Donnette

An Alaska whale watching cruise is one of the most unforgettable experiences of your life. When you take this cruise, not only will you view the some of the most majestic sites in the world, you will also see some of the world's once nearly extinct whales in their natural habitat.

The largest schools of Orca, Humpback, Beluga and gray whales are found in the waters of Alaska. On an Alaska whale watching cruise, you can see these incredible creatures frolicking in their native waters. Although all these types of common to the Alaska waters, only the Orca and Humpback whales can be seen frequently.

The Humpback whale has a long tail flipper with edges that are oddly shaped. Their color is usually black with a white patch on their throats and bellies. Their size is extremely large, and when they are seen with humpback whales whose favorite trick is to jump in the air, it is a sight to behold.

Orca whales are also known as killer whales. They can be recognized from a distance from their black and white markings and their tall dorsal fins. They can also be identified from a distance by the vapor that is present when they surface.

When you are out on an Alaska whale watching cruise, it is almost a certainty that you will see the whales do some tricks while they are frolicking. A trick that the whales perform often is called skyhopping. This trick is done when the whale projects itself into the air nose first from the water to stand vertically in the air. If the whale is really strong, it can hold up half of its body weight.

Another trick that you are likely to see on an Alaska whale watching cruise is call lobtailing. This is when a whale lifts its massive tail and slaps the water to create a large splash. This is similar to what dolphins do.

Another favorite trick that whales perform is to do a breach or lunge. This is completed when the whale lunges out of the water and slams the surface of the water on its side. Lunging generates more power then the other routines performed.

Although whales are what draw curious tourists to take an Alaska whale watching cruise, there are many other types of natural Alaska wildlife to see. You will see bears and moose grazing in their favorite fields to millions of birds in the nesting habitat. Sea lions and otters are abound in Alaska; you will enjoy watching their playful games. You will find interested and exotic wildlife wherever you turn.

One of the most unforgettable sites that you will see is the incredible glaciers in Alaska. These magnificent mountains of ice will capture your attention with their beautiful reflections of the suns rays.

When you are planning the perfect Alaska vacation, do not forget that there are plenty of recreational activities in Alaska. The favorites being kayaking and fishing.

An Alaska whale watching cruise is one of the most unforgettable experiences that you will ever have. It offers you the sites of all of nature's creatures both big and small living together in harmony and beauty.

Ryan Puusaari is a writer, an educator and more importantly a full-time father. To read more Alaska Cruise articles by Ryan please visit => http://www.enjoythecruise.com/alaska_cruise.htm

With all of the statistics that are commonly used regarding the need for long term care, it would seem at first glance that almost everyone should have long term care insurance to be adequately protected from such a serious risk.

For instance, consider the statistic that almost half of all seniors over 65 will need some form of long term care. In addition, consider that the average cost of staying in a nursing home can run more than $80,000 a year in many areas, and is increasing in cost at a rate well over five percent annually. Doesn't these kind of sobering facts clearly indicate that everyone should be buying long term care insurance?

Actually, the answer to that question is "not necessarily"!

There are certain situations where LTCi may not be the best choice at all. Let's discuss who should and should not be buying long term care insurance then.

A common myth is that LTCi is for those with very little money. But the truth is that those who have very low income and little savings can easily qualify for state-funded care instead, so LTCi is just not necessary. In fact , LTCi is mainly for those that have enough income or assets that they must be protected from the risk that a prolonged illness requiring custodial care could represent.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners suggests the following guidelines for LTCi applicants: (1) retirement income should be at least $20,000, and (2) they should have assets of at least $30,000, not including their home and auto.

For those that have countable assets that exceed Medicaid limits, but not enough to sustain paying for a prolonged nursing home stay out of their own pocket, LTCi will most likely be a wise investment. For these folks, having to come up with $7,000 or more each month for nursing home costs, would place a heavy drain on their savings and work a financial hardship that may be especially difficult for the community spouse. Investing in LTCi can help secure independence for these folks, and protect cherished assets for the spouse and/or children.

