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

Here is it January 30th and I guess that another month has just about come and gone, and actually now we are one month closer to Spring so I've got no complaints ...... other than it rained all day yesterday so I didn't do squat this weekend. Not too much happening actually but might be headed up to Annapolis any one of these days now.

I got my sink faucet fixed yesterday and it works as good as new again - and I'm still loving Delta Faucet for their excellent customer service. The first time that I called they sent me a pack of washers and springs and things and think that I got that on Tuesday of last week but after installing it all I still had the same issue as before - it was leaking from underneath the handle. So I called them back and told them of my issues and the woman that I talked to said that they should have sent me this ball thingy instead of the springs and said that she'd mail that to me in hopes that that would fix my problem. Well, it came yesterday and after a few minutes of taking it apart (I'm getting pretty good at it actually) the thing did the trick and there isn't any drops of water to be seen. I do need to write them a job well done note at some point, I think that good service deserves it even more than the bad.

And I also ended up having to have my well guy come and fix my well after all, I guess that there was a switch that went bad which then through out the check valve and after like a month of trying to get him over here he showed up one day last week and I didn't even realize that he was here - but it's all back to normal and as good as new too ...... and he didn't even charge me all that much either. Today was a rather nice day but it's still kind of chilly out, I think that the high was probably only in the 50's and the lows in the 40's ..... but I guess that I can't complain as the sun was shining brightly! And I'm pretty much ready for another new week to begin, the house is cleaned and the groceries are shopped and not too much else to report from this end of the world.

Sorry that I don't have much of any interest to speak of tonight but I hope that all is well where you are and that you are staying warm and toasty and that the ice isn't too thick tonight ...... I think that Atlanta got quite a bit of ice and freezing rains on Saturday but hopefully you didn't! Have a great week and I'll talk with you again on the flip side :)

posted by Scott @ 10:05 PM

Hey, hey hey - it's January 23rd! And I was suppose to be in Washington DC tonight but that changed this afternoon only a few hours before I was to get on my plane and guess that the weather in Boston is really pretty rough today! I was suppose to be going up to my hotel for a meeting tomorrow morning and then back home again tomorrow night but the guy that we were suppose to meet with got his flight cancelled coming out of Boston so there wasn't any point for me to go either. It's not so bad though, other than I had rearranged my entire weekend in order to get ready to go and not be able to do any regular work tomorrow, so here I am ready for another regular week and I've pretty much all ready done everything that I have to do tomorrow - plus my weekend wasn't all that much fun either doing work for half of it.

And I can't believe it but my ditch is finally fixed! I had called the Road & Bridges guys last Friday and I think that I might have mentioned it in a previous post that they told me that I wasn't a priority - but low and behold they showed up on Thursday with a loader and dug the entire thing out. I figured that was going to be the end of their efforts so then I called my Sod guy to tell him that he could come over and lay the grass whenever he could (just hopefully before it monsooned again and washed the whole thing out) and he said fine. But then to my surprise the County showed up again on Friday morning with a big ole truck full of sod and about five guys and then spent the next eight hours out there laying it down perfectly - it even lines up to my lawn perfectly. They don't work all that much so I guess that's why it took them so long but I didn't care so long as they finished and they did and now it's perfect ....... and will never wash out again. I was going to take a picture but the grass isn't too green right now but I'll show it to you one of these days I'm sure. I'll have to call them tomorrow and thank them again as I'm sure that they saved me a couple of hundred dollars if I had to do it myself.

I also ordered a vinyl seal for my shower door and got that on Friday, it's just a strip of clear plastic that goes between the door and the fixed panel and when we had originally installed the door we left the one off so that it could swing both in and out. But there has been a small gap in the glass that I have to be careful not to splash it with water so that it doesn't overflow onto the floor but this seal thing did the trick - and I can't believe how well it fits too. They were suppose to send this two sided tape with it to put it on with but they didn't, not to mention that they charged me three times for one order - but after all that got worked out I'm cool. I ended up going to Home Depot on Friday night and got some adhesive and glued it to the glass and it's now on permanently - as I didn't think that the tape would last as long so I'm really happy with how it came out too.

