Christmas Idea

All,

This may be against blogging rules, but I thought you would appreciate the message I got today from my friend Linda "aka Lijie". She came to Thanksgiving a few years ago, and is still trying to keep the music sceen alive. Check her out, and if you are interested, it will make a great gift for the recipient, as well as a little bonus for her! She is really good, and more albums are to come. Most importantly, she has met most of you so you can put the CD on when guests are over and when they say "wow, who is that amazing musician you are playing in the background to impress me???" you can say, ah that's my old friend Lijie, she is really good! (and sell more albums!)

Take a listen:


Hi,

Still puzzling what to get those couple of people on your list that
are always hard to buy for?

How about the gift of music?

If you've enjoyed the songs at some of my gigs this year, or even
purchased a CD or two for yourself, why not buy some as holiday
gifts? They make great stocking-stuffers, and are enjoyable year
'round.

"ROAM" includes songs like "So High", "Blue", "Roam", "Love Me If You
Can", and "Bar Song", which have all received recognition at the 2004,
2005, and 2006 UK Songwriting Contests.

If you would like to listen to some samples, you can visit
www.myspace.com/lijiemusic.

So, here's how to buy....

One CD is $10. Two for $18. Three for $25.

You can purchase them from me personally if you see me (I almost
always have some with me), or order them to be shipped.

Shipping costs are $2.50 per CD. If you have a Paypal account, you
can send the money to email account lijie@lijiemusic.com, which is
fast and easy to use! Please remember to include shipping and
handling = ) Or if you'd like to pay via check or money order, just
contact me by email, and I can give you details of where to send
payment.

Thank you again for your continued support, and have a wonderful
holiday season.

blessings,
-lijie-
www.lijiemusic.com
myspace.com/lijiemusic

Hi Family...
I just wanted to say what a great thanksgiving that was! It was so fun to see everyone and get reaquainted. And not to mention---the food!! Thanks to those who cooked, cleaned and hosted everything! I know we didnt go around and say what we were thankful for on Thrusday, but I am thankful for ALL of you!!! Hope everyone had a safe trip home. Cant wait until the next time!
Love you all!
Love, Lib

New Orleans

So again it seems as if I have the dubious(?) honor of following up Eamonn with a blog post. I am not attempting to be a one-upper but perhaps rather a late opening act for him.

I too had a slight loss of balance the other night (read a nose dive (or two)) – [do parentheses within other parentheses work in a sentence or should I use brackets? n/m] – as part of a fantastic field trip with my civil engineering class to New Orleans. More on the learning experience in a moment. As part of the trip, we spent two nights out on the town on Bourbon Street. Never have I seen such smut and debauchery and yet never have I had so much fun. (Weird how those go hand in hand). However, I was merely an observer and not a partaker in this filth. Bourbon Street is filled with bars and places of ill repute to say the least. The former being the source of the fun and the latter being the subject of observation and slight trepidation. Each night as we walked around in groups of varying sizes, bouncers and hypemen would approach us on the street to beg and plead with us to enter their establishment. We experienced the lights and sounds of New Orleans, soaked up the culture, literally and figuratively, danced, and listened to live bands perform for most of the night, before heading back to our hotel for a good night of sleep prior to beginning our 17+ hour day the next morning. (Now for you aunts and young cousins out there, you can do the math to figure out my age, but before you go condemning me you need to realize that New Orleans has slightly different rules regarding beverage consumption.) To make this long story short and generalize some of the details, in the midst of one of these nights, I suddenly experienced a slight loss of balance on Bourbon Street resulting in a nice shiner on my forehead the next morning.

