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

Evening to you and here we are once again. Nothing new going on around here other than the weather and that's been fabulous - I think that it was down in the 40's last night and was even a tad bit chilly. I remember waking up once with Patches crawling down under the covers ....... I guess his buzz-cut of a haircut doesn't provide him much warmth. But the days have been great and in the mid-70's both yesterday and today and I spent most of the day outside yesterday cleaning up and cutting down dead bushes and planters. I was also trying to get my viney growing thing to grow on the trellis around the back deck and who knows, maybe someday it might grow in. I didn't do much else though and of course the weekend just flew right by again.

I am actually thinking of taking next Friday off and have my attic vent installed although I found out that I need to get the HOA approval first. So I filled out the application and got the specs and the picture of the fan and then went out and collected signatures from four of my neighbors and turned all of the paperwork in. What a pain in the you know what any little change takes. I'm also talking with a couple of different companies to see about putting in an irrigation system and I am getting close on the negotiations and then I just need to decide if I really want to do it or not. I do think that it's the only way that I am going to have any landscaping in the long run and both last year and this year everything ended up looking like crap by the end of the summer. And if I do it now versus waiting for spring I can get a jump start of things right off the bat.

Patches is doing pretty well but he keeps barking his head off every time he hears the doorbell on the Domino's Pizza commercial ...... that just happened again and it's kind of getting on my nerves. I was letting him run around yesterday morning and then he took off (but never goes too far) and while I was looking for him some guy had all ready found him and was in the process of calling the number on his tag/chip to report him. I'm like geez, don't you think you could have given me five minutes! He's pretty predictable though where he goes and it doesn't take me long to track him down.

I had one of the new people start last week in Chicago and have two more starting this week (I think), now I just have to get them trained so that I can turn their hotels back over to them and I can get on with my life. I am working on one more budget and think that should be it - but then we have to review each of the properties at the end of October and that's going to be like a three week process. Work is keeping me busy just the same.

I guess that's it for this week, nothing to exciting to report as usual. I hope that you are enjoying the fall weather and getting your Halloween costume ready - what are you going to be this year? Ok, take care and I'll talk with you later.

posted by Scott @ 8:52 PM

Here it is another Sunday night and I think that summer is back for a little while longer as it's been in the upper 80's this weekend and is suppose to be there pretty much all this week too. And there is no rain in sight so I think that I'm going to have to keep watering the lawn, I was hoping that I was done with that but I don't want to end up loosing what has all ready been growing all summer. I did end up weeding my front planter yesterday and hauled out a bunch of weeds and it's not looking too much better but I guess that it's better than nothing.


I also had an appointment for Patches for his mobile grooming appointment but that wasn't until 5pm and they showed up right on time and were done within two hours. I tried not to watch too much as I didn't want to get the boy excited and all in all I think that it went well, all the guy told me was that he was super hyper but he finished the job. And he even got his feet trimmed after PetSmart gave up so now he has some tiny feet once again. That is definitely the way to go as they just knock on the door and walk him out to the street and then two hours later he's all clean and smelling nice and shaved too! Here is a picture of him with his new doo, and the place even left him with a little stuffed toy to play with ...... maybe that's how they do it - they bribe him!

And I ended up buying a new cover for my duvet thing on my bed, the last one that I had was off white and that stayed clean for about a day and a half. I got the exact same on on Overstock.com cuz I loved the other one and this one is moss in color and is just as soft as the last one. Here is the one that I got if you are looking for a great cover - click here. And I love Overstock cuz they are always offering free shipping and you get their stuff in just a couple of days. I also just ordered a new graphics card for my desktop from TigerDirect that was too great a deal that I couldn't pass up after the rebate and has like twice the memory of my old card although I don't really have any issues with it it's not really the best for Vista.

