Sperger Family

Bowl the cabin fever away

2010-03-09T14:20:00.002-05:00

Last month, when Anna had chicken pox, she was home from school for a week. By the end of that week, she was feeling much better, but she was going stir crazy from being cooped up in the house. And honestly, the rest of us were right behind her on the road to Crazyland - not because of Anna, but because of February.

So the kids and I went out for a couple hours of bowling.

We had some snacks and enjoyed some friendly competition. It was a nice break for all involved - probably even a nice break for Chelsea and Mary, who stayed home in relative quiet.

This last snapshot is the kind of picture where I would normally correct Anna's red eyes, but they are so appropriate for the picture that I'm going to leave them as is:

Program note: I'll be traveling the rest of this week to a conference, and so I probably won't get many chances to post here. Back next week!

Colonial Day

2010-03-08T09:22:00.001-05:00

Maria had Colonial Day at school recently. The kids dressed up in colonial clothes (made by Chelsea!) and ran a "market" in which they promoted their trades. Maria was a furniture maker:

The kids also did some colonial-style dancing:

Dancing and fashion - what more could Maria ask in a school assignment?

If there's ice, you might as well skate on it

2010-03-05T09:56:00.002-05:00

Also over the Christmas holidays, we got out for an afternoon of ice skating with some friends of ours. Your intrepid reporter used to like ice skating as a kid, but now can't find a comfortable pair of skates to wear. So I spent the session on the sidelines, taking pictures:

Fortunately, the kids don't have any trouble with skates or ice:

Chelsea likes skating, too... here she is with our friend Nicole:

I can't seem to find Maria in these pictures, so I am guessing that she was at Nutcracker that afternoon. Christmastime is like that with her.

Happy weekend!

Catching up: Cousin Night

2010-03-04T07:47:00.002-05:00

We had our annual Cousin Night over the Christmas holidays, and it's taken me this long to hunt down all of the pictures. (Sorry to keep you waiting, Kate!)

With the cousins all getting bigger and older, the event is changing all the time. This year, my cousin John cooked a "fourthmeal" of chicken fajitas around midnight, making this either a very late dinner or a very early breakfast:

We played some Rock Band, too, which is becoming a new tradition:

We also played some Double Double This This:

This crew is now staying up later and waking up later than in the olden days. That suits us fine - sitting around eating and playing cards at 1:00 in the morning makes the older cousins feel like we're back in college again.

Sanding, priming, painting

2010-03-03T08:55:00.002-05:00

When we last left our intrepid renovators, the girls' room looked like this:

While it was nice to be rid of the plaster cracks, No self-respecting young princess would tolerate living in such squalor for long. Clearly, we needed to do some more work. The first order of business was to sand down all of the spackle work, which created a lovely quarter inch of white dust all over everything, including me:

The vacuum and mop made quick work of the dust:

This is the kind of shine we're hoping to achieve permanently after refinishing the floor... not just after the room has been mopped:

Next, we needed to swap out the existing light fixture for something temporary while we work on the ceiling:

We also needed to cover up the floor so that we don't make extra work for ourselves on the refinishing step later... we're going to be doing a lot of painting:

It was time to start priming. Since we're making big color changes all around, and since we had done so much spackling, we went ahead and primed every surface:

After a solid coat of primer, we got ready to paint the ceiling. Now, this is not going to be any ordinary ceiling. Our girls deserve the best! As part of their Asian theme, we agreed to make the ceiling metallic gold. Yes, metallic gold.

That meant the job had a few complications. For one thing, we decided we would need to bring the ceiling paint down onto the walls a few inches, so we could do a border around the room and avoid having a difficult line to maintain between the walls and the ceiling. So you'll see in these pictures that we laid out a line about 5" (13cm) down from the wall/ceiling boundary.

We also needed to mask all of the walls, in addition to the floor, because we don't want the wall surfaces to be dotted with flecks of metallic gold from the ceiling paint cycle.

