2005 Rochefort Family Holiday Lettr

2006 ROCHEFORT FAMILY HOLIDAY LETTER December 20, 2006 As in the ever popular Christmas song of the late, great Bing Crosby, “Oh, the weather outside is frightful…..let it rain, let it rain, let it rain…..and snow….and hail….and blow with gale force winds uprooting trees (25 went down near Jackie’s office in Avery Park), and downing power lines (18 hrs without electricity for us….days for others). And that’s just in the last week or so! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Great Kwanza…etc. and Happy New Year to one and all! Now, to answer the BIG question of this year…YES, although he didn’t make the Holiday picture, Kenai is still alive and running (or at least speed walking) every day.

As for the rest of the family, let’s take a look in order of importance.

ZOEY is now almost ten years old (on January 31, 2007), and in 4rd Grade at Ashbrook Independent School. The just received report card indicates that, as with all children in Lake Wobegon, she’s above average in everything….except in those things in which she’s just average Once again she has made it though 100 days of school with no visits to the principle’s office and only a few minor skirmishes requiring “conflict resolution” (yes, they do use this term at Ashbrook!). She is now studying anatomy and physiology (which helps greatly when she talks with Jackie…more on that later), and she just attended the Ph.D. thesis defense (why do they call it “defense” dad?) of one of Skip’s students on “hydrogels for the replacement of lumbar discs” and asked the most difficult questions! She is still playing violin, is a “joyful singer”, and a budding thespian (several school plays).

Zoey’s “other life” (away from school) is swimming. She has been a member of the Corvallis Aquatic Team (CAT) since October 2004 and his just moved up to a “more serious” group that swims 1 ½ hrs per day, 5 days per week with very little “pool play time”. She still swims all the strokes (freestyle, butterfly, backstroke, and breaststroke…or free, butter, back, and breast in the lingo) and competes regularly in swim meets around the state (lots of weekend trips and motel stays). Her new “favorite event” is the 500 yd freestyle, which she swam for the first time on December 10th in a time of 7:26:60. She was the youngest in the race (which included up to age 16), and her coach said it was the “most consistent first 500 he has ever had someone swim”. That earned Zoey the nickname (from me) of the “metronome” because her splits were so consistent. Here are her splits (in secs for 50 yds): 38.92, 44.28, 46.82, 46.08, 45.55, 45.66, 45.66, 44.70, 44.51, 44.48 = 7:26:60. And she had a head cold and slight fever! But the biggest reason that she keeps doing this is for the friendships she has made and (for us) the healthful dissipation of her considerable energy! Zoey loves swimming and she goes every day with no complaints….quite unusual for our nine year old! She still has her sights set on that Stanford pool and the swimming scholarship….we can only hope Jackie is still the total “swim mom”, going to the pool every night with her new Apple laptop and using the wireless to load songs from iTunes onto her new iPod (birthday gift from Skip and Zoey)….at least when she’s not busy “chatting” with the other swim groupie parents. She now has the position of “Head Timer” for all CAT swim meets at the local pool, and was elected to the CAT Board as the Masters Swimming rep. The other athletic activity that Zoey undertook this summer is track. She enjoyed her weekly running and jumping around the middle school track…even on the two days the temps soared above 100F! She even did one local track meet. She has run a 1:41 400 meters and a 7:20 mile (Presidential Fitness Test). She returned to the Fall Festival 5k race this year (where she was the two-time “baby-jogger” category winner) and she “ran, walked, danced, stopped to pick flowers, talk to friends, eat strawberries, and generally annoy her Dad” to a 34:45, out kicking her Dad in a finish reminiscent of David Lesley at the 1983 Coronado ½ marathon, where he uttured the infamous words, “let’s run it in together Skip”.