Now the important details. Three of my civil engineering professors have been consultants in the recovery of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. They have aided in levee reconstruction, hurricane analysis, and remediation of contaminants in the Mississippi River, among other things. As part of an effort to not only educate us in the classroom but also in the ways of social and professional responsibility, our professors took us on this four day, three night field trip of New Orleans and the Mississippi River with University sponsorship and funding. A group of 60+ students and faculty were bussed to Chicago and then flown down to New Orleans. Upon arrival, we immediately embarked on a dinner cruise on the Mississippi River. This was the first meal of my favorite part of the trip – the food. We had catfish, mardi gras pasta, almond chicken, bread pudding and so much more. After this cruise we had our first night on the town. After roughly two hours of sleep, we woke up and went to the Army Corps of Engineers offices and heard a few briefings. Needless to say some people, professors included, dozed off for brief moments of the presentations. Following this, we toured the various canal systems and pump stations that were/are meant to protect New Orleans from flooding. After lunch we visited the Lower 9^th Ward. This was an eye-opening experience. Even with people warning us how much destruction there was, we couldn’t have been prepared for what we saw. There were still cars on roofs, houses in the middle of streets, empty foundations, etc. Houses were marked with a certain pattern by rescuers with one of the markings indicating if bodies were found. Although there were many zeros, there were also a number of ones and twos. The amount of destruction certainly was disheartening but the recovery strides being taken were obvious as well. After this sobering experience, we went to another fantastic restaurant called Jacques-Imo’s. We were served plate after plate of fantastic food: special sausage, eggplant, and crocodile sausage cheesecake, to name a few. And these were just the appetizers; for the main course I settled on a rabbit dish while some of my friends had such things as grouper, duck, boullibaise(sp?) among other things, finished off by bread pudding. After dinner we departed for Vicksburg where we went straight to bed. Seriously. The next day we toured the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center. It was an amazing place with the largest supercomputer in the Department of Defense which processes huge amounts of data in a variety of projects. We then toured a series of canals called the Old River Control which regulates Mississippi River water flow and Atchafalaya River water flow to the Gulf. This was a great learning experience Uncle Bill which you probably would be interested in, that is if you and everyone else are still reading. That night we had dinner on a haunted plantation in Louisiana. Once again, the food was stunning. We then drove back to New Orleans for a Bourbon Street remix. Needless to say, it lived up to the standard set the first night. So once again after two more hours of sleep, pushing the week total to about nine hours, we woke up and went on a seven hour boat cruise of the Mississippi. We then hopped on a plane and flew back home. For more details about either the fun or the learning or both, let me know. I would love to tell you about it.

The week didn’t end here for me though. After getting home at 1130pm on Wednesday night, I unpacked and repacked before leaving at 530am Thursday morning for Colorado Springs, CO as part of a field trip with Air Force ROTC to visit some bases as a front for the real reason of going to the Notre Dame-Air Force Academy football game. So in the span of a week I went on two completely free field trips in opposite parts of the country.

As I finish this up, my parents and siblings are driving to South Bend from Chicago for what looks to be another fantastic weekend. So for all you younger cousins out there, work hard in school, get good grades, and consider attending this fine institution of higher learning (and fun).

Little Girl Schneider!

Hello Family,

Just thought you all might like to know that Jim and I are having a baby girl! We found out on Friday...she is about 21 weeks now, so more than half-way through and everything looks good so far. Jimbo is in a little shock---I don't think he has ever considered it a possibility that he would have a daughter. Uncle Ed, you might have to have a heart-to-heart with him and explain the ropes....

I know that you have all seen MILLIONS of ultrasound pictures, but I would feel like I wasn't being very "excited-new-mom-to-be" if I didn't post some too.

We are sooo looking forward to T-giving!

Love to all,
Shannon

Fear of Heights?

Well, being the one who did jump (crash-land) from the "high place" all that I can say is don't do as I have done, unless you are ready for the consequences. I have never really been afraid of heights and to prove it I took the leap of faith. After reading all about Wimble in MT I thought my life was a little too easy. So, while still quite far from crossing the divide or committing suicide, I jumped off a roof maybe 10-15' high to a concrete trampoline. Im now living the high life on crutches and my upper body is getting the workout it finally deserves. I've been meaning to get the upper body buffed out for a long time, and I guess in the words of Jim Carrey that I heard in an interview one time, "Well, Im the kind of guy that if I had to learn to write with my left hand, I'd start out with cutting my right one off." So by ridding the legs from the equation, I can finally focus on the arms. [Full disclosure: I was walking home one night and decided to visit a spot that I often frequent, the Gymnasium roof at Seattle U (I was alone) and went up to the top (like I'd done a million times before), looked at the great view of the city (like I'd done a million times before), and when I had had enough of the beautiful view (and the crisp autumn air), I exited/jumped off of the roof (like I'd done a million times before). Like Uncle Mike wrote to a privledged few (not me), there were a few other variables in the equation. So instead of landing in a forward leaning position, kind of a crouch-ing-ish position, I did more of a butt-buster (for all of you who have ever jumped into a pool from the diving board, you do more of a mock driving position. (If this picture isn't coming out in the head I'll be back in Pasco to demonstrate over Thanksgiving.) Long story short, I'm out of Painkillers (like the 2nd day), I walk around the house unaided (like an old man), and for the long-distances I either crutch it or get a taxi, or since I have no money, I stay at home (the fun comes to me).] Hope all goes well with Y'all, don't worry about me, and continue with your (boring, mundane j/k) lives. ER
P.S. I want to see how many "you're an idiot" responses I can get out of this, so the more the merrier, and if its already been said, just reply 'ditto'.

