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

Happy Sunday again :) Not much to report on this end, I really didn't have all that much motivation this weekend for some reason even though it was a pretty darn nice spring weekend. I did go out and cleaned out another one of my mulch beds and changed it to the red stuff and have a couple more planters to go but that was about it. I also fertilized part of my yard too and things are still starting to green up, I would have thought that my lawn guys would have been here either Friday or Saturday to do their monthly thing but they weren't so they must be running behind. They always come the last Friday or the month though so I'm not sure where they are at but my lawn could use whatever they have in store for it this month.

I also got my duvet cover midweek last week and love the thing but it is too light for Montie chewing biscuits on it so I'll just have to wash it a lot until I find a better color. I still can't believe that it costs $30 more for the cover than it did for the down comforter - you would have thought that it was the other way around but for some reason it wasn't the case .... it surely is comfortable though and Montie loves the thing! I returned my other sheets (well, half of them) to Linen's and Things today and e-mailed the VP about how dissatisfied I was with their service so I'll see what kind of response I get back from them.

And I'm thinking (and hoping) that the upcoming week will be a lot better than the last one, it started off pretty rough with our budget presentation and then went downhill from there. Not much going on this week I don't think - at least nothing out of the ordinary that I can think of. The weather has been grand around here though and it was close to 80' again yesterday and today and I still don't think that there is any rain on the horizon, hasn't rained in like two weeks. I barbecued a steak on the grill tonight too, been kind of a Sunday night tradition lately.

I guess that's about my weekend in a nutshell so I'll talk with you again later, have a great beginning to your new week and I'll try and do the same. See ya later!

posted by Scott @ 10:10 PM

Happy Birthday to Me (wish I could do colors on here!) ..... well, to my website that is and it's been two years today that it was born - sure as heck seems alot longer than that but nope, two years ago today :) And almost 5,000 hits later it's been a place where I can express myself and my fat pup too so thank you for visiting!!!

Have a great weekend, it's going to be beautiful in Panama City Beach and spring is DEFINITELY in the air so get out and enjoy it while we can (before it's 98' and 100% humidity every day here!) Talk with you later.

posted by Scott @ 10:06 PM

Hello again and as usual it's another Sunday night and here I sit getting ready for another new week to begin. I busted my butt today cleaning the house and doing laundry as I haven't been home the last two Sunday's to do my usual but I am happy to report that the carpets are vacuumed, the floors are mopped, the tubs are clean and I did five loads of laundry - oh, plus the groceries are shopped! It was a nice day around here too, not quite as warm as yesterday but was in the mid 70's and would rather have been doing something outside but did that yesterday.

I think that it was close to 80' yesterday and after I did some work in the morning I set out to do some raking and also to realign my sprinkler system as I am determined to fine tune the heads this year where it isn't hitting any of the concrete (and turning it orange with rust) so I did that and have it done for the most part although it still needs some more adjusting here and there. I also replaced a couple of sprinkler heads and found the perfect one that I can set in a direction just where I want it - and beats the old ones that I was using as I had a heck of a time with some. I still need to replace a few more heads so the next time I am at Home Depot I'll pick up a handful but that can wait ...... hopefully I will be taking my annual week's vacation sometime in April to do nothing but play around outside.

And yesterday was the first day of Spring so I hope that you welcomed it in, my lawn is really starting to green up now and is getting greener by the day - plus my trees out back are just starting to bud so they'll be more than sticks in just another few weeks. At first yesterday I decided to mulch/mow my front yard before I raked it, then that looked so much better that I did my side yard, and so on and before I was done I mowed the entire thing and I am really liking my new gear drive mower as I've been pushing a mower for entirely too long! The new mower is quiet too, I really like the thing.

