Casa Jonsson

Nils & Araceli’s home on the web, est. 2003

If it’s Latin, it must mean something profound

I have plenty of society blood in me. That is, if you want to count the Frankish nobility and royalty through whom supposedly you can trace my lineage back to A.D. 69. All the same, Holden Caulfield would have thought that our ambitions of engraving a family motto in Latin above our suburban doorposts is […]

Drawing on the right side of the brain

I’ve started reading a book on a subject I never thought I would study. Like many people, although I love visual art I’m all thumbs when it comes to creating it myself—with the possible exception of photography. I’ve always thought that you’re either born with the capacity to acquire visual-artistic skills or you aren’t; if […]

Pitter-patter in Newton’s footsteps

One of the fastest ways to find out how little you know is repeatedly to ask the question, “Why?” This practice has become a quality-management fad. Nevertheless, asking why-why-why is actually fun to do in real life, it’s good mental exercise, and it’ll help you achieve that smaller hat size you’ve been meaning to get […]

Preschoolers discuss the sacraments

My darling wife surprised me by bathing the big kids for me before I got home last night. I overheard my 3-year-old explaining this in English to his older brother: “We don’t have to get in the tub because Mami awweady bathtized us.”

An audience with the redwoods

Although I spent summers there as a kid, we’re enjoying doing the tourist thing during vacation this week in Santa Cruz, California. We took a trip into the redwoods and stood in the middle of a circle of redwood trees, each of them over a thousand years old.