First round of the gold ceiling looked pretty cool:

After the second round, you could start to see how it was going to look when finished:

Maria came in at this point for an inspection:

Her room now has bling. She approves.

We probably have to do one more coat on the ceiling, and then it's on to the walls.

Tomorrow: Cabin fever and bowling.

In fairness to the girls...

2010-03-02T09:53:00.002-05:00

...I was reminded last night that Nick and I occasionally do some strange things to our own hair. You may know that Nick has been wearing a "faux-hawk" for the past several months. It looks like this:

Well, the other day I needed to take a shower in the middle of the day after sanding the walls in the girls' room:

And Maria had the bright idea to make my hair look like Nick's:

So the boys have had their own hair adventures, too.

Tomorrow: A closer look at that sanding job, and everything that has followed.

Update on Anna

2010-03-01T10:13:00.001-05:00

Gentle readers, a quick note to let you know that Anna is doing great - completely done with her chicken pox and back to school this morning. We're still waiting to see if Nick and Maria come down the magic spots....

Girl hair

2010-03-01T10:10:00.002-05:00

I have to admit I'm baffled. Maria has been going to great lengths recently to curl her hair. Here she is, first thing in the morning, with empty orange juice cans attached to her head. She slept like this!

Last night - I don't have a picture of this, alas - she went to sleep with tight curls of hair attached to her head with maybe two hundred bobby pins. Help! I'm just a simple caveman. I don't understand.

This week: Chicken pox!

2010-02-23T09:26:00.002-05:00

Things are going to be a bit quiet on the blog front this week. Young Anna has come down with chicken pox, and that's having some... interesting effects on our schedule. We expect the other two to start sprouting spots sometime soon. (There's your alliteration for the week.)

Back soon!

Wayback Machine: March 2009

2010-02-22T10:50:00.003-05:00

We don't have any plans yet for spring break, but after the briefest of winter thaws this weekend, to be followed by a week of rain and slush, I thought it might be nice to have a look back at our time in Florida last March:

Stay warm this week, northern friends!

Girls' room update

2010-02-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

When last we left our intrepid renovators, they were making long holes in the wall that everyone agreed looked just like vines. The next order of business was to cover up those opened-up cracks with fiberglass mesh tape:

Then came the goo - spackle, to be precise, in a beautiful shade of pink:

That pink color is to let you know where it's wet... as it dries, it turns white:

It was also finally time to dismantle the girls' bed and finish the long process of unloading their room:

We didn't assemble it originally - the furniture delivery guys did - and I didn't take any notes as I disassembled the thing. Hope I remember how to put it back together when it's time.

I've also embarked on something a little scary with this project. I'm drilling holes in our hardwood floor, in order to screw loose boards down to the joists underneath. This is the squeak elimination part of the project:

We haven't done anything to our original hardwood floors before, so it took a lot of Internet research and a stiff drink before I could sit down and start drilling into finished floorboards. Actually, the first part was walking around the room with heavy footfalls to find all of the squeaky boards. The kids thought I was crazy. Now Chelsea thinks I'm crazy because the floor is full of holes and screws.

It will look beautiful when it's done! I think.

Kind of blue

2010-02-18T08:56:00.003-05:00

I mentioned the other day that our kid bath days are coming to an end - Nick and Maria are shower-only people these days, and Anna goes back and forth between showers and baths. Well, she decided to take a bath the other night. She also decided to use Tub Tints, these little Alka-Seltzer dye tablets, to change the color of the water:

It's a pretty unnatural blue to find in a bathtub... it reminded me of the water features you see at a mini golf course.

Tomorrow: Girls' room renovation update!

Computers are a mixed blessing

2010-02-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

Anna was in my home office over the weekend, playing some computer games. As you can see, whatever she was doing on the computer, it wasn't going so well:

Those faces! Too funny.

