Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Wedding Pics!
Hey does anybody have pictures from the wedding that you would like to post. I saw the ones Bart had on his facebook, but I'm wondering if you have anymore. Please post them asap if you have some. We had soooooo much fun!!!! Julie and Joe looked great and super happy. Can't wait to hear how the honeymoon went....... :0)
Thursday, January 24, 2008
New Writing
All,
I recently wrote a letter to the wonderful facility that I spent 3 weeks at last October. The letter really explains what is going on in a place like that, and it also points to why such an experience has value for people who may not have substance abuse problem themselves.
It's only a couple of pages long, so in case you feel like reading it I've put it online. It's a little too long to make for a well-formatted blog post, so I left it in Word format.
You can read it here: http://www.jfroach.org/therapyletter.doc
P.S. There is a little bit of satire in there, see if you can find it.
I recently wrote a letter to the wonderful facility that I spent 3 weeks at last October. The letter really explains what is going on in a place like that, and it also points to why such an experience has value for people who may not have substance abuse problem themselves.
It's only a couple of pages long, so in case you feel like reading it I've put it online. It's a little too long to make for a well-formatted blog post, so I left it in Word format.
You can read it here: http://www.jfroach.org/therapyletter.doc
P.S. There is a little bit of satire in there, see if you can find it.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Blog Formatting
All,
Nice job on all of the excellent blog posts in the past couple of weeks!
I am messing around a little bit with the blog template to try to make the default formatting a little more pleasing to the eye, so don't freak out if things start looking a little differently.
I also wanted to mention a couple of basic items that will help with the overall aesthetic of the blog. First, remember that when you post pictures you have several alignment options that effect the way your final post will look. Consider these when formatting your post. There is a 'preview' link directly above the right-hand side of the text-entry box for a new post. Clicking that link will show you what your post is going to look like when you publish it.
I encourage you all to use a double line-break at the end of paragraphs for longer posts. This means hitting the 'Enter' key twice when you finish a group of cohesive thoughts. It results in a most that looks like the one you are reading now, as opposed to a single, stream-of-consiousness-looking mess. Using this approach ensures that our older readers won't dismiss your post out of hand.
Finally, I would also encourage you to use label words for your post. These are words that allow for easy searching down the line if you are looking for a particular post. As you can see at the bottom of this post, I've labeled it with 'blog', 'posting', and 'formatting'. You do this by separating the words with commas in the 'labels for this post' field at the bottom of the posting window.
Always feel free to email me at jfroach@gmail.com if you have questions.
I expect to see some good pics from this coming weekend posted on Monday!
Nice job on all of the excellent blog posts in the past couple of weeks!
I am messing around a little bit with the blog template to try to make the default formatting a little more pleasing to the eye, so don't freak out if things start looking a little differently.
I also wanted to mention a couple of basic items that will help with the overall aesthetic of the blog. First, remember that when you post pictures you have several alignment options that effect the way your final post will look. Consider these when formatting your post. There is a 'preview' link directly above the right-hand side of the text-entry box for a new post. Clicking that link will show you what your post is going to look like when you publish it.
I encourage you all to use a double line-break at the end of paragraphs for longer posts. This means hitting the 'Enter' key twice when you finish a group of cohesive thoughts. It results in a most that looks like the one you are reading now, as opposed to a single, stream-of-consiousness-looking mess. Using this approach ensures that our older readers won't dismiss your post out of hand.
Finally, I would also encourage you to use label words for your post. These are words that allow for easy searching down the line if you are looking for a particular post. As you can see at the bottom of this post, I've labeled it with 'blog', 'posting', and 'formatting'. You do this by separating the words with commas in the 'labels for this post' field at the bottom of the posting window.
Always feel free to email me at jfroach@gmail.com if you have questions.
I expect to see some good pics from this coming weekend posted on Monday!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
The Happy Final Results
Hi family!
We arrived in Seattle Friday night, met our team for dinner at Buca di Beppo, and stayed with the Johnstons. We sat in the Pope room of the restaurant, where Pope Benedict XVI watched us eat. KIND OF creepy. Not gonna lie. One of the waiters at the restaurant WAS Andy Leon's clone. My dad got a picture of him, and it turns out, his real name is Andrew. Crazy!