And that also reminds me about my kitchen faucet - it's a Delta model and has been leaking under the handle a little but has recently been getting worse. So I go on to their website and chatted with an agent and they tell me to take off the handle and to tighten it up underneath, but then that doesn't do anything for me so they tell me that I need a new set up springs for it - and then proceed to order me one free of charge ...... I was totally impressed as the thing is at least five years old. I thought to myself dang, now that's customer service!

Other than that that was about it this week - you know, I don't even really remember what I did last week. And dang if it isn't cold down here tonight - I think that it's suppose to be 24' out for the low tonight and they are saying that it's going to be a "hard" freeze. And it was weird yesterday too as it was 70' all day and even at like 7pm last night it was still beautiful out - but then when I got up this morning it was like 30' out - so something definitely moved through overnight. I'm kind of bummed that I didn't go to DC tonight though as I was all ready for it and had my winter coat all ready - but then I guess that I'm relieved just the same as I'm sure that may flight would have been all screwed up after yesterday's mess. Oh well, maybe the next time around the snow will still be around, and if not I've seen enough of it in my lifetime to keep me happy :) Montie's also glad that he didn't have to go over to Aunt Linda's too - he saw me pack and then unpack and must have been thinking "what the heck is he doing?" I guess that's it for another day, so till the next time I hope you have a wonderful week. TTTT (ta-ta till then)!

posted by Scott @ 10:02 PM

Happy MLK Eve to you! And here we are half way through January and things should start to be on an upswing into Spring - and probably only another month to go before I'll be mowing that lawn again ....... I sort of can't wait! And not too eventful of a weekend around these parts, both Montie and myself got our hair cut (at different places!) and that was the highlight I think. I also decided to go out and change the check valve on my well myself since the guy still hadn't shown up - and what probably would have cost me $50 for him to do it cost me $15 ....... turned out pretty good too if I say so myself. I did end up having to go back to the hardware store three different time though and that was kind of a drag, but just as soon as I thought that I had everything that I'd need I realized I was missing something else. It's done now though and it hasn't run when it shouldn't run since. I was also able to plug back in my landscaping lights into the well outlet instead of running an extension cord from the back of the house and that was my main reason for fixing it as I haven't run the sprinklers in months.

I also finally got up the ambition to finish sanding and painting my kitchen counter grout project that I started back around Thanksgiving I think when I bought my new microwave and instead of chalking it I used wood putty and filled in the cracks between the wall and the counter and then sanded it down and painted it - and dang if I wasn't impressed at how well it turned out at that! It still kind of looks like it's chalked but it's not and I'm hoping that it lasts a lot longer than chalk too as that usually gets dried out and ends up cracking. And now I'm thinking about getting a coffee maker and toaster oven to go under the cabinet instead of on the counter as I'm loving having so much space these days ....... But I probably never will.

I have also been trying to get a G-Mail address invite for like the last three months ever since I turned it down the first time but haven't been able to as they aren't giving them out any more - but today I was finally able to find a site where if you asked nicely someone would give you one of theirs. I ended up with two of them but don't need the second one so if anyone wants one (yourname@gmail.com) just let me know and I'll send you the sign up link. The thing that I like about it the best is that it works as a POP3 account and you can use Outlook with it, plus they give you like 100 meg of storage space if you should ever need that much. Again - just let me know if you'd like one and it's yours.

And the weather was really pretty nice this weekend, it was a little breezy and only in the 60's but the sun was still shining so it felt really nice out. I'm not sure if this is the cold spell that they were talking about us getting or if it's not here yet, but the nights have been down in the 40's so all in all not too bad. But dang if it didn't monsoon for like 12 hours last Thursday and we must have gotten at least a couple of inches of rain - and dang if it didn't wash out my ditch again :( I called the County people on Friday and they added me to the log for them to come and take a look at it - now I need them to dig it back out before I can even buy some sod to finally fix the problem. But they told me that I wasn't a "priority" and there were bigger issues all over the place due to all the rain that we had just gotten. Oh well, one of these days I'll solve the issue once and for all.

