Skip to main content

Nonna Out

My mother-in-law, aka Nonna, aka My Baby Gramma, flew back to Houston last night. She was with us in Berkeley for 2 weeks before our big move, flew to Honolulu with us and stayed for 11 days. For most people, having their mother-in-law hang out with them for a month during a stressful transition period would be a recipe for disaster.

However, when I married Erin I hit the mother-in-law jackpot. I really don't know how we would have survived this move without Marie. She took care of Owen when we needed to get away, but never told us how to raise him. She never complained and never meddled. She helped us pack, did the dishes, helped with laundry, paid for more than her fair share. But most importantly she was great company and a fun person to hang out with. Who could ask for anything more from a mother-in-law?

Hurry back, Nonna!

Comments

mama mia said…
Miss you all and I haven't even been home a full day. You are too kind, John....it was really my pleasure to lounge around in paradise, whether Berkeley or Hoenoeluuuluuu. First day in a long time that I didn't get to go to fun beach or fun wee. I am having withdrawal....where is my baba?!
Anonymous said…
My mamma is SO cool! Are you jealous that I get to go there in October? I am SO excited, I can't wait!
Did you know that Nonna has also: (1) calmly asked me to remove a vomiting friend from her own bathroom in her home in Houston; (2) reacted in a calm, cool, and collected fashion when I, while sleepwalking, attempted to use the door to her backyard in her bedroom as a toilet; and (3) been careful enough not to disclose publicly the contents of my underpants from adolesence?
mama mia said…
I would definitely love to join you there, Amy....better save my $for another trip....wishing I could see the Johnson "belongings" in the new digs in Manoa....
Hey ghost, was that Patrick in our bathroom, or Gabe? both incident (1) and (2) were on the same night, if memory serves me right, New Year's Eve?
Anonymous said…
Patrick, and the ghost wasn't sleepwalking...he was drunkwalking. I think the ghost did something similar at my apartment in the heights, too. ;)
Only I was successful in micturating on both your couch and the cushions on your dining room chairs in the Heights. I also recall there was an issue with your toilet flushing in the wrong direction. What a confusingly modern place you had....

Popular posts from this blog

back-talk begins

me: "owen, come here. it's time to get a new diaper" him, sprinting down the hall with no pants on: "forget about it!" he's quoting benny the rabbit, a short-lived sesame street character who happens to be in his favorite "count with me" video. i'm turning my head, trying not to let him see me laugh, because his use and tone with the phrase are so spot-on.

The Long Con

Hiding in Plain Sight ESPN has a series of sports documentaries called 30 For 30. One of my favorites is called Broke  which is about how professional athletes often make tens of millions of dollars in their careers yet retire with nothing. One of the major "leaks" turns out to be con artists, who lure athletes into elaborate real estate schemes or business ventures. This naturally raises the question: In a tightly-knit social structure that is a sports team, how can con artists operate so effectively and extensively? The answer is quite simple: very few people taken in by con artists ever tell anyone what happened. Thus, con artists can operate out in the open with little fear of consequences because they are shielded by the collective silence of their victims. I can empathize with this. I've lost money in two different con schemes. One was when I was in college, and I received a phone call that I had won an all-expenses-paid trip to the Bahamas. All I needed to d

Reader Feedback: Whither Kanake in (white) Astronomy?

Watching the way that the debate about the TMT has come into our field has angered and saddened me so much. Outward blatant racism and then deflecting and defending. I don't want to post this because I am a chicken and fairly vulnerable given my status as a postdoc (Editor's note: How sad is it that our young astronomers feel afraid to speak out on this issue? This should make clear the power dynamics at play in this debate) .  But I thought the number crunching I did might be useful for those on the fence. I wanted to see how badly astronomy itself is failing Native Hawaiians. I'm not trying to get into all of the racist infrastructure that has created an underclass on Hawaii, but if we are going to argue about "well it wasn't astronomers who did it," we should be able to back that assertion with numbers. Having tried to do so, well I think the argument has no standing. At all.  Based on my research, it looks like there are about 1400 jobs in Hawaii r