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

Well, here it is on the Eve of December, the first holiday has come and gone and the next one is right around the corner! I went to my old GM's home for dinner on Thursday and it was great, spent about five hours over there and we feasted and caught up - haven't seen David since like July I think. But starting this week I'll be doing his hotel on a regular basis while his girl is out on maternity leave, so add one more and we'll make it a perfect dozen. We'll be having our weekly calls starting this Monday - and will be talking with them at least every few days. I also had a chance to tune up his computer while I was over there too, seems that they lost their hard drive somehow so I ended up loading some of the programs that were lost.

Not too much else to report though, I worked all day on Friday trying to get caught up on loading rates, and I don't think that I even made a dent in things. It was a pretty darn quiet day and don't think that anyone else was working, I only spoke with one person all day but had a chance to get caught up ...... on everything but my rates, that's going to take me months. And it's been very, very chilly lately - think that it was down to freezing last night but guess that it's going to be warming up moving forward - def makes it feel like December. I didn't do much this weekend though, other than derusting my driveway and a little bit of painting on the inside, got the chores done today and it's time for a new week starting tomorrow.

Not much else though other than things should be back to normal this week, and I'm sure that it's going to be another busy as normal kind of week. I hope that this new month finds you well too, take care and I'll talk with you again sometime soon. Happy December ...... only four more months till spring!

posted by Scott @ 10:17 PM

I was going to write a little earlier but for some reason Montie got sick all over my living room carpet - so I spent the last 30 minutes or so trying to clean that up ....... I'm just hoping that it doesn't leave too much of a stain. I'm not sure what's up with him but I hope that he's feeling better now, we had another chat about "if you are gonna puke you need to do it on the kitchen floor and not my dang carpet" but I'm not sure if he was actually listening to me.

It was a very nice weekend, worked on the lawn all day on Saturday and then took Montie for a haircut in the afternoon, then I got my haircut later so we are both all clean cut again. I raked up more than three bags of pine needles and cones from all over the yard due to the high winds that we had last Tuesday - then mowed the whole thing again which again might be the last time this season. Still looking pretty good, and still waiting for the first frost to come along and kill it. It's almost time to hang the xmas lights again - guess I'll be doing that in another couple of weeks.

I watched a couple of good flicks this weekend, the one that I watched Friday night was Fight Club and it was really a messed up flick, never seen it before but it has a very strange ending. Then last night I watched Daddy Daycare which was also pretty good, any Eddie Murphy movie is usually pretty good. Oh, and I came across this list the other day on MSN, and if you have a home theater you might want to check out a few of these flicks:

Movies You Must Watch on DVD

There are movies designed to make you laugh, cry, shiver with fright or catch your breath. But there's a special group of elite DVDs out there that, regardless of whether they make you giggle or grimace, are perfect for fulfilling a secondary mission: to show off your kick-butt home theater setup. If you've dropped a mint on a state-of-the-art surround-sound system and mammoth LCD screen (or if you just want to see what this whole DVD thing is about), you'll want to pick up these titles to test your player's capabilities, impress your friends and annoy those long-suffering neighbors.

10. Fight Club (1999)
9. Heat (1995)
8. Saving Private Ryan (1999)
7. Jurassic Park (1993)
6. Gladiator (2000)
5. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
4. Apocalypse Now (1979)
3. The Matrix (1999)
2. Toy Story 2 (1999)
1. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings (2001)

I'm working on the list and ordered Saving Private Ryan although I saw it a long time ago but bet that it would be cool watching it in stereo, and also ordered the second Lord of the Rings movie too, the first one was really pretty good. I'd like to get Jurassic Park too, but so far it's been out of stock but I'll watch it sooner or later.

And I'm hoping that it might just be a pretty quiet week and think that I am going to take Friday off and have a nice long weekend, guess we'll see how things go as I have a million and a half rates to extend for all of my hotels and I'm running out of time. My old boss invited me over for dinner on T-Day and so did a friend who lives in New Orleans, not too sure about the road trip just yet.

