Times Square New Year's Eve 2000 Ball

This is the Times Square New Year's Eve 2000 Ball, designed and manufactured by Waterford Crystal, now safely back at the factory in Waterford, Ireland. This master-piece was presented to us with much fanfare during our fabulous tour of the Waterford Crystal factory.

The 1000-pound ball is approximately 6 feet in diameter and contains over 650 lights. Its outer surface is covered with 504 Waterford Crystal panels specially designed and cut to ensure that they survived the extraordinary extremes in temperature that can exist at the top of One Times Square on New Year's Eve. ( Actually, the weather was party-perfect -- skies were clear and the temperature was in the 30s Farhenheit; oh well, as "they" say, better safe than sorry.) 72 of the 504 panels are replaced each year with a new theme. Coincidence or not? The flag-pole the Ball descends is also 72 feet tall.

The Times Square 2007 theme for these new panels is Hope For Peace. For 2007, an additional 72 panels will be replaced with the Hope For Peace panels.

That will be great; what will also be great is when I receive my six (6) Grainne wine goblets and one (1) Waterford crystal frame shipped to me directly from Waterford in time for Christmas I trust.