The mighty snowblower

2010-02-16T14:11:00.002-05:00

If you were a snowdrift, you might quake in fear at the sight of this monster:

Oh, sure, it doesn't look like much. But I tell you that this machine is a stone cold snow assassin. It tosses powder and slush with equal aplomb. See how it makes quick work of a certain household's long driveway, which my dad and I used to shovel manually:

What's that, you say? You park your car on the street? No problem:

The credit really goes to my dad, who had the foresight to go out and buy this thing a couple winters back, when nary a snowflake was falling, and Lowe's was selling the beautiful machines at a deep discount. This winter, they can probably command any price they want.

Anyway, we're finding with the mighty snowblower that it's easy to be generous. With each snowstorm, we end up digging out more and more of the neighbors at each place where we work - my house, my folks' house, and the grandfolks' place. They say we might get two more historic snowstorms before this amazing winter is done with us. If that happens, we'll probably just arrange a contract with the township to clear out everybody.

Be careful what you wish for

2010-02-15T10:17:00.002-05:00

All right, so we wanted some snow this winter, and boy, did we get it. Here's how the house is looking these days:

We actually haven't been out sledding in a few days - need to get back to that - but we got out last weekend after the first of the two storms that came through. It was a beautiful day:

My sister Kate joined us that day:

After two epic storms, the snow was nice and deep:

There's nothing quite like the brilliant blue of a clear winter sky:

Tomorrow: All hail the mighty snowblower.

Wayback machine: May 2009

2010-02-10T10:22:00.001-05:00

The big snowstorm is in full tilt outside, giving us a nice opportunity to look back to warmer times... this is from our camping trip last May:

Stay toasty, winter friends!

Let's pause and appreciate...

2010-02-09T13:38:00.002-05:00

...how extraordinary a winter we're having in Philadelphia.

As I write this, we have the remnants of our weekend snowstorm still on the ground. That storm was the second-largest on record at the Philadelphia airport, surpassed only by the epic 36" (90cm) monster in January 1996.

Tonight and all day tomorrow, we're supposed to get another monster storm, with accumulations of 12"-18" (30cm-45cm) expected across our area.

In the process, we will almost surely break the record for snowfall in one winter.

You know how you usually buy a sled or snowblower, and it doesn't snow all season? The kids and I are feeling like geniuses for buying that toboggan for Chelsea this year:

All indications are that the conditions that have brought us this amazing winter are set to persist for at least a few more weeks. (Visit the Eastern US WX guys if you want all the gory details.) So it might be March or (shudder) April before we finally close the book on this incredible season. I'm hoping that for once we get to see a bright and warm spring as a reward for our winter adventures. Meantime, I finished off a bag of ice melt this weekend and have to buy another - probably the first time in five or six years that's been the case.

If you're local and want to go sledding on Thursday, drop me a note.

Treading water on technical troubles

2010-02-08T13:40:00.003-05:00

Gentle readers, I've had some trouble in the last week or two with photo file transfers from my camera to my computer. I have a wealth of photos to share, especially from the weekend's snow adventures, but it may be a few more days before I can show you fresh images.

For now, here's a look back at last summer. When our sidewalks are covered over with a thick crust of snow and ice, it's fun to think that we're actually not that far away from warm days and carousel rides:

We have another big snowstorm in the forecast for tomorrow night and Wednesday. Where are we going to put all this snow?

Let's get ready to rumble

2010-02-05T07:59:00.002-05:00

The snowstorm now heading our way is supposed to be one for the ages, with the potential for 30" (75cm) in the Washington/Baltimore corridor. We're hoping for a solid foot of snow in Philadelphia. My favorite weather nerd sites are all abuzz with the possibilities. And they think we're due for some more before February is over.

We're all set at our house - we've got salt, firewood, hot chocolate, and popcorn. Come on, winter, let's see your best shot!

Let it snow!

