money

Potty training a dog is one of the most frustrating things you will have to do. Take heart in the fact that once your dog gets the potty training, you won’t have to teach it again. In many ways, potty training can be rewarding too. Not only can you help your pets to stop making messes on your favorite carpeting, but you can develop a strong relationship of trust and bonding with them to.

Here are 5 steps to make potty training successful in your home.

1.Use a crate. Crate training is very effective. A crate is used to allow your pet to have a place to sleep and teaches them to control their bladder. They won’t soil their bedding. Then, when it is time to get up and go out, you can easily do just that. The dog learns from the start that you control potty time.

2.After meals, give your pet 15 minutes and then take them out. Food is a trigger not only to eat but also to go. When it comes to potty training success, allow your pet to get outside when the urge is approaching. What’s more is that you shouldn’t leave food out. Put it down for them at the designated time and allow them to eat for 15 minutes to 30 minutes and remove the bowl. Soon he will learn and that again allows you to control potty time.

3.Pick a potty spot. Select the area of your yard that you want your pet to go in. Take them to that spot every time to go. This will help your puppy to learn that when he needs to go, he needs to come here. What’s more is that the smell of urine is yet another trigger to your pet to go.

4.Don’t reward them with food. Remember that rewards need to be emotional, and therefore it is more successful to give them a reward of a patting and rub down then it is for you to hand them a treat. Also, treats are food which triggers potty time again!

5.Reward success, but don’t punish accidents. Although you will be angry and you will want to punish your pet, your pet does not see this as a bad thing. He sees it as attention. He also can become aggressive as well as not like to be around you. Dogs don’t relate their potty mistake to the punishment you are given them. Instead, ignore them when they do something wrong. Don’t speak to them or interact with them.

Caring for your dog is hard work, but when it comes to potty training, success can and will happen when you install these five tips into your program.

Michael Lewis is an editor at http://www.clearlypets.com where you can find more articles about dog training.

Websites are built for specific types of viewers and must appeal to a definite target market. Users must be able to view your site, scan everything, and immediately understand what the website is about. Similarly, for maximum usability, your website has to appeal to the needs of search engines. Usability comes down to three main areas: site design, page design, and development. If carried out properly, these elements will bring both users and search engines to your site and keep them coming back for more.

Site Design

Site design starts before the user ever views your homepage. The download speed of your website can immediately spark the user to click on another site. Excessive graphics or graphics that are not properly optimized for the web can slow down the load speed of any website. By avoiding this concern and designing your website with your user’s goals and needs in mind you will create a more positive user experience. Similarly, thinking about the navigation, how the site will work, and why users are coming to your site will give you greater insight to what you need to achieve when designing a new website. Don’t let design elements be a usability handicap. Placing pertinent information in highly visible sections of the site will be most effective and will ensure that the design is functional as well as aesthetically pleasing.

Page Design

Page design consists of graphics as well as content. The overall visual impression can easily lead a user to an uncomfortable experience if the graphic placement is not thought out. Contemplating meaning and presentation is a challenge that every designer and developer must face everyday. If graphics are just thrown onto a page with out any thought they could confuse and distract users are dilute the message you are trying to convey. Usability is about making the user feel at ease. Noticeable navigation and scannability of call to action areas makes your message very clear. Users will scan pages only reading headlines and titles until they see something that catches their eye. Cleverly written headlines will draw more users every time and keep them on your website longer. Users are scanners and scannability is key to any website design. Take a moment and scan a page on your website for 3 seconds. Are you able to understand what your company is about? Are your key elements prominently displayed? If not, you need to think about the structure and organization of the page design. Consider the meaning of your site and its purpose. To maximize overall usability, the information on each page needs to appear in a specific order. For example, if there were no graphics in your website, you would want the page structure to look like an outline. If the structures of the key elements are in place, then it should be very easy for a user to understand your site. For example, websites like craigslist get thousands of viewers a day. This traffic doesn’t stem from the site’s visual appeal, but from its ease of use.

Even if it is your first time on the site, you can still easily navigate to what you’re looking for. This is part of the success of craigslist and other Ugly Websites that Work.