We played some Guitar Hero early Saturday morning before we left for the Science Center.
In the preliminary round of the competition, all of the teams present twice to two different sets of about three judges. Luckily, for both our sets, there was at least one cute judge, so I wasn't TOO nervous. Ha. Wait until you see how "un-nervous" I was...
After we presented twice in the morning, it was about 11:00. We went to have lunch in the Center House, and Ailis had some gross looking chili-cheese fries. I had an orange Julius and a cheeseburger and non-gross fries. Yay.
We went back to the Northwest Rooms where we would find out if we made the Top Five. Turns out, that we were the last of the five in "no particular order". We were a little nervous. The top five teams then had about an hour to move their models into the presentation room. They were sequestered after they drew numbers to see what order they would present in. We were four, which was sort of bad because then we'd only get to see one other team's presentation.
While we were waiting for our turn, we practiced our presentation, and got some tips from one of the cute engineer judges. Some of the other teams played games. Lame.
When it was our turn to present, we were ON FIRE. The nerves were gone, which was weird, because I was practically crying during the preliminaries. It was SHOW TIME!
After the final team presented, the officials tried to take up time so that the judges could tally the scores. It was agonizing.
After the tallies were tallied, one of the judges gave a little speech, it is needless to say that my mom was in tears...the main points of the speech were to value Reading, Fitness, and Friends/Family. He also told us to tell our parents: "Even though you are completely dysfunctional, I love you and thank you for raising such a perfect child." I'm sure my parents heard that a total of four times. From each child.
Finally, the lady that always announces/butchers the names of the winners stepped up to the podium. She announced fifth and fourth places, and then finally third. Then she asked us if we wanted to hear about her life in Rhode Island instead of hearing about the winners. We said no, and she said "When I lived in Rhode Island, I'd never traveled to...Flathead, Montana. In second place." Which was a tricky way of saying that we won, because the school from Flathead, Montana came in second. Which means we got first! And we're going to Washington, D.C.! In February! We also got the People's Choice award for our model, and $15 Barnes and Noble cards.
After the competition, we went for a celebratory dinner at Kells, walking from the parking lot to Kells in the pouring-buckets of rain. So here are some photos to chronicle the event!!!!!
Love you all, and thanks to the Barracudas, (you know who you are) for critiquing us, we'll probably need it again in a week or two!
Ciara (and Moira)
Friday, January 18, 2008
2008 Future City Competition
Hi family!
As some of you may know, a group of my classmates, including Moira, and I are competing in the Future City Competition this year. We had to develop a computer model of our city through SimCity3000 software, and then we had to write an essay on how nanotechnology was integrated into our city's infrastructure. That required us to learn about nanotechnology in the first place! Then we had to actually build a 25X5o inch model, that could only be 20 or so inches tall. The scale of our model is 1 inch = 100 feet. Which
means that our tallest building in the model actually measures 900 feet. A 90 story building! As we built the model, we had to develop a presentation. The Barracudas, or Aunt LeeAnn and Aunt Nancy, came and critiqued our presentation, and now it seems much better than it was before.We're off to Seattle today for the State competition tomorrow, and we thought, as we are frantically cleaning our house before our departure, that we might blog a picture and write about what we're doing! So when we find out how we did, we'll let you all know either by another blog post, or by calling you!
And IF we end up getting first place in Seattle, we win a free trip to Washington, D.C. to compete for Nationals! Which is pretty exciting. Ailis and her team went to Washington, D.C. a couple of years ago to compete, and we got to go with them, and it was a lot of fun, so I hope we can do that this year!
Love you all!
Ciara (and Moira)
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
I went to North Korea!
Hello again everyone!
