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

Ahhh, what a wonderful weather weekend ..... sunshine and mid 70's, couldn't have asked for anything better! I spent the day yesterday outside working on the yard all day, mowed it first and then went to Lowe's and picked up 20 squares of St. Augustine sod, then came home and spent about 3 hours "sprigging" more of the back yard - slowliy but surely I think that it's going to come around. I also think that I did a much better job than the guys who I paid to do a pallot two weeks ago, they just dug a ditch and dropped it in while I on the other hand carefully buried it and filled in the hole while allowing the grass to peak out the top - I bet that mine grows alot better than their's did that's for sure. I also guess that I didn't water it enough after they planted that stuff as some of it dried out and died and I certainly won't let that happen again. I also bought a bag of Weed & Feed and spread that out last night, probably shouldn't have as I don't think that my Pest Control company would approve but I thought that it needed something and couldn't wait another three weeks for them to come back.

That's about it for the weekend though, spent today cleaning and doing laundry and got some groceries, I always seem to spend alot of time doing nothing on Sunday's and always seem to be running behind. And my boss's last day was Thursday of last week, they announced his replacement on Friday so I guess that means that I've got a new boss all ready but it's still too early to tell what that means for me. It should be a pretty quiet week though as I don't think that I have any deadlines to meet, other than my MIS person is out for the week so I get to fill in for her if anything comes up so I guess we'll see. I also bought a bunch of health food instead of candy to take into the office this week - I threatened the girls that the time for candy has come to an end so we'll see if they eat what I bought - it should be interesting seeing those looking for a treat find the new stuff - maybe they won't be back again.

I guess that's about all that I can think of for now, still waiting for my movies to arrive that were mailed last Monday and ended up having to watch repeats this weekend - that was kind of a bummer but I'm hoping that they show up sometime in the near future. I hope that you have a wonderfull start to the new week, and feel free to drop me a note if you need anything at all. Otherwise I'll talk to you on another day - make the most of what comes your way! Night :)

posted by Scott @ 10:34 PM

It was a pretty darn good weekend, weather was good and I accompished all of my stuff - the lawn is mowed for another week. And I'm starting to actually have hope for my backyard and had thought that all of the sprigs of grass that they planted more than a week ago were just going to die and do nothing but in looking at them yesterday they just might stay around for a while. I was also shocked yesterday as after I had finished up doing everything outside I was just kicking back inside when the phone rang - it was my new lawn pest control service guy! He stopped over to take a look at how things had done since they serviced it the Saturday before and he now wants me to water it every day for a while as he's trying for heavy growth. I guess it was so hard to believe that he would actually check in on me more than the once a month I pay him for, as I never heard from my last company other than once every six weeks when they were here. I'm starting to think that I made a really good decision on switching companies, we'll see how the lawn does over the next month or so.

I also planted some flowers last evening right before it got dark, I bought a ton of marigolds the week before and never got around to planting them and they were just about dead. I planted them out front so I'll see if they survive, I guess that if they don't than I'll just pluck them up and plant something else - at least it adds a little bit of color to all of the bushes that I have out there. I also put a picture of my palm tree on my front page, I cut down three ugly trees that were growing in with it last week while I was on vacation (stumps and all, and they were a killer) and planted some sago palms and some of those green things, it looks mucho better than it did and kind of puts the focus on the tree itself. Not the best picture and wish the grass was greener - but give me a couple of months and I'll see what it looks like then.

Oh, and Happy Easter everyone and I hope that you spent it just how you had wanted to - my boss invited me over for dinner but I declined as I had too many things to do around here. I did end up grilling some burgers on the grill and cooked up some corn on the cob, along with some onion rings and it made for a mighty fine dinner tonight. I do need to use my grill more and never think how easy it is to use so I'll have to try and do that more often. I also bought some spicy Heinz ketchup that's got one heck of a kick - guess that it's mixed with tabasco sauce and makes for one hot tasty spice! Some guy also came up to me right as I was finishing up the cooking of the burgers and wanted to sell me a lawn mower out of the back of his truck, I thought about it for a moment as my self-propelled one isn't self-propelling any more for some strange reason but it was a beat up big ole thing - I declined.

I guess that's about it for tonight, think that it might be a fairly busy week at work as I've got to complete another year end forecast and I'm sure that we are having a going away party for my boss one of these nights before he's gone on Thursday. So, here's to another Easter that has come and gone - and guess that in no time summer will be upon us ...... can you believe how quickly April just flew right by :?) Good night and hope you have a great week - and I'll talk with you again on another day.

posted by Scott @ 10:29 PM

Well, my week has come to an end and it's back to work tomorrow but I guess that's ok as I was running out of things to do. Not a bad week overall though and got everything that I had wanted to do done and even stayed pretty caught up with work so I shouldn't have too bad of a day tomorrow. My sod man finally got around to showing up on Saturday and "sprigged" my backyard which made things look even worse than before but I'm hoping that it won't look as bad as it does now for too long and that the St Augustine actualy starts to grow. And man - in looking back at some of my photos from last year's vacation what a yard I had then compared to this year, can't believe all I did to mess things up. I also have to blame Chemlawn too as they didn't do squat to help improve things, glad that I got rid of them and started with the new company - who also came on Saturday for my first treatment.