I also found out today that we are taking over a hotel in Maryland in another week or so and that I might be adding it to my list of properties so if that happens I'm sure that I'll be going to visit them sometime in the near future. I also need to make another trip up to DC to visit my other property - but that will most likely be a pretty quick trip as I just have to attend a meeting for one day. And I think that Montie's Aunt Linda (who watches him) might be retiring in the near future and might not be around all that much for me as she has been ...... hmmmm. But she did say that she'd come home from wherever she was to watch him when I needed her to and I thought that that was pretty sweet of her to offer that.

Not much else to report though, work has actually been going pretty well and business isn't all too bad for most of my properties - San Antonio is going through renovation right now and it's a little tough to sell rooms when most of them are out of order! Oh, and I think that tomorrow is actually a holiday for me but not for my properties, and if they aren't off than I'll work too but I'll see how long that lasts - I've still got a bunch of stuff to do! And one of my friends sent me a box of Omaha steaks the other day for my birthday - I should have known it was coming when I got this big ole barbecue spatula for Christmas but I haven't broken any of them out yet ....... but the last box of them that I had were yummy.

I guess that's it, I'm still loving my Hoover Windtunnel cleaner too and it sucked up another pile of junk today but has to stop at some point or I won't have any carpets left. And I also used it on my floors today too and it also worked great - sure does beat a broom and dust pan! Well, that's it so I'll talk with you later - have a great week and keep on smiling!

posted by Scott @ 9:49 PM

Welcome to January 2005 and I hope that everything is looking up for you this year, so far so good on this end as well. And I spent last week in Washington DC visiting one of our new hotels - the Phoenix Park Hotel and went up there Monday afternoon and came back home on Thursday. I swear, Delta Airlines aren't what they used to be and what should have taken me five hours to get home turned into 11 hours and it was past midnight before I was home again. Plus they lost my bags on the way up - or should I say "delayed" them and I ended up waiting around for three hours after I got there for the next flight from Atlanta to arrive. Traveling sucks though and just takes one trip every couple of months to remind me of that fact.

I also had my birthday while I was there and my boss came down and took me out to dinner at Union Station which is about a block from the hotel - here is a picture of her and me doing cake and a couple of beers ......

And of course everyone there knew it was my birthday (on Wednesday) so I had a big piece of cake for lunch and actually ate rather well the whole time that I was there.

I also found on my doorstep Friday morning my new Hoover vacuum cleaner and used it today while I was cleaning house - and I still can't believe all of the crap that it sucked up from my carpets. And it leaves it all nice and fluffy too with those nice lines, it's a bagless deal and I'm not too sure how I like that but also has the hose with all of the attachments which I really think that I'm going to like. The only thing is that it must weigh at least 40 lbs - good thing it's self-propelled but I still feel a little sorry about all of the grannies trying to use the thing!

And I got a gift card for Home Depot from my brother-in-law and family for my birthday and that was waiting for me as well and was really thoughtful of them to do that. And then yesterday I got another box that the mailman brought - he even knocked on the door to say "I don't know what's in there but whatever it is it doesn't sound too good". And just a slight shake and you could tell that it was broken into a million pieces - but my brother had some pictures redone of my Mom and Dad's wedding and he framed three of them (and then stuck them in a box with no padding!). I figure that I can fix them though but the frames are a little scratched so I'm not sure if I will use them and get some glass or replace the frames all together - and it's the thought that counts any ways. He also sent me a CD with about 10-15 pictures of their wedding which was really neat to look at and I'm not sure that I've even seen them before - but I put some of them up on the web and you can take a look by clicking here. It's also pretty weird to see things like that dresser that my Mom is sitting at as she had that still in her bedroom until the day she died, plus some of the wedding gifts (like the salt and pepper shakers) that I still remember seeing around the house. I also finally realized that the pic with the parents in them (and the guy giving my Mom away) wasn't my Grandfather (her father) but is a picture of my Uncle Gordon - I kept saying to myself dang, Grandma's got it going on dating a youngster like that! Hehehe, I'm not sure when my Mom's Dad dies though but I guess he wasn't there for the big day.

