With all the doom and gloom in the news about the housing market, many people are afraid to buy real estate right now. The truth is, though, that it’s a good time to buy in Florida. Florida real estate is actually doing pretty well — foreign buyers have been helping keep the market afloat, encouraged to do so by the fact that the American dollar is worth less in the global economy now, and many baby boomers are looking to retire in Florida. The area is growing and real estate values are on their way up.
A great way to invest in a home is to build your own Florida custom home. Custom home builders in FL are in high demand right now — with overseas owners, vacationers, and retirees moving in, most new residents want beauty and form in their home as well as function. In other words, more people are looking for their dream home instead of just a house, and there are plenty of custom luxury home builders in FL to make sure they get it.
The biggest advantage to hiring a Florida luxury home builder, of course, is that you get to choose everything in your home — from the floor plan to the very fixtures. However, custom homes also tend to be worth more than their older, plainer counterparts, so it truly is an investment you can count on.
The vet came out to visit my horse a couple of weeks ago. One of the first things he commented on was that my horse isn’t as big as he probably should be for 3 years old. It’s true — my horse is only about 14 hands (a little over four and a half feet tall) at the withers, which is the bony rise above a horse’s shoulders, usually right about where their mane ends.
Another owner at the barn also had a small three-year-old, so the vet talked to us about ways to grow taller for our horses. He said that sometimes improper nutrition will stunt a horse’s growth, but if you give them really good nutrition they could still catch up. I personally don’t think my horse will get any more height growth, however.
For one, I saw his mom before we rescued him, and she didn’t look that big either. We don’t know what his sire looked like, so for all we know he was really short too!
But for two, my horse has already been given really good nutrition since we rescued him. We knew he was really malnourished and probably stunted when we got him, and we had enough sense to try to remedy that then. All the good feed we gave him then didn’t help him grow taller, though, so I think this may just be how tall he was supposed to be — or maybe he was just so badly stunted that it couldn’t be reversed!
Backyard pools are popular with many homeowners, especially in hot climates and resort areas such as Florida. As a result, Tampa pool builders and Orlando pool contractors are in high demand.
If you are working with a Florida pool contractor to get your pool built, you already know that having work done in your backyard can be a little stressful and overwhelming. To help lighten your mood and remind you to look forward to the advantages of a backyard pool, here is a list of what NOT to do in your backyard pool.
Drive your truck into it. Yeah, someone really did this.
Murder someone and bury them under the pool. Okay, I got that idea from a movie: Sexy Beast, starring Ray Winstone. He kills Ben Kingsley and buries him underneath the tiled floor of his pool.
Commit suicide. A.J.’s botched suicide attempt in The Sopranos comes to mind.
Get stuck in a drained pool. Russell Crowe’s character does this in A Good Year.
Well, you get the picture. But on a more serious note, do make sure you use your common sense, and set pool safety rules for your family to make sure that no one gets hurt in your backyard pool!
You may have played Capture the Flag when you were a kid, at summer camp or day care or simply with a group of friends. It’s a popular childhood game, used for teaching strategy as well as for entertainment.
Fortunately, there are many grown-up versions of Capture the Flag that are just as much fun. Here are some tips for putting together a good Capture the Flag game.
Play in interesting terrain. Woodsy terrain is a lot of fun, because it gives players places to hide and makes the game more challenging.
Make team members easily identifiable. Especially if you are playing in terrain that makes people hard to see, you need an easy way to identify your teammates. A brightly colored bandana tied around one arm (i.e. "the blue team" and "the red team") is the classic way to identify players.
Add a grown-up element. Adult versions of Capture the Flag often include airsoft or paintball guns. For instance, you can use airsoft sniper rifles to take out members of the opposing team, or classic army airsoft guns to give the game a more genuine feel.
Capture the Flag isn’t just for kids! Of course, you could also apply the argument, "Bigger kids, bigger toys" — being adults means that we get to make the game more fun, not that we have to stop playing it altogether!
The first time I ever encountered sleep apnea, it was as a babysitter. A little 4-year-old boy I babysat for had it.
Sleep apnea is pretty scary stuff if you don’t know what it is. Basically, the person stops breathing a little bit in their sleep. If you don’t know what is going on — and even if you do — you may find yourself holding your breath as you wait for the other person to start breathing again. It’s scary when it’s a child in your care, but it’s just as scary when it’s an adult, such as your spouse or an aging parent.
I didn’t know this when I was babysitting for that kid, but there are actually a lot of ways to treat sleep apnea — you don’t just have to deal with that stress. A sleep apnea machine, known as a CPAP machine (for "continuous positive airway pressure"), keeps the throat open by continually blowing a little bit of air down it. Therefore the person’s throat can’t close up and force them to stop breathing during sleep. A sleep apnea mask might not be that comfortable, however, which is why a person needs to choose their equipment carefully — if you don’t like how it fits or feels, you won’t wear it while you sleep, and therefore won’t benefit from the treatment.
Now that I know about stuff like sleep apnea, I’m a more attentive babysitter. I like to have the baby monitor nearby so that I can listen to the kid breathe. It’s amazing what a comforting sound that can be!