I actually think that I'm going to like my new lawn service alot more and when the owner came over on Thursday to measure things he gave me alot of information that I actually believed, he couldn't believe that the last company let my yard get so bad and told me that I should have called him a year ago before I messed with the crabgrass thing - he said that he could have taken care of it and wouldn't have even messed up the grass. But guess that it's too late for that and now all I can do is see what I can make of it for the rest of the summer, anything is better than what I have now.

I also bought a new battery for my cordless phone tonight as the old one wasn't holding a charge, asked the guy if it was the right one and he said "Yup, as long as the connector is the same it should work fine". So I bought it and brought it home and plugged it in - and out came this little white cloud of smoke and now my phone is dead. I think that I fried it and that the voltage wasn't the same, think that it was too strong and think that it's now gone. I bought a few flowers tonight too that I want to plant out front, think they are marigolds but I'm not too good with flowers. Barbacued a nice steak on the grill for dinner just to round out an overall good week.

Well, I guess that's about all that I have to say - gonna kick back for a bit and watch the rest of Boomtown. Here's hoping you have a great week with whatever comes your way, and I'll try and do the same. Night.

posted by Scott @ 10:26 PM

Ok, the week is just about over and my to-do list is just about complete - if you wanna see what I've been doing you can take a look here ........ everything here has been completed!

VACATION PLANNER
Week of April 5th - 13th, 2003

Saturday

• Plug Front Lawn
• Rake Front Yard
• Mow Lawn
• Cut Down (2) Trees by Palm
• De-Iron 1/3 of Driveway
• Type Up Strategy Meet Minutes

Sunday

• Clean House
• Get Groceries

Monday

• Go to Lowes, Palm Tree Tropics, Sprinkler Hose, Heads, Glue, Connectors
• Wash East (Front) Side of House

Tuesday

• Cut Down (1) Tree by Palm

Wednesday

• Cut Down (3) Stumps by Palm

Thursday

• Wash South Side of House
• Design & Install Palm Tree Planter

Friday

• Move/Adjust Sprinklers
• Massage Appointment @ 4PM

Saturday

• Mow Lawn & Detail
• Paint Garage Door
• Haircut
• Got Lawn Sprigged
• 1st Lawn Treatment by SWAT, fertilized and pesticided

posted by Scott @ 2:18 PM

All is well with the vacation thus far, had a rainy day today but still spent a little bit of time outside but had to come in when the rain got to be too much. I'm also doing a little too much work-work too and hope that it calms down towards the end of the week which I figure that it should, but between yesterday and today they are kind of wearing me out! Had a nice day yesterday even though it was suppose to rain but was just a little cloudy and was fine by me - and the good news is that the sun is suppose to return first thing in the morning tomorrow and then be around for like the next 10 days :)

I pressure washed the front of my house yesterday and love my pressure washer even more with my new hose, and instead of being 25' the new one is 50' which is great as I can just park the thing and move all around the yard. And that side of the house has never looked better, looks brand new and there was even one section that I hadn't done for quite a while and was a little green with mold, but that's all gone and even cleaned of the roof a little bit too (I really got into it and even broke out the ladder!). I still want to do at least one more side and think that the south side is on the to-do list for tomorrow, might be Thursday though and I'm not sure. I went to Home Depot yesterday after that and got my sprinkler supplies which is another project that I need to do, seems my neighbor has issues with my sprinklers hitting his house so I need to readjust them ...... or build a fence so that I wouldn't have to look at him! I'll try moving the sprinklers first and see where that goes, and then if that doesn't work I might move on to option #2.

Still trying to get my sod guy out here but he's not real good about showing up when he says he's going to, but he did come over on Saturday at the appointed time and we walked the yard and I told him what I was looking for. He had the brilliant idea to tell me that he needs to "sprig" it instead of laying sod - guess that they dig up strips of the bare spots and then put down strips of grass which he says should spread in no time. I loved the idea and told him to go for it and he thought that he could do it this week, now I just have to get him to show up one of these days. I knew I'd have to call him for an update - so tomorrow is the day and I'll see where he is at. I just remember working with him when he was doing my well, took me at least three weeks of pestering him to get him to show up. Oh, and I also fired my Chemlawn people yesterday - they haven't done squat for me other than to kill some additional yard, and I'm in contact with a company that my sod guy highly recommended - so I have all ready decided to go with them (and I'm still waiting for them to show up too, was suppose to be either yesterday or today but nada, what is wrong with these people :?).

