New Years Eve 2011 Ransome's party

We spent a fun, relaxing night with Jay and Jen, and Dave and Nikki. We played Wii bowling before the new year rang in...

10 Special Things I Did in 2010

10. Started watching a new TV series on Mondays -- "Hawaii Five-O"

9. Loved the color gray in her makeup

8. Went to Boston with her sister and niece

7. Caught the AMTRAK for the first time in her life

6. Rode in a Maybach

5. Read books that I normally don't read thanks to my book club

4. Enjoyed bootcamp and kickboxing aerobics

3. Had a pre-teen live in her house for the summer

2. Went to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for spring break

1. Attended many free pre-screenings of movies

GIRLIE UPDATE > MOVIE ALERT: The Tourist

I met Peggi, Michael and Luis to see the movie tonight. I wasn't able to catch up with Peggi since we couldn't talk during the movie and we tried to grab a coffee after with no success. Boo! No talk of Italy!

GIRLIE UPDATE: Whiteout

Being the great fan that I am, I ventured to watch a spooky movie called Whiteout tonight. Mr. O (aka Alika) played a reckless pilot / ax murderer in this flick. Even if he braved the frigid Antartic cold naked I like him better as a Navy Seal / bad ass cop!

At least the movie didn't give me nightmares. And I do appreciate living in Ohio now. There's a place worse than here!

IUI ALERT: Three time's a charm

Here we go again! I finally, after three tries, got to take the Clomid challenge blood test today. Its an evaluation of my hormone levels and ovarian reserves -- to see if my 43-YEAR OLD EGGS are okay. The first time, I didn't know I was suppose to do it. The second time, they didn't have the work order done properly. But this time, I was let in and was out of there in 5 minutes! I was lucky to do it in Elyria. Next week when I take it again, I'll have to drive into Cleveland. I hope the weather will be nice that day!

GIRLIE UPDATE: OMG Mr. Craig!

He split from his fiancee in May! What?! Apparently he's seeing a Dream House co-star now.

Filming "The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo"

Christmas 2010 Brlas dinner

We had Italian this year -- Aaron's spaghetti with meat sauce, chicken Saltimbocca, potato salad with mustard-anchovy dressing, fried tomatoes with sour cream and prosciutto, zucchini and cheese meatballs, chocolate gooey butter cookies, chocolate stout cakes and chocolate-hazelnut raviolis. I was going to make espresso cocoa but everyone was stuffed by dessert time! Grandma Brlas and dad Rick Keala, what are you doing? Ken and mom Cookie Ken and Becky unwrapping gifts Kyle and Aaron playing Grand Turismo 5 Ikaika eyeing up the desserts on the table Mele Kalikimaka everyone!

Da last day of work

Now that all my projects are complete (pat on the back to myself!) I got a little breather this week. I got some exercise moving all the books that were returned but other than that, finals week was a breeze. I worked a short 2-hour shift today. I'm off tomorrow since the library is only open before 3 p.m. Aloha fall semester!!

Now I'm off to buy all the food we need for our Christmas dinner on Friday...

Day off madness

Aaron and I finally have our days off at the same time! We're off to do our Christmas shopping. But first, lunch at Brown Bag Burgers.

GIRLIE UPDATE: Playing the Field announcement

Mr. Butler is producing and will be acting in the movie Playing the Field. Production will start in March 2011. You guessed it... he's playing a soccer player! I wonder where they'll be shooting this time... Ohio? I wish!

Weathering the work storm

I'm meeting with my assigned attendants and giving them their progress reports...finished the 24-hour schedule that starts tonight...sent out two emails to attendants who are about to lose their jobs...finalizing the January winter term schedule...hired the first round of new hires...salting with the icy ramp outside...clearing student accounts of library fines...dealing with the last round of fine appeals. Did I miss anything?

Let there be lights!

Hi Ikaika!

Decorate and be merry!

Gosh we didn't even decorate our lovely tree yet! We bought a new stand in hopes that this 8 foot tree will not fall like last year. I haven't had time to make any ornaments. And we should stop buying new ones since we'll be moving soon. What to do? Well this is the year for multi-colored lights -- I will go through all our ornaments and use all of them except for the silver and gold ones. That should work!

Now what to do with our village...

Schedules, schedules, schedules

Silly me decided to take over making the schedules now instead of in January. That means I need to put the sign-up sheets for the 24-hour schedule for next week as well as making the winter term, orientation week and the final spring desk schedules. Like I have nothing else to do now!!

The heartburn is back

Oh no! My heartburn is back! Can you tell... I'm stressed! Where's my pills?!

