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2001 Tice Family News & Notes
http://www.qsl.net/wa0tda/greetings.htm 

Susan gets a new job!

Yes, it's true.  After being a full-time homemaker, Susie has gone back to work as a family law lawyer at JLO Law in downtown St. Paul. JLO Law is planning a move to Woodbury, so she will be working only about a mile from home!  After years of driving to Stillwater, about 12 miles, this will be a welcome change. Now we are watching the new offices being built, and we remain ever optimistic that  she will be able to build a thriving practice in the years ahead. Susie is a volunteer mentor to a young University of St. Thomas law student.

• Susie has served on the St Croix Catholic School Board for the past two years.  It has been a time of change for the school, as a new principal had to be found and hired, and a large remodeling and expansion project had to be started. 

Will is a "pre-teen". 

When Will turned 12 this year, we all decided it was time for him to get his ham radio license.  He has been volunteering at Courage Center's Handiham System, running the high-speed tape duplicators to produce audio for the blind. Will went to Handiham Radio Camp, a camp session for people with disabilities, which is run by Pat every year in late August. He made several new friends at camp and took the ham radio licensing class while continuing to volunteer with many camp duties through the week. 

• Will is in 7th grade at St. Croix Catholic School, where Susie still serves on the School Board.  There are no special "breaks", though - he has to behave himself and get good grades! His computer instructor there is Mrs. Donlon, KBØYHI. 
• Will is teaching himself HTML, the programming language of the World Wide Web. He has a great interest in making computer animations. Will and Pat call the basement (where their computers and ham radio stuff reside) their portal to the universe. Geeks - ya gotta love 'em.
• After years of a "ho-hum" attitude toward art, Will finally had a teacher and class that truly inspired him. One of his creations will be entered in a student competition at The Minneapolis Art School. Mom and Dad were sure surprised at that!!!

Pat does the same old stuff

But all those years of experience mean doing the same stuff better, right?   And when Pat reviewed his job description and rewrote it after over ten years at Courage Center, it was surprising to see that he really wasn't doing the same stuff at all, at least not in the same old ways.  Now Pat writes and maintains the massive www.handiham.org website, teaches computer technology at Radio Camp, and teaches online.  Good heavens, it's still the same mission, to share technology education with people who have disabilities, but what a difference in the way it is done from only 10 years ago, when the office didn't even own a computer! "I love my work!", says Pat, "Ham radio and computers... they actually pay me to have fun!"

Hope you are having fun too, and accomplishing good stuff, in all you do.

All the best to you & yours for a wonderful, safe and happy 2002, from the Tice's.