The Art of Designated Driving

Posted by: Mandy  :  Category: Food & Drink

The pub crawls that attract the most attention and participation are the ones where the combination of willing participants and proximity of excellent bars are at a perfect premium.  The crawl part, of course, comes from a nod to drunken stumbling, but also highlights that for these, driving is not necessary, because the distance between bars is negligible.  It’s a fine idea, and one that emphasizes that there are no excuses for drunken driving.  Even cities as occasionally uninhabitable as Minneapolis in the winter, or Phoenix in the summer, have pub crawls at intemperate times that can be wonderful evenings for groups intent on having fun.

In order for any kind of pub events to be successful, there has to be a designated driver for every party.  This includes evenings where there are pub crawls, and any other evening for that matter.  When the activity is drinking, someone needs to be in charge of getting people home safely.  In order to be a good designated driver, one doesn’t have to know a lot about niche wheels or other automotive details, but has to meet some very simple requirements.

The very first requirement for a designated driver, is, obviously, to not drink.  Avoiding drinking can sounds like an easy task, because it really means not doing anything, but in atmospheres where the social rewards from drinking are high, it can be tough.  Fortunately, times have changed quite a bit from the last generation, and being the driver is now often a very positive thing.  Because it is a selfless service for one’s friends and companions, most bar owners and even most barflies like to give a nod to the drivers in the crowd.  There are often free drinks, non-alcoholic of course, like fountain drinks or coffee offered by the management.  And one of the great benefits, of course, is that rare pleasure one can get from observing an evening sober, watching the progressive loss of motor control and judgment from the people you love.

Knowledge of complicated transmissions, ultra wheels, or even how to change a tire, are not necessary, but a clear head, an ability to not drink, along with a valid driver’s license, and a big heart, are the ingredients for what it takes.  Not everyone is meant to be the designated driver, perhaps, but it’s something that everyone should at least try, if not for the interesting experience of being outside the norm for a night, then at least for the chance to be helpful to one’s friends.

Driving After Drinking is Not Worth the Risk

Posted by: Mandy  :  Category: Automotive, Food & Drink

It is very common to go out with friends for drinks or to have a few cocktails with dinner, but getting into the car to drive home after a night of drinking is never a good idea. Driving after consuming alcohol is a bad decision on many different levels; the consequences of getting caught are not worth the risks.

Drinks

Driving under the influence of alcohol presents health risks not only to the driver but to the passengers in the car and the other drivers on the road. Once someone has consumed alcohol, their judgment becomes impaired and their reflexes become slower. With slower reflexes and blurry vision it is difficult to operate a car and can easily lead to an accident.

Many lives are lost each year due to drunk driving and many families are devastated by the loss of a loved one due to a DUI accident. The driver who causes such an action can be charged with man slaughter and can spend many years in jail as a result.

State laws and police forces have become increasingly strict on DUI infractions. The laws differ from state to state but in most states a violation leads to jail time, a suspended license, and extremely high fees. Those who break these laws will most likely have to go to a law office to make sure the proper paperwork is filled out and will inevitably have to pay legal fees.

So while going out and having drinks with friends is a fun way to be social, driving afterwards can lead to very severe consequences. Rather than paying astronomical fines and legal fees, pay for a cab or car service.

Attractions in Vegas

Posted by: Mandy  :  Category: Travel

Less than fifty years ago a trip to Vegas meant visiting
caesars casino hotel las vegas , gambling the night away and maybe catching a performance featuring scantily clad showgirls or Hollywood crooners. Some visitors managed to wake up in the daylight and head to Hoover Dam or a state park, but for the most part it was about booze, gambling, and floor shows.

While gambling is still at the heart of the Vegas experience, everything else has evolved. The city has so many attractions that it can compete with places like New York and Los Angeles in the variety of experiences it can offer to tourists. Even families can find things to do in the city, from the children’s museum to the planetarium to Adventureland, the world’s largest indoor theme park.

Many people don’t even need to leave their hotel to enjoy a trip to Vegas. Each resort has numerous restaurants, shops, and entertainment stages. They offer spas, swimming pools, indoor rock walls, bowling alleys, and anything else that can be thought off. Though each resort has different attractions, they are not limited to the guests staying there. So tourists can stay in a reproduction of an Egyptian pyramid and still visit Venice, New York, and Paris. They can see an aquarium, ride amusement park rides, and attend rock concerts or Broadway musicals, all on one street in one city: Las Vegas.