And I hope that you also have a nice and quiet and easy kind of week, guess that we'll find that out soon enough. Oh, and I'm switching to 2% milk now instead of whole milk as I'm on this no-fat kick, and one glass of 2% cuts it down from 12g to 5g, and I drink at least a gallon of milk a week. You know, the more that I read those little labels on the back of food the more I realize how bad some foods are for me, I've defnitely noticed a difference since I gave up my Stouffers TV dinners which has at least 5 times the fat grams as some of the others out there. Well, night for now - talk with you later. Happy T-Day if I don't get a chance to say it before then!

posted by Scott @ 10:50 PM

Hello and Happy Hump Day, well the end to another Hump :) I've been surfing the web thinking about my cruise and I have two days that I am at land and need to decide on what activity I would like to do. Here's what I'm thinking at this point - although I haven't made up my mind for the Grand Cayman Islands quiet yet ........

Cozumel, Mexico - The Mayan Frontier by Horseback

Tour Description: Travel back in time through the sacred land of the Mayans, one of the oldest and most mysterious civilizations in the world. Once transported by bus to the serenity of the Buena Vista Ranch in the heart of the tropical Savannah, your guide will match you with a horse suited to your abilities and provide a short orientation. You will be escorted into the depths of the low Savannah, where the Mayans used to worship their gods, ride through ruins that are more than 1500 years old and take notice of the sights and sounds around you! This area has lived on past the Mayan age and now lives in harmony with the lost remains of a once great civilization. You will visit a ranch stocked with cattle, ponies, turkeys and other native creatures. Upon your return to Buena Vista, you will enjoy a cold complimentary beverage to wrap up your adventure.

Georgetown, Grand Cayman- either the Stingray Sandbar or a day Snuba 'ing ........ hmmm.

The Stingray Sandbar Tour Description: This is a once in a lifetime experience, an opportunity to frolic with tame stingrays in their natural habitat. National geographic describes this as "one of the most rewarding experiences in the underwater world!" After a short bus ride to Grand Cayman's inland lagoon in the North Sound, you will climb aboard a registered 65' double-decker, power catamaran (restroom facilities on board), for the short ride out to the fabulous stingray sandbar. After the boat has anchored at stingray sandbar you can swim, snorkel, pet and feed the tame stingrays and take pictures that your friends back home will not believe, all in four feet of water! Professionally certified snorkeling instructors will provide supervision and assistance with feeding the stingrays, making this an excellent tour for both beginners and experienced snorkelers alike. A great experience for the whole family!! All snorkeling equipment is provided by the tour company.

~ or ~

The Snuba Tour Description: Snuba bridges the gap between snorkeling and scuba diving. The snuba system and supervised programs are designed to put you at ease. Prior diving experience is not required and no heavy equipment is worn. The snuba raft provides a convenient and comforting platform for participants to rest or take a break any time they desire. Snuba is a unique and exciting activity for the whole family that offers the unique perspective afforded only to scuba divers, without the cumbersome equipment and training.

I'm not too sure which one of those yet - but I have never taken a horse ride other than the little ponies at the fair and I have always wanted to do that, how cool would that be to do it in the back country of Mexico :?) And it's now only seven weeks away and I'm looking forward to it more each day ....... just thought that I'd share a little bit of it with you if you are interested in hearing it. What do you think about snuba, doesn't that sound pretty cool too?

So far so good this week, I've had worse and I'm still smiling and only two more days to go and it's gonna be another gorgeous weekend ...... 70's for the high and 40's for the lows - sweet :o) LATER!

posted by Scott @ 9:59 PM

Well, another weekend has come to an end and another beautiful one it was at that! Mid 70's and sunshine both days - raked most of the lawn and picked up pine cones that had blown off the trees from the high winds that we had last week. My other big project on Saturday was to edge the front of my lawn - and I don't have a sidewalk so my lawn grows right up to the street. Well, in the last few years it's kind of been growing out and taking over the road, my edger wouldn't cut it the few time that I've tried before so I did it by hand, well actually with a pretty big knife. I laid out a string so that I could keep it even, then sliced off the excess grass and it now looks great! I even had to break out my snow shovel that's been sitting in the garage since I moved here since I don't have a straight edge shovel and that worked well too, cleaned up all of the excess dirt and I was done. Oh, and I also transplanted the sod to other areas of the front yard that were a little bare, not that it will grow all that much this year but I'm hoping that it takes next spring.