Other than that I'm keeping myself extremely busy and just started my third '08 budget for another hotel but the good news is that one person starts this week and a couple of more next week and we are making progress with filling open positions. I also spent some time yesterday finishing up another project of signing up all of the hotels to sell group rooms on the web, and that meant that I had to collect and turn in 65 files and that was a lot more work than I thought that it was going to be. But I'm down to about five hotels that are still missing but slowly but surely I'll get that completed too.

I guess that that's about it, nothing new really to report around here other than it's business as usual and all of that good stuff. My dog walker is still coming every day to take Patches for his stroll and I think that he's really been enjoying himself as she's been taking him running and they've been playing ropes ....... he sure does have a great life! So I'm going to end this here and hope you the best - have a great week and I will talk with you soon.

posted by Scott @ 9:06 PM

Sorry, just in from taking apart this old metal shelf that's been sitting in my garage so that I could throw it out with the trash and that happens to me ever week lately when I go to take out the garbage! So this one will probably have to be rather short too since it's getting late and I am behind schedule. My garage is finally starting to come together and I ended up securing my chest to the wall yesterday so that it doesn't come tumbling down, plus I had to cut off the back legs so that I could get it flush with the wall and there is this edge that was messing me up. That's done and it's stuff full with all my paint cans and lawn stuff, out of sight and out of mind. I also bought this nice four shelf deal yesterday to replace the nasty old tin one that was out there, I put that together this afternoon and as you heard just threw out the old one. I still need to work on the walk hanger thing so that I can get my bike and weed whacker out of the way but even so I've still go way too much stuff in there to get my car in.

Other than that the weather has been absolutely perfect, down in the 40's at night and close to 70' during the day and I'm wondering if Fall is here to stay. I mowed the lawn and cleaned up dog stuff yesterday and that was long overdue and it was getting so bad that the Patch Man wouldn't even wander out back any more. I still haven't weeded my planters yet but I need to get around to them one of these weekends in the near future. I also got my haircut yesterday only to find out I was one week early but I guess there was no harm done. I also gave Patches a bath today and Frontlined and heart wormed him so at least he's on his four week schedule - plus I used some conditioner on him and his hair is so nice and soft! I made an appointment for one of those mobile groomers to come cut his hair in the driveway - I tried for this weekend but they were all booked up all ready so he has an appointment for next Saturday. I figured that it might be better if I'm around to hold him down if need be but we'll see - I'm hoping that at some point he'll be used to the ordeal.

I also spent some time this weekend working on another budget for another hotel but that's about all that I did except for cleaning out my in-box. It should be a busy week as I have an owners meeting in Reston on Tuesday and a budget review for one of our DC hotels on Wednesday, plus being a full time revenue manager for about four other properties is keeping me nice and busy. We did get a bunch of people hired that are starting either next Monday or the Monday after that, now I just have to figure out how to get them all trained. And in another couple of weeks we'll be in full swing with budget reviews with all of our hotels and can't wait for the fun to begin! Oh, and my niece called me last week who's living in Philly working at a Marriott and guess that she has an interview in Gaithersburg at the end of the month for a promotion that I hope she gets, plus then she'll be pretty darn close to me.

I guess that is about it, all is well here and I'm doing just fine and I hope that things are going ok with you too. Drop me a line if you ever have a chance and let me know what's up - otherwise I'll talk with you again on another day. Take care until then :)

posted by Scott @ 9:24 PM

Hey and good Sunday evening to you. Not too much to report here as I haven't been doing much at all ....... it was close to 95' yesterday and today and too hot to do anything! I did mow the front yard yesterday and then worked on putting together a day by day budget for one of out hotels but other than that I pretty much vegged the rest of the weekend.

I did like that four day work week although that's now behind us and it's back to work full time until Thanksgiving I think. Oh, and the traffic last week was killing me and guess that we all get spoiled over the summer and now it's back to the real thing ...... and instead of 20-25 minutes to go 13.1 miles it's now taking me 45-hour ....... and that's each way! At least Friday evening was almost normal but that was about the only day - I just hope that it's not like that each and every day.