Finding the Right Map for the Job

Posted by: Mandy  :  Category: Shopping

Anyone who has ever spent time in a map store or archive will quickly realize that there is so much more to the art of cartography than they ever imagined. The commonality of the standard wall map and atlas are augmented by the existence of maps of all shapes, sizes, and purposes.

Unless you have hours to spend browsing through map inventories, it is best to identify the type of map you need before you ever set foot in a map store or visit one online. Each function has its own map and by narrowing down the function, you can begin to weed out the maps that won’t suit your stated purpose.

Government officials and agencies rely heavily on political maps that show legal borders between countries, states, counties, and other government entities.

Maps that highlight geographical features are used by everyone from hikers and hunters to forest rangers, developers, and scientists conducting research and studies on a given area. Topographical maps fall into this category along with geological maps, wildlife tracking maps, and anything charting the natural world.

Geography students are likely to need world and country maps that combine both political and geographical features.

Urban planners, administrators, businesses, and even residents will find many uses for city maps as they will include valuable local data.

Demographic maps can be used by any number of different social scientists as well as governments, news media, developers, and anyone else wanting to understand the relationships between people and place.

Transportation maps, including road maps, bus routes, highway systems and even nautical maps are all about navigating through space. At some time or other everyone uses these, even if it’s just through the GPS system in their car or cell phone.

Get the Right Covers for the Menus

Posted by: Mandy  :  Category: Business

When you’re opening a restaurant for the first time you may feel overwhelmed by the number of minute decisions that you have to make. You may decide at one point, that it is too much and delegate some of the choices to other people. While this is certainly a logical way to deal with the staggering number of choices that need to be made, you need to be careful that everyone making decisions understands the overriding idea of the restaurant. Otherwise you will end up with an incoherent or even jarring clash of themes, colors, and design elements.

Take for example the question of menu covers . Ordering these can seem like a waste of time, but they serve two key roles in your restaurant. First, they actually protect the menus from the dozens of hands that will touch them every day, to say nothing of the food and drink that they will encounter. Second, they can enhance a menu or, if poorly chosen, detract from the overall ambiance of the restaurant.

Imagine walking into a romantic bistro with soft music, cozy lighting and beautifully designed menus using aesthetically pleasing fonts and colors. Now imagine that that menu is encased in a clear plastic cover that is scarred with scratches and tears. That cover is something you would expect to find in a family restaurant or 24 hour pancake house, not a romantic restaurant . Likewise, the elaborate leather covers that belong in a gourmet restaurant would be useless in protecting the menus in a family-friendly establishment where kids hands are covered in ketchup, soda, and ice cream.

Make the menu covers — and every other little detail in the establishment — match your restaurant and avoid this type of disconnect.

Mortgage Foreclosures

Posted by: Mandy  :  Category: Money

The best way to avoid a home foreclosure is to decide to rent rather than buy property. Having a foreclosure in their credit history can damage credit scores and make it difficult for home owners to secure other types of loans or credit in the future.

Those who want to buy a home need to be careful, so that they don’t end up in foreclosure somewhere down the road. Rather than getting carried away by their desire to buy their dream house, they should set a responsible budget for what they can realistically afford and stick to it. By looking online they can find a Mortgage Payment Calculator that will quickly reveal if a given house is too expensive for their budget. Those that are tempted to buy a house that they can barely afford are just asking for disaster. As soon as their household expenses rise, as with increasing gas and food prices or with the birth of a child, they will no longer be able to afford to pay their mortgage.

Lenders do have to meet certain conditions in order to foreclose on a home. Borrowers are generally given a grace period to get caught up on their payments. Depending on the mortgage laws in a given state, banks can seize the property and sell it to get their money. In some areas, if the sale price is less than the outstanding debt, the defaulted borrower will owe the bank the difference.

Questions Regarding Visitor Insurance Purchases

Posted by: Mandy  :  Category: Travel

There are a number of questions you might have when planning to purchase your visitor insurance policy before you travel. In addition, there are some standard questions that your provider will have for you to help determine which policy and corresponding deductible amount will be best for you. Most of the time the traveler’s questions will relate to how to go about purchasing the policy and also the guarantees of coverage for specific situations and medical needs.