SAN DIEGO FUN!!!!

It was great to see most of you this past week during my visit to Pasco. I wish I would have had more time to spend there, but I had to get back to the sick kids in San Diego. I know that I have been an absent blogger these days. I just wanted all our cousins to know that I still stand by my last blog of having a 21+ weekend get-together in SD. So let me or Cait know who all is interested (realistically=funds, time, no school or work) so we can start planning!
Peace out,
NER

TC Prep Homecoming Pictures at Thornhills

A fun time was had by all last night.

Perpetual Roach Reunion

Perpetual Roach Reunion
Hello All, I just received this note from my boy David who is in Granada, Spain for a year: " Hey dad I did figure that out thanks. I just got back from one of the most enjoyable trips of my life, we went to Gibraltar, Seville, and Cordoba, and it was just fantastic. In Gibraltar I had a monkey sit on my head!!" On another note, my son Bart returns tomorrow from 3 months in Guatemala. He will interview 10/31 @ the dental school in Phoenix, then be in Pasco on All Souls Day. Wear your seatbelts. Don't leap from hight places. With love, JMR

Hello to my Family

Hello Everyone! I hope that everyone is alive and well. Let me start by telling allof you that I miss you very much. I should let all of you know that I am in Gardiner, Montana the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park and I am and have been working for Warren Johnson (the man who Luke, David and John all worked for) I have been here since June 20th and I'll probably return home November 29th. I've been working as hard as I can and have not had a day off since I got here. My experiences have gone from getting bucked off of multiple horses to riding over the top of the absaroka divide at 10:00 PM in a blizzard with 15 mule loads behind me alone to driving home from the yellowstone park hellroaring trailhead at 1:00 at night also alone and almost hitting a black bear and a wandering lone bison within ten minutes from one another on my way home. Suffice it to say I'm getting an education in toughness, both mental and physical, and common sense. Right now it is snowing and 20 degrees which means that the elsk should be here for the beginning of General season (Sunday). I just thought I should update all of you and tell you I love you. Hopefully you're all visiting Grandma as often as possible...I can't wait to see all of you!
Peace be with you all!
With love and prayers,
Wim

Email Notification of New Posts

Hey guys, I'm your friendly neighborhood Blog administrator, and I think that I've enabled a way to notify you, via email, when there is a new post to the Blog! Pretty cool, I hope.

My schedule for the next six weeks looks like this: Albany, OR > Roseburg, OR > Bend, OR > Pasco, WA > New York, NY > Salem, OR > Eugene, OR > Chicago, IL > Pasco, WA > Klamath Falls, OR > Medford, OR > Pasco, WA > SLEEP!!!!!!

Request for Information

Request for Information

Mike,

How about a report on how your hunting trip to BC went this year? You had a great group again and we really enjoyed seeing you, Xavier, Howard and Cal. We don't often get a return trip back through Bellingham and we are interested in all of your adventures. Got pictures??

