The idea for the shallow pool was to be a place to sit on a beach chair and read a book. Because of the slope on that side of the house it would have required much higher retaining walls to have the main pool in that location. The aesthetic goal was to be able to see water upon entering the home. Since we also wanted the sound of the waterfall this is the solution our landscape architect came up with. We didn't want a hot tub. The main pool is 3.5 feet deep on either side and 5.5 feet in the middle. We didn't want a deep end since in our previous home everyone always congregated around the shallow end.

This may not be applicable, but it might be worth a try and i would be interested in what the pro's think. You could change the natural frequency of one glass panel by simply adding mass to it, like a stick on lead weight used in high end car wheels (a flat piece of lead with adhesive on it). If you put one of these on one of the glass panels you would change the natural frequency of that pane. Closer to the middle the better, but a heavier weight near a corner would do the same thing. If a sound guy could measure the natural frequency of a pane, you could actually "tune" the panes to offset the noise transmission. Just a thought.

I spend about an hour in the morning catching up on the news, my Etsy shop, here, a jewelry community of which I'm a member and moderator and checking my email. After that's done, it's breakfast, whatever household chores need to be done and I usually spend several hours a day in my studio. I'm too busy during the day to spend much time on the internet. If I take a break from whatever it is I'm doing, I'll get online for a few minutes. In the evenings, after dinner and clean-up is done, is my relaxing time and I usually watch tv and do things on the internet at the same time. My attitude is much like Marilyn C's in that I have a lot to do and enjoy spending time by myself. For a long time, we didn't have television, so the internet was the only way we had to keep up with the news as well as being a main source of evening entertainment. I don't have a smart phone, so my phone is for making and receiving calls only. When we go on trips, we take our laptops with us and spend time in the mornings and evenings catching up with online things. The rest of the time we are out seeing the sights and sometimes we end up on places where internet connections aren't very reliable which means we're "unplugged" whether we like it or not. I remember being in a hotel in Aruba a few years ago before we had laptops (just desk tops at home) and the only source of internet was a computer in the hotel bar. I used it every few days to check the local news which is how I found out our home was in the path of a forest fire. Having that knowledge prompted me to contact our neighbors for updates so we were in the loop. However, I'm not sure what good it did us because there was nothing we could do it about it from such a difference and knowing about fire being so close just caused worry and stress. I find it disturbing and kind of sad to see families sitting together at a restaurant but none of them talking to each other because they are all glued to their phones. Or, not fully experiencing an event or attraction because they are paying more attention to their phone than what is going on around them. But, that is their loss (or perhaps they don't consider it such), and none of my business, so I try not to concern myself with such things. Technology can and does enrich our lives as long as we are in control of the technology and not the other way around.

The current New Yorker magazine has an ad for Chelsea Clinton's book for girls. I think the title applies to Lisa. It's called "She Persisted".