Was so excited about my day today and just wanted to let you all know about it. Most importantly before I begin, I am still alive! The reason why I say that is because today Miguel and I had one of the coolest experiences OF A LIFETIME by going up to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), which is the 10 mile wide neutral area/border between North and South Korea. It is only 35 miles from Seoul, which is actually kind of scary when you stop and think about it. We left this morning from the base at 7am and took the 40 min ride up north. After a brief historical video and tons of strict instruction from the military personell, we went to the Freedom Building. This important building is almost RIGHT on the border line between north and south. We were told that we were not to point or make gestures once we exited out the back of the building and into the courtyard of the two countries (which is where we had the unique experience of coming face to face with the enimy...with about 20 meters inbetween). They had cameras everywhere, on both sides, watching our every move in the buildings and especially outside. We were to wear badges at all times while in the DMZ. The North Koreans with their cameras, binoculars, and just plain sight were definitely scanning that each one of us had a badge from where they were standing. If we didn't have our badge visible or if we pointed and made gestures, openfire is a high possibility from the North Koreans, as they take this as provoking them. We saw three N.K. guards from visible sight, and obviously many S.K. and American Military on all sides of us. After viewing the area outside of the building, we were escorted to another building about 10 meters ahead of us. This building is where they hold many political meetings between the two countries. Half the building is in the South and half in the north. So essentially when they have their meetings at the center meeting table, they are still each in their own countries, because even the table is on the exact border of the two countries. It was in this building that I took some steps into N.K. We obviously weren't allowed outside the building into the N.K. side. It was so scary! Directly outside the N.K. exit were armed N.K. guards ready to fire at any moment necessary. So intense. After this, we stopped at a few watch points, where we could clearly see the N.K. side, propaganda village (a fake town that N.K. has set up to try to fool S.K. and it's allies into coming over. This town is actually just wood boards which they take down when it snows because the "buildings" cannot hold the weight of the snow...ask me in person if you don't understand. Or look it up, it's soooo interesting!) Our final stop was to the third tunnell. There are five in total, all found in the DMZ by the S.K. or it's allies. All of these tunnels were made by the N.K.'s who were clearly planning an attack on S.K. Luckily, they were all found before they had been dug all the way through to S.K. We walked about 500meters into the tunnel before we ran right into the barricade separating the N and S. We only saw one because the others are spread around the border in different areas. And Miguel's dad told us tonight that the 5th tunnel was found in 2000...the end almost to the middle of Seoul. FREAKY! Anyways, I have written too much, and I hope that you are all still reading this to the end! And if you are interested I suggest looking this all up on wikipedia. We are living history right now!!!
Was so excited about my day today and just wanted to let you all know about it. Most importantly before I begin, I am still alive! The reason why I say that is because today Miguel and I had one of the coolest experiences OF A LIFETIME by going up to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), which is the 10 mile wide neutral area/border between North and South Korea. It is only 35 miles from Seoul, which is actually kind of scary when you stop and think about it. We left this morning from the base at 7am and took the 40 min ride up north. After a brief historical video and tons of strict instruction from the military personell, we went to the Freedom Building. This important building is almost RIGHT on the border line between north and south. We were told that we were not to point or make gestures once we exited out the back of the building and into the courtyard of the two countries (which is where we had the unique experience of coming face to face with the enimy...with about 20 meters inbetween). They had cameras everywhere, on both sides, watching our every move in the buildings and especially outside. We were to wear badges at all times while in the DMZ. The North Koreans with their cameras, binoculars, and just plain sight were definitely scanning that each one of us had a badge from where they were standing. If we didn't have our badge visible or if we pointed and made gestures, openfire is a high possibility from the North Koreans, as they take this as provoking them. We saw three N.K. guards from visible sight, and obviously many S.K. and American Military on all sides of us. After viewing the area outside of the building, we were escorted to another building about 10 meters ahead of us. This building is where they hold many political meetings between the two countries. Half the building is in the South and half in the north. So essentially when they have their meetings at the center meeting table, they are still each in their own countries, because even the table is on the exact border of the two countries. It was in this building that I took some steps into N.K. We obviously weren't allowed outside the building into the N.K. side. It was so scary! Directly outside the N.K. exit were armed N.K. guards ready to fire at any moment necessary. So intense. After this, we stopped at a few watch points, where we could clearly see the N.K. side, propaganda village (a fake town that N.K. has set up to try to fool S.K. and it's allies into coming over. This town is actually just wood boards which they take down when it snows because the "buildings" cannot hold the weight of the snow...ask me in person if you don't understand. Or look it up, it's soooo interesting!) Our final stop was to the third tunnell. There are five in total, all found in the DMZ by the S.K. or it's allies. All of these tunnels were made by the N.K.'s who were clearly planning an attack on S.K. Luckily, they were all found before they had been dug all the way through to S.K. We walked about 500meters into the tunnel before we ran right into the barricade separating the N and S. We only saw one because the others are spread around the border in different areas. And Miguel's dad told us tonight that the 5th tunnel was found in 2000...the end almost to the middle of Seoul. FREAKY! Anyways, I have written too much, and I hope that you are all still reading this to the end! And if you are interested I suggest looking this all up on wikipedia. We are living history right now!!!
