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

Well another week has come and gone and we are just about through the month of February. I guess that the weather got pretty bad around these parts last Thursday and Thursday night with another round of ice and rain and they even closed the offices on Friday for those that chose to work from home. But I wasn't around to see it and spent the week in LA visiting the Kyoto Grand and didn't get back until Friday night. But the weather there wasn't all that great either and that was the one thing that I was kind of looking forward to but it was in the 50's and drizzle most of the days and down in the 40's or so at night. Guess it was much warmer than it was here though.

I left here on the 7am flight on Virgin America and I swear they need to find some business as the flights are only half full each time that I take them - but at least that's good for me as each person pretty much gets their own row. Everything was right on time and got to LAX at about 10am and then caught a Super Shuttle to the hotel and started out the rest of my day. I had a great room or actually it was a suite and the only thing that I was missing was an Internet connection that actually worked and that killed me trying to get work done when I wasn't working. And it was a wireless connection and it was working just enough to make me think that I could make it work but basically it was useless to me but just wasted my time. We went out to dinner Wednesday night and went to a restaurant in Chinatown and that was fun but it was about all of the city that I saw.

And then I got to the airport at about 9am Friday morning for a 10:30am flight and thought for sure that the plane wouldn't make it from Dulles to LAX due to weather and that my flight would end up being cancelled. But nope, my flight was right on time even though all of the flights into New York were delayed and got home right on time and then came home soon after that. But it was definitely crappy weather here when I got here and it was raining and right about at freezing temps so I'm glad that I didn't have too far to go and stayed home the rest of the night. And the time change thing kind of gets to you and I think that I was just about used to it by the time that I left there and then all weekend I've been dragging but guess that I am ok now.

And I think that I mentioned that I dropped my laptop coming through security in DFW the other week and IT told me that it would cost more to replace the LCD screen than to buy a new one - but right as I bought a screen on eBay they decided to buy me a new laptop and guess that it came in last week. But my old computer is fine now after I took it apart and replaced the monitor and although I had a ton of parts laying here in a pile I got it all back together and it's working just fine - and took that with me last week and used that while I was away. But I guess that I have that to look forward to in the week ahead, it takes forever to get a computer just the way I like it so I'll probably be messing with it for weeks to come. I'm not even sure what kind of computer they got me other than it's an IBM but I'm not sure what specs it even has but I'm hoping that it's at least as good as the one that I have now.

This weekend I didn't end up doing much, I had a ton of work to get caught up on so I pretty much worked all day yesterday and took a few naps and today I didn't do much either other than the usual cleaning the house, laundry, grocery shopping and got my hair cut. I'm really hoping that I get my energy back once the weather gets nice and guess that it won't be too much longer either. I think that I might be back in the office for a while too and at this point I don't have a trip planned until mid-March when we are off to our National Sales Meeting in Atlanta for a few days. This week should be pretty normal I think.

And I guess that's about all that I have for this day so I hope that all is well with you too and I guess that I'll be talking with you on another day. Take it easy and have a great week!

posted by Scott @ 8:57 PM

Evening to you once again and here we are in mid-February and the temps are still mighty chilly but at least today broke out into the 40's. Last week was mighty cold and we even had one day that was raining pure ice and that made for a fun drive home Tuesday night and another fun day driving back to work Wednesday morning. But I guess that I was lucky as it took some people 4-8 hours to get home that night and I can't imagine sitting in traffic going no where for that long. The DOT even said that they had no idea that it was coming and that's why things were such a mess, but no one really believed that as they were talking about it for days in advance.

Not too much going on with me these days, last week went well for the most part but there wasn't really anything exciting going on. We did have a meeting at The Melrose on Monday so we drove down there for the afternoon and then we had a bunch of people come in for an orientation class that were here Tuesday and Wednesday and then it was pretty much back to normal for the rest of the week.

I am off to Los Angeles this week for a few days and just checked out the weather and it's not going to be all that nice - but at least it'll be in the 60's during the day which certainly beats the 30's that we are expected to have here. I'll spend a few days working with the new girl that started a few weeks ago and then she'll be on her own and she all ready has a pretty good handle on things so it should make it pretty easy on me.

We are actually off tomorrow for the big President's Day holiday but I'll probably end up working at least part of it just to get a heads start on the week. I'd like to try and do something else as well but I'll have to wait and see what the weather has in the works and I'd like to either go hiking on Horsepen Run or a bike ride or even to get out there and start working on cleaning up the yard ....... I just don't know yet. I guess that I'll wait and see how much time I need to spend getting some work done and then take it from there but I'm just not sure yet.

And I guess that's about it for this day, I just got notice that my website is up for renewal and I've been pondering if I want to continue it or to just let it go away but I guess that I'll figure that out soon enough. Have a great week and I'll talk with you on another day - have a great week!

posted by Scott @ 9:07 PM

Hello and another good evening. And it sure is going to be a mighty cold night around here tonight and is forecasted to be down to 14' later on and the wind has been whipping around all day and think that we had gusts of like 60 mph after a front blew through. Sure not a fun night to be outside so I'm glad that I'm not!

