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

I guess the date on the wall is December 26th and the big day has come and gone all ready, what was all the hype about any way? It was pretty quiet around these parts all weekend, actually it was pouring rain both Friday and Saturday and cold as all heck so I was forced to stay inside and play with my new computer all day. I did end up going to Mr. B's house on Saturday for a big feast - another turkey bit the dust so that we could have a nice meal. And Amy didn't even burn anything and everything turned out perfectly - you've gotta like that when that happens! Oh, and speaking of turkeys I've been kind of hooked on this "Shoot the Turkey" game ..... I love picking them off before they even show up on the screen. It does get a little stressful though when they come out wearing their armor proof suits and you have to knock that off them before you can kill them - and they come pretty hot and heavy at the end too. Give it a shot and see how many you can turn into a roast!

Not all that much else happening around here, looking forward to another quiet and short upcoming week. I ended up taking down my Christmas lights today as it started out where I was just going to unplug them and then one pull lead to another and they were all bagged up for another year in a matter of minutes. Now if I'd just get outside and rake up the rest of my leaves in the backyard I'd be happy - and I hope to do that at least next weekend if nothing else. At least today was nice and sunny so it was a nice change after the last couple of days - but it was still only in the 40's I think and seemed to be mighty cold out there.

I guess not a whole lot more to talk about, I'm having an issue with my new shower where it's started to crack in one of the corners - I went to Source One on Friday and got a bag of grout so I'll end up fixing it one of these days. I really love that store and I don't even buy anything there - but the last time I went and bought a box of tiles to match my floor they ended up giving me a bottle of grout sealer - and this time they just gave me 3/4 of a bag of grout for nothing ..... guess that's one good thing about shopping on the day before Christmas Eve. And they kind of got me wondering as there is sanded grout and non-sanded grout, and they said that they shouldn't have used sanded grout in a shower (or any wall) but I think that they did - and if I wasn't so unhappy about the place that put the shower in in the first place I'd call them and make them fix it - but I don't even wanna give them the benefit of the doubt. I can fix it ...... I have the basic skills needed!

I'm also planning a trip to Washington DC in a couple of weeks, we have a new hotel up there and I get to go up and evaluate their current strategies. I also think that I might be going up to the same town at the end of the month but for my other hotel - at least they'll be a couple of short trips I think. I just hope that it's not snowing as there is nothing worse than landing a plane in 6 inches of snow but I guess that they actually do that many times each day. Otherwise I'm hoping that the next week is pretty quiet - but two of my hotels have Bowl Games happening so that should keep them busy for New Year's Eve. San Antonio is pretty cool too as they have fireworks across the street from the hotel where the Worlds Fair took place - just too bad that I'm not going to be there to see them.

I guess that's about it and I'll now get back to watching the OC, I love my DVR thing and never watch what is actually on when it's on. Montie is doing fine and has been sleeping a lot, and if it ever warms up enough I might end up getting his hair cut again. Have a great week and a wonderful New Year's Eve if I don't talk with you before hand. Happy Christmaka ..... till another year!

posted by Scott @ 10:28 PM

Ho, Ho, Ho and a Happy five days before Christmas to ya! Not much happening here but I just changed out my keyboard from my old one to the one that came with my new computer and although it looks exactly the same it sure does type a lot differently. I didn't think that it was even going to be worth the effort of plugging it in but it's got alot more spring to it or something - the keys just type all that much better I think. And that reminded me while I was down there plugging in my keyboard is that there is one heck of a rats nest of wires that are all twisted together and I made it worst just plugging in my new computer and not dealing with it then, so I really need to unhook everything and clean it up - I'm not even sure where my router, hub, and modem are at this point.

Other than that not much again has been happening with me, I ended up going to the mall on Thursday night to pick up a SATA hard drive as I was tired of ordering stuff on line and then having to wait a week for it - but I had tried using my old IDE drive that I had in my old computer using a interface card but that didn't work all that well and was getting some funky messages on reboot, and had to order cables to get that to work but I finally gave it up and upgraded to the fastest drive that's out there today. I also in the process got a new track ball to replace the one that I've had for the last 10 years and that took a little getting used to as well but I think that I'm just about there - it's digital so all that crap that builds up in there won't mess up the rollers like my old one. I got both of my dvd drives working and my cd drive, my scanner (scsi card) and my fax modem working - that was also a pain in the butt as I couldn't find drivers for my old one, bought another one from Radio Shack and hated it, then bought an $8.00 Lucent one and that's all working fine and dandy too. It took me three weeks I think, but I'm all back to normal and the thing is finally working great.

I also just got a new FL tag (license plate) for my truck as it renews on my b'day and I was up for a replacement plate - and I've had the Challenge plate ever since I moved to Orlando in 1999 and didn't realize that I was paying an extra $30 a year for that so I went back to a regular "sunshine state" plate which was a heck of alot cheaper. I also just got the bill for our paving project thing but it isn't even due until February - and I thought to myself now why the heck would they mail this just days before Christmas when it isn't even due for another two months - why couldn't they wait until at least the first of the year? Kind of stupid if you ask me - if they were thinking people would spend less for the holidays to save up to pay that than I think they were a little too late for that!

It's been COLD as heck too lately and coldest that it got was like 27', my lawn froze though and now it's pretty much all turned brown and will be dormant for the next three or so months ...... at least I won't be mowing it for a while. And I was again pretty much a slug yesterday even though it was a pretty nice day, I had a slightly sore throat and thought that I was getting sick but I'm all better today. I did get my haircut though but that was about it. Oh, and I also spent most of yesterday morning switching all of my e-mail address's from my AOL account to my new "crap" account as I realized that I pretty much pay $15 a month for AOL and just use it for junk e-mail. So I'm planning on canceling my account before it renews again at the beginning of January - and think that I've been a member since they first started ...... that was back in like 1991? And dang if that hasn't cost me $2400 bucks over that time but guess that at one point it has it's value when I used it for internet access but those days have long since past. Does anyone remember the time when they added all of those new members - I think that it was in 1995 when you couldn't even connect and got a busy signal for hours?