Development

The development is possibly the most important step in the exposure to your website. Designing an attractive website is useless if no one can find it. Placement on the search engines is the vital lifeline that maintains any online business. That visibility is determined by how well your website is catalogued by the major search engines. Developing websites with web standard code allows your website to be as accessible as possible. Proper code means giving all of your headings H tags, using style sheets for all of your formatting, and using proper HTML and XHTML markup for all other elements. In order for your content to appear semantically correct, the proper web standards must be applied to the development of the website. You want the most important information to appear closest to the top when search engine spiders come to crawl through your website. Making your website accessible and usable to search engines is just as important as usability to your viewers.

Proper development and structure of your content should look similar to this:

Main Topic (H1)
Subcategory (H2)
Aspect of subcategory
Aspect of subcategory
Subcategory (H2)
Aspect of subcategory
Aspect of subcategory

This outline structure is useful for both search engines and users. It is logical and easy to scan.

Using web standard compliant code also allows you to reach the largest number of viewers with and without disabilities. Attributes such as alt text, for example, make it possible for screen readers to vocalize text to blind users where graphics are used. The mass retailer Target Corporation recently became aware of the importance of this development step after being smacked with a lawsuit for failing to make their website accessible to users with disabilities. The Target website did not contain the proper HTML markups that disabled users commonly depend on to browse the Internet. Proper site development can also ensure cross browser compatibility and improve your site’s usability on portable devices like cell phones and PDAs. Designing with web standard compliant code reduces the amount of headaches when it comes to testing your site’s overall usability because more browsers recognize web standard code rather than clunky hacks.

Site design, page design and development of all websites go hand in hand. You cannot have a successful website without each of these elements being carefully thought out and constructed, from the text that goes into each button to where you place the content on every page. All too often, people jump into websites and just want to get something up online. However, the days when simply having a website was an accomplishment are gone, and a half ass effort simply won’t cut it. To make a positive impression today, your website must be informative, professional, and above all, usable. Focusing on proper website design, page design, and development are the 3 essential steps to creating a functional and successful website.

Focusing on web standards and usability, Drew Stauffer is the co-founder of http://www.wildfireproductions.net/ Wildfire Productions.

Among the Greeks, fitness competitions and games were nationalistic in spirit; states were said to have been prouder of Olympic victories than of battles won. Women, foreigners, slaves, and dishonored persons were forbidden to compete. Contestants were required to train faithfully for 10 months before the games and had to take an oath that they had fulfilled the training requirements before participating. At first, the Olympic Games were confined to running, but over time new events were added. The winners of the Olympics were crowned with chaplets of wild olive, and in their home city-states male champions were also awarded valuable gifts and privileges.

As a visible focus of world energies, the Olympic Games have been prey to many factors that have thwarted their ideals of world co-operation and athletic excellence. Like in ancient Greece, nationalistic fervour has fostered intense rivalries that have at times threatened the survival of the games. Although officially only individuals are able to win Olympic medals, nations routinely assign political significance to the feats of their citizens and teams. For example, between 1952 and 1988 rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, rooted in mutual political antagonism, resulted in each boycotting games hosted by the other (Moscow, 1980; Los Angeles, 1984).

Politics has influenced the Olympic Games in other ways, from the propaganda of the Nazis in Berlin (1936) to pressures leading to the exclusion of white-ruled Rhodesia from the Munich games (1972). At Munich, nine Israeli athletes were kidnapped and murdered by Palestinian terrorists.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which sets and enforces Olympic policy, has struggled with the licensing and commercialisation of the games, the need to schedule events to accommodate television networks, and the monitoring of athletes who seek illegal competitive advantage, often through the use of performance-enhancing drugs. In 1998 a scandal erupted with revelations that bribery and favouritism had played a role in the awarding of the 2002 Winter Games to Salt Lake City, Utah, and in the selection of some earlier venues.

