Great places to snowboard in colorado

The life of a snowboarder can be hard. While boarding is becoming much more popular in the US, boarders still don’t get a lot of love from skiers. That’s why it’s important to be aware of the best places to snowboard. If you know the best places, you’ll not only be able to find the best slopes and terrain parks for boarding, you’ll also be able to find a place great atmosphere where you’re not the only one who enjoys snowboarding. There are many places where you can have a great time boarding, but two of the best are in Colorado. They boast not only great runs, but great atmosphere as well.

If you’re looking for a great place to snowboard, the first place you want to check out is Breckenridge. They’ve got 146 runs with a good mix of beginner, intermediate, advanced, and expert levels. If you’re less about going down the mountain and more about doing tricks, they also have three terrain parks. One of the terrain parks, Freeway Superpark, hosts several competitions every year and is widely considered the best terrain park in Colorado and even North America. If you’re not quite ready for that kind of park yet, they also have a terrain park built specifically for beginners to learn their moves. And if you get bored of the mountains at Breckenridge, you can catch a free shuttle over to neighboring Keystone for some night skiing and snowboarding (and the tickets are interchangeable). If this isn’t enough for you, the town has a great atmosphere as well. The resort area is the largest historic district in the state of Colorado. It boasts tons of shops, a variety of great restaurants, oxygen bars, and you can take free shuttles from town to each peak. If you’re into the night-life, Breckenridge has several clubs and bars to suit all the late-night partiers. If you’re with people who are into something besides going down the mountain, there is also snowmobiling, ice skating, dog sled tours, hiking trails, and a whole lot more. If you’re looking for a great all-around resort, Breckenridge is the place to go.

If you’re just learning to snowboard, Vail is a great resort to check out. Besides the fact that Vail is widely considered to be the best ski resort in the US (and the biggest), it’s also got great accommodations for those who are just starting out; including a school with over 800 instructors (including those fluent in different languages) and tons of beginner runs. This way you won’t get by doing the same thing over and over while you’re learning. They also boast one of the largest terrain parks for those looking to work on their tricks. Vail is also not a bad place to go for those of you who are a little more experienced on the slopes. They have so many different runs of all levels; snowboards of all levels of experience are bound to keep busy the whole time they’re there. And when you’re taking a break from boarding, you can take one of the free shuttles into town where you can fine over 250 shops and 100 restaurants and bars. In a resort like Vail, you’re sure to never get bored.

So, what are you waiting for? Grab your board and head off to one of these great resorts!

Interesting old dog tricks for dog owners looking for fun laughter

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The teaching and training of dog tricks while not a necessary part of a dog’s education, is an achievement that offer dog owners and his friends a great deal of amusement and adds materially to the value of a dog.

Training your dog tricks can be difficult and frustrating if you cannot achieve the results you want. However, unlike house and potty training which are vital education for any dog, I feel that the end-results is not the most significant element in trick training, to me the most important part is that both of you enjoy the training process and have fun along the way.

Listed in this article are 3 interesting dog tricks that you can teach your dog:

Dead Dog
Place a dog on his back or side or in any position you may select, threaten him with your forefinger and say “dead” or any word that you may select to associate with this trick, use both hands to help him stay in that position when you first begin training. Praise him and offer treats if he can stay in position.

With regular practice, he should be able to stay in the position in which you have placed him, it is only a question of practice when you can call to him and say “dead,” and he will lie down and stretch out in the position that you have accustomed him to taking.

Sneezing
With careful and patient training, most dogs can be taught to sneeze. This is accomplished by tickling the nose - with a feather. At first he will snap at it, and under normal circumstances, most dogs will start to sneeze; he will not like the feather very well and in course of time his imagination will foreshadow its effects and he will begin to sneeze as soon as it is pointed in close proximity to his nose. When he sneezes, use a command like “Sneeze”, to associate with this trick. As usual, praise and treat when he gets it right.

By repeating this operation at odd times the dog can be taught to sneeze very creditably when you point your finger at his nose and give him the word “Sneeze,” and finally will do so simply at command.

This trick can be fun and entertaining but not easily achievable especially with dominant dogs. If your dog get irritated and turn aggressive toward you when you tickle his nose, you should stop training immediately.

Bringing His Tail
During play, dogs frequently grasp their tails in their mouths. If you haven’t notice, if you take hold of your dog tail while playing with him, he will probably seize your hand, but if you skillfully slip his tail in his mouth he will grab it – Interesting!

These facts suggested the trick of “Bringing his tail.” It is a rather difficult feat to accomplish, but it is possible for any amateur to teach it to his dog providing the dog has a long enough tail and the trainer sufficient patience - Sorry to dog owners with short tails!