2010-02-04T09:56:00.003-05:00

It looks like we're due for a decent snowstorm around here this weekend - maybe 10" (25cm) or more when all is said and done. Last night, we were all abuzz in the house about getting another chance to rock the toboggan:

As Chelsea likes to say, if we're going to have winter, it might as well snow!

Going green

2010-02-03T10:09:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I heard birds outside chirping. Twice! So I was pretty sure it wasn't just my hearing on the fritz. In honor of the returning birds, I thought we could have a look at some nice spring greenery. This was a picture from our visit to Bushkill Falls as part of our Mother's Day camping weekend last year:

We've got a bit of snow on the ground here in Philadelphia today, but we're making progress every day toward springtime and sunshine.

Mom is on the job

2010-02-02T08:58:00.003-05:00

This weekend my Mom started her first "real" shifts as a working nurse, without a teacher or preceptor checking up on her. She had several patients of her own, and by all accounts she did beautifully. Let's raise a glass again, Mom!

When you're born to do something, you're born to do it - and it's never too late to get started.

Myrtle Beach

2010-02-01T14:50:00.002-05:00

We've been away the past few days in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, attending a funeral on Friday. Chelsea, her mother, and I made the drive; the kids stayed in town and made the rounds among several family members and friends. We are very grateful to all of the kids' hosts for their help.

Two strange things about this trip. One, we ended up staying at a beachfront hotel in Myrtle Beach thanks to Chelsea's cousin Melissa, who works at a hotel in the same corporate family. We're not at the beach very often in the winter, and it was both beautiful and fairly desolate. Here's the sunrise on our last morning in town:

The second thing was that we ended up staying an extra day in Myrtle Beach because there was an epic snow and ice storm in the Carolinas and Virginia on Saturday, when we would have been driving home. It fell as rain in Myrtle Beach, but southern Virginia got 15" (38cm) of snow, and there was heavy ice in North Carolina.

On our way home yesterday, the roads were pretty clear up to about as far north as Raleigh. There we started to encounter some untreated roads and some icy patches. Secondary roads were much worse than the highway, and I-95 turned out to be in pretty decent shape. We figure that with the remnants of Saturday's storm, the drive home took us about 90 minutes longer than it would have otherwise.

Chelsea's mother, Mary, did some of the driving in both directions, which afforded me the rare opportunity to sit in the back seat and watch a movie:

The movie I'm watching in that photo, by the way, is Rocket Science.

The kids who stare at goats

2010-01-27T09:30:00.002-05:00

Back during the holidays, we went out to a tree farm in our area to cut down our Christmas trees. This tree farm has some fenced animals scattered around the property, and in addition to the usual horses and chickens and whatnot, there are some animals you wouldn't expect to see on a tree farm in Pennsylvania - an ostrich, an emu, a couple of alpacas, and some pygmy goats:

My kids love the goats, and suggested that we get some for our yard. I'm just lazy enough as a mower of grass that I thought about it half-seriously for a moment. But no, sorry, we can't have goats roaming the property.

Renovation update: Those aren't vines

2010-01-26T15:35:00.003-05:00

I did some work over the weekend in the girls' room, getting the walls and ceiling ready for painting. A big step in the process is dealing with plaster cracks. Our old house has plaster and lath walls and ceilings, which are great - they're durable as all get out, and fairly soundproof too. However, as the house breathes from season to season, and as it inevitably settles down on its foundation, we get cracks in the wall.

My job this weekend was to make those cracks bigger, so that I can then make them disappear. This is how things looked by Sunday afternoon:

(That hole in the wall is the heating/cooling vent.)

Every member of my family walked into the room at some point and said, "Whoa! Why are you making the cracks bigger!" Nick thought they looked like vines on the wall - not such a stretch, since there's already a rose vine border painted up one corner of the room.

This coming weekend I'll be finishing up the crack work, and doing some repairs to the hardwood floor. No more squeaks!