But, regardless of the Olympic Games tensions, it is historically proven that sports have acted as a liaison between nations and have greatly contributed to their evolution. Beginning with the sociological, psychological and physiological aspects of the human nature, sports have gained the praise of people worldwide, as they have contributed to their well being. Group-oriented, since in order to be a winner one has to compete, sport brings people closer together and generates team-spirit along with mind and physical awareness. But, whether or not the contemporary Olympic Games act as an opportunity for nations to learn from one another and cooperate or are just another opportunity for people to engage in competitive and hostile rivalries, only historians of the future will be able to judge with some certainty.

Jonathon Hardcastle writes articles for http://fitnessandourworld.com/ - In addition, Jonathon also writes articles for http://learntobecloser.com/ and http://fitness-talk.net/.

Some of us more than others need to work on getting pain relief, even after we discover exactly the right fit - or as close as we can get - in our pointe shoe.

The point I am making, is, that there is a very fine tuning that we can learn, and we tune our focus as finely as we tune our decision, to make this is easy as possible.

To add to what I’ve written before on http://www.theballetstore.com, here is a more detailed process.

Put on the new shoes with all the toe-protective padding you intend to wear. Just walk around the house for a few minutes. Wear a pair of socks over them so you don’t get them scuffed. Take care to walk going through the foot just as you do in bare feet - hah - or as close to that as you can get. You’ll get some feel for the shoe.

If there is very little pressure and pain, great. This shoe is not giving too much resistance.

If it hurts at certain points on your foot, try adjusting the padding. Walk around some more.

This walking around with your pointe shoes on probably won’t feel that great, and don’t get a blister from doing so. You are simply stress- testing before you get into class.

Here’s something you can do to mould the shoe more to your foot, if you have places that the shoe is really pressing on: you boil some water and pour it into the shoe. Roll it around inside, getting it all over, for a few seconds. Pour it out. Then you put on your shoes, with padding, and walk around for a while. The shoe will soften and mould to your foot shape. Then you can take your pointe shoes off, and let them dry out thoroughly. They will stiffen up in the shape of the pressure from your feet. Custom made as it were.

Do not do any rises or releves in the shoes when they are soft from the boiling water.

Exception: if you have very low arches and insteps, it’s a good idea to do a few rises when the shoes are soft. This will help break them in, as you will not break them as if you had a very high arch that will snap the shoes immediately. Remove the shoes and place them where they will dry quickly.

Always let the shoes dry out quickly and thoroughly after class. This will help give them some longevity.

The more you focus on this proper use of your pointe shoes, the more you will get out of your pointe classes. Fighting the shoe and fighting the pain is a waste of your concentration. It creates too much tension, anxiety, and deprives you of the joy of being elegant and artistic.

Art is something that happens on a soul level. You don’t want to be faint from the pain, in chasing that elusive muse of your inner being’s expression.

In my first two years at The National Ballet School of Canada I felt pretty intimidated. Pointe classes were awful. I didn’t know that my shoes did not fit - nothing close to! I was told that they would hurt, and they did. I wondered how everyone else did it….hopefully some of my fellow classmates lucked out and their shoes felt better! However, I did get a couple of permanent painful conditions from not having exactly the right fit.

Take a lot of time buying shoes, initially. Don’t worry about bothering anybody. Once you are in class, bother your teacher if the shoes prevent you from doing the movements in any way. Good ballet teachers love it when students bother them with details!

And always give yourself the time at home to prepare your pointe shoes.

Dianne M. Buxton is a graduate of the National Ballet School of Canada. She taught at, and choreographed for The National Ballet School, York University, and George Brown College, in Canada, and taught at Harvard University in the U.S. Click here for ballet shoes, pointe shoes, strengthening exercises, dance news, dance books, diet and health for dancers,DVD’s and more.

It was the decade of decadence. It was about glitz and glamour as well as baubles, bangles, and beads.

Everyone loved Luke and Laura in the afternoon. Lady Diane became the People’s Princess when she married Prince Charles. Nighttime soaps like Dallas and Dynasty ruled the airwaves. President Ronald Reagan ruled the United States. Tom Cruise felt the need for speed. Michael Milliken was the Junk Bond King. Gordon Gekko taught Wall Street whiz kids that greed was good. Material Girl Madonna made her musical debut.