I was also going to take my refinancing UPS overnight package to a drop off place on Friday morning after the buttheads blew off my pick up all day Thursday - but there was a cop car blocking my driveway and a firehose from the hydrate next door going up the street and some huge billows of black smoke going up into the air. Turns out it was one of the trailers in the park up the street, and in looking at it afterwards it is one completely melted mess. Reason #2 why you don't want to live in a trailer - if you can survive the hurricanes, the fires will melt it in just a few seconds. After a few hours I was able to take my overnight letter to my place - and that should start my new refinancing loan for the house.

As it turns out on my loan, once I got my four offers using LendingTree.com. I then called my current company to see what they could offer me. Turns out I went with them - they didn't need a new appraisal and can close through the mail - I got rid of my PIP, went from a 30 year to a 20 year loan and dropped my payments $150 a month ....... someone told me that I should have done it more than a year ago and you know what - they were right. I always pay an extra $100 a month more than the minimum - so now I can make that $250 and keep my payments the same and dang - I might have it paid off in no time! It's amazing though and if I were to keep it the entire length of the loan I'd save like $80k in interest alone, no wonder why the finance people don't mention that you should do it. Hoping to close by Christmas - actually I know that we will and the sooner the better, just do it!

Nothing else though really, it's back to work again in the morning and hope that things will be slowing down a bit going into the big T-Day week - at least they should be but I've always got stuff to keep me busy just the same. I think that summer is back with us too and it's suppose to be back in the 80's again - just one day down in the 40's last week and then it was over and warmer after that. Montie is doing well, he's sleeping and eating and his eye has all ready cleared up - almost time for another haircut for the boy! Well, I guess that's it for another day - take care and have a great week ahead.

Oh and ps, tomorrow is my big brother's birthday - think that it might even be the big 4-5 for him, so if you get a chance drop him a note - you can e-mail him by clicking here.

posted by Scott @ 10:39 PM

Boy, I was just out walking the pup and I'm thinking that it might be a chilly one tonight, at least down in the low 60's right now and I'm not sure just how cold it's suppose to get. But it was a beautiful day again yesterday and in the high 70's, they said it was suppose to be mostly cloudy but there wasn't a cloud in the sky all day. I wasn't sure what I was going to do yesterday outside but figured that I'd mow the front yard, than as usual the more that I mowed the better it looked so I ended up mowing the entire lawn again, might be the last for the season but I'm not too sure yet. It's still looking mighty fine though, my lawn guys keep killing more weeds and I just hope that they don't kill too many of them as they are the only green things out there as the grass really isn't growing all that much any more.

I guess that I'm not allowed to plant my "winter rye grass" this year as my lawn guys hate the stuff, plus to tell you the truth I think that's where all of my lawn troubles came from the first time that I did it two years ago as it hasn't been the same since. But that's ok, I planted it last year in the front yard as all that I had was dirt to look at all winter, at least this year I've still got most of my lawn at this point.

Monto and I went to BK again for lunch on Saturday as we were craving a BK Bagette, the Sante Fe version is the best thing there is since the cheeseburger (well, the hamburger at least!). Then we came back and pruned my trees out back, they have been hanging way too low and I almost take my head off riding the mower underneath them. Then I had to bag up all of the branches that I sawed off, but in cutting them up in little pieces I have the biggest blister on the palm of my hand. I had to go out this morning and finish up as my bag was full yesterday and I was beat, and that popped the blister and now it's really hurting (well, not really - unless I hit it against something).

Today I was kind of lax on the housecleaning too, have been working on heaving a bunch of boxes that I still have since my last move that have been sitting in my guest bedroom for like the last three years - stuff that I'd never use but have been too lazy to go through it and pitch most of it! It's kind of funny but last couple of Sunday's I've been putting stuff out on the side of the road with a sign that says "Free to a Good Home", last weekend I got rid of four huge speakers that I've had since I was in the 10th grade, today it was a weight bench and it was gone in like 10 minutes. I had to put the weight bench together today too as I figured I'd get rid of it alot easier - and that took me close to an hour trying to figure it out as it's been years since I last assembled it. It's kind of my version of a garage sale, except much easier but not as profitable, at least I'm getting my house cleaned out.

Oh, and I am in the process of refinancing my mortgage too, still haven't finalized anything but I got a couple of offers using LendingTree.com - but found another company today that was even better than the four that made me an offer yesterday so I might have to haggle a bit - and see how it works out. I can't believe it but using the refinancing calculator I would save like $72k in interest alone, that is if I stayed here for the next 20 years (like that's gonna happen!). I need to do it though as I bought when rates were at the highest - should have done it a year ago but I can still get a good rate at this point and time too.

