CONNIE'S CHRONICLES 2008!

Click on "play" above for your animated Xmas card...

Well, another year has come and gone. I hope everyone is doing well! This year has been a bit of a whirlwind for me. I left Warner Bros. for a better job at the Tennis Channel (did you even know there was a Tennis Channel?) I had received a job offer at the same time from Playboy (no, not as model - haha), but I turned them down to work for Tennis. The job at Playboy? It involved watching porn (ahem, "excuse me, it's 'erotica'" a guy friend says) to make sure all the "actors" are in compliance with the age law and to make sure we have legal rights for everything appearing in the films. Is that footage cleared in the background? LOL. I hear an audible :::gasp::: from the male readers of my blog. LOL. I ended up going with The Tennis Channel because it was a step up in my career (administrator to manager), better pay than Playboy and frankly - do I really want to watch "erotica" all day long? But darn it - no visits to the Playboy mansion!

Everyone is very friendly here at the Tennis Channel. There's a ping-pong table in the kitchen/breakroom and they have semi-annual ping-pong tourneys. It's a bit of a drive for me and the traffic in the evening is killing me. With no traffic it should only take 25 mins to get home, with some traffic - 45 mins., but on some occasions it has taken me two hours to get home! I'm still debating whether it was a good move for me as I am still waiting to do the job I was hired for. My actual job is contingent upon the implementation of a database/rights retrieval program and we have been wavering back and forth on which program to go with. We're close to closing a deal so hopefully I will actually start inputting data by my one-year anniversary with the company! Oy!

I just went to my friend's ordination. Fred recently became an ordained priest in the Episcopalian church. It was a beautiful ceremony (possibly more priests there than parishioners) and I can safely say I was the only Buddhist there. :o)

Some sad news... My other cat, Obi (the black one in the background), passed away this year. She was 14 (I adopted her at six weeks old from the county shelter). Anyone who has pets knows it's like raising children. It was a sad day for me. I'm taking a break from pets right now but I imagine I'll adopt another one (or two) in the future.

I joined facebook this year and got back in touch with a lot of friends from high school (OMG, my 20th high school reunion is next year! Wait, I meant 10th... :oD) If you haven't joined, I highly recommend it. It's fun and better than myspace. Oh damn, do I dare put my high school senior picture up here? No, I don't.

As you may or may not know, I LOVE LOVE LOVE to cook. The more gadgets the better! (hint, hint on possible gift cards - Williams-Sonoma, anyone?) Whenever I want to try out a recipe or just plain cook, I like to go over to my friend's house as they have a big kitchen I can actually move around in. This year I made a chocolate croissant bread pudding to die for. Here's the recipe:

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 large eggs, lightly beaten (or eggbeaters equivalent)
• 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 12 croissants
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)
• 1 bag of Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chips

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• With a hand mixer or food processor, combine butter and sugar process until well blended. Add cinnamon, and vanilla, and pulse to combine.
• Add 5 eggs into the mixture and scrape down the sides. Add the heavy cream and pulse to combine.
• Lightly butter a 9 by 13-inch baking dish. Break up the croissants into 1-inch pieces and layer in the pan. Scatter the raisins and chocolate chips over the top, and gently mix to incorporate. Pour the egg mixture over the croissants; soak for 8 to 10 minutes. You will need to push croissants pieces down during this time to ensure even coverage by egg mixture.
• Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake for additional 10 minutes to brown the top. Allow to cool. Plate up with some vanilla ice cream and have a gastronomic orgasm.

I'm still writing my blog for Heroes and Torchwood and will soon pick up the weekly blog for the upcoming Dollhouse on Fox. If you haven't read my blogs, please take a gander (and click through on the ads, that's how I'm paid!) The links are in the sidebar here.

Visited the Huntington Gardens for the first time this year. It's quite beautiful there. We had tea and finger sandwiches in their tea room. This is a pic of me at the Hunt's new Chinese Gardens.

One of the last projects I worked on at Warner Bros. was A Miser Brothers' Christmas which aired on ABC Family during their "25 Days of Christmas" promotion. It didn't get great reviews but it was fun to work on the stop-motion animation shows of old.. I do miss working in animation. That was a fun time.

Let's see - I can't really think of anything else. I'm planning three separate trips to Florida next year. One around Chinese New Year (late January) to visit my family and work on my mom's house while the other two will depend on my two high school reunions I'd like to attend.


Here's a pic from the Disney employee holiday party (L to R: Ruston, Paula, Andy, and I). I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and a great new year!