What decade was it?

We can only be talking about that terrific time period - the excellent eighties.

Here are twenty-one ways for you to verify that you belong to (or belong in) the 1980’s.

1. Breakdancing on the sidewalk looked like fun. Now it just looks like you might break something.

2. You can still recite dialogue from any movie starring Molly Ringwald.

3. “Cell phones” meant the telephone people used when they got their “one phone call” in jail.

4. You had at least one of the following: a Cabbage Patch Kid, He-Man action figures, a Rubik’s Cube, or something with a Pac-Man logo on it.

5. You remember a lot of headlines about the Human Genome Project, which was a complete mapping of human DNA. You also remember how this was supposed to lead to the eradication of disease.

6. You remember the day that thousands of radio stations across the world played “We Are The World” at the exact same time. (Now, you’re singing it!)

7. Your first album was a vinyl 33 and you laughed at your parents because they wanted to play 45’s and 8-track tapes.

8. You know who Oliver North is and why he was in the news.

9. Someone on your street or neighborhood sent his or her life savings to a later discredited televangelist.

10. You hung out with your friends at the mall, especially in the video arcade where you exchanged those hard-earned quarters for tokens.

11. You know that “glasnost” means openness or transparency and “perestroika” means economic restructuring.

12. You and your friends made fun of the “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” lady. (The fictional woman was named Mrs. Fletcher and the product was the LifeCall emergency service.)

13. You inserted “like” liberally and unnecessarily throughout your sentences. Like so, “Like, that was, like, the hardest test we ever had. So after class, I was all like asking the teacher and she was like it wouldn’t have been hard if you had studied. Then I was like is that like wicked rude or what?”

14. You know there was only one way Dorothy on the Golden Girls could make Sophia behave. She simply said, “Shady Pines, Ma, Shady Pines.”

15. You’ve actually tasted New Coke. Extra points if you wrote to Coca-Cola and insisted they bring back the original formula.

16. You remember when there was no such thing as CNN, E!, or MTV.

17. Your parents were afraid you’d cut yourself putting on a snap bracelet.

18. You were inspired by Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female Supreme Court Judge, Sally Ride, the first female astronaut and Geraldine Ferraro, the first (and as of this writing only) female Vice Presidential candidate.

19. Renting horror movie sequels about Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, and Michael Myers took up a lot of your time.

20. You loved the opposite sketches and green slime on You Can’t Do That On Television.

21. You played Atari, Intellivision, Sega, Nintendo, and Coleco until your hands went numb.

Not nearly enough totally tubular nostalgia for you, for sure? Need more wicked rad 80’s memories? See the complete list at http://www.comprehensiveadvice.com/80s.html

Matthew W. Grant is a writer and consultant who spends entirely too much time reminiscing about the 1980’s.

Grad Season.Wedding Season. Springtime. Wintertime. It doesn’t really matter what time of the year it is—it seems like there’s always a holiday or event just around the corner that you’ve got to look good for. Don’t worry though; there’s no need to panic. MenScience has broken down the stages of men’s grooming from the hour before you walk out the door to what you should be doing all the time. Whether it’s a big date, college graduation, or a holiday party, you’ll look like a polished man no matter what the occasion.

Code Red (An hour before the event):

1. Shower immediately and shampoo. Gently exfoliate face with a face scrub. This will smooth and revitalize skin in under two minutes.

2. Shave: Try skipping shaving the day before a big event to make sure you get a close shave the day of. You can do several shaving passes then for a super-close result.)

3. Target an unexpected acne pimple: Apply an ice cube to a blemish for a few minutes to help reduce inflammation and size temporarily. Then, cover acne breakout with a small amount of acne treatment medicine and let absorb to reduce bacteria on the surface and get immediate results.

4. Go easy on the moisturizer to avoid a shiny, oily look.

Code Orange (The day of the event):

1. Press clean clothes, or get them pressed at the dry cleaners or laundromat a few days before.

2. Trim and clean beneath fingernails.

3. Cut unwanted hairs, such as nose and ear hair. Yeah, it’s gross, but it makes a huge difference.

4. Relieve puffy or tired eyes by laying a frozen eye mask wrapped in a washcloth over eyes for 5-10 minutes. Diminish dark under-eye circles by placing an eye mask in hot water, wrapping in a washcloth, then placing over closed eyes for 5 - 10 minutes. Follow by applying a moisturizer for the eye area.