Oh, and I ended up buying a down comforter and duvet cover for my bed from Linens & Things and if you want to check out my duvet you can click here. The color is more chino/khaki than it is white like it looks in this photo so I am hoping that it blends well with Montie hair but I guess I'll see. I've been traveling so much and staying at Marriott's and have fallen in love with the duvet covers that they now use and have been looking at them for quite a while now - and I am hoping that this is one that I will enjoy in comfort for years to come. Oh, but back to my issue with Linen's and Things is that I also ordered the dark blue 300 count sheets & pillow cases and they shipped everything on Saturday - except they cancelled the fitted sheet and sent the flat sheet and cases as it has been discontinued ...... now what the heck am I going to do with two out of three of a set? I was a little ticked at them when I was trying to find a replacement set and asked if they would help me with the return shipping cost or the new shipping cost for another set and they were like no, we sent what you ordered. I'm like yeah, but it doesn't do me much good that you only sent half a set - now I'm going to have to return them and pay, and buy something else and pay again, not to mention what I all ready paid the first time! And if they had a better handle on their inventory they would have told me when I ordered them that one out of three wasn't available and I would have ordered something else ....... I can't say that I am satisfied with their customer service but I'm not done yet - I'll send a nice letter back to the BIG guy when I do return what I need to. I ended up buying sheets tonight at Walmart though and while they aren't 300 count, they are 280 so they should be good enough.

I might have a rough start to my week too as I have a conference call with the owners to review our budget for Tampa at 8am in the morning and if it's anything like how Friday went it won't make for a great start to a new week. We are still trying to get computer access for our Hilton's and can't, and after three months it looks like we are just going to have to break down and buy computers from them so that they'll give us access. The property is freaking though and now want me to move there for the next month or so until we do get remote access but I really don't want to do that if I can think of a better solution.

I also barbecued my last Omaha steaks on the grill tonight that I got for my birthday back in January and they were just as good as the first one that I ate, still have a couple of twice baked potatoes left but would almost buy some more steaks from them as they were delicious! Other than that it's been a busy weekend and I'm worn out - but at least I can say that I was home all week last week and the place is back to normal around here. Happy Spring and enjoy your weather and I will talk with you again sometime in the near future. Night for now - till we talk again!

posted by Scott @ 10:28 PM

I was checking out the prize that I won at the Sales Meeting today and I'm pretty psyched about it - 8 days and 7 nights in Mexico at an all inclusive resort is pretty darn sweet! And with the all-inclusive package they include all meals, water sports and even frosty beverages ....... now that's even better than my Carnival Cruise deal! If you want to read more about it you can click here, it's one of the better sights that I found that had information on it.

And here are a couple of beach photos to make you even more jealous, but the trip is for two so be sure to let me know if you want to go with me :) I'm just not sure when I'll be able to get seven days off but the trip is only good for one year - so I'm hoping maybe this fall but we'll see how things go and make a pretty good effort to make sure that I use it.

Other than that Monday is done and it was an ok day, nothing really out of the ordinary but at least one is done with only four more to go ...... I am really looking forward to catching up on some zzzz's this weekend! How's things in your neck of the woods - hopefully the snow has all melted for my northern friends and spring is right around the corner. Talk with you again sometime soon, be good and stay happy :)

posted by Scott @ 10:09 PM

Dang, I just got back from our company's national sales meeting about an hour ago - it was in Sugar Land, TX which is just south of Houston (me thinks) and it's been a dang long day. And now that I think of it it's been a dang long week - left for Atlanta last Sunday and came back on Tuesday, then left for Houston on Thursday morning and got back Sunday night ....... one day in the office and it's been weeks since I was last able to sleep in :(

And it wasn't a very fun flight home either, from Houston to Atlanta it was uneventful but we sat on a prop plane in ATL for an hour before they figured out that it was broke and wouldn't fly, then spent another two hours waiting for them to find another plane and then another hour trying to get onto the runway so that we could take off. I should have been home at 4:30pm but didn't make it until 8pm and got to the airport this morning at 8am so it wasn't too fun of a 12 hours. But both Monto and me are home now and he doesn't seem too much worse for the wear although he's rather hyper right now and excited to be home.

