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Quick Getaway in Maine: How to Spend a Fun-Filled Weekend in the Pine Tree State

If you’re looking for a fun-filled weekend getaway, look no further than Maine! This beautiful state is home to stunning landscapes, charming small towns, and plenty of activities to keep you busy. Whether you’re a nature lover or a history buff, there’s something for everyone in Maine. In this article, we’ll provide tips on how to make the most of your time in the Pine Tree State. So pack your bags and get ready for an adventure!

Things to Do in Maine

There’s no shortage of things to do in Maine, from exploring its rugged coastline to visiting its charming small towns. Here are a few suggestions:

  • Visit Acadia National Park. This stunning park is home to rocky cliffs, forests, and lakes. It’s a great place for hiking, biking, and sightseeing.
  • Check out the lighthouses. Maine is home to some of the most beautiful lighthouses in the country, including Cape Elizabeth Light, Portland Head Light, and Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse.
  • Visit a small town. There’s no better way to experience Maine culture than by visiting one of its charming small towns. Some of our favorites include Bar Harbor, Camden, and Kennebunkport.
  • Take a scenic drive. Maine is home to some beautiful scenery, so be sure to take a few scenic drives while you’re there. One of our favorites is the Loop Road in Acadia National Park.

Where to Stay in Maine

There are plenty of great places to stay in Maine, from cozy bed and breakfasts to luxurious hotels. Here are a few suggestions:

  • In Bar Harbor, we recommend the Inn at Bay Ledge or the Harborside Hotel.
  • In Camden, we recommend The Captain’s House Inn or The White Barn Inn.
  • In Kennebunkport, we recommend the Bush Compound or The Breakwater Inn.
  • In Portland, we recommend The Westin Portland Harborview or The Press Hotel.

How to Get There

Maine is easy to get to from most major U.S. cities. Here are a few ways to get there:

  • By car. Maine is easily accessible by car, and there are plenty of scenic routes to choose from.
  • By plane. Portland International Jetport is the largest airport in Maine, and it offers service from a number of major U.S. cities.
  • By train. Amtrak offers service to several towns in Maine, including Portland, Bangor, and Bar Harbor.
  • By bus. The major bus companies all offer service to Maine.

We hope you enjoy your quick getaway in Maine! For more ideas on things to do and places to stay, be sure to check out the Visit Maine website. Have a great time!

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Maine Residents Spend Hundreds of Millions on Lottery Tickets – But Why?

Is there really a way for someone to get free lottery tickets? Or is there just too much luck involved with the lottery? People in Maine are able to purchase lottery tickets through the lottery via ticket brokers. The state of Maine has regulated lottery sales since 1998. All lottery proceeds in Maine, go to the Maine Public Assistance Commission.

A study was conducted in 2021 that showed how lottery players were affected by various factors. States that have the lowest number of people per capita that also have the most lottery players have had the most problems with lottery tickets. Maine residents on public assistance spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year on lottery tickets. Surprisingly, almost all lottery winners in the United States and Canada are from the poorest towns. Maine officials found that most lottery winners live in the poorest cities.

Those who live in the poorest towns spend the most money on lottery tickets. They are found players buying tickets from vending machines, cabs and bars. Those in the wealthiest towns are less likely to get hooked on winning lotto because they are more likely to get free or cheap items or services. In wealthier areas, people spend a few thousand dollars more on lottery tickets.

One dollar bills.

To ensure public money is not wasted on games of chance, lottery winners need to be properly educated about the games. Lack of education could result in increased poverty levels and lower worker productivity. Also, lottery jackpots can only be won once. Therefore, it is not wise to play a lot right now in hopes of winning a jackpot in the future. Instead, it is more beneficial to play wisely and save up now to be able to purchase the things you want later.

Most lottery players live in areas where income levels are low. In wealthier towns, residents are more likely to spend money on investments, their homes, their families, and their pets. But in poorer towns, lottery players are seen as irresponsible and over-enthusiastic individuals who spend their money carelessly. According to studies, those in the poorest towns spend more than three times as much as those in wealthier areas on “liquor, cigarettes and lottery tickets.” This discrepancy in public spending may have an effect on local crime rates.

Many people believe that the U.S. Department of Education must regulate the lottery tickets sold in America. The U.S. Department of Education does not sell lottery tickets, nor do they provide funding for lottery winners. However, the U.S. Department of Education often participates in lottery drawings themselves. If your child’s school offers a lottery win-win sweepstakes program, make sure you enroll your child in it.