My dog walker is leaving the country on Tuesday but I'm hoping that she has hooked me up with one of her friends and her friend shows up - I've been calling her trying to meet her for a week now but all I do is leave messages and she never calls me back. My lady is gone for the next two and a half weeks so if that doesn't work than I guess that I'll have to figure something else out. I also need to try and make an appointment with the mobile groomer where they come to your house and I am hoping that I can hang out while they groom Patches and we'll see if that works any better than it did the last time and if he will get used to the process some day. He sure is getting pretty scruffy these days and I probably can't wait for more than a couple of more weeks. He's still a handful but he also has his good moments too.

Other than that nothing else is new with me, I had one girl start in DC and then hired another guy on Friday to work Chicago so I think that only leaves about three other cities that have openings. I'll be glad to see the day where we are all full staffed again and I might be able to get back to what I used to do, not that I remember what that was.

I did talk to my brother last week and I was right that he pretty much lived at the NYS Fair the 10 days that it was open. His wife just got a new puppy and then they turned around and bought another one for Gavin ....... so they've really got a house full now! I'm going to run since I had nothing much to say. Have a great week and I'll talk with you on another day.

posted by Scott @ 8:51 PM

Ok, here's the garage floor before and the one from after painting it ....... it's still drying so it looks a little uneven but I think that it should dry to be all one color -

And once it is all dry then comes the task of organizing all of the stuff back inside - I might even try and leave room for my car one of these days. And I got to thinking that I think that I started pulling off drywall tape back in last May (2006) when Montie was still with me ....... and it's taken me more than 15 months to finally finish it ....... who would have thunk it?

And I also just got done putting up four "puc" lights underneath my kitchen counter above my sink and I think that I'm really liking it and it gives a totally different type of light than the florescent one that I had up there originally ........ see what I mean -

And of course the Patch wanted to say hello as well ...... so here he is wishing everyone a Happy Labor Day!

See you all later, I've still got stuff to do and me's thinking I could use a nap too! Talk with you soon.

posted by Scott @ 5:35 PM

I think that I could get used to these three day weekends, two down and one more to go! Not too much happening around here though but the weather sure has been nice, it's been in the 50's at night and the low 80's during the day so it doesn't get much better than that. Great sleeping weather with the windows open!

And yesterday I finally finished up painting the rest of my garage and only had the door and a couple of small areas on the ceiling left to do. I had to do that so that I could move on to my next project and be done with it finally - and that is to epoxy the floor. So I finished up the painting yesterday and then went and got the Rustoleum paint kit and got up this morning and cleaned the whole thing out. So now I've got a side yard full of crap so I hope that it doesn't rain anytime soon. I then had to scrub the whole thing and do the etch stuff and I had hoped to have painted it today but it took forever to dry. Here is a before picture, I was hoping to have a before and an after but guess that you'll have to wait another day to see the finished product -

So now I'll have to get up early in the morning and finish it off and then hopefully it'll be half way dry enough by the end of the day so that I can move most of my stuff back in. I decided to go with the tan color instead of the gray and I think that it'll look pretty good against the walls that are kind of beigy. Guess that I'll find out soon enough.

I also need to take some time off and I have a ton of stuff around here that I can do - I noticed today that I have these weed things growing in my planter that are as tall as me. And work has been crazy and last week was rough but hopefully that will be improving sometime soon - at least everyone is back from vacation next week and we have one person starting back that will pick up two of the hotels that I've been keeping an eye one. But that still leaves me with about five others so I hope that we find someone for some of them in the near future as it is real challenging trying to do my job while keeping busy working for the hotels.

Other than that not too much is new here, I probably owe my brother a call on of these days but I assume that he's been at the NY State Fair all week which goes through tomorrow so I guess he might be home after that. And so I hope that you have a wonderful holiday and that you are going to a cook out or something like that and guess that it won't be long now before I'm complaining about how cold it is. Take care and enjoy the short week!

posted by Scott @ 8:46 PM