The Tap of a Bumper

Back in December, on a cold dark night after an extra long and stressful day at work, I headed home to finally get a chance to relax. I got in my car and made it as far as the Greentree entrance to 376 East. It's a nightmare of an on ramp and that night my fears came true. When I saw the car in front of me pull away I turned to check on the traffic to see when I could merge in. I saw my chance, hit the accelerator...and the car in front of me! When I saw him pull into traffic he'd actually only pulled up a few feet.

We pulled over and exchanged information. Turns out I hit the car of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Westmoreland Transit, so he's old hat at exchanging this information. While very firm, he was neither rude nor angry which I greatly appreciated.

Well, I hadn't heard from him and figured that, since there was no visible damage to either vehicle, this all had gone away. Nope! Got a call this week that, of the three estimates he got, the lowest one to fix his bumper was $643.40! I thought it sounded like he was trying to pull a fast one on me so I asked him to send me the estimate he got. It all looks legit. All the fixes listed are directly relating to the bumper.

Decided to pay for this without an insurance claim. Check is in the mail. Bank account is feeling a little lighter. I guess that's what savings are for. And, lesson learned: no matter how bad of a day I've had, always keep my head while driving. The next time it might not be just a bumper.

My First Solo Trip

Since the day of my wedding three and a half years ago, Rivkah and I have had the amazing fortune of never spending a night apart. Not one single night. My spiritual mentor had told me when I got married that it's very important to not spend a night apart in the first year of marriage. Since then we've worked really hard to schedule all of our trips together and turn down opportunities that would have separated us.

Tonight that changes. Tonight I leave behind my wife and daughters and travel to New York for the wedding of one of my best friends. Tonight, the streak ends, and my heart is breaking. I'm nervous, scared. How am I going to sleep these next two nights? Are Rivkah and the kids ok? All in all, Oy.

To make matters worse, I'm not going to be able to build up much of a streak when I get back again. In April my company is sending me to Toronto for 5 days for a conference. I'm thrilled about the conference but if these 2 days are scaring me, what will 5 days be like? I don't like it, not one bit.

I guess all I can do is a. pray for the strength to get through this, and b. thank G-d that I have such a wonderful marriage that, after 3 and a half years spending every night together, spending two nights apart is a nightmare to think about and not a welcome break.

I love you Rivkah. I'll miss you girls. Don't worry, I'll be back soon.

My Musical Daughters

Anyone who has met Yaeli knows that she's all about music. She's got her favorite songs that she requests from us like we are some sort of jukebox. We've got them all in a YouTube playlist and she can watch them on our iPod. And she absolutely loves to dance to them. We are considering putting her into a dance class because she just loves to get down and boogie.

Now, Sophie is obviously too young to appreciate music all that much. She does seem to be calmed a little by it but she'll appreciate it more as she grows up. However, she is providing us with some beautiful music to listen to. This week Sophie started laughing. She's been smiling responsively for a while and the next logical step was for her to express that happiness verbally but I was still pleasantly surprised when those giggles came. Baby laughter is one of the most beautiful sounds, probably because baby happiness is the most pure happiness. I love seeing her developing and growing. I forgot so much about this stage from when Yaeli was little. I can't wait to rediscover it all again as time goes along.

Brunch With Friends

I guess I'm finally accepting that I'm getting older and that I'm married with kids. Brunch??

This morning I got up with Yaeli and we got dressed, had breakfast, and then went to shul. After shul we headed home to pick up Rivkah and Sophie and we were off to Nosson and Ella's apartment for a great brunch with Nossons sister and brother in law as well.

I've found it to be so important to get out of the house and spend time with other adults, even of most of the conversation involves our kids. Our Sundays are always much better when we don't stay at home all day with the girls.

Also, I got my new iPhone 5 last night and had some fun messing around with the panorama feature of the camera. Enjoy:

Yaeli Hits the Ice

Today, January 1, 2013, I started teaching Yaeli how to ride a bike...in a sense. The american dad cannot wait to train his kids to ride their bikes for the first time. Well, I don't really care so much about bike riding but as a hockey player, ice skating is pretty important to me. So today I took Yaeli to Schenley Ice Rink, put some skates on her feet and hit the ice.

For a hockey dad, there is no bigger thrill than this. Imparting my hockey knowledge onto the next generation of Millers. We may not play together on the same line some day but hockey is such an important thing to me and Yaeli loves hockey too.

To start the event off we waited in line to pay for our ice time and rentals. Yaeli waited very patiently and even told me "I'm so excited!" Then we went down and got her rental skates (the very smallest pair they had). I made sure to tie them on her nice and tight. I threw on my skates and we were good to go. I wanted Yaeli to get a good feel for the skates so we walked around indoors for a bit so she could get rid of the wobble a little. She tore off and was quite steady so after a couple of minutes we hit the ice.

Out on the ice was a whole new ballgame, as I'd expected. Yaeli didn't really have a sense of how to keep her feet down but we took a few laps nonetheless and she started to get the hang of it. After a couple of laps we went inside to get a snack and then went back out for one more lap and pictures.

The time came to call it quits. We had a great time and, while Yaeli still has a lot to learn about skating, she is super excited which is what really counts. She can't wait to go again and neither can I. My back on the other hand...

Happy New Year everyone. Have a great 2013!