IUI ALERT: Trading jobs

I finally talked to my boss about possibly lightening my work load next semester since I am planning to do more fertility procedures. My first two attempts were done in the summer when I was not so busy. If Aaron and I need to do an IVF procedure, I fear I will be too emotional with all the hormones pumped into me to be stable to handle training new hires.

Allison thought it was a good idea and so I'm going to switch tasks with Yolanda in January. I'm going to take over making all schedules and fine payment/cash register reconciliation while Yolanda does training new hires. Allison is taking fine appeals away from me too. I'll be able to not worry so much about work now. Well, I'll still worry but at least I won't be responsible for all of that for the year.

So Aaron and I will do another IUI procedure during my December cycle at the end of this month. Wish us luck!

Madness mania...

Since we were running behind with training, my projects are coming up all at once! Not only am I doing back-to-back interviews, I'm also writing progress reports a.k.a. work evaluations for my 26 desk attendants.

One of the toughest tasks I do each semester is writing these reports. It takes time to observe them all and come up with ratings on how they do. I tend to rate them against each other, giving those excellent few the perfect 10's and the majority gets average rates with goals to become 10's. Then there are the "barely fair" rates to the few that are not doing the basic work. They get goals they need to improve by the end of the semester. If they fail, they are not rehired. Most times they are let go.

It's a not-so-good-feeling task, but it's something a supervisor needs to do. The student learns that not all jobs are right for them, and we get a chance to hire a more motivated student who wants the job. Now I'm off to finish them by the deadline!

Let the work madness begin...

Now that the major training has ended, time to look forward to the future. Spring '11 to be exact! I just got my current crew's schedules and made a draft desk schedule with them. It looks like we need 3 new attendants to interview and hire. 7 new attendants if our 4 struggling attendants don't shape up soon!

Shopping... for our Christmas tree

Compleanno di Nino

I had a wonderful dinner with my dear friend Megan tonight. We celebrated our birthdays together over good food and conversation. May 2011 be an easier year for both of us!

GIRLIE UPDATE: Burns in production

The boy is on a roll! G just finished filming Machine Gun Preacher and now he is next flick Burns
is in production. Its a biopic about Scottish poet/lyricist Robert Burns including his love affairs with his wife Jean Armour and Agnes McLehose, also known as Clarinda, an Edinburgh society hostess. I wonder who they'll pick to play those parts? I know a Hawaiian girl who would love to play opposite G...

Pink and kilts? He's still bloody manly!

The first signs of winter

Look what December brought us...

Ikaika and Keala in the backyard

The calm before the storm...

Well fall semester is almost over which means I switch gears from training to observing and evaluating. You would think its easier but its not. Since I oversee the schedule and timesheets I have to make more effort to write a report for all workers, not just the ones I work with, which essentially I work with everybody anyway. I feel like I'm not going to make my deadline!

GIRLIE UPDATE > MOVIE ALERT: Burlesque with the fun circulation bunch

Joyce, Monica, Kristen, Michael and I went to see Burlesque at Cobblestone this afternoon. Ms. Aguilera is one talented lady! I enjoyed the flick a lot! I want some Famous Amos cookies, Jack!

Ms. C with Cam Gigandet (wow!)

Pampering, pills and party

I woke up barely in time to my haircut appointment this afternoon. Surprise! I got cramps for my birthday! But after Aaron took me to a nice lunch and we did more shopping before getting ready to go out. We were invited to another birthday party for Mikey who turned the big 4-0 yesterday. Overall a fun day filled with Lisa time, hubby time and friends time. Can't get any better! Now I'm headed for bed...

Got Leftovers?

I should have gone shopping with Cookie this morning. I ended up snuggling under the covers and reading an entire book! When I put the book down and looked up it was 7 a.m.! Needless to say, I slept like a baby all morning and afternoon.

I eventually woke up and got dressed to visit Grandma Brlas and Rick.


We also braved the mall and went to see if Best Buy had any goodies left. Santa's going to Lanai and Kahala!

Gobble gobble from the Brlas'

GIRLIE UPDATE > MOVIE ALERT: Due Date with the fun circulation bunch

Helen, Joyce, Tam, Steve and I went to Bellacino's for dinner and to the movie Due Date. We enjoyed the Bella-Bollis and pizza (and not iCarly on TV) and having the theater to ourselves (or so we thought!). We can't wait to do it again!

The calm before the storm

It's going to be a short but busy week at work! Observations at the desk, work evaluations, making next semester's desk schedule, interviewing and hiring, making new forms and signs... wohh, I'm tired just typing this...