Fortunately, the process of purchasing the policy is extremely easy, and it’s possible to do online. And usually, your ID card and policy information will be emailed you as soon as the insurance is processed and your coverage is complete. And most of the quality online services agencies will have service representatives to help you through the process.

Meanwhile, there are some standard aspects of your health and travel plans that will determine the best policy for you. For instance, when you create your policy, you will need to know the length of your travel plans and where you will be going. In addition, the purpose of your trip, usually business or vacation, is typically relevant. Any current medical conditions you might have and prescription medications can also be important. These questions will help determine the comprehension needs of coverage and help to decide on deductible amounts.

Property Management Careers

Posted by: Mandy  :  Category: Career

There comes a point in everyone’s life where they consider whether they want to change careers. This may be the result of a layoff or their employer going out of business. Alternatively, they may grow disenchanted with their work or simply get tired of it. Some of these people may be considering switching to a career in apartment and commercial property management and wondering what exactly would be involved in the daily work.

Property managers fulfill several different roles. In essence they are stand ins for the landlord. They are responsible for filling units, which means coordinating advertising, meeting with prospective tenants , and taking care of all the paperwork, such as leases and other agreements. They also provide maintenance and repairs for the property during the course of the lease. This includes upkeep on empty properties. Some managers do repairs themselves while others hire professionals.

There are two ways to build a career in property management, whether residential or commercial. The first is by looking for work with existing companies like TransGlobe Property Management . These large organizations employ a number of managers as well as maintenance staff. They have established procedures for handling different situations which makes them a great place to learn the best practices of the industry. The other way to go is check job listings for individual landlords who are seeking managers or building superintendents. An alternative to this is to start managing your own investment properties or those of family members or friends.

Ways to Save Money on Car Upkeep

Posted by: Mandy  :  Category: Financial

Saving money is becoming almost a national pastime . The ability to stretch a dollar or save money is something that most people have become all to familiar with over the past few years. They, like you, are constantly looking for new ways to save a few bucks.

There are really only three ways to save money on your car’s upkeep — unless you’re willing to just ignore the problem and hope it goes away. The first is to do many basic maintenance tasks yourself. You may even want to purchase the appropriate service manual for your car and attempt minor repairs. The more things you can do for yourself, the less money is flowing out to a mechanic. Major repairs will still need to be handled by a professional, especially when dealing with computerized systems and electrical problems, however, there are plenty of things that can be easily done at home.

Shopping around is a second way to save money. Instead of going to the mechanic that’s on your way to work, do a little bit of research to see what other shops are charging for similar services. You can also look for coupons in the mail or online for everything from auto detailing to oil changes to brake replacement.

The final way to save money involves knowing the right people. If you have a mechanic in the family or a best friend or co-worker with repair experience, you may be able to convince them to do the work on your car. You can expect to pay for all the necessary parts, but, depending on your relationship, you won’t have to pay the same hourly rates — you may even get by just buying them dinner or bartering for their time.

New and Used Safes for Homes and Businesses

Posted by: Mandy  :  Category: Home

Most people have the assumption that if they want to consider purchasing a safe for their home or business, they will need to spend an exorbitant amount of money on a specialized new safe. While that most definitely is an option for people, it is certainly not the only one they have, and many times it isn’t even the most recommended choice. This is because the market for used safes is an extremely viable, and reliable, option for many people.

The most important thing to consider when it comes to choosing your safe, is whether or not it will serve its purpose. This means that the quality of the safe is an overall consideration as well as its suitability to the particular item or items that it will be protecting. This brings other considerations into the picture, such as the size and shape of the items, or if it will be a specialty collection you’re protecting, as well as environmental factors like whether or not it should be fireproof or waterproof. For instance, if your safe is going to be on a boat, you may want to make sure you’ve purchased a waterproof model.

Used safes come in all of these varieties as well as endless others. They, just as the new ones, are put through a battery of tests and are guaranteed to perform as indicated. This brings up another important factor in choosing your safe, its affordability. And while you should never compromise on quality, sometimes finding the perfect used safe can save you a bit of money you might otherwise have to sacrifice on some feature on a newer model.