Then there are the small minority that have enough assets and income that they can comfortably pay for nursing home care for a 3-5 year stay and still provide for the spouse in the meantime with no hardship. This group may elect to simply forego LTCi and rely on their own savings should such a need arise.

However, many of these folks are also seeing the wisdom of investing in LTCi anyway, because they are able to leverage the money that they invest in such a policy to buy a much higher level of protection than would be possible by just using their own funds, and protect their estate from a serious risk at the same time.

So, as you can see, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone when it comes to LTCi. But there are certain situations where investing in a good LTCi policy can be very prudent, and in other cases it may simply be an option to consider. And for those with little income or savings to have to protect, it is not necessary at all.

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Duane Lipham is a Certified Long Term Care(CLTC) consultant. You can get more free information, news and articles regarding long term care and aging at The Long Term Care Consumer Guide website and The Long Term Care Review Blog.

This has become a do-it-yourself world. And why shouldnt it be? We live in an era where any tidbit of information can be found on the internet. With a click of a button we can get the scoop on anything from artisans in India to wall niches.

When it comes to decorating your home, there are so many recources available to decorate a room or an entire house yourself. Some folks are naturally talented at this and usually create wonderful designs. However, there are some people that despite the wealth of instruction available, just dont know where to begin, or once in the midst of redecorating, realize that theyve made some costly mistakes. Frustrated, they just stop, leaving semi-finished rooms or dont tackle the project at all.

At any point in time when there is something that is not in the scope of our expertise, we turn to professionals. We hire accountants to handle the bookkeeping, roofers to fix a leak, and mechanics to repair the car.

So why not hire an interior designer to lead you through the design process?

Avoiding Costly Mistakes: Most people have the impression that professional designers are too expensive. On the contrary, developing the budget is a partnership between the client and the designer. Interior designers are educated and trained to help homeowners assess needs and determine where to spend and where to save. They prioritize expenses while creating an interior within a targeted budget thus avoiding costly mistakes.

Visualizing the finished Product: It can be very challenging visualizing how a finished product will appear. Interior designers communicate concepts and help you understand the design process. They articulate your ideas and help you visualize the finished product.

Saving Time: Peoples lives are busier than ever. Amid dual income couples, long commutes and childrens soccer weekends there is precious little time left for leisure let alone finding the time to decorate a home. An interior designer can save you a great deal of legwork. They can do all the browsing in showrooms selecting materials, fabrics and furnishings. After all the selections are made, a plan is put into place and sample boards and plans are brought to you for your approval.

Hiring a reputable interior designer can prove to be an efficient and time saving investment. Not only will you have an environment that meets your needs and budget but also an aesthetically pleasing home for you and your family. Remember, if youre feeling overwhelmed despite all the information that is available, your interior designer will lead you through the design process.

Coming soon: Interior Decorating: How to Hire an Interior Designer

Written by Debbie Greene, ASID. Debbie Greene is a professional Interior Designer and owner Of DC Designs, Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia. Debbie is also the creator of www.ratemyroom.net the only website in which viewers and decorating enthusuiasts can rate photos of decorated rooms, write reviews and give advice. Please contact Debbie at www.dcdesignsinteriors.com or visit www.ratemyroom.net to submit you decorated room. The weekly feature page will prominately display the room with the highest ratings

Dont you just hate wasting hours each week trying to find stuff in your home? Its hard not to let at least part of your house get unorganized and a bit cluttered. Thats why it is important to take some time each year or even every couple of months to sort through everything and rearrange. Here are some great home organizing tips for you.

Start With A Plan

Dont just jump in there and try to organize your home. Instead walk through it room by room with a notepad and a pen. Make note of what room needs extra storage areas, what may need to be rearranged and what rooms need the most help. Then make a plan of what room to start with, what plastic bins or shelves you may need to purchase, and where you may want to rearrange furniture.

Tackle One Room At A Time

Dont even think about re-organizing several rooms or even the entire house at once. Tackle one room at a time and finish re-organizing it before moving on to the next. The worst thing you can do is pull out everything in every single cabinet or closet and then trying to reorganize it all at once. Its just too overwhelming and youre likely to just give up and shove everything back where it was.

