Physics 101

I weighed myself last night. I weighed about the same as I did when I left home. But I take that to be a very good thing, because I was in New York, and therefore much, much closer to the Center of the Earth. And as every student of physics knows, things weigh more as you get closer to the center of the earth. So I figure that when I get home I will find that I have lost several pounds on this trip. That's great.

Latest Work, Last in a Series

The final parts of my series of leaded-glass panels, "Flow", are done and installed in Spring Valley, Wisconsin. This series started with the piece called, simply, Flow, hanging now in Ann Arbor, Michigan (see the Vitreaux slideshow gallery). Numbers 2 (Pettus Bridge), 3 (Upstream) and 4 (Winter) are still in my workshop at home, awaiting frames. Number 5 (Below Town) is hanging in Houston. These panels, parts 6, 7 and 8, are titled Eau Galle, after the stream that flows through the town where they hang. There is one more design in the series, but it will probably never be built because it looks like a bug.

Quick Results

ESPN2's English commentators at the Germany-Serbia match (now at halftime) are whining about the "card-happy" referee. There have been many times when I have agreed completely with that complaint, but this time, not entirely.

The first yellow card went to Miroslav Klose. A Serbian player had taken the ball and was running with it, full-tilt. He was just about at mid-field; Klose was chasing, and don't you know he just accidentally, unintentionally just barely touched the runner's foot.

That happens all the time. It happened a second time in the first 20 minutes of this match, and another card was shown. These expensive international players just don't have sufficient control of their limbs to avoid that sort of incidental contact, if you believe the commentators.

But what I saw was, in the 40th minute (after Klose had been sent off for a second yellow), the German defender chasing the Serbian runner was very careful to avoid the runner's feet, and a breakaway went ahead. Only led to a bad pass, but this referee's eagerness to go to his pocket is already paying dividends in the excitement of the match.