Bill

Summary of my Year

Ok so I have been a bit slow about doing this. But I have been thinking about it since Uncle Tom posted that we, who have been away, should post what we did during that time period. So here is a very short summary of my year abroad in Florence.
The highlights include, but are not limited to: attending Oktoberfest in Munich (craziness!),visiting Dachu, sights from the Sound of Music in Salzburg, swam in the Mediterranean, slept on the beach on Elba (right below the house where Napoleon was exiled), explored each of the 5 cities of Cinque Terre in the pouring rain, swimming in one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, the Blue Grotto, exploring Pompeii, celebrating the cannonization of 5 new Saints with thousands of people from all over the world and attending Pope Benedicts mass and receiving his blessing, gazing at the Sistine Chapel, seeing the Pieta up close, pilgrimaging to the top of Apperation Hill in Medjugore, seeing the (still) war torn city of Mostar in Bosnia, walking along the Charles bridge in Prague, seeing the Cliffs of Moher and the city of Galway, the vangogh museum in Amsterdam, attending Christmas mass in the 2nd largest catherdral in the world, seeing an authentic flamenco show in Sevilla, walking through the Alhambra, spending New Years Eve in Fez, Morocco, walking the streets of the market in Marrakesh, visiting Mozarts house in Vienna, Seeing the Mafia in Sicily, attending the Olympics in Turin, visiting Juilets house, going to carnivale in Venice, attending St. Patricks day in Dublin, Guiness in Ireland, Seeing the Guell park in Barcelona, seeing the French Riveria, attending a huge Easter celebration in Florence, having the David be my next door neighbor, walking to school and seeing the Duomo everyday, the ponte Vecchio, the paintings in the Uffizi, a six day safari in Kenya, working in an orphanage in Tanzania and being able to do it all!
So that is what I was busy doing all last year. I hope this is what you meant Uncle Tom!
Hope all of you are doing well! Cant wait to see you at Thanksgiving!
Love you all,
Lib

Riverhaven Zone of Danger

It has officially become a zone of danger in these parts. Even Quarter Inch, Dickie Dont has been rallying over the course of the last week. Its a constant migration of Potters, Thornhills, Roaches, and Dickie Doo Dont's coming over on a regular basis. I have a bet going that Sinead will be living at our house through her junior high years... She is the best friend to Patricio! I couldnt have wished for a better arrangement over here. What a wonderful setup. And even with Dickie do-Barb-dont-Barb, its a blast! They are in the midst of designing a house, apparently, supposedly, on DickieDont's Claire Foley property, and are looking to sell Barb Cournyer's House immediately. Anybody want to move into the hood?

bpr

Riverhaven Roach Move-In

All: it is official. We closed our house today, and will be taking possession on Saturday, Sept. 30th, 2006. Whiicchhhh-- means that we will be MOVING on that day too... Our homeowners (ACTUALLY, WE ARE NOW THE HOMEOWNERS) are promising to be out by 2 pm on saturday. We, in turn, will be commencing operations at that point. (great timing for the ND game...). IF ANY OF YOU WOULD LIKE TO JOIN IN THE FUN AND BEER THAT WILL BE INVOLVED IN THIS PROJECT, PLEASE STOP BY!! WE WILL BE BEARING MOST OF THE RESPONSIBILITY IN THIS, BUT IT WILL BE A FUN TIME! CALL ME OR BLOGG AND LET US KNOW IF YOU CAN STOP BY TO SEE THE DIGS...

SUNDAY WILL BE FUN FILLED AS WELL. THANKS! BPR

Sullivan Reunion - Summer '07

I've sent an email to the (non Roach) extended Sullivan family members to find out the level of interest in getting together next summer and to determine everyone's preferred dates.

If I'd included all the Roaches, the volume of emails would have worn everyone out. From our discussion about the family campout, it's clear that most weekends will work for everyone.

I'll let everyone know the responses when I've received them and we can do our planning from there.

Dan

Family Campout '07

On the trip to Alaska we had a discussion about the best possible weekends to have a family campout next summer and concluded that we ought to shoot for the weekend of July 7-8. There seemed to be no conflicts with that date. Assuming that most of us will want to start the weekend on about Thursday, you should mark out July 5-8 on your calendar.

We talked about venues and came up with two possibilities that I and my able assistant are going to pursue.

The first would be a return to one of the group campsites at Mt. Ranier National Park. Last time we went there, I made the reservations. Back then reservations couldn't be made until 8 a.m. on January 2. Several of us got on a conference call at about 7:40 a.m. on January 2 that year and had the phone ringing until it was answered and we got our reservations. At that time three of the campgrounds in the park had group sites that could be reserved. Individual sites could not be reserved. I will check into the current rules but doubt that they have changed.

