Nick and I are taking some of our guy friends to a baseball game this weekend, and it looks like we couldn’t have chosen a better time to do it. We were out to the ballpark the first weekend of last season, too:
Last year it was 60F/15C and very windy. This year, I think we’re in for some amazing weather.
I’m taking a few days off for spring break, so we’ll pick up again on Tuesday. Happy Easter and Passover!
Maria and one of her friends decided that they wanted to start a new flower garden outside our house. There’s not much they can plant yet – still a risk of frosts and freezes for a few more weeks – but they were able to plant some pansies:
Maria says she wants to take pictures of them every week throughout the season so we can see how they grow. We’ll see if we remember to do that….
Via the marvelous James Fallows, the US Census publishes a fascinating spreadsheet of frequently occurring names in US households. The top ten contains a few usual suspects and perhaps a few surprises:
1. Smith
2. Johnson
3. Williams
4. Brown
5. Jones
6. Miller
7. Davis
8. Garcia
9. Rodriguez
10. Wilson
I wouldn’t have thought of Davis or Wilson. Garcia and Rodriguez – I might have guessed Martinez (11) or Hernandez (15) would place higher, but I’ll admit that I don’t know Hispanic ethnography/geneaology well enough to make an informed prediction. There are six Hispanic surnames in the top 25, and not for nothing does salsa outsell ketchup in the US.
(Important note: This is not a political statement on my part, especially not about legal or illegal immigration.)
Anyway, here on Sperger.com we have one interest only, and that’s the promotion and greater glory of Spergers everywhere. Here are the top ranking surnames that contain “sperger” in them, and then of course, Sperger itself. The numbers in parentheses after each name indicate how many US households claim the given name as their surname:
33,955. Gindlesperger (633 households)
44,529. Hopfensperger (455)
47,435. Leibensperger (421)
50,652. Raffensperger (388)
62,682. Kochensperger (299)
71,893. Hunsperger (253)
74,957. Adelsperger (240)
And so on, until:
123,977. Sperger (129 households)
Some extended family names in the Sperger tribe that occur much more frequently:
34. King (438,000 households)
157. Hunt (152,000)
5,160. Gammon (6,238)
19,188. Convery (1,300)
25,956. Marnell (889)
49,538. Seydel (399)
One conclusion from all this is obvious: Those who marry into the Sperger family clearly become part of something more unique than where they started. Those of us who are Spergers by birth knew this already. Even so, it’s nice to have hard data.
If you are fortunate enough to be part of a Sperger household, and you use Facebook, I invite you to join the group The Very Extended Sperger Family. Share in the tradition of excellence.
Also: Gindlesperger? Gindlesperger? That’s the most popular Sperger-related name in the US?!? Baffling. Even more baffling is that it turns out they have an association to keep track of their US genealogy. I guess when you have 633 households contributing, you can afford to get fancy.
Well, we have an international music contest named for us. Take that, Gindlespergers.
We were over at Chelsea’s preschool this past weekend for a little bit while she did some pictures of Nick, so the kids and I were kicking around the school and the playground while Chelsea worked on other stuff. Maria was having a little bit of a hard day, but we eventually coaxed some smiles and silly faces out of her:
Nick and Anna did what they do best… entertaining themselves and each other on the playground:
They even got me in on the fun:
Notice we’re all wearing cold-weather gear… that won’t last for long this week. We have a big rain storm moving through, and then it’s supposed to get progressively warmer this week. By Saturday, we may have temperatures above 80F/27C. (If you prefer Kelvin: 300K. Doesn’t that sound really hot?) Anyway, it’s going to be time for shorts and sandals around here. Time to build up the freckle inventory again!
With the sudden rush of warm weather we’ve had in Philly these last two weeks, our thoughts are naturally turning to summertime. I’ve been saying for the last two years that I want to do more camping – in 2007 we got out four times, but in 2008 and 2009 we only went once each year. I’m determined this year.
On my way home from work these days, I can see the trees and the ground just starting to take on the green fuzz of spring. Won’t be long now.
Yesterday I mentioned that my neighbor and I were planning to till our gardens. What I hadn’t mentioned was that we were planning to do it Friday after work. But when I got home from work last night, I saw the he had gone ahead and rented the tiller, done his… and done mine.
Great neighbor!
We jokingly call him The Mayor, because he’s so well tuned in to the goings-on of the neighborhood. I almost wish I could vote for him in something – it’s the least I can do to say thanks. (Well, that and a case of beer.)
Sometime this week or next, my neighbor and I will be tilling our gardens to start getting them ready for the growing season. We’re going to make our garden a bit bigger this year, to accommodate a few more types of vegetables, and also to see if we can grow some herbs, like basil and rosemary, for use in the kitchen.
Here’s a look back at the start of our efforts last year… note that just over the weekend, the grass started turning that iridescent green you see in the pictures. We love springtime!
And here’s a quick look at the bounty our garden was yielding by July:
Make your reservations now for a salad dinner at our place this summer.
A few weeks ago, Maria and Anna appeared in the American Girl Fashion Show, an event held every year to benefit local kids’ charities. Here are a few pictures of our girls in costume at rehearsals:
Maria has been doing this show for several years, and she’s now so tall that she has probably outgrown the show. We think this will be her last year. Anna is in her second year, and has a few more years ahead of her as long as she’s still interested.
All right, I worked out our technical problems with the digital camera, and I was able to retrieve the rest of our photos.
There were some sharp restrictions on photography in the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit, but they had a replica warrior at the exit who was available for group pictures:
I also snapped a flash-free picture of one of the figures in the exhibit… fortunately they were very well lit:
This is another iconic figure… a C-3PO costume from the original Star Wars trilogy, on display at the American History Museum:
All right, I worked out our technical problems with the digital camera, and I was able to retrieve the rest of our photos.
There were some sharp restrictions on photography in the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit, but they had a replica warrior at the exit who was available for group pictures:
I also snapped a flash-free picture of one of the figures in the exhibit… fortunately they were very well lit:
This is another iconic figure… a C-3PO costume from the original Star Wars trilogy, on display at the American History Museum:
Here we are out for a walk on the soggy National Mall:
There’s nothing soggy about Philadelphia this weekend, so to all of you on the East Coast, enjoy the fabulous weekend! We certainly earned it this winter.