And that wind reminds me of the time that I spent in Dallas Texas last week and I got there Tuesday afternoon and it was nice and warm at the airport but by the time we got to the Doral Hotel it got cold out and the wind blew strong for the next three days. I think that it was in the 50's barely during the day and down in the 30's each night that I was there. Luckily our meetings were at the hotel so we didn't have to go out very often but we did go out to dinner Tuesday night and went to a Brazilian barbeque place called Texas de Brazil in Fort Worth. I've never been to a place like that but they have a huge salad bar that has much more than salad and then you get this red and green card that you turn over green when you want the meat to begin and guys come around with squires of all kinds of meet and they fill up your plate. And when you've had enough you turn your card over to the red side and then they leave you alone for a while. It certainly did bring a whole new meaning the eating meat for dinner. We also found room for desert and that was awesome too, it was like this glass full of half way melted ice cream and something else - it was just yummy.

The next night we had an event at the Texas Motor Speedway which is right across from the hotel and is a big old race track where they run NASCAR races a couple of times a year. We started out in the in-field and had cocktails and hordeurves in the garage while we took turns doing the Pace Car ride around the track - which was pretty much a few laps around the track at 80 mph which was cool - plus they stopped at the top on one end of the track and you can really get a feel for how deep the turns are. And they also had a Buzzword Bingo contest through the day for rides in the actual cars at 160 mph and of the twelve winners they had two of them were those that came with me. We topped the night off by having a big old dinner in the ballroom which is on the 9th floor of the club house overlooking the track and that was fun too ....... I ate for like three days straight while I was there.

I also had a chance to hook up with my cousin who lives in Keller TX and guess that is only about 15 minutes away from the hotel and I think that the last time that we saw each other was at her wedding which was like 20 years ago. She came over and we had a Bud at the bar but after that I was pretty beat and called it a night. It was good to see her again even if it was for only a short period of time and I was amazed at how much we think alike, maybe it's because we are the same age or something but we were both pretty grossed out by the glass washing procedure that they had going at the bar. Thursday it was a half day of meetings and then it was off to the airport and I was home by 7pm. Oh, and the bummer part of my trip home was that I put my laptop in the bin at the security checkpoint, put my case in the machine and turned around to find my laptop falling to the floor. I swear that the guy behind me pushed it but I can't prove that and it looked fine so I went on my merry way - but when I booted it up on the plane the screen is all messed up and half of it is black. At least it still works in my docking station at work but I'm not sure what I'm going to do about fixing it.

And then it was back to work Friday morning and for the second time in my life I left the house without my computer bag and didn't realize it until I got all of the way to the office and had to turn around and drive all the way home to get it. While I was here though I noticed that Verizon had wired up my house for the new FIOS network and even though they lost my appointment for them to come yesterday I still thought that they might show up. But no, I ended up calling them last week to confirm my appointment and they couldn't find any record of it so they rescheduled me for the end of March so I'm waiting another month and a half to get hooked up. I love dealing with Verizon and I can tell all ready the fun that I am going to have, I just hope that I won't have to deal with them very often once I am up and running.

And I guess that's it, I have a meeting at one of our hotels tomorrow afternoon and then we have an orientation class here on Wednesday that I have to be a part of so that should break things up. I also need to plan a trip to LA towards the end of the month but other than that I think that's the only trip that I have planned for the short term. I guess that's about it for today - I really can't believe that the weekend is over and another one flew right by. Have a great week and I will talk with you on another day. Until then take care!

posted by Scott @ 8:26 PM

Hello again and how are things going with you? Not too bad of a weather weekend around here and it was in the 50's both days, not the sunniest of days but still no rain to be seen. And that was some different that it was on Friday where I drove to work in a monsooning rain and it was suppose to be freezing rain and sleet but it ended up being about 34' so it was just wet. And then that cleared out and made for a much better weekend.

Yesterday I ended up going down to the railroad track again and did some rollerblading, I bought a pair of cool blades off of eBay the other day and they fit perfectly. The only thing that I'm still trying to adjust to is they don't have a braking pad on the back of them like my old one's did so I'm not real good at stopping when I need to yet. Luckily the trail that I was using is pretty much flat but there was one hill that got a little bit hairy but at least I didn't wipe out. I think that I went about 2 miles in each direction and by the time I was done I was rather beat ....... and now my shoulder hurts but I'm not sure if the two are related any.

I am headed to Dallas/Fort Worth this week and got a note from my cousin that she lives like 15 minutes away from the hotel where I am staying and that she wants to stop for a visit. And that's great and I'm glad that she noticed that I would be in town as I probably would have never put two and two together to even think about looking her up - plus it's probably been 20 years since we last saw each other. It should be a fun couple of days. I also have a new person starting at the Kyoto tomorrow so I need to get her set up and trained so that I can leave the place in her hands so that should also keep me busy this week, along with other things.

There's really not all that much else going on though and I really didn't do all that much this weekend. I need to get outside and start working on the yard as I guess that spring will be here before we know it and hopefully the mud left over from putting in the irrigation system will fill in with grass some day. And I'm not sure that I mentioned it before but Verizon came through and wired the neighborhood for FIOS a while ago and that also dug up everyone's lawn and I signed up a month ago to move to their cable and intenet and that was scheduled for next weekend. But I called yesterday to confirm and the guy says that there is a question mark next to my appointment so I'm not sure what that means - but they told me to call the sales office tomorrow and ask ....... but I think that means that they still aren't quite ready to do any installs. And I just love dealing with Verizon and love that computer lady that can never understand me, and guess that I can look forward to more of that if I do end up moving over to them.

I guess that's about it for this day but I hope that you are doing well, all is about the same here and it's back to work in the morning again. Take care and have a great week and I'll talk with you on another day. See you later!

posted by Scott @ 9:04 PM