Musical alert ... Billy Elliot

Aaron and I went to see Billy Elliot at the Cleveland Playhouse Square this afternoon. Is that Emelia in her ponytails, singing and dancing her heart out on stage? I swear it looked like her. The kids are so talented! And the rest of the crew cussed a lot. A delightful musical!

Do you see Emelia? She's right in the middle! (Actually that's the talented Olivia Wang!)

GIRLIE UPDATE > MOVIE ALERT: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Only Monica and I ended up going to see the movie this weekend. After my manicure, I met her at the Slow Train for coffee first before standing in line for the 4:00 p.m. show.

So my plan backfired! I watched the first six movies in a row this week, only I ran out of time and didn't watch the last flick completely, hence I was sort of lost on some of the storylines tonight. Bollocks! Should I suck it up and read the last of the series? Would it ruin my Potter experience or will I be more into it?

It was fun to go with Monica -- I think she's more expressive then me! When she got scared, I was jumping out of my seat with her! Can't wait for the next and final saga!

GIRLIE UPDATE: The Melting Pot

Cookie took me and Becky to a new restaurant that specializes in fondue, both cheese and chocolate. I loved it, except I could have done without cooking my own meats. Having raw meat served at the table in a nice restaurant was sort of weird.

Wish my girlies were here to join me next time!

GIRLIE UPDATE: Cowboys & Aliens

Guess who's on the poster? Nice! Can't wait to see it in July of next year...

Sign off to aerobics

Well today will probably be my last day of aerobics classes for the year. With the holidays around the corner and my busy work period coming up, I doubt I would have time to slip away. Plus the weather is so frigid now, its hard to want to get out and go. I know, lame excuse. But its that time of the year when I have to choose... stay inside and keep as healthy as possible? Or try to fit exercise into my hectic schedule? I think its the driving in snow business that makes me decision easy. I HATE driving in the beautiful snow. It causes anxiety!

Plus Aaron and I are planning to try the fertility treatments again. Will exercise help? Oh the life of a sickly girl...

Harry Potter tickets

So long story...

The pre-screening of HP7 was announced several weeks ago and to my delight, the production company gave out the rsvp codes soon after. Or so I thought! I frantically requested tickets and was blessed to get 6 free prescreening tickets!! I knew it would be hard to pick out who I would invite being that I'm surrounded by big Harry Potter fans at work. So I invited my movie peeps who's joined me on movie adventures before. We were all so excited...

A week later the ticket company announced that someone put the rsvp codes out too early and because of that, all the tickets acquired before the actual time would be invalid. WHAT?! Oh no, I'm screwed!

But I didn't give up. Every day I checked my ticket account hoping they would come available near the pre-screening date. I've gotten tickets like that before. The week before I started checking every half hour. The day before I started checking every 15 minutes! I don't know why I thought anyone would give away their free Harry Potters! I was very much DENIED! No one released their tickets!!

So me and my movie peeps will attempt to go see it this weekend. Some already had their midnight showing tickets so they are covered. Luckily they are showing HP7 at the Apollo in Oberlin. Sweet!

Now I wonder what would be the next big movie that will make me work hard for the tickets... the next Twilight saga?? Well at least all the other movies tickets will be a piece of cake to get, right??

GIRLIE UPDATE: Buon compleanno, Bella!

(For you Hawaiians, that's happy birthday in Italian) To my good friend Megan, let's do dinner soon! Live young like there's no tomorrow! (OK we really need to take a picture together!)

GIRLIE UPDATE: Là breith sona dhuibh G!

You're the big 4-1 today! You've been working really hard this year. I can't wait for your next film to come, unfortunately next year. You may have been replaced as my FBF (fantasy b-friend) but you're still my favorite actor! Let the Gerard Butler movie marathon commence!! Starting with my favorite 2010 movie, How To Train Your Dragon...

Happy V-Day... no the other V-Day

Thank you to all of those who serve and have served! USS Reuben James FFG-57 forever!

GIRLIE UPDATE: Happy Birthday Lureen!

Two Manangs -- during one of my visits to Hawai'i (we so old, the picture is disintegrating!)

MOVIE ALERT: Tangled 3-D

This is the new Disney classic about Rapunzel and her magical hair. I laughed and I cried. OK I cried a lot. Loved it! We saw it in 3-D but I think it would still be amazing in 2-D too. Don't forget to take the kids to see it!

GIRLIE UDPATE: The Cold Light of Day filming

My FBF (fantasy b-friend) is in Spain filming his next film The Cold Light of Day.

He plays an American man who discovers a conspiracy while trying to rescue his family from kidnappers in Spain. Poor baby looks beat up!

Byebye 70's wood cabinets!

BEFORE...





Disassemble, remove hardware, sand, clean and paint! To be continued...