Code Yellow (A few days to a week before the event):

1. Get a haircut. A trim is always a good idea, but if you’re going for a new hairstyle, do it a couple of days before the event. A horrible cut can often be managed if you have a few days to work with it. If your eyebrows are especially bushy, ask the barber about trimming to thin them a bit.

2. Book a manicure. Many barbershops and grooming lounges now offer them for men, and it’s a great preparation for the hand-shaking you’ll be doing.

3. Exfoliate your skin. Gently removing dead cells from the skin’s surface can immediately brighten your tone, smooth roughness and improve your overall appearance, but for the most optimal results, begin exfoliating your skin regularly 2 -3 times a week beforehand.

4. Clear your face. Achieving clear skin takes time, but there are some acne ingredients, like Benzoyl Peroxide, which start working immediately to eliminate blemishes.

Code Blue (All the time):

1. Don’t use bar soap: It can dry skin out over time, emphasizing fine lines and causing irritation and redness. Use a liquid cleanser instead.

2. Moisturize. Incorporate a lightweight, non-greasy moisturizer into your regular skincare routine, and your skin will be ready to party, anytime!

3. Prevent signs of aging by taking care of your skin now with an anti-aging treatment. Regular, early use can provide rewarding results within a few weeks and years down the road.

4. Stay in shape by exercising and following a healthy diet. Take high-quality supplements formulated specifically for men to receive valuable nutrients and promote better health overall.

Deidra Garcia is a freelance writer and communications manager for MenScience Androceuticals, a men’s skincare and grooming company. You can find more articles by Deidra, as well as further tips and advice, at http://www.MenScience.com.

The saying, “it’s lonely at the top,” is true for cigars. A type of smoke that makes the Marlboro man look weak rather than rugged, cigars have a way of excluding themselves from the group. Yet, you can’t fault the cigars. They might not want us to elevate their reputation and status by deeming them synonymous with luxury and sophistication; for all we know, cigars are standing in the background - looking lovingly at pipes and cigarettes - yelling, “Can’t we all just get along?” Luckily, cigars might have found something to relieve their loneliness: they just may have a lifelong companion in barley wine.

Upon performing research, I was surprised to find how many websites laud the combination of cigars and barley wine. And, naturally, I was even more surprised to find these websites weren’t just the ones that sell barley wine.

For those not familiar with barley wine, the simplest way to remember it is by the term “barely wine.” Truth be told, barley wine isn’t really wine at all; because of its high alcohol content, it only thinks its wine (ironically, after a few too many bottles, I sometimes think this same thing about myself). With wine like characteristics, the big difference is in the ingredients: barley wine is made with grain instead of fruit. If it were cereal, barley wine would be Wheaties while wine would be Fruity Pebbles.

Still, barley wine is not without some fruit flavor. It displays both sweetness and bitterness at the same time, giving it a unique taste among beers.

While it originated in England, barley wine is available worldwide. However, when sold in the US, barley wines are required to be sold with the label, “barley wine-style ales,” thus avoiding confusion for the wine-seeking consumer.

Barley wine is sometimes aged, much like wine, and used for celebratory occasions. It is this last sentence that undoubtedly makes the ears of cigars - with their penchant for celebration - prick up.

Cigars and barley wine compliment each other nicely. With a slightly peaty taste, barley wine does maintain some whiskey-like characteristics and, as most of us know, cigars have never found a whiskey they do not like.

Unlike wine, barley wine doesn’t always go well with food, but, luckily you don’t eat a Churchill. Many cigars, depending on your individual palate, do well with barley wines, in particular Old Nick Barley wine, which, according to many consumers, is one of the best barley wines on the market.