Counting coins.

Did you know that food stamp recipients may also be able to claim free lottery tickets? While many people do not realize this, food stamp recipients can obtain thousands of dollars in free lottery tickets each year. There are many states in which the Department of Agriculture is required to administer the lottery programs. If your state is one of these states, you may be able to get free tickets by registering your child with the USDA.

The lottery system is a state-funded system. Because millions of Americans rely on the lottery system to bring in extra money (and because there are powerful lobby groups who are fighting for more money), states tend to pass laws that benefit the lottery system more than the individual citizens of that state. The lottery system reaches far beyond the pockets of individual citizens. That means that when state officials to pass laws that are friendlier to the lottery system, they’re not necessarily protecting the interests of everyday citizens, but instead of genuinely trying to benefit from the lottery system, they are actively working to keep the state-funded advertising of the lottery system in house.

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Is A Wireless Dog Fence a Safe Option For Your Family?

The #1 selling pet containment system in America, Dog Guard, is one of the most notable containment systems on the market because of its high quality materials and low cost. Most pet owners and dog trainers find that this product offers many advantages for pet owners. However, a few of the pet owners we spoke with had some issues with the safety of their dogs while using a Dog Guard. This article will address some of these concerns.

The main concern seems to be with the hidden fence owners. Most pet owners are pretty concerned with the safety of their dogs while on a static fence or hidden electric fence system. There are a number of issues with the design of this system and the problems seem to primarily be with static electric fence systems.

One of the main design problems is that the electric fence can actually shock your pet if they step onto it. This has caused many pet owners to buy repellents for their dogs to keep them off of the electric dog fence. Although we haven’t actually found a repellent that worked effectively on our dogs, we did find a number of people who said they were able to successfully use a repellent with their dogs.

Pomeranian on lawn.

Another problem that some Maine residents have is that they worry about how the panels and wires will be buried under the snow and ice during the winter. This issue does have an answer, but it involves digging. The people who own the Maine homes that use this type of electric fence system are quite happy with their ability to remain ice free throughout the winter, but they admit that this particular design might not be so ideal in other areas of Maine where the weather is much colder.

Most Maine residents are also quite happy with the level of security that their wireless dog fence provides. Even if your Maine home doesn’t end up being buried in snow and ice, remote controlled security panels are still effective at deterring unwanted guests from entering the yard. Most of the time, this means that all of the yard signs, such as the one posted by the pet sitter explaining where the fence ends and the road starts, are properly posted so no one can get into the yard without actually walking over the top of the fence. However, some home and business owners still recommend that you teach your pets to stay away from the fence when they’re not around the electronic fence.

The vast majority of Maine residents think that the installation of the wireless dog fence is relatively simple. Many people compare the process to putting up a regular chain link fence. After the perimeter has been marked, just add the panels to the boundary post and clip the electric lines to the posts. Then, all that it takes to start enjoying the benefits of your new perimeter is to plug the panels into the wall and activate them. If you have younger dogs or puppies, you might want to purchase some electric shock collars for these animals to keep them off of the boundary.

French bulldog looking up.

In addition to keeping unwanted visitors out of your yard, many Maine residents find that the installation of their wireless dog fence helps to control the herding of deer in their yards. As more deer decimated the open spaces of large wooded areas in the Northeast, deer are becoming a greater problem. These animals, particularly the larger breeding bucks, will use any available opening to try and enter into your property. Some people will even put out bait and attract the deer to their feeders before taking the step of installing a wireless dog fence to contain their herd. Without the fencing, these hungry deer could easily knock over your entire outdoor kitchen during the night.

If you do not want to deal with some of these issues, or perhaps would like to expand the boundaries of your property a bit, another option is to train herding dogs to stay on the boundary. Maine is home to some amazing breeders of high-energy dogs that can keep deer from entering and creating a dangerous situation for you and your family. Many of these breeders will even offer a wide range of options for training both the dog and the border collie to keep the animal from wandering beyond the boundary. Training more than one dog to stay on the boundary can also help to make sure that the dog does not wander into dangerous situations where it might harm someone or damage property.

