many of them ...... kind of getting a complex again :) Whoof, Monto says the same - and also nito from the Monto :)

posted by Scott @ 12:15 AM