Overall, the key to pairing a good barley wine with a good cigar is to keep the tastes in cahoots, you don’t want the flavor of the beer and the flavor of the cigar fighting each other for your attention. It’s also a good rule to pair up beers of lighter color to cigars with lighter wrappers. This may help keep one from overpowering the other.

When it comes down to it, barley wine and cigars are good friends, and you just might find yourself - as you beg to be included - asking the duo to become a trio.

Jennifer Jordan is an editor and staff writer for http://www.whatsknottolove.com. At home in a design firm in Denver, Colorado, she writes articles specific to the finer things in life.

If you’re a fan of Mozart - and what lover of classical music isn’t? - here’s melodic news and a cheerful way to pay.

A Dutch label called Brilliant Classics has just come out with a bargain edition of The Complete Works of Mozart. Since the composer is indubitably the Viennese confectioner of the world’s most delectable ear candy, you may long to have the complete edition, even if you’ll have to listen to hours of baby bonbons. And now you can get the all-encompassing compilation in a whopping 170-CD collection for about $120.

Buying it is a no-brainer, especially compared to the priceiness of the complete works long out of Phillips, which retails in the $900 range.

Yet the Phillips edition is consistently delightful and an invaluable tribute to melodious Mo.

So which way do you go?

We suggest you buy the new inexpensive edition as your collection of the great composer’s complete works. But then buy The Best of the Complete Mozart from Phillips, a winning selection of highlights from its complete edition. The boxed set of 25 enchanting CDs retails in the neighborhood of two hundred dollars.

Then you’ll have the complete works cheap and the best of the costlier collection.

Enjoy. Sweeter sounds, thought often simply sweet, the ears of humankind have never heard nor will likely ever hear.

Tom Attea, humorist and creator of http://NewsLaugh.com, has had six shows produced Off-Broadway. Critics have called his writing “delightfully funny,” “witty,” with “great humor and ebullience” and “good, genuine laughs.”

According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, approximately 75% of all crime in the states is property crime. In 2003, there were 14 million thefts of property, and of these, 83% were home and business burglaries. There’s no reason to wait until it happens to you. While it might not make the evening news, when your home or business is burgled, safeguarding it becomes the most important issue in the world.

Originally developed to provide the ultimate in security for banks, and traditionally used by security intensive operations like casinos and airports, today closed-circuit television (directly connecting video to a recording or viewing source without being broadcast) and video surveillance systems are now inexpensive and simple enough to be used at home. Now that this powerful technology is within the reach of the average consumer, it makes an effective part of any home security system, as well as a small business’ everyday video surveillance.

Advances in Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) technology are turning video surveillance equipment into the most valuable loss prevention, safety/security tool available today for both commercial and residential applications.

The use of surveillance camera systems can alert you before threatening situations worsen, as well as provide you with an important record of events. Monitoring your store or business can be invaluable, in identifying and apprehending thieves and vandals. The prevention or resolution of just one crime would be enough to pay for video surveillance system equipment many times over.

Retailers use CCTV video surveillance systems to monitor for shoplifters and dishonest employees, compile recorded evidence against bogus accident claims and monitor merchandising displays in the stores. Manufacturers, governments, hospitals and universities use video surveillance equipment to identify visitors and employees, monitor hazardous work areas, thwart theft and ensure the security of their premises and parking facilities.

In addition, if you have infants or young children at home, infrared cameras built into wireless baby monitors will help you keep a vigilant eye on them while you’re in another part of your home, night and day. And while you’re away from home, nanny cam video surveillance equipment, wireless hidden cameras and security DVR’s can provide you with the peace of mind that your baby sitters are taking good care of your precious little ones.