Anyway, this trick is very amusing, for when the dog has his tail in his mouth he can only advance crab-fashion or sideways, with a tendency to go around in a circle without making much advance.

The first step in teaching this trick is to praise the dog when he first gets his tail in his mouth, and after he has held it for a few moments bid him to let go and reward him.

Should he give up his hold before you order him to do so, speak sharply to him and begin all over again. When he learns to hold his tail until ordered to relinquish it the first part of the trick has been taught, and you can begin to teach him to bring it to you. To do this, step back a few feet from the dog in the direction he can most easily advance, and call him.

If he releases his hold of his tail to come to you, ignore him and replace the tail in his mouth again, but when he comes without letting go he should be rewarded gradually increase the distance you require him to carry his tail, but this task is so difficult that he should not be asked to go more than ten or twelve feet.

In beginning the trick, when you place his tail in his mouth say “Bring me your tail,” so as to accustom him to the command. In time you will not have to place his tail in his mouth, but merely hold it for him to grasp, and after still further practice he will seize it at the word without your assisting him.

Enjoy training your dog new tricks, and most importantly enjoy the process and have a great deal of fun and laughter!

Children s birthday parties - a timeline for a great event

Having the best children's birthday party shouldn't be a stressful thing. Follow the timeline below and your child and you will be the hit of the neighborhood.

About a month before your party you'll want to:

Talk with your child and choose a party theme and/or decide what your “entertainment” will be for the party. This will help you determine your party budget as well.

Create the guest list. Don't forget to include friends from school, the neighborhood as well as relatives and more distant friends.

Choose a party date and time. Most children's birthday parties are generally one to two hours long.

Order the general party supplies: tablecloth, tableware, decorations, etc.

Think about games. Keep the ages and personalities of the children as you plan your activities. And sometimes shorter and simpler parties with one fun activity are best and least stressful.

Two weeks prior to the party make sure you:

Decide on your menu. Are you just having cake and ice cream? Is the party at a mealtime and do you need to order pizzas or are you cooking yourself, etc.?

Mail the invitations. You will probably need to call everyone that doesn’t RSVP. People will forget and will appreciate the reminder call

Ask for help. If you think you might need some help for party day, ask a couple of the moms of the kids who are invited to stay and help. Most people would love to, you just need to ask.

One week before party day you should:

Bake your cake and freeze it. Knowing the cake is done will be such a stress reliever on the big day!

Prepare and freeze any other foods that can be made in advance.

Get an exact guest count. Call any guests who have not responded.

Two days before the party don't forget to:

Get any last minute food items and don't forget candles, matches and FILM!

Check your batteries in your camera and video recorder.

Purchase a small helium tank from your local party or craft store. It's a great thing to keep your children busy the morning of the party too!

Make up a party timeline for the party day so you don't forget anything.

One day before the party remember to:

Take out food and cake from the freezer.

Do any decorating that you can do in advance

Finish any food preparation that can be done ahead of time.

On the morning of the party day make sure to:

Fill your balloons with helium.

Prepare any foods and beverages that could not be made ahead of time.

Write out your timeline for the day so you don’t forget anything.

You don't want to miss out on the memories you'll have with the pictures, so ask a relative or trusted friend to be responsible for the picture taking.

Relax and enjoy this great day. And then get ready for next year!

Private label bottled water and school fund raising

Like most organizations, schools in the United States are subject to constant budget stress. Important athletic and scholastic programs are subject to budget cuts as demographics change and taxpayers become increasingly budget aware.

As a result, schools include fund raising resources in their planning for programs.

Education should rank high on the list of tax payer funding. With exception of defense, it is hard to imagine a governmental effort that is more important to our country than good education.

Education and schools focus on our future leaders and it is in the schools where lessons in character are coupled with the development of skills required for success in a modern society.

Fund Raising and Healthy Products

Schools, both public and private, have turned to fund raising to help fund sporting and educational events. Where large number of people have gathered, schools, through sports teams, booster clubs and scholastic societies have raised funds by selling products for a profit at events or by using team members to sell products to friends and family..

Historically a number of products were sold that generated revenue and these were mainly food products like carbonated soft drinks, cookies, pizza and candy. As a group these products were not considered healthy by many.

Recently, for example, an agreement was finalized to discontinue the sale of carbonated soft drinks in schools and this is a landmark effort to help reduce obesity and create a healthy lifestyle for students.

Many schools are now exploring fund raising with healthier products. As a result private label water is becoming increasingly popular as a healthy alternative method to raise funds.

Private Label Drinking Water

Private label drinking water is an effective and healthy way to raise funds for a number of reasons:

• If the water is purified, it represents a wholesome addition to a healthy lifestyle.

• Creation of a private label is an effective form of advertising that adds value to the water and the event. This additional value is reflected in a higher price, greater revenue and more profit.