Friday, January 04, 2008
Pat in Seattle
It's about time I tried this blog thing out. If Caitlin can do it, I can too (loved your note, btw, Cakie). Anyway, I just want to let y'all know I'll be in Seattle for a while. I officially accepted a job at Harborview working on the Trauma/Surgical ICU. It's a brand new unit: two units merging into one into the brand new wing (currently under construction) as early as May. I'm pretty stoked. I start Feb. 4th, so I've got exaclty one month tor relax after the last 20 or so months of having school on my mind. Ahhh...I'm currently living with Shannon, Jim, and Lucia while studying for the NCLEX, apartment hunting, and doing whatever tickles my fancy. All my love. Pat
This is what is going on with Me
All,
I've been meaning for a little while to blog about the events of my life over the past couple of months, and where I'm at these days. The truth is, after completing my 3-week recovery retreat at the Sundown M Ranch, I have been SO BUSY that I've been neglectful of my self-imposed blogging obligations.
Busy in a good way, though. It just seems that there is a lot to do, for a lot of people, for a lot of projects, and these days I'm able to perform much more effectively. Someone upstairs must have gotten some notion of this newfound effectiveness, because I've certainly found more of these sorts of 'assignments' funneled my way. It's nice to be able to respond to them.
So anyway, the exterior stuff is all good, as some of you know. I live in a great house with some great guys in Kennewick, I still work for Hertz as a regional IT Manager, I quit smoking on NYE, I quit drinking on October 17, 2007, I've lost like 23 lbs., I'm planning a trip to Assisi in May, I still like girls, and I still have a driver's license. HOW good all this stuff is would have blown my mind if you would have told me about it 5 months ago. (It still blows my mind).
The real stuff, though, the interior stuff......the stuff of the Spirit. Well, I could go on and on. But, I happened to come across a most excellent article, written by a Carmelite nun named Barbara Breaud, that sums up the goings-on of my soul and my efforts as effectively as I ever could. It isn't very long, and in its highly practical examination of the 12-step approach, Sr. Breaud manages to highlight some Catholic names and transmitters of inspired thought that you may recognize. Sundown M Ranch, by the way, is a 12-step based recovery/treatment center, and a very good one.
So, if you want to know what is really going on with me these days, what I'm doing with my energy and where I find my energy, I strongly encourage you to read the linked article. I've linked to it in a printer-friendly format, so feel free to print and highlight. You might even learn something about yourself.
The 12 Steps and St. John of the Cross
I love you all and pray that this New Year brings us all great peace and joy!
I've been meaning for a little while to blog about the events of my life over the past couple of months, and where I'm at these days. The truth is, after completing my 3-week recovery retreat at the Sundown M Ranch, I have been SO BUSY that I've been neglectful of my self-imposed blogging obligations.
Busy in a good way, though. It just seems that there is a lot to do, for a lot of people, for a lot of projects, and these days I'm able to perform much more effectively. Someone upstairs must have gotten some notion of this newfound effectiveness, because I've certainly found more of these sorts of 'assignments' funneled my way. It's nice to be able to respond to them.