The Three-Pile System

As you reorganize each room, create three piles. The first one is for things you are going to throw away; the second is for items you will give away (to charity for example), the third pile is for thing you will keep. When you are done sorting, take the throwaway pile out to the trash can, and store the give-away pile in the garage or in the back of your car and take it to your favorite charity as soon as possible. If you leave these items just sitting around the house, youll be tempted to sneak in there to grab a few things back out.

Minimize The Clutter

One of the main culprits of chaos at home is all the clutter we accumulate over the years. As you are going through each room, try to get rid of as much of this clutter as possible. If an item doesnt perform a crucial function or is an important memento, it may be time to toss it. Sometimes it helps to get a spouse or friend in there with you to point all the clutter out to you. We get so used to some of the things we surround ourselves with, making it hard to determine whats really important to us and whats just clutter.

Use Storage Solutions

We already touched on storage solutions in the planning stage. Take a few hours to browse through your local home improvement store or superstores like Wal-Mart and Target. You can find some neat storage solutions for any room. These may include shelves, bins, closet organizers; boxes and bins that fit under beds or even super large zipable plastic bags. It is almost impossible these days not to find a storage solution that will work for you and your room.

Color Code And Label

After you reorganize all your stuff in the new storage solutions, including boxes, bins and bags, take a moment to label each container. It makes finding something specific much easier because you wont have to open each box and bin. Color-coding is a great system for your kids. Even preschoolers can grasp the concept that cars go in the blue bin and blocks go in the yellow one.

Keep It Up

Now that you have everything organized and labeled, all you have to do is keep it up each week to keep your entire house well organized. Set aside some time each week to walk through the house to make sure everything is still in place. Return items where they belong. Get the rest of the family involved as well. Make sure they are aware of where everything belongs and get them to return items where they came from. If everyone puts in just a little bit of effort to keep the house organized, it will stay that way from here on out.

For more home organization ideas, visit http://www.kinderinfo.com/justformom/organization

Gaining weight is a gradual process that requires constant training and high intensity workouts. However, people do have certain myths regarding weight gaining program.

High repetitions burn fat while low repetitions build muscle: This statement is far from being true. In order to lose weight, one needs to decrease average calorie intake. However, for gaining muscle strength, one needs to have a progressive workload with a variable frequency of repetitions.

Vegetarians cannot build muscle: Research has shown that vegetarians can indeed gain muscle with regular training and daily supplementation of soy protein isolates.

Strength training will make you look masculine: This is the most common myth among women. However, building muscle is a steady process that needs proper strength-training regime ably supported by proper diet. Testosterone, which is the male sex hormone, is primarily responsible for muscle gaining in men. The secretion of this hormone is quite low in women, resulting in lesser muscular growth.

Many people believe that they can eat anything if they are doing a regular exercise. However, diet has a major role to play in defining a persons general health and physique. It is always important to balance the ratio of calorie intake and calories burnt.

Occasional break from a rigorous training schedule is useful as it helps in refreshing the muscles and helps them to recover.

Eating more protein doesnt necessarily help in gaining weight. Muscle building is primarily dependant on two factors which include a progressive workload and eating good calorie food. Diet derived from carbohydrates would be more useful.

One should always avoid taking steroids for building muscle as they are more harmful than being good.

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Finding time is a challenge when you are at your computer and temptations like e-mail, Google, and Amazon tug at you. How do you maintain focus and stay in charge of your time?

Tips to Keep You on Track and In Charge!