I guess that's about all of the updates that I have for this day, I hope to have some pics towards the end of the week of a few of the projects but we'll see. I did take some "before" pics yesterday and hope to show some with an improvement here and there but I'll see if I like the results first before I share them here. Well, gotta go - and dang if I'm not one beat pup (and so is the pup - he's not used to having to stay awake and active all day!). Good night - and hope the sun is shining where you live tomorrow!

posted by Scott @ 10:27 PM

So far so good on the beginning of my vacation, had a beautiful weather weekend and got some good sun and have my weekly to-do list all written up which should keep me nice and busy. I'll let you know what's on it on another day, but most of what I did this weekend was the usual lawn stuff, house cleaning, laundry and grocery shopping - plus a little bit of work in there too. I pulled up my to-do list from last April (same exact week) and alot of the things on it are going to be the same this year, except the major projects like the fence deal but I'll have to find something else this year to make up for it.

And man was it a great weather weekend, kind of hot yesterday and bet that it was near 80' and sunny, today was a little bit cooler but still felt wonderful. I just hope that it doesn't rain all week on my parade but looks like there is a chance on Tuesday and Wednesday but I should be ok the rest of the week. It'll probably nice to have a couple of rainy days in the middle though so that I can just kick back and lay around for a couple of days. I also think that I'm going to be liking this time change thing and tonight it didn't get dark until almost 7:30, so it'll be nice to come home at the end of the day and still be able to do something outside. It wasn't all that tough on me either as I didn't change my clocks until this morning and slept till around 8am - which was then 9am but I still had time to get all of my stuff done.

Well, I guess that's about all for the beginning of my week off, maybe I'll write more this week since hopefully I won't be all stressed out from work but I guess we'll see how things go ...... at least we can hope :) Good night and I hope you have a great week, and I'll be talking with you on another day ...... good night till then!

posted by Scott @ 10:23 PM

What a day, and it all started out with internet/e-mail issues this morning that made me go into work a couple of hours early as I couldn't do anything here, and when I should have been getting ready for my second Sales Strategy Meeting for tomorrow I got sucked into the antics of my first hotel and didn't get squat done on my prep for hotel #02. Last time I do that, that's for sure as I've been working all evening trying to catch up! At least meeting #01 went well and that's water under the bridge at this point, the war seems to be on track and it was another beautiful day and in the 70's once again.

And on another good note I got my vacation approved for next week, so after tomorrow I've got the next week off, well kind of as I had to make a deal as I only had 4 days of vacation time left. So, we settled on me taking the entire week off and me working from home for two hours a day, which is what I was shooting for as you know me and I'd do that anyways. The only trouble with picking next week though is that there is a chance of rain each day starting with Saturday, so it kind of reminds me of last year when I took the week off and it poured for three days straight (remember the fence project :?). I still need to work on my to-do list and figure out how I'm going to keep myself occupied, but I can think of alot of things that I want to do if the weather cooperates.

I also bought another Dell pc for a girl in Accounting today, I just hope that she likes it once she gets it home. And I really need to start working on a commission as that's like the 4th one that I've gotten people to buy, and the one thing that I don't like is how the deal changes from one day till the next. No free printer today and no free shipping, and the rebate was only $100 instead of $150 - so after I told her all of this and went to order it, it was no longer available from just yesterday. It still worked out ok though as the monitor was on sale and it's a sweet minature version of mine - and I know that she'll love it as much as I love mine :)

Not much else, just busy all of the time and I've got so many projects to complete that I'm not even sure that I've got time for a vacation, but I need to use the rest of my time up by the 19th of the month or I'll loose it - so what the heck, I'll get 3 times as much done in 1/3 of the time. Montie is doing well and adjusting to his new hairdoo, and I think that his whiskers might be growing back as he's not itching his nose as much these days either. Oh, and I'm also in the middle of working out a deal with the guy that installed my well last year (or was that two years ago?) as he does sod too - so he's suppose to stop by and let me know what he thinks about fixing the backyard - I was going to buy two pallots of St Augustine and lay it all myself, but he only charges $20 more to have his guys to it so that's definitely worth it. I just don't want to do the whole yard and just fill in the major holes, not sure if he can figure out what I am looking for - hope to figure that out next week too.

And I guess that's it for another day - all is well in the life of the Shanno but he's just one beat pup - think that a few rainy days with 12 hours of sleep wouldn't do me no harm! Talk with you on another day - TGIF and I hope that you have a great weekend. Till the next time, thanks for stopping by!

posted by Scott @ 10:28 PM