The second plan would involve renting a bunch of houses in close proximity to each other at Cannon Beach. That could be cost prohibitive but I got marching orders to look into that possibility as well and will be doing that in the near future.

If neither of those venues work (and we may not know about Mt. Ranier until January), then we can reconnoiter sometime later and kick around other ideas.

In the meantime, mark your calendars and tell all your friends and in-laws that they need to plan their weddings and reunions around our July 7-8 get-together.

The other thing that we ought to be doing at this time is conferring with the extended Sullivan family about whether or not there's going to be a Sullivan family reunion this summer. If there is going to be a reunion, then we ought to establish the date for that very, very soon for the sake of all who may want to be involved.

Who is the acting chairman on that committee?

4021 W. Riverhaven-- Update to old post

Just a little update from our old post: Sofia and I have been approved for, and just signed our committment letter with the Bank today, and will be signing closing documents on Tuesday for 4021 W. Riverhaven (it has such a regal tone to it, the street name. such nostalgia...). Anyhow, we will be taking over occupancy, bills in our name, etc., next Sunday. We will try to move as much in as possible on Sunday, but will probably be in the drag of the process through the 1st week of October. Which means on the 2nd weekend of October, we should have a little informal house party while its still nice outside. Tere and Katie already told us they would buy all the beer for any party we have for a one year break in period, then we're on our own. I think they included wine in that offer too.

Thanks for all the support during this process. It has been fun. Well, not really fun, fun, but it will be fun to live there...

E-mail notification of new comments on Blog

All,

Inside your Blogger preferences, there is an option you can check that will notify you if a new COMMENT has been posted to the blog. Note that it will not notify you when a new POST is added.

Just FYI, but it sure comes in handy for me.

4021 W. Riverhaven

All: Sofia and I are about 2 weeks from being the next and new riverhaven roaches. We just recieved the banks final appraisal on the house we have contracted to buy, and the appraisal came back right on target. After the bank approves us in the next week, we will be new neighbors to Katie and Tere to the west (2 doors from Potters, and 3 doors from Dickie Do, and about 3 doors from Dickie Dont-- I mean Barbs). The house is 4400 square feet and has 6 bedrooms, 4 baths, an inground pool, a hot tub, and 1 acre of land including a mature weeping willow tree (salix babylonica-- my favorite!), which the thornhills will continue to love cleaning up after. the wind usually blows east over there, apparently. We will be more than excited to host any upcoming parties, as this is a very nice house for us to bring guests into. And unlike the current situ over here at 1555, there are no known pit bulls-- besides Steve Potter-- in the neighborhood. Pretty exciting!

Perpetual Roach Reunion

All,

To start off, I'm not the biggest fan of God music. That being said, I want you to know that Aunt Nancy put on a SPECTACULAR hosting job for tonight's John Michael Talbot show. She single-handily organized the show, which turned out to be a near capacity audience. The proceeds all going toward the Luke Roach Scholarship foundation.

JMT rocked the church! He ranged from bluegrass to Stevie Ray Vaughan. He really is a great musician. He had two backup guitarists, a bassist, and another on percussions. He played the guitar, electric guitar, and the banjo. Although I’m not hitting the road as a groupie, I did appreciate seeing a bit of talent come through the Tri-Cities, and Aunt Nancy made it happen!

For those of you that were able to make it, Tri-City Prep current and future students thank you. If you weren’t able to make it, you can still send your $25 admission (or whatever you feel) to:

Luke Roach Scholarship

521 N. Rd 40

Pasco, Washington

99301

This wasn’t intended to be a solicitation, but the contribution can never hurt! It was a very emotional show for me because I think Luke would have been a big fan. He really appreciated good music, and would have been very humble to see how many people contributed to his cause. I think it was an inspiration to all. We should remember how blessed we are to have him as a part of our lives, as well as all those among us that are still able to contribute to this “Perpetual Roach Reunion”!

Let’s all take a minute to think of our cousin/brother/nephew/son, and smile because although life can bring us hardships, it is also a daily blessing that we all need to remember.

-LR

With love,

Joseph Roach