Yesterday was another one of those rainy, do nothing Saturday's and I slept a lot of the day away after a few nights of four hours of sleep. But I did end up fixing the grout in my shower and it's now as good as new - I shouldn't have put it off for so long as it only took me like 10 minutes to do it. My well guy also came yesterday and he figures that I need a new check valve and that's why the pressure isn't holding - and he told me that he'd be back today to put one on but I didn't think that he'd show (and he didn't) but maybe tomorrow he might but I'm not in any real hurry so it can wait. He also does sod and mentioned that the only way to stop my ditch from eroding was to sod the whole thing so I'm thinking that I am going to have him do it for me instead of waiting for the county to figure out what to do - at least it'll be done for once and for all.

Not too much else though and I spent all day Friday catching up on everything that I missed while I was gone and have most of my in-box cleared out too. So I'm kind of hoping that this week will be fairly normal - I just hope that I stay busy enough for it to fly by like the rest of them do but I don't think that I should have any troubles there. Other than that that's about it so I think that I'll end now and go watch another episode of the OC. Night for now, talk with you later on!

posted by Scott @ 9:53 PM

I guess that the holidays are finally over with and it's back to work in the morning ..... and this is the time of year that it finally hits you that it'll be Memorial Day before we see another three day weekend :( But it's been fun having a couple of short weeks but guess that all good times must come to an end so it's back to business - bring it on for a GREAT 2005! Yeah right, who the heck am I kidding?

It was a lovely weekend around these parts though after a crappy Christmas weekend and it was back up in the 70's both Friday and Saturday and actually had to turn the heat off and the a.c. back on ..... we'll see how long that lasts before I end up switching it around again. But I did get out and finished up weeding my remaining planter things, and remulched them both and now I've got them all finally complete. I was thinking that I am going to be in pretty good shape when spring arrives this year as the yard is just waiting for it and it should only be a few more short months away. Usually by the end of February things are looking up - and we should also start to see some improvements in the length of the days too as we are on the upside of things.

Not too much else to report, I made it till 11pm on New Years Eve and watched the ball drop in New York at midnight their time and then went to bed - just watched a couple of movies and that was about it. I did end up getting a new webcam (Logitech Pro 4000) using part of a gift card from Circuit City that I got last year and never got around to using and it's ok, still not as good as my old Intel and also had some issues installing the software (WinXP didn't seem to like it very much). I also turned in a bunch of my AMEX points the other day and got me a new Hoover vacuum cleaner - it's probably take like two months to get here but I should have it one of these days. My old Kenmore has treated me well but I can't find bags and belts for it any more - and think that I've had it at least 10 years ..... and I don't even remember where I bought it but think that it might have been in Cincinnati back in 1995? My new one is going to be sweet though, self propelled with all of the attachments and hoses, plus it's bagless and all state of the art! I figured I wouldn't use my points for anything else so it was finally time to trade some of them in - it was either that or a new suitcase.

Hmmm, not a heck of a lot else to report, Montie is doing fine athough he seems to have this "chicken bone in the throat" type cough sometimes and I'm not too sure what is up with that. He's also starting to get pretty hairy too hopefully I can put him off for a few more weeks and things might warm up for good. I'm also still having some erosion issues with the ditch on the new road where the rain washes these big craters out so I fixed all of that this weekend but I'm sure that the next big rain will wash it all out again. I think that I need to buy some grass seed and see if the grass will hold things together. Oh, and I raked up another two bags of leaves in the backyard and have most of the trees bare at this point. I have yet still to fix the grout in my tub - plus I had wanted to clean out the inside of my truck but never got around to that - maybe next weekend I can find the time.

I can't think of anything else to report - so I guess that I'll check out another episode of the OC and then call it a night. Talk with you later - have a GREAT beginning to another new year.

posted by Scott @ 9:55 PM