So anyway, the exterior stuff is all good, as some of you know. I live in a great house with some great guys in Kennewick, I still work for Hertz as a regional IT Manager, I quit smoking on NYE, I quit drinking on October 17, 2007, I've lost like 23 lbs., I'm planning a trip to Assisi in May, I still like girls, and I still have a driver's license. HOW good all this stuff is would have blown my mind if you would have told me about it 5 months ago. (It still blows my mind).
The real stuff, though, the interior stuff......the stuff of the Spirit. Well, I could go on and on. But, I happened to come across a most excellent article, written by a Carmelite nun named Barbara Breaud, that sums up the goings-on of my soul and my efforts as effectively as I ever could. It isn't very long, and in its highly practical examination of the 12-step approach, Sr. Breaud manages to highlight some Catholic names and transmitters of inspired thought that you may recognize. Sundown M Ranch, by the way, is a 12-step based recovery/treatment center, and a very good one.
So, if you want to know what is really going on with me these days, what I'm doing with my energy and where I find my energy, I strongly encourage you to read the linked article. I've linked to it in a printer-friendly format, so feel free to print and highlight. You might even learn something about yourself.
The 12 Steps and St. John of the Cross
I love you all and pray that this New Year brings us all great peace and joy!
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
ANYASEOHHHHHH!
I have no idea if that's how to spell it, but that means HELLO in Korean! It's kinda tricky writing on this website, cause the log in page is in only korean figures, so I am writing with a blind eye.
I've been having so much fun over here with Miguel's family...it's been an interesting experience being in Asia with a puerto rican twist! I don't know where to begin...
The last four days we have spent in Seoul on the American military base. It's located in the south part of Seoul, just about a 15 min drive on side streets from downtown. His parents have the cutest little house, three bedroom and so roomy. They have a car and we take the subway. The driving here is crazy...this is definitely where crazy asian drivers originate! They are so swervy and seriously come within a millimeter of each other. His mom drives almost as crazy as the asians themselves (while cursing in spanish, of course), which makes sense actually, cause you wouldn't survive here as a cautious driver.
The weather is freezing, literal. It has been on average 22*F with a 10-15*F wind chill, settling at about 11*F. I seriously have to wear 3 sweaters. Walking around the city is almost unbearable for more than 15 or 20 min, so when we go out, we go to the outside market for a bit and then go into the nearest mall for a bit to warm up, and then back outside. I don't know how the venders sit outside for so long!
The food is amazing. We got our first taste of it on the plane ride over, bibimbop. It's a rice dish with some hot paste mixed in and a bunch of different veggies and meat. YUM!!!!!! We have been to one Korean BBQ, and it's my new favorite ethnic food!
The people are pretty nice. Miguel's dad was telling me that you could leave your car running the whole day in a parking lot, doors unlocked, while you were at work, or whatever, and that no one would touch it. It'd still be there that night. One of their friends left over $100 in his pants when he dropped them off at the dry cleaners, and every cent was there when he picked them up three days later. SO different from the US!!
Yesterday we went to the biggest knitting store I have ever seen in my life. His mom said that we were going to a craft mall, with lots of yarn, but I had no idea what I was in for. It washuge warehouse, with at least 100 different venders selling bags of yarn. I recognized a lot of the brand names from when I worked at skeins, so that was kind of exciting. We spent 2 hours there walking around, and after going back and forth on tons of different yarns, I didn't end up getting any. Disappointing, I know, but I think in reality the yarn wasn't too much less than in the US. It was so overwhelming. They had every size knitting needles for like $2 each. So much fun!
The past few days, his parents have had many Puerto Rican visitors, including three families that stayed at the house each night, all of which English being their second language to Spanish. We've had homemade Panamanian food every night with 2 or 3 main dishes of meat and fish, along with rice and some kind of fancy dessert. Salsa music is blasting in the background 24-7. The guys (Miguel and his dad esp) play his dad's bongos, maracas, and a few other Puerto Rican instruments along to the music making as much noise as possible in his dad's 10'X10' area of the living room desigated for the instruments. ha ha, it's so funny! His parents will stop in the middle of what they are doing, whether it be cooking, reading, walking- whatever- to just salsa dance in the middle of the room for a few. I love it! I am trying my best to absorb it all- picking up a few dance moves, practicing my spanish, and per Miguel's request, trying to learn EXACTLY how to make his mom's meals...while still making time to go out into Seoul and absorb that culture too. wheew, talk about sensory overload! It's sure been an interesting first week (almost)!