• Private label water is consumable advertising that is often carried from the event and serves as a reminder to participants and others.

• The label design offers flexibility that allows schedules and scores to be listed and updated.

• Private label water is ideal for outdoor events and is very cost effective. The cost decreases as volume increases.

• Private label water can easily establish a brand identity for the school or team.

• The design of one label can be used for many school events.

Two Avenues of Fund Raising

Private label water is a versatile tool for fund raising. It can be sold directly at school events and players and participants can resell private label water to friends and family to raise revenue. Either avenue is an effective fund raising device.

Both avenues are available to schools most of the calendar year and provide consistent fund raising opportunities.

Student Participation

Students are both the beneficiaries and the key assets of fundraising. They can control the quality of their own athletic and scholastic programs by actively participating in the event and friends and family fund raising activities. Gaining a student “buy in” for programs will guarantee success.

What to Look for in a Private Label Water Supplier

There are a number of private label water suppliers but they vary widely in the quality of their product offerings. There are three areas to investigate when choosing a supplier:

Quality of Water

Events with a large number of participants require proper hydration with water of the highest quality. High quality water in terms of health and taste is also critical for the acceptance of the theme and event message. If the water is low quality or tastes bad then the message will fail.

The best quality water on the market today is purified using a distillation/ filtration/ oxygenation process that removes all impurities, including all bacteria, and creates a light, refreshing taste.

Quality of Label Design and Production

The label is the message part of the product and poor-quality labels send a poor-quality message. Production of a poor-quality label is a waste of money and adversely affects the message and theme.

It is very important to know that the vast majority (almost all) of the private label opportunities in this country come from water resellers (not bottlers) with desktop-model “thermal” (or “thermal wax”) printing devices with a quality level that cannot compare well to even consumer-grade inkjet printing devices widely available for less than $200 at your local electronics store.

These label printers are very cheap in both quality and cost, typically ranging from $10-20k depending on configuration, and are widely used throughout the private label water industry because of their low cost.

In sharp contrast, a quality label, i. e., one that looks like a top-shelf brand that you might find in your local gourmet grocery store, needs to be produced with professional-quality equipment using professional-grade printing equipment. There are three types of printing equipment that can produce a high-quality label.

1. Rotary offset lithography;

2. Flexography; and

3. High-quality digital presses.

For most smaller runs (under about 10,000 units), digital equipment offered by Heidelberg or HP is the most cost effective solution, but instead of $10-20k, the minimum equipment costs for these professional solutions range from $750k to $1.25M per station.

These facts are very important to understand when choosing a private label bottler — because those who sell low-quality labels would have you believe that nothing better is available because of the short runs required by private label customers. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In order to succeed, your label must be professionally designed and produced with high-quality materials using a printing process that renders a high-quality result. Waterproof lamination is also required for long lasting labels. This is easily achieved for an affordable unit cost using the right equipment for the job.

Quality of Customer Service

The design and production of private labeled drinking water is complex and requires intense interaction between the customer and supplier. Communication and a culture of customer service excellence is a prerequisite to the creation of an effective theme message and a successful event. Without a significant commitment to customer service on the part of the supplier, the impact of the theme message will fail.

A supplier with a fully interactive e-commerce site is an ideal way to create a high quality label, modify the label to reflect event changes and to order more water as demand changes.

A supplier that is experienced in fund raising and is willing to commit management resources to support a school fund raising program is a definite asset to individual schools.

Choose a quality supplier to help develop and communicate your message and to create success for the school fundraising event.

The causes of obesity

With daily focus in America on weight, health and obesity, there is one question that gets ignored: what causes obesity?

There is no simple answer.

Basically, a person becomes obese when more calories are consumed than he or she can burn. This is called “calorie imbalance.” Beyond this simple definition, the factors that cause obesity are varied and many.

Calorie imbalance has many things that affect it. What causes this imbalance varies from one person to another. We also know obesity is more than just over-eating. Genetic, environmental, psychological, and other factors seem to play big roles in causing obesity.

Here are some factors that have been attributed to obesity:

1. Weight Gain During Certain Periods

A person commonly gains more weight during the following periods of life: between 12 and 18 months of age, between 12 and 16 years of age, adulthood when a person gains in excess of 60% of their ideal body weight and women, during pregnancy.

2. Genetic Factors

Heredity is linked to obesity. Studies of adopted children show that adopted children tend to have weights closer to their biological parents than to their adoptive parents.

3. Environmental Factors

Environment also strongly influences obesity. This includes lifestyle behaviors such as what a person eats and level of physical activity. The tendency to eat high-fat foods, to use labor saving devices coupled with a sedentary lifestyle are causes behind obesity.