1. Whenever possible, limit your time online to certain times of day. Schedule e-mail and Internet scans after you have accomplished items on your To-Do List.
2. Close your e-mail and turn off your instant messaging and RSS feeds. Setting this boundary for yourself will really help you stay on task.
3. Keep your goal in mind when you do Internet searches. Do not give in to the temptation to read the interesting links that your search uncovers. Return to your task as soon as you have the answer you need.
4. Keep a running list of interesting links you uncover. Promise yourself that you will set aside time to pursue some of these later. This makes it easier to let them go NOW!
5. Set time parameters for your task, so you dont get Lost in (Cyber)Space. It is very easy to lose time while you are on the computer. On many calendar systems, you can set an alarm. Use this to set a stop time for yourself. If you are at home and resist switching gears, set an alarm in another room to get you out of your chair and away from the temptation. If at work, try scheduling searches right before a meeting or lunch with a colleague.
6. Keep an internet log for a week. How much time do you actually spend checking the news, e-mails, and other things on the Internet? Record the time you spend and how you are spending it. Use broad categories. Make no judgments. Just record the facts. Once you have the facts, you can make informed choices.
7. Keep your promise to yourself to return to the links and emails that are of real interest to you. Revisit them after all the items on today's To-Do List are completed; reward yourself and enjoy! Keep work and play separate to make both more meaningful.

Remember, if time on the internet is taking you away from other things you need to be doing, you will do well to pay attention. You have an exciting opportunity to look at your priorities and take charge of your choices! When you take more positive control of your internet activity, you will not only be finding more focus you will also be finding time!

Want to find more focus and more time as you build your business? Visit http://www.findingtime.net/ and learn more timely tips. When you sign up for the free, Award-Winning Finding Time E-zine, you receive two insightful articles at http://www.findingtime.net/ezine.html Let Paula Eder, Ph.D., The Time Finder, help you find time to revitalize your life!

Every marina has different rules for what must be done by boat owners in the face of an approaching hurricane. In the wake of Katrina and Wilma, states are beginning to pass laws requiring boat owners to prepare their boats in certain ways. In light of all this information, some of it conflicting, what are the most important things a boat owner must know to protect themselves and their boat during a hurricane?

There are two basic rules that most experts agree offer the most important advice. First, plan ahead for what you will do when a hurricane approaches. That means checking your contract with your marina to see what they require and checking with your state for any additional regulations. You should also check with your boat insurance company to see if they have regulations that may affect your coverage. Conduct a dry run during the off-season to be sure you fully understand how much time is necessary to move or prepare your boat.

Second, under no circumstances is it safe to attempt to ride out a hurricane in your boat. There is a persistent myth that being on a boat in open water is safer than being on land during a hurricane, but the facts do not bear it out. Hurricane winds and tides can carry boats far inland or even sink them. Your boat is not worth risking your life.

Moving your boat is always the best way to prevent damage if at all possible. However, this requires arranging for inland storage space well ahead of time. Also, many boat owners are not aware that drawbridges are often locked down before a hurricane to facilitate the evacuation of people from low-lying areas. This increases the importance of moving your boat as soon as a hurricane watch is issued for your area.

Some areas have flotilla plans in place in order to move the maximum number of boats in the shortest time. Your local emergency management office will issue flotilla information in advance of a hurricane. If you are planning on joining a flotilla, be sure that your boat is properly maintained and fueled.

If moving your boat is not a possibility there are some simple things you can do to minimize damage. Remove all portable items from your boat such as electronics, antennas, dinghies, sun shades, oars or any other item that may blow around and cause damage. Be sure that any remaining items are securely lashed down. Obtain rope and other supplies to secure your boat well in advance as these items may be in short supply before a storm.

Jonathon Hardcastle writes articles on many topics including Boating, Golf, and Sports

Canine distemper is a very life-threatening disease, which is triggered by a highly contagious virus that attacks the gastrointestinal, respiratory and the nervous systems of dogs. Canine distemper disease can also affect other wild members of the canine family, such as coyotes, raccoons, foxes as well as wolves. Younger dogs are more susceptible to becoming infected although; older dogs can become infected as well, however without as much regularity.

Once a dog develops the disease, more than fifty percent of them die from canine distemper, with and even lower survival rate in puppies by twenty percent. Therefore if a dog is able to survive canine distemper, it is highly likely that is general health is damaged permanently.

Some cases of canine distemper can leave the animal impaired by its nervous system with no real hope of recovering totally. It is common to find either complete or partial paralysis, as well as negative effects on the dogs perception of sight as well as in its sense of hearing and smelling. Once infected the animal is more susceptible to other diseases, like pneumonia. However, CDV or the canine distemper virus is not contagious to humans.

