Dad's Stained Glass Window....

I've been meaning to get this posted for quite a while. Back in May 2002 Dad completed work on this stained glass windows. The window is 46" wide and 30" high. It has about 2000 pieces and took about 8 months to complete (not counting designing the pattern, etc). The center section is from Tiffany's "Irises and Magnolias" window and the right, left and bottom section detail he added to turn Tiffany's vertical window into a horizontal window. It is mounted over his family's whirlpool soaking tub in their master bathroom. Dad can leave more details in the comments if he wants, but I believe he won a couple of competitions with it. Seems to pretty for just visitors to the bathroom to see. Go to my Flickr page of this photo or here for a large size image. Good work Dad! I know you are really proud of it!

Growing up, Mom and Dad both did lots of stained glass work for a hobby. We had beautiful windows all over the house. Even my brother and I got into the act. The smell of burned flux, the clink of breaking glass, and the high pitched tear of glass cutting filled the workshop end of our home as youth. Our parents are very crafty.

Lavie, Alvis and I caught "March of the Penguins" last night. What a wonderful movie. It had some harsh moments (real-life circle of life stuff). The detail they captured on the penguins' feathers is spectacular. The whole movie theatre was packed. We usually get there 25 min early so we get good seats. Lavie likes to sit in the top back seats so she can get up and stretch often. Of course, we usually end up eating all the snacks before the movie gets too far in, oh well.

Of course that experience leads me to want to make a list....

List #1--Top 10 Reasons I don't often go to the movies much any more!

1. Cost--I could by a DVD for the price of our three movie tickets/snacks--and keep it as a souvineer!
2. Snacks--I see them popping it, but the popcorn just tastes like packing pellets.
3. Sticky floors--enough said.
4. Crappy movies--same old formulas, same old plots--almost nothing orginal.
5. Undisciplined children #1--The isles/stairs are not playgrounds for your kids during the movie people!
   
6. Nasty bathrooms--Lavie says there never is enough toliet paper in the ladies' rooms.
   
7. Undisciplined children #2--I paid to listen to the movie, not listen to your child chatter all movie long to you, to me, and to his/her imaginary friend.
   
8. Public behavior--Even though it is dark, it is a public space--not your living room people--act accordingly!
   
9. Cell phones #1--People holding long and loud conversations on their cell phones.
   
10. Cell phones #2--TURN IT OFF!

Good thing--we caught the trailer to the new Harry Potter movie--The Goblet of Fire. Awesome! Also saw one for Tim Buron's "The Corpse Bride." Trailer here.

Stayed up way too late last night (early this morning?) flipping between "Dune" and "Thunderball/Goldfinger" on cable TV.

Quite a few people are putting up random music suffles from their iPods. Here is todays. (I have quite a few Japanese titles where the kanji doesn't convert to Unicode--I haven't figured out how/if I can display the kanji on my iTunes. My iPod handles it ok, though.) The Rules: Shuffle your entire music collection, click Play, and report the first 20 tracks, no matter what. This week's list is formatted as song title, artist, and album (in italics):

List#2--Top 20 iPod shuffle list

1. When I Fall In Love, Celine Dion, The Colour Of My Love
2. You Found Me, Kelly Clarkson, Breakaway
3. Cloud Age Symphony, Shuntaro Okino, Last Exile O.S.T. 1
4. Bright Sunny South, Alison Krauss & Union Station, New Favorite
5. Photograph, Please Twins, Please Twins
6. Leaving Hogwarts, Hollywood Star Orchestra, Music From Harry Poter And The Philiosopher's Stone
7. Amigos Para Siempre (Friends For Life)(With Jose Carreras), Sarah Brightman, The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection
8. Selfish-b, Shinkichi Mitsumune, FLCL Fooly Cooly OST 1 - Addict
9. Too Much Food, Jason Mraz, Waiting For My Rocket To Come
10. Only One Road, Celine Dion, The Colour Of My Love
11. Big Red, Count Basie, Count Basie: Verve Jazz Masters 2
12. Aim For The Heart, Yuki Matsuoka, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi OST: Abenobashi Magical Music Mansion
13. The Chamber Of Secrets, Hollywood Star Orchestra, Music From Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets
14. Kaspar's Audition; Journey to Vienna, Philharmonia Orchestra, The Red Violin
15. Dear Joan, Rob Thomas, Something More
16. The Trees, Rush, The Spirit Of Radio - Greatest Hits (1974-1987)
17. Moon Marguerite, The Pillows, Penalty Life
18. Wakaranai yo, kimi no kimochi, Please Twins, Please Twins
19. Say It Ain't So, Sarah Vaughan, Verve Jazz Masters 18: Sarah Vaughan
20. You And I Both, Jason Mraz, Waiting For My Rocket To Come

See you in the skies!
--Claus