Business surveillance systems, home security cameras and hidden cameras can vary in appearance and function. But most all video surveillance camera systems are primarily meant to deter, or detect illegal activity, as well as serve to ensure the physical safety of loved ones. Some popular applications for home or office surveillance systems are:

Store/Business Surveillance - Theft Prevention/Curtailment
Door Entrance Monitoring/Video Intercoms
Recording Home Parties
Baby/Child Monitoring
Looking in on Baby Sitter
Monitoring Backyard Pool
Keeping Watch Over a Bedridden Loved One
Observing Unsupervised Repairmen
Catching Vandals Destroying Property
Lawsuit Prevention Against “Slip and Fall” Scam Artists
Keeping an Eye on Pets
Reduce Employee Turnover by Providing a Safe Environment
Reduce Shrinkage and Employee Theft
Enhance Physical Security Effectiveness
Reduce Liability Insurance

Vigilance and Security -
provides a large variety of bargain priced products including: home security cameras, nanny cams, security digital video recorders, time lapse vcrs, video baby monitors, wireless surveillance equipment, hidden cameras, multi-location video surveillance systems, infrared night vision cameras and so much more!
http://www.vigilanceandsecurity.com

Vigilance and Security, a wholly owned subsidiary of DL Consultants, LLC, is an internet reseller of a broad line of cutting edge security camera and surveillance systems appropriate for home, as well as, small and medium business applications. Our clients include parents, homeowners, warehouses, convenience stores, restaurants and retail establishments.

1. CN Tower - it is today’s world’s tallest free-standing structure, and the most recognizable icon of Toronto. The view on top is breathtaking, overlooking Toronto and beyond. Walking across the glass floor 113 stories above the ground is thrilling-scary. Dare to walk on air experience, with only 2 ? inches of glass holding you 342m in the air. The Sky Pod brings you another 33 storeys above ground!

2. Centerville/ Center Island - This island has everything! An amusement park, a petting farm, a maze of bushes, a beach, and picnic places overlooking downtown Toronto at the other side of the lake! It doesn’t even cost a lot to get there. It’s free - although you have to pay for the ferry ride which is a fun bonus for kids!

3. Ontario Place - Ontario Place is an internationally acclaimed cultural, leisure and entertainment parkland. The complex extends throughout three man-made islands along the Lake Ontario waterfront. Here, you will find pedal boats, a marina, restaurants and the world’s first permanent IMAX? theatre, the Cinesphere. The kids will love the rides and many attractions strewn over the islands - and the water park is great!

4. Royal Ontario Museum - The ROM boasts state-of-the-art galleries It is a major museum for world culture and natural history in Toronto and the fifth-largest museum in North America , containing millions of artifacts, a collection of dinosaurs, Near Eastern and African art, East Asian art, European history, and Canadian history. The kids will love the stuffed animals and the wonders of nature exhibited in interesting ways.

5. Toronto Zoo - the Toronto Zoo is one of the largest zoos in the world with over 5,000 animals within 460 species. The Toronto Zoo is absolutely spectacular, and any animal lover will be enthralled at the surroundings.

6. Ontario Science Center - a science museum built down the side of a wooded ravine formed by one branch of the Don River. There are interactive and passive exhibits throughout the buildings. They feature everything in science and nature - geology, the science of nature (in the west wing), Astronomical science, how to play music and technology in the south wing, and artifacts of science. The exhibits are presented in an engaging and entertaining way that makes kids really appreciate science! The IMAX theater is awesome!

7. Skydome - The SkyDome is hailed as one of the world’s greatest entertainment centers. It is famous worldwide for its retractable roof.

8. The Historic Distillery District - Toronto’s newest arts and cultural community and a home to restaurants, cafes and art galleries. The Victorian buildings are well preserved and are a joy to tour!

9. The Historic Fort York - the location of the Battle of York during the War of 1812 is the 1793 birthplace of modern Toronto. It is home to Canada’s largest collection of original War of 1812 buildings and is designated as a National Historic site. Open year-round, Historic Fort York offers seasonal guided tours, musket, drill and music demonstrations. Explore the fort and learn about its military history.

10. Casa Loma -a majestic castle full of European elegance and splendour - with decorated suites, secret passages, an 800-foot tunnel, towers, stables, and beautiful 5-acre estate gardens (open May through October).

You can find this and other personal favorite, best and top list of music, movies, books, and places at http://www.mylistpad.com

Renault Tumbokon has lived in Toronto for 5 years, and have scoured Toronto for the best and cheapest places to enjoy especially in Summer. You can see his and other people’s collection of favorite, best and top list of music, movies, books and places at http://www.mylistpad.com.