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8/11/2008

My grandmother, Mildred Adelle Herr Swenson (99), was laid to rest this morning in San Jose, California next to her husband, Richard Darrell Swenson.

Born May 28th, 1909, she married Richard Swenson in 1928 with whom she had 11 boys and 2 girls. She was widdowed in 1968, and spent her remaining years active with her family, community, and church.

She was the mother of 13: Carter Phillip Swenson (Pauline), of Beaufort, S.C., Gary Richard Swenson (Sandra), of Port Angeles, Wash., Dean Stuart Swenson (Kay), of Lakehead, Calif., Allen Anthony Swenson, (deceased), (Annie), of Heppner, Ore., Harvey Kevin Swenson (Jane), of Sacramento, Calif., Stephen Gregory Swenson (Nancy), of Laytonville, Calif., Mark Everett Swenson (Carolyn), of Long Beach, Calif., Marti Swenson Barton, of San Juan Bautista, Calif., B. Nicki Swenson, of Benicia, Calif., Gordon Lewis Swenson (Sandra), of Clanton, Ala., David Lawrence Swenson (Marilee), of Meridian, Idaho, George Matthew Swenson (Barbara), of Pocatello, Idaho, Guy Conrad Swenson, (Jennifer), of Avon, Ind.

She lived a long, full life, and will be missed greatly by her children, 37 grandchildren, and over 50 great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

<I>But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.</i>

Cross posted from http://ambrosehome.blogspot.com The Ambrose's At Home Blog.

Posted at 2:57 PM by Katie Ambrose | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

6/27/2008

Candidate worship

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/26/olbermann/

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/27/olbermann/index.html

Excerp:

"It isn't that difficult to keep the following two thoughts in one's head at the same time -- though it seems to be for many people:

(1) What Barack Obama is doing on Issue X is wrong, indefensible and worthy of extreme criticism;

(2) I support Barack Obama for President because he's a better choice than John McCain.

As but one example, John Cole was a vehement supporter of Barack Obama throughout the primary. He viciously criticized Hillary Clinton on a regular basis and raised tens of thousands of dollars for Obama's campaign through his blog. But this week alone, Cole lambasted Obama for what he called Obama's "total collapse and a rapid abandonment of principle" regarding FISA and pronounced as a "pathetic performance" Obama's refusal to be photographed anywhere near Muslims or to meet with Muslim leaders. Despite that, just yesterday, Cole said:

No, I don't have buyers remorse. Yes, he still is better than Hillary or McCain. No, I am not disillusioned (I never thought he was a flaming liberal in the first place). I am, however, disgusted, and I will caution the Obama campaign that "better than McCain" is not much of a rallying cry. We all remember how "anything is better than Bush" turned out in 2004.

That's called being a rational adult who refuses to relinquish one's intellectual honesty, integrity, and political principles in order to march lockstep behind a political leader. Those who think that Barack Obama should not be criticized no matter how wrong he is -- or those who justify anything that he does no matter how craven and unjustifiable, including things that they viciously criticized when done by Dick Cheney or Harry Reid -- are no different, and no better, than those who treated George Bush with similar uncritical reverence in 2003 and 2004.

The real danger is that those who defend Obama the Candidate no matter what he does are likely to defend Obama the President no matter what he does, too. If we learn in 2009 that Obama has invoked his claimed Article II powers to spy on Americans outside of even the new FISA law, are we going to hear from certain factions that he was justified in doing so to protect us; how it's a good, shrewd move to show he's a centrist and keep his approval ratings high so he can do all the Good things he wants to do for us; how it's different when Obama does it because we can trust him? It certainly looks that way. Those who spent the last five years mauling Bush for "shredding the Constitution" and approving of lawbreaking -- only to then praise Obama for supporting a bill that endorses and protects all of that -- are displaying exactly the type of blind reverence that is more dangerous than any one political leader could ever be."

Posted at 12:12 PM by Dan Ambrose | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (1)

6/18/2008

Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133668.ece

Posted at 1:37 PM by Dan Ambrose | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

3/7/2008

How's the economy in your hometown?

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2008-03-04-local-differences_N.htm

Posted at 10:38 AM by Dan Ambrose | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

3/5/2008

Paul Graham’s Six Principles for Making New things

"I like to find (a) simple solutions (b) to overlooked problems (c) that actually need to be solved, and (d) deliver them as informally as possible, (e) starting with a very crude version 1, then (f) iterating rapidly.

When I first laid out these principles explicitly, I noticed something striking: this is practically a recipe for generating a contemptuous initial reaction."

Posted at 4:13 PM by Dan Ambrose | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

2/9/2008

New Home!

Just as an FYI, last week we signed contracts to build a new home in Avon's Beechwood Farms.

Some details (bear with me, I'm a real estate agent, these things interest me):

The house is 2 stories, with a full finished basement. It has 5 bedrooms, 4 full bathrooms, an office w/ built-ins, a master suite (complete with fireplace & sitting room!), a wetbar in the basement, a gourmet kitchen, a sunroom, a large deck, and tons of other options that are yet to be determined.

We're very excited about this project, and especially happy that we've gotten such an amazing deal on the house!

Over the next few months I'll be adding lots of pictures of the plans, selections, and building process.

This is a huge step for us, and we're so grateful that the Lord has allowed us to move forward on this.

Next step? Selling our current home, which will be our 2nd flip in our investing career! We have to have the house on the market by the 13th, lots of work ahead!

Posted at 11:49 AM by Katie Ambrose | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)