JACKIE is still the Park Planner for the City of Corvallis and she still benefits from all the perks of the job… being harassed by everyone anywhere in town. It’s great to be loved by your constituancy! The big story for her this year has been her health. We postponed (as it turns out indefinitely) a visit to San Diego for New Years to celebrate our 20th Wedding Anniversary (January 4, 2006), because Jackie wasn’t feeling well. That turned out to be the beginning of a bad streak, as the New Year started with the accidental death (car crash) of her primary work colleague, our home contractor, and good friend. This was followed closely by a drastic downturn in her health that lead to a couple of hospital stays, biopsies, endless tests and bloodwork, a drop in weight to about 92 lbs, the removal of her “nonfunctional” gall bladder, and three months out of work completely, and part-time some after that. To end the suspense, the latest diagnosis is celiac sprue disease (gluten/wheat allergy). She received this diagnosis two days before her gall bladder surgery in February, and she has gone on a gluten-free diet (which means frequent trips to Whole Foods in Portland for Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip cookies, scones, etc.). Always a trendsetter, it seems that this is the latest diet fad for the new millennium, as it appears everyone is going “gluten-free”…or knows someone who is! She is back to a whopping 98 lbs (most of that weight can be attributed to the dozens of pills she takes each day!), but is still sick most every morning and basically eats less than your average bird. (Just in case you were concerned, Zoey and Skip still eat enough to make up for Jackie). She still has “ups and downs” in her general health, which has prompted her to make a visit to the Stanford Medical Center on January 8th for a consultation visit. We are hopeful of a better 2007 for Jackie’s health! On the bright side, she continues with her Masters Swimming group (hence her CAT Board affiliation noted above) and even through her good and bad days, she regularly swims 2000-2500 yds three times per week. That has been really good for her “mental health, as she enjoys the camaraderie of her group of “swim buddies” It also adds fodder to the dinner table conversation, as Jackie and Zoey compare “workout sets” in a lingo I don’t even try to comprehend (for example, 25 yd one arm pull, reverse spin, butterfly kick….with a twist of lime….repeat 10 times).

KENAI is going to be 16 yrs old (105 human years) on April 1st. He is 99% deaf and his hind legs are getting weak (tough to run fast and poop properly), but he still has his Husky spunk and his penchant for sleeping. Basically, he’s got a pretty good life, and for the last few months a neighborhood black cat (Zoey named Ivy) spends the day with him trying to eat all his food. It is a “love-hate” relationship, much as he had with his former feline friend Misha, and I think it helps to keep him entertained as he sits on our front stoop.

SKIP is doing pretty well for someone who is 52 years old, still fat, and still going senile (see 2005 newsletter). He continues his quest for the “endless running streak”, fueled daily by 800mg of ibuprofen, 1500mg of glucosamine, and approx. 2 liters of coffee! On December 31, 2006, assuming all goes well, he will have run 1093 out of the last 1096 days, with 960 days in a row. His rule is a minimum of 4 miles to count it as a running day (there have been about 10 with less than that), but he has averaged approx. 5 miles/day over that period. He’s not fast, just stubborn! He still enjoys teaching, researching, advising, and generally “playing” in the OSU Chemical Engineering Dept (soon to be called the School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering). This year his salary finally edged past his 1993 Dow Chemical salary. Hooray! He has research programs in the repair of polyethylene gas pipes (patent application on 1/31/06), biofuels, and biomaterials (synovial fluid for knee joint lubrication and hydrogels for the replacement of spinal discs). He graduated two Ph.D. students in 2006. Continuing in his desire to study all things that ail him, he will soon start a research program on “early senility”..…if he remembers to write the grant proposal He continues in his “passion” of K-12 outreach as Director of OSU and COE Precollege Programs. His high school science and engineering program (SESEY) celebrated its 10th anniversary this summer (over 300 kids in 10 years), and he started a new “Science and Engineering of Swimming” summer camp for middle school students (basically CAT swim team folks). It’s always good to get funding to do those things that you love

You can see some pictures of our family and other random stuff if you go to the following web site: http://che.oregonstate.edu/~rochefsk . Skip’s summer programs for kids (SESEY, Skies, ECamp) are at http://che.oregonstate.edu/gallery, and his high school program for you to send your kids to and let him try to convince them to be engineers is: http://che.oregonstate.edu/sesey

O.K. Jackie said I had to keep this to two pages, sooooooooooooooooooooo

Happy Holidays. Have a wonderful and healthy 2007. We are certainly going to try!

Jackie, Zoey, Skip, and Kenai Rochefort Contact info: [email protected] or (541) 753-5835 (home)