Oh well, we're almost ready for another week to begin - lets just hope that it's better than the last one but I guess that we'll find out soon enough. And I think that Montie is finally getting over a cold that he's had - not sure if that's what it is but one of his eyes has been all red and runny - hope that he's feeling better soon too. Talk with you later, feel free to drop me a line anytime.

posted by Scott @ 10:25 PM

Happy Birthday to Me!!! ...... well, 2 months early but to celebrate the big day I booked a five day cruise, the first in my life :) I'm pretty excited about it and definitely looking forward to a trip to Mexico aboard the Carnival Sensation and here is what the ship looks like ....... guess that it is probably a little bigger than the picture shows :)

I have wanted to take a cruise for at least the last 10 years but for one reason or another I could never find anyone to go with me. And we all know that I'm not getting any younger so I said what the heck, I'll go it alone and enjoy myself if it kills me! I've been checking them out for like the last two months and then on Monday it all came together and it's a done deal now ....... I can't even say that I've ever taken a vacation to just get away in my life either so it's definitely a long overdue trip! Five days of fun in the sun - I'm just not too sure that I can stay away from a computer that long but I'm certainly going to give it my best shot :)

More later - been reading up on the details and it's getting late so I must run, and I'll talk with you on another day! Happy Hump - we're almost 1/2 through another week!

posted by Scott @ 10:52 PM

Dang, I think that I overdid myself yesterday as I'm even feeling it today, but it was a beautiful weekend all around. Both yesterday and today were in the low 80's and it felt great to be outside and that's where I spent all day yesterday. I ended up finishing up my front bushes from where I trimmed them last weekend, cleaned up all of the leaves and pine needles and pulled up weeds, then I actually pulled back the mulch and put down that black screen stuff to stop the weeds - then put down new mulch over the whole thing and it is looking great! I also ended up pressure washing two sides of my house and it looks mucho better, I love my pressure washer and also vinyl siding as it looks brand new again. My four wasps are still hanging around out there though - so if they don't decide to move out in the near future I bought some spray today to make sure that they do.

I did have a guy come up behind me when I was up on the ladder washing away, guess that his car was broken and he had no brakes and he was driving around like that stopping by putting the car in reverse ....... dang good thing that we don't have any big hills! But he told me his whole story about him being a family man and that he had a wife and two kids, that he tried to get an advance from his boss at the Treasure Ship restaurant but the guy all ready left for the day and that he really needed $16 so that he could buy the part for his car from Walmart. I gave in, if nothing else just to make him go away - but I wonder if he'll be good on his word when he said that he'd be back to repay me ...... I kind of doubt it but that's ok. Jimmy, I still remember his name.

But then I ended up sleeping in until like 10am today - guess that yesterday wore both me and the Monto out as he made no attempts to wake me up - and then I've been running slightly behind all day today trying to get all of my house cleaning done. I'm done for the most part - still need to do vacuuming of 1/2 the house still but I've been slacking like that for weeks. Oh, I'm not sure if you saw the story or not but a few days ago this guy from Arkansas stole a truck and drove down here, got into an argument with a bunch of bikers on the beach and ended up running them down with the truck - killed two and injured a few more ...... he'd better hope that he gets life as I think that he's going to have a few people that would like to get a hold of him if he gets out some day. Kind of weird for something like that to happen around here - but guess that it could have happened anywhere. My uncle said that he read it in the paper up in NY State - so I guess that it made the national news and he wanted to know if I saw it happen ...... nope, but it was just like a mile down the road.

And another Halloween has come and gone and for some strange reason I didn't have a one show up at my door, it's not the best neighborhood for kids as there are no sidewalks, but I usually end up getting a few of the rebels but nope, not this year. Now I've got two bags of candy to get rid of - I'm certainly not going to eat it (although the M&M's are pretty good - but Montie can't figure out how to bite into them and just sucks the color off the outside of them).

I guess that's it - Law & Order is back on in place of that stupid show that has been on with Rob Lowe that I refuse to watch - so now I think that I watch this show at least five nights a week. Saw some good movies this weekend too, Boat Trip was really a pretty good flick! Well, have a great beginning to another new week - and welcome to another new month - November is here!

posted by Scott @ 10:29 PM