On Thursday we are going to make our way to the south part of the country to visit some of their friends (also Puerto Rican!!) and the Korean countryside. From there, we are going to Japan for a night. Next week we are signed up for a tour at the DMZ (North Korean border). We come back to Seattle on the 10th.
That pretty much sums it up so far. Happy New Year! Write me back on the blog!
I've been having so much fun over here with Miguel's family...it's been an interesting experience being in Asia with a puerto rican twist! I don't know where to begin...
The last four days we have spent in Seoul on the American military base. It's located in the south part of Seoul, just about a 15 min drive on side streets from downtown. His parents have the cutest little house, three bedroom and so roomy. They have a car and we take the subway. The driving here is crazy...this is definitely where crazy asian drivers originate! They are so swervy and seriously come within a millimeter of each other. His mom drives almost as crazy as the asians themselves (while cursing in spanish, of course), which makes sense actually, cause you wouldn't survive here as a cautious driver.
The weather is freezing, literal. It has been on average 22*F with a 10-15*F wind chill, settling at about 11*F. I seriously have to wear 3 sweaters. Walking around the city is almost unbearable for more than 15 or 20 min, so when we go out, we go to the outside market for a bit and then go into the nearest mall for a bit to warm up, and then back outside. I don't know how the venders sit outside for so long!
The food is amazing. We got our first taste of it on the plane ride over, bibimbop. It's a rice dish with some hot paste mixed in and a bunch of different veggies and meat. YUM!!!!!! We have been to one Korean BBQ, and it's my new favorite ethnic food!
The people are pretty nice. Miguel's dad was telling me that you could leave your car running the whole day in a parking lot, doors unlocked, while you were at work, or whatever, and that no one would touch it. It'd still be there that night. One of their friends left over $100 in his pants when he dropped them off at the dry cleaners, and every cent was there when he picked them up three days later. SO different from the US!!
Yesterday we went to the biggest knitting store I have ever seen in my life. His mom said that we were going to a craft mall, with lots of yarn, but I had no idea what I was in for. It washuge warehouse, with at least 100 different venders selling bags of yarn. I recognized a lot of the brand names from when I worked at skeins, so that was kind of exciting. We spent 2 hours there walking around, and after going back and forth on tons of different yarns, I didn't end up getting any. Disappointing, I know, but I think in reality the yarn wasn't too much less than in the US. It was so overwhelming. They had every size knitting needles for like $2 each. So much fun!
The past few days, his parents have had many Puerto Rican visitors, including three families that stayed at the house each night, all of which English being their second language to Spanish. We've had homemade Panamanian food every night with 2 or 3 main dishes of meat and fish, along with rice and some kind of fancy dessert. Salsa music is blasting in the background 24-7. The guys (Miguel and his dad esp) play his dad's bongos, maracas, and a few other Puerto Rican instruments along to the music making as much noise as possible in his dad's 10'X10' area of the living room desigated for the instruments. ha ha, it's so funny! His parents will stop in the middle of what they are doing, whether it be cooking, reading, walking- whatever- to just salsa dance in the middle of the room for a few. I love it! I am trying my best to absorb it all- picking up a few dance moves, practicing my spanish, and per Miguel's request, trying to learn EXACTLY how to make his mom's meals...while still making time to go out into Seoul and absorb that culture too. wheew, talk about sensory overload! It's sure been an interesting first week (almost)!
On Thursday we are going to make our way to the south part of the country to visit some of their friends (also Puerto Rican!!) and the Korean countryside. From there, we are going to Japan for a night. Next week we are signed up for a tour at the DMZ (North Korean border). We come back to Seattle on the 10th.
That pretty much sums it up so far. Happy New Year! Write me back on the blog!
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