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Protecting Your Family – Lead Paint and Lead Dust

Lead paint or lead-based painted paint is paint made from lead, a toxic metal. As paint, lead (II), lead (IV), oxide, and lead (III) chloride are the main types. Lead is added to paints to increase durability, add color, increase resistance to weathering, retain a fresh look, and resist water that causes corrosion. When lead gets into our homes, our bodies absorb it and put in our blood streams.

Lead paint chips are not the only things showing up on our painted surfaces. Excessive dust and cobwebs are one of the major causes of deterioration to our homes. Window sills, floor finish and roofing materials, including wood and vinyl, contain lead paint chips and dust. Even when spending time in the yard it can be a hazard, as it is very difficult to keep lead paint chips and dust out of our homes. That is why they must be removed by professionals.

Old Maine house.

Everyone can be exposed to lead paint dust or chips if they spend time around old building materials. Contractors and renovators are more likely to expose their workers to high levels of lead dust and chips because they often use large drum drums or other containers filled with dust for moving and/or scraping debris. While some companies try to minimize exposure by using personal protective equipment such as gloves, goggles, respirators, masks, etc., others don’t. They simply accept the possibility that workers will be exposed to lead paint dust and leave it at that.

The EPA states that paint contains lead paint chips that may be hazardous if inhaled. The effects of long-term exposure to even low levels of lead paint dust could cause learning disabilities and brain damage. Researchers have shown that children of pregnant women may experience developmental problems. While there is still much research to be done, it is obvious that avoiding lead paint dust and cleaning your home with lead-free products is the best way to protect your family. If you have any concerns about how a job handled by contractors may affect your family, call a professional before doing anything.

Contractors who do renovation work are required to follow state and federal guidelines for lead paint abatement. Before starting any project, these guidelines are carefully checked to make sure that there won’t be any harm to anyone during the renovation process. Once the project is started, workers are tested daily for exposure to lead paint. If there are high levels of lead paint dust present, then abatement is immediately necessary.

Unfortunately, lead paint and lead dust and the dangerous effects that it has on your health and your family’s health can only be prevented if a contractor abatement contractor is hired to do the job. If you are worried about the safety of your family while doing a renovation, call a lead paint and lead dust abatement contractor today. They will do an immediate inspection of the area being worked on and they will take precautions to either eliminate or control any possible lead hazards. These contractors also use protective gear, including lead filters on their respirators and gloves. They can also provide you with educational materials that can help you understand the hazards of lead paint and lead dust.

Mohegan light house.

For more information on how a professional can help you protect your family from lead poisoning, go to your local Health Department website. They provide a comprehensive list of resources for parents and caretakers to avoid lead poisoning. Their website offers much more information on preventing lead poisoning as well as ways to address it once it happens. In addition to offering brochures and videos on lead paint dangers, they offer a free low-cost health screening that can help identify the first signs of lead poisoning and lead deficiency.

Many Maine apartment and condo owners neglect to make sure their complex’s lead paint and lead dust is cleaned up. It takes just a few seconds of negligence on their part to prevent a huge problem. The best way to know if your complex is contaminated with lead paint and lead dust is to have a yearly clean-up done by a pro. Make sure your tenants regularly sweep and mop their work areas, especially those in the garage. Your tenants will be doing this anyway – they probably don’t know they are at risk.

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How Maine Residents Can Get More Exercise With Their Dogs

A common man does exercise daily to meet his regular life requirements. Is he performing better than expected or worse? The overall performance of people in terms of exercises when compared with people exercising along with the dogs is not up to the mark. Maine Residents can get more exercise with their dogs by comparison. This statement has garnered proof and evidence collected from all sources. In common, dog owners perform better and involve in more exercises than others according to the study report. The influence of dogs on humans for their exercises is massive in terms of the net result

Dog owners enjoy more health

Most of the dog owners let their dogs roam in the streets alone due to some excuses. This is not fair as far as the dog’s health is concerned. The dog owners who roam along with the dogs gain a lot of benefits. They can involve in walking the dogs and also help the pets feel comfortable and healthy for a long time. The dogs that are given wide free time outside the house get more confidence and jovial timings. In common dogs love outside environment more than the house because they love unusual smell and sound often. This is possible when the owner walks the dog daily basis without any stop. The outside walk helps both owners and dogs a lot without any hindrance.