Contact with mucous or discharges from the infected animal, such as run off from the eyes and nose can transmit the canine distemper virus. As well as the exposure to an infected animal feces and urine can also produce the canine distemper virus.

It is possible for a healthy dog to contract the canine distemper virus when exposed to any areas that have hosted an infected animal, such as kennels and even your back yard. Since the canine distemper virus is an airborne virus, it is able to stay alive outside of its host animal for long periods of time.

There are some scientists who predict that every living dog of twelve months in age has had contact with the canine distemper virus at some point in its life, therefore it is nearly impossible to prevent your pet from becoming exposed to the virus.

The canine distemper virus and its symptoms are not so easily recognized. Since this is so, it is rare for immediate treatment to be given to the infected animal. Often the canine distemper virus is confused with other ailments such as a bad cold since the majority of infected dogs show signs of a stuffy head and run high fevers. Other internal problems can develop, such as severed inflammation of the stomach as well as bronchitis and pneumonia.

One of the symptoms you should be aware of when looking for signs of the canine distemper virus is a discharge from the eyes as well as squinting. Especially if this occurs along with sudden weight loss and diarrhea as well as vomiting, nasal drips and coughing, as these are sure signs that there is good reason to be concerned for your dogs health.

In the more advanced stages of the disease, the nervous system will give signs such as complete or partial paralysis or even strange twitching or nervous ticks. Generally, dogs that have become infected will show signs of having no energy and become limp, with little to no appetite. Some cases of the canine distemper virus can cause a surge in the dogs keratin cells, which will result in the dogs footpads becoming hardened by its sudden growth.

Methods of Preventing CDV

Since canine distemper has varies signs and is far spread it is best to visit your veterinarian as soon as possible for a diagnosis if your pet does display any of the signs mentioned above.

Comparable to many diseases, which are viral, surviving an infection will generally cause the development of an ample immunity; this is required for the protection of the animal from the infection of distemper, lasting the remainder of their lives for a dog. On the other hand, there are many dogs who do not survive the infection, especially puppies.

The surest and safest manner of protection is still with a vaccination. Until there are scientific developments in distemper vaccine, which can give a life long, immunity with a single series of inoculations with a guarantee, vets will recommend that your dog be vaccinated yearly for distemper.

Puppies that are born to a mother dog who has survived the disease will pass on certain immunities to their litter when the first milk produced is fed to the puppies during their first few days of life. The amount of antibodies a mother has will differ, in the amount of immunity a puppy can receive from her. Even so, it will never be complete immunity and it will diminish quickly over time, by approximately half in eight days and then again by nearly three-fourths in two weeks time.

Since the proper time for vaccination will vary from one animal to another, it is not possible for a pet owner to know exactly when it is time for their pet to be vaccinated. A veterinarian can best determine when is the proper time to begin your animals vaccination by basing their decision on the dog general health and his own experience as a vet.

It is imperative to closely observe any hints of ill health as well as regular care to maintain and assure a general good condition and health, for your animal. If your pet shows any of the signs below, experts encourage you to consult with your veterinarian immediately:

1. Foul breath

2. Abnormal limping

3. Loss of appetite

4. Excessive water consumption

5. Abnormal viciousness or lethargy

6. Excessive tarter deposits on teeth

7. Abnormal eye and or nose discharge

8. Fluctuating weight losses and gains

9. Difficulty getting up or lying down

10. Abnormal and uncontrolled stool production

11. Loss of hair, open sores, ragged or dull coat

12. Constant head shaking, scratching, licking or biting of body

The canine distemper virus infection may not always be the case when concerned with these symptoms in your pet; however, it is better still to consult an expert with these concerns so that the problem may be attended to as soon as possible.

By using good sense, taking the proper actions to any symptoms you find and staying in constant contact with your veterinarian, you will be able to give your pet the most favorable result in overcoming this serious disease.

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Copyright 2007 Ken Mathie. Editor PMCezine...
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