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

Hey and here it is another happy Sunday! Cold too, down in the teens at night since like Thursday and it hasn't warmed up too much yet. At least I got out there and washed my car yesterday as it had like an inch of dirt on it and piles of sand. They were calling for snow showers again this evening but we haven't seen anything yet and guess we probably won't see much anyways.

Not too much happening in this exciting life, with the debut of Vista on Tuesday I decided to do a clean install of Win XP yesterday on my home computer and that continues - the new windows comes out on Tuesday so I might have to try it out sometime soon after that. I had a few programs that weren't compatible with the new OS so I've had to remove those (or not reload) and it kind of sucks as one is my Norton Internet Security program. But I've got 2005 and guess that only '07 works with Vista so I'll have to figure that one out sometime soon. Other than that and Adobe most everything else should work fine but there are a few that are a little questionable so I'll have to see how well they do. At least my computer now rocks with only half of my programs loaded on it - I swear you have to do that at least every couple of years (or buy a new pc).

I'm still loving my remote car starter and that is working great, work is getting busier and that's good too. I think that we are taking over four hotels this week so that will keep me busy and might have to travel to one or two of them in the next few weeks ....... just too bad that they aren't in a part of the county that's actually warm. My old boss from Silver City called me the other evening out of the blue just to see what's up - him, his wife and their Jack Russell are headed to Tampa for the rest of the winter and sometimes head to Orlando. But not this year I guess - they are renting a place north of Tampa for like the next six weeks.

I've been thinking about getting a cat, I know that it's not a dog and no where close to being Montie but it might be ok having that thing run around the house but I'm not sure if he could handle being alone so long. I don't think that there is an adoption place right around here anywhere close but if there were I think that I would have all ready found me a pup. I dunno though, it comes and goes with the mood that I am in.

I guess that's about it from Sterling, VA where there is no snow on the ground and hope that it stays that way for a very long time. Take it easy and I'll talk with you soon.

posted by Scott @ 8:32 PM

We got about 6" of new snow out there today and it's cold enough to free what's all ready melted! And it's been dang cold here, ever since Tuesday and yesterday and today was only in the 20's all day - plus yesterday there was this whipping wind that made things even worse. I ended up having a remote car starter installed last week and the thing is great - I can sit in my house and push the button and it's nice and warm 10 minutes later, plus you can even get out and take the keys with you and leave the engine running - it has plenty of neat little features. I think that every car that I get in the future will have that option - it'll be great in the hot summer too. The guy even came to my office and installed it while I was at work - and after I saw that rats nest of wires I am glad that I didn't try and install it myself.

I also finished up most of my bathroom project yesterday and finally got the toilet installed myself on Wednesday - I had a call into the plumber but I was bound and determined that I'd figure it out and finally did. That project was much bigger than I thought it was going to be, especially for a night where I worked all day. So then I ended up having to take the door off and finishing up the few remaining tiles and then grouted the whole thing and now it's complete. I still need to shave off a little bit on the bottom of the door and put that back on and my bathroom will then be complete.

Did you also notice that the days are getting longer and longer each day? I think that we've been gaining at least a minute on each end and it just another couple of months spring will be upon us! But I don't really mind the cold weather too much either - I guess that it could be a whole lot worse than where I'm living. And I guess that's about it for another day - I'm kind of hoping that the snow all melts overnight and that it's at least a half way decent ride to work in the morning - as dang if these people can't drive with this stuff on the roads! Talk with you later - have a great week yourself :).

posted by Scott @ 8:56 PM

Bathroom project update - the tile is in and the toliet is mounted but I've still got a leak and tried to install it twice. So since I didn't get that done I wasn't able to grout it but that will be just a few hours on another day. Having the Lowe's store cut your tile sure can be a pain in the butt - I must have been there at least five times today. We are close ....... but I might have to call in the professionals to finish things up :(

Looking good though, and it's back to work in the morning.

posted by Scott @ 9:55 PM

Hey, what's up and I'm running a little behind this evening! But I've been working on my bathroom project for most of the day, I started yesterday by pulling out the toilet and then went and got a new one along with ceramic tile and backerboard. So now most of the tile is down but I could only get the Lowe's guy to trim five of my ten tiles so I'll have to go back tomorrow and have them finish them up. Pretty much all I have left is the sides and that should be pretty easy - then I have to reinstall the toilet and grout. I'm kind of exited to see how it all turns out and I sure am hoping to finish it all up tomorrow.

And speaking of tomorrow we are off for the MLK holiday which is a nice bonus in the middle of January. So that will probably be most of my day again tomorrow although I'll probably also do some work. Not all that much else going on with me though, it's been cold a few of the days last week where I was scraping the windshield but this weekend has been cloudy and close to 60' each day - they said that it was going to rain all day through Monday but other than a few sprinkles we haven't seen any of it. Oh, and I think that I was seeing snow showers last Tuesday on my way home from work but that didn't last very long either.

Work has been going just fine and is getting busier the deeper the New Year's gets, I think that we might have a few new properties coming along so we'll see where it takes me. Other than that all is well and I'm hanging in there ....... kind of also looking forward to Spring finally getting here! Talk with you later.

posted by Scott @ 9:15 PM

Here it is another rainy and cool Sunday night in Sterling VA. But I guess that I shouldn't complain as it was at least 70' and sunny yesterday and was almost too warm ....... it's up and down just about every other day! And I guess that things should start to get back to normal and back to the old routine - next week is going to be my first full week in a long time! And business should hopefully pick back up now too and it will be another great New Year.

Last week was kind of a waste, I had Monday off due to the holiday and went in Tuesday but I had one heck of a cold and thought that my head was going to explode. I finally ended up leaving early and coming home and took some drugs and at least I made it all day on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday I took off for the big shower install and all in all it turned out pretty decent. Here are a couple of pics, although it's hard to get a good shot since the room is so small -







I didn't take a before picture but this is a much improvement and I'm looking forward to spending many more years with. The best part about it was that it only took a day (and a half) to rip out and install the whole thing from start to finish. I did run into one glitch with a vent pipe that we had to call in reinforcements for but once that was out of the way we were back on track again. And now it's done - I think that I'm done with any other major projects for a while.

Other than that I haven't been working much but when I'm not I'm usually just working from home as at least I'm pretty well all caught up for the new week to begin. I have a couple of major projects to get done and hopefully we'll have a few new things coming along the way to keep me occupied. There's usually never a dull moment and doubt that it will start any time soon.

I guess that's it and all is well with me, we are off and running on the new year and guess that there's no turning back now. So, have a great week and I'll talk with you soon. See ya!

posted by Scott @ 8:31 PM