The meeting over the last few days went well, it was a fun-filled packed kind of three days - well sort of. The first day we sat in meetings and did a scavenger hunt of sites in Sugar Land, then yesterday we did our breakout session and had to present our stuff, then the awards dinner last night which was this five course meal and lots of clapping to be had ...... and I even won an award for the Revenue Manager of the Year which was pretty surpising to me. The award is cool, this big ole glass plaque thing and then a trip for 7 nights at an all-inclusive resort in Mexico (one of ours) and a $1000 for airfare, I'm just hoping that I take the time to use it some day.

And back to my breakout presentation, my boss is really pushing me to build my confidence levels and to realize for myself that what I do is important to the overall success of the company and I think that I'm getting there, got some good ideas of other things that I want to do and roll out to the rest of our hotels. More things to keep me busy - not that I'm not busy enough all ready.

I just kind of hope that I'm done traveling for a couple of weeks (at least!) and that I can actually make some headway with my current hotels plus see what else I can do to help a few others - guess that we'll see how it all comes together. And I'm not even sure what the weather has been like around here the last week but it's been raining in Texas for like the last two days so that kind of wet stuff is probably headed here next. I'm beat and not thinking to straight (not to mention my typing sucks) so I'm going to end here and hope to fill you in more on the last few days at another time. Take it easy and I can't believe that it's all ready Monday come tomorrow - now that really kind of sucks! Have a great new week yourself - and I hope that you are all rested and bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready for it to begin! Talk with you again sometime soon.

posted by Scott @ 10:17 PM

I finally broke down and bought a new lawn mower this weekend. That was after I had decided to see if I could get the gear drive fixed on my old mower that I’ve had for about the last 6 years and I placed an ad in our local paper and got one call from it. The guy came over on Thursday and picked up the mower and offered to take a look at it and give me an estimate. Well, he came back on Friday and with the cost of the parts and labor (mostly parts) it was going to cost me just over $200 just to get the self-propelled thing working again and I can just about buy a new mower for that price. So, I told him to forget it and then went back to checking out mowers on the web.

Well, Saturday was a very nice day and it was almost 80’ and kind of put me in the spring mood of things. I have been working on a project for our Sales Meeting that is happening at the end of next week so I got up early and did that for a while. Then I decided to go to Sears and pick up a mower as they were all 10% off (for some reason, just cuz they felt like it I guess). Well, I decided to stop at Lowe’s first as that was on the way to Sears and I really started to like the rear bag/mulch/side discharge function that most of them have these days so instead of getting just the side discharge mower that I had originally wanted I got a price for the other one that I wanted and then went to Sears to see how they compared. I got to Sears and looked at all of them but wasn’t too impressed and liked a few others better at Lowes – but thought that I would check out Home Depot first before I made my final decision.

I ended up walking in to Home Depot and the guys in the mower department were talking to some guy about one model being $50 off as they had used it to mow for a few minutes out in front of the store and it was actually the perfect one that I wanted. So, not only did I come in $30 less than the less desirable one that I was going to get at Sears I got a Toro and the thing is sweet - brought it home and cleaned it up and now it is as good as new. If you want to have a look at the model that I got you can try and click here and I think that the link should work.

I didn't do all that much else this weekend though but the lawn is starting to show the slightest hint of a little bit of green so I don't think it's going to be too much longer before it's growing full blown. And it should be a pretty busy week for the one that's ahead, not sure what it'll be full of but I'm sure that it'll be something. Oh, and I also stopped by the Cingular store yesterday and got them to unprogram my old startac and to program my C331T and it works perfectly - so I guess that I'm going to be using them for a while longer until they end up ticking me off for something. But please make sure that you delete my sprint # and change my cell phone number it back to my cingular one - it's 850.625.0175 if you don't still have it.

Well, I guess that's about it so I'll be talking with you again - have a great beginning to another new week and I'll try and do the same here! LATER :)

posted by Scott @ 9:35 PM