Other than that the house is cleaned, clothes are clean and the groceries are shopped, Walmart wasn't even all that crazy tonight. It should be a pretty quiet week and I'm figuring quite a few people will be taking the week off and it's a four day work week for the next two weeks so that will be very sweet :) If I don't talk with you again before the Big Day I wanted to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a very Successful 2005 ..... dang, where do the years go these days? Night from PCB, talk with you again sometime soon.

Oh, but on a sadder note my Uncle Gordon passed away last Monday and I was thinking about going to the services that were held yesterday but didn't ..... I'm just hoping that my brother did as it would have been nice if one of us at least did. God Bless you Gordie, you were one of a kind and I'm sure that my Mom is very glad to see you again :)

posted by Scott @ 9:59 PM

Happy December 12th Everyone! And in less than two more weeks the entire Christmas holiday will be dust ...... and I'm not even sure it feels much like the holidays yet but they are right around the corner. My hotels should be kind of slowing down through at least the first of the year - but hopefully they can keep me busy enough to keep the days flying right by the way they have been. Not much news to report here though, it's been cooler finally after our Indian Summer of humidity soup last week - and was only in the 60's this weekend and down in the 40's at night which is kind of nice.

I'm not too sure why, but I'm turning into a slug on my Saturdays and don't get squat done, maybe it's cuz I have nothing urgently pending but I'm not sure, I just can't seem to find the motivation to do what I used to do and think that it's been like that since my vacation a month ago. I did go out and rake up a big ole bag of sycamore leaves from the backyard but that was about it - had also planned on hanging the rest of my xmas lights on the outside of the house but didn't find the energy to do that. I did at least end up going out last Tuesday night and hung enough of them to make me a respectable neighbor and got them hung up around the garage and then up to the front door - but that's only half of what I normally would have done. The thing that screwed me up was that it rained all day Saturday on T-Day weekend when I would have normally done it - and it's all been downhill since then.

I also bought a new pc (a Dell XPS) and it's sweet - it's the best that I could get and figured that I'd splurge since it is my only xmas gift to myself and got that last Wednesday. I powered it up Thursday night and was under a deadline to have it back up and running Friday morning so that I could work that day - and did pretty good but it took a lot longer than I thought that it was going to. The thing smokes though and it multi-tasks with no sluggishness like my old one, I can have anything I want running and it still works perfectly. The only downside about the thing is that it's a little bit too technologically advanced for me - so I'm having a few challenges getting all of my old devices to work but I'm working around it as best I can - I really wish that we had a computer store in this town as everything I need I have to order on-line and then wait for it. We used to have a CompUSA in town but that went out of business a couple of years ago ..... so now we have nothing locally :(

Other than that the weekend today was pretty normal other than I've been running behind schedule all day and not even sure why, but I got everything I guess so there is no harm done. I finally decided to buy a new desk lamp today as the halogen one that I had (and liked) kept blowing bulbs and the bulbs themselves cost as much as a new lamp that uses regular light bulbs .... so I've downgraded to a normal 75 watt bulb and I'm moving on from there. I am really starting to like the fluorescent bulbs that screw into a light socket but use like 50% less power - but need to find one with a high enough wattage to keep me happy. Other than that the clothes are clean, the house is clean and the groceries are shopped - I ended up seeing like three people from Bay Point at Walmart tonight as was like a homecoming of sorts.

That's about it, talk with you later and I hope you have a great week! Ta-ta for now, till we meet again.

posted by Scott @ 10:23 PM

Happy Holidays everyone and there are only 20 more days left before Christmas - how's the shopping coming along any way? Not much going on with me, it's the 5th of December all ready and less than three weeks away from Christmas, dang where the heck has the time gone this year? It was a pretty decent weekend around here but cool but at least it was sunny yesterday - mid-60's I think. And when I went outside yesterday I was either going to mow the lawn or hang Christmas lights on the house as I didn't have time to do both - but the lawn won out and now I don't know when I'm going to get around to hanging lights.

My lawn was a mess actually, I mowed it a setting shorter and didn't realize how long it had gotten - but then my front lawn needed raking after that and I wasn't really up for it. So I remowed it with the bagger in place and that pretty much took care of things, and it's actually looking a lot better now and is even a lot greener without all of the dead grass hanging around.

I'm also still having an issue with my well and even after I got it going again last weekend it continues to run all day long. So after it ran last Monday I ended up turning off the fuse as it's the only way to shut the thing off. The biggest problem with it is that my landscaping lights also work on the same circuit so they've been out but I ended up running an extension cord from the back of the house to my well shed today and got them going again. I called the guy that installed the well last week and asked him to come look at it - he just hasn't made it over here yet ...... but I'm in no real hurry now as it's been raining quite a bit plus I don't think that it needs all that much water these days anyway.

Not much else happening, last week flew by and I'm not sure if it was because of the vacation and then T-Day week or what, but I don't know where the heck it went. I'm watching OC right now and that's become my Sunday night show as I don't like Crossing Jordan all that much. So I record this show (and many others) on my DVR each week and I can blow through the commercials - I swear I can watch a one hour show in 45 minutes. Montie is doing fine and is hanging out by my side and not too much else to report. That's about it and that's a wrap for another day! Have a great week, talk with you later!

posted by Scott @ 10:27 PM