Not inside the house but out for both

When you roam your backyard with the dog the benefits expected at the end are very less. A limited distance with limited space walking never yields desirable results. The study suggests that the person who walks along with the dog in an unrestricted space for considerable hours would get more advantages than others. It is estimated that Maine residents who have dogs get four times benefits more than normal walking people. The mental preparation of these residents is the main feature of the walking benefits. The enjoyment of these residents when they walk the dogs on the streets gets doubled. So, simultaneously mental benefits and body health are achieved by the residents to a greater extent.

More distance more health

The distance covered by the people when they walk along with the dogs is more when compared with others who walk alone. Many research findings say that the dog owners walk more minutes say for twenty-two minutes extra than the normal person. This is obvious with the Maine residents who have dogs in their houses. Roaming in the backyard with dogs never going to help at all many people, especially old residents. There are lots of dog owners who plan a lot of exercises for a day but postpone due to some reasons. It is not so with the dog owners who will have to perform exercises along with the dog’s daily basis. They work out at least for the sake of dogs. This is the basic success of the dog owners on the whole.

Considering the above reasons and features it is clearly understood that the Marine residents are getting more exercise with their dogs than other residents anywhere.

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Tips For A Successful Marketing Campaign For An Asset Recovery Service

Building a web presence for an asset recovery service comes with a unique set of challenges. Due to the nature of the business, it’s inevitable that you’ll be opening yourself up to negative reviews of all sorts. It’s understandable that people get upset when they have their personal belongings repossessed. They never intended not to be able to pay their bills, and when things start to take a turn for the worse their emotions will inevitably skyrocket. They are losing property associated with their livelihood, their lifestyle, or in the worst cases – their home.

As much as you would like to control what people say about your company on the internet, much of the time this simply isn’t possible. As with most things in business, you’re going to have to make the best of what you have and focus on the aspects of your campaign that are soundly within your control. Recently I spoke with a business owner who was facing these exact challenges, and I wanted to share some of the tactics that really made a huge impact on their success.

Focus on Your Customers

The first thing to be fully aware of is that the people most likely to give you negative or even slandering reviews are most likely not going to be your customers. This means you should pay as little attention as possible to common review platforms that are accessible to the everyday person, such as Google reviews, Yelp, and similar platforms. You may even want to remove your business from these listings if at all possible.

Instead, you want to focus your efforts on the avenues which your actual customers are likely to come across your business. Since you will most likely be working with other businesses, the three most prominent avenues for new customer acquisition are likely to be word of mouth, targeted advertisements, and organic search.

Word of mouth obviously comes down to the quality of your service, your relationships with your loyal customers, and the overall reputation of your business. This is was makes you stand out from the pack, and it is the core form of marketing for so many service businesses around the world.

Another form of marketing that many asset recovery services employ is targeted advertisement to businesses that are likely to need valuable assets repossessed. You can look into avenues such as direct outreach, including but not limited to emailing the companies directly, getting business owners on the phone, or even showing up to their physical location to have a conversation. You can also try Google Adwords, but this can be quite a pricey way to acquire customers so make sure you have the wherewithal to make high-quality landing pages that will turn those leads into paying customers.

The final avenue that can really pay off is getting your website to perform well in the search engines for search terms that potential customers may be looking for. This undoubtedly takes some skill and may often require consultation with a professional in the field.

Support Your Web Presence

Once you have found ways to get your potential customers familiar with your business, you want to make sure that your website is up to par. You want to have a professional and modern website that makes it easy to understand the basics about your business. Display your pricing structure or make it easy for your visitors to request a quote, start an online chat, or pick up the phone and speak with one of your representatives.

Getting people to see your website and interact with your brand is one thing, but it’s only truly valuable if you can turn them into paying and hopefully returning customers. Once you have them on board with your service, it’s important that you show them just how awesome your company truly is. As mentioned before, your customer’s experience is one of the most powerful forms of marketing for a service business. It’s no secret that happy customers are highly likely to recommend your business to their peers, and once the ball gets rolling you’ll be seriously off to the races.

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Step Up Your Landing Pages For Your Next Marketing Campaign

Building landing pages to test out new ideas at a minimal cost is a technique that revolutionized the marketing industry in the early years 2000’s. It makes it possible to gauge market interest without having to spend virtually any money on product design, pilot batches, and order fulfillment. Landing pages for those products and services that take off in the marketplace then become even more valuable as they are tweaked and refined to drive conversion rates and revenues through the roof. If you haven’t