So much I guess I will begin before the weekend.

Wednesday on my birthday my wife took me out for dinner we met Cynthetiq and his wife, and then a number of other friends surprised me for dinner. It was just a great nice evening. Thursday, my wife surprised me by taking the day off, and we had a day just us 2, that was a shocker I was not expecting that day together. We went saw a movie, went to the empire state building had lunch, and just had an awesome day together.

After a nice relaxing friday/saturday we were unsure if we would be able to see the fireworks this year since they moved them from the east side of the city to the Hudson, but while sitting and just chilling on the terrace we were pleasantly surprised to see all 6 displays of fireworks, was just amazing.

Oops forgot Friday we built a crib for Sophia.

Sunday, we had a birthday party for Sophia, her 1 year party, well first of 2 parties (this was for friends...

It is amazing how quick this year came and went. My daughter has totally been the highlight of the year. It is impossible to fully explain I think to someone without children, how a child brings about a new level of unconditional love that it is just amazing. How every step, every little new thing s(he) will do just brings so much joy that it is beyond comparison.

That being said I am 33 years old, and I feel stegnant. I want something new some challenge something that I can learn and push myself. I have been toying with joining Hatzallah, which is a volunteer ambulance organization in our community. It is privately funded, no government works entirely on a volunteer basis. Sadly with the shrinking of the Jewish population the volunteers have begun to dwindle in our neighborhood and there is definately a need to be filled here. On the other hand it will take out quality time from the family. It is a conundrum that I have thought over and ping ponged over back and...

I really should post more especially about my daughter, but this news really shocked and dismayed me and somehow got me here.

I woke to find out that the local Jewish funeral home, and the synagogue I go to has been defaced by Swastikas. It is shocking since we live in a very big mix of people here, and do have a large Jewish population. We all seem to get along well. I feel angry upset and a bit enraged. I would love for these shitheads to understand what it means to have few relatives due to gas chambers, to truly understand what the swastika means. We have survivors in this community, and to be honest a huge part of survivors after the war all lived here in this neighborhood prayed in this synagogue itself.

<edit> I forgot one part, when in the camps they would point to the smoke and tell someone hey that was your mother, your father, your brother, your daughter. That is what the swastka means.

Also to add that a smoke bomb was...

Today is Yom HaShoah, it is hard to even conceptually pause and grasp what that means. How can I even begin to understand the amount of people that were killed. 1.5 million jewish children, how do we even begin to understand how many human lives, how many families that were ended.

My family from my mother side, is very non-existant I can count dozens of relatives that were all killed. My Maternal grandmother was 1 out of 7 children, all her aunts cousins, parents, grandparents, dead. My Maternal grandfather 1 out of 5. Thankfully we had some relatives that had left germany in the early 1900s who we only just months ago found and began to connect with.

My father side 1 out of 5 of my grandmother siblings had left to the holyland. And my grandfather had 1 out of 7 live.

That is a quick personal account from one family out of millions.

The rest of the holacuast had millions of more victoms, from the army, gypsy etc......

I saw a task list I had posted on the blog like 6 months ago, and still have not done a single thing on it. Time flies bye, and I just not moving on certain things, and sadly I now have passover for rest of week, so can not do anything until next. I just hope I remember that I need to get these things done!