4. Psychological Factors

Many people eat when they are stressed, bored or angry. Over time, the association between an emotion and food can become firmly fixed.

Depression and stress can also lead to obesity and are leading causes of eating disorders. Studies show most overweight people have no more psychological problems than people of average weight.

Most eating disorders can also be traced to behavioral or psychological difficulties. Up to 10 percent of people who are mildly obese and who try to lose weight on their own or through commercial weight loss programs have binge eating disorder. This disorder is even more common in people who are severely obese.

5. Age

Metabolism slows down with advancing age. As you get older you do not require as many calories to maintain your weight as you did when you were younger.

If you know about these factors you are in a better position to cope with the life cycles and manage your weight without getting into the problems of obesity.

All the best loans for you

Life is like one big roller coaster ride, with its highs and lows, leaving the human kind exhausted and definitely not looking for bumpy ups and downs. The main force driving the workforce and the economy is money, and there are no two minds about it. At any given point of time, every person, no matter where he is, is thinking about how to earn or make that extra, to meet his demand, and that of his families. Demand is equal to supply only in theoretical terms. The demand and supply of funds is never equal in anybody’s life. To fulfill this deficiency, loans are used or taken. A loan can be defined as the transfer of funds or monetary assets from the borrower to the lender. The opportunity cost of the lender for parting with the resource is termed as the interest. A loan can also be defined as a contract between two people, in which the borrower promises to repay the money taken form the lender along with the interest. Best loan has no fixed and regular definition. It can be explained in layman’s terms, as a loan in which both the parties to the loan contract are happy with the terms of the deal and have a feeling of security. Therefore, what may seem to be a best loan for a borrower “x” may not be a best loan for borrower “y”. Thus best loan varies form person to person and their needs.

Best loan can however be distinguished based of the following factors:

Rate of interest: the arte of interest should not be very high. There is a particular cut off rate of interest given by the apex governing body of the country and no lender is supposed to charge rates higher or lower then it. Hence rates are between the two boundary lines. A best loan will have a rate of interest which is closer to the lower boundary line. A borrower should shop for rate of interest thoroughly and get the best marginal rate that is easy on his pocket.

Processing time:

A best loan should take less time to get processed. Loans which have tons of formalities and consume a month’s time just to get processed are tiring. Once the documents are furnished by the borrower, the lending authorities should investigate, verify and process the loan fast, so that the borrower gets the money in time.

Terms of repayment:

A best loan should have terms of repayment which is easy on the borrower. If the amount to be repaid in every installment is hefty, the borrower will be stressed, and at some point of time or the other he will have to borrow more to settle of the repayment. Thus, when a borrower is judging a loan he should keep in mind the repayment amount, and compare it with his incoming money sources.

These are the basic points which the borrower should keep in mind, so that the loan he chooses gets him the best. Best loan can be shopped for easily, only that it requires a little bit of homework. It is best to compare the deals of many lenders and also read various schemes and programs offered by them. A lot of information can be got form the internet and it is extremely helpful. One can also find lenders on the net who give attractive loan offers. The borrower must know what he wants and place his priorities right. Lenders too offer a lot so that the borrower is satisfied with the loan.

Home insurance rate what to look for when shopping

Homeowner insurance premiums are on the rise. There was a time when the home policy was the best and least expensive of all the property and casualty insurances. The homeowner policy is under attack. There are many more exposures than ever before. Toxic mold has caused some real problems in some areas of the country and caused the premiums to rise dramatically. Some states exclude coverage for toxic mold entirely. Natural disasters have had an affect on rates. The recent barrage of hurricanes has caused supply shortages and these shortages increase the demand and the price for repairs. These expenses are passed on to the policyholders eventually.

The rates are calculated by insurance company fiduciaries. They look at the cost of claims and the cost of doing business and compare it to the company revenue to come up with your rate. You have no control over how the companies derive their rates. They have to get approval from their state insurance departments before setting rates or increases. They cannot arbitrarily come up with a figure.

What Can You Do?

1.Understand Your Policy – Make sure that you know what kind of policy that you have right now. If you are making your first purchase then you need to research the kind of policy that you want. Replacement cost or Actual Cash value are your two major choices. Replacement Cost policies replace your structure or contents with material of like kind or quality with no depreciation. The actual cash value policy settles your loss by taking the replacement cost and subtracting depreciation because of age or use.

2.Self Insure – The best way to purchase insurance is to self-insure by using the highest deductible that you can afford. Homeowner policies have a much lower frequency of claims as compared to auto insurance. Low deductibles no longer justify the higher premium.

Use your declarations page when you comparison shop and make sure that you receive all the discounts. Multi-policy, protective device discounts, and retirement discounts are available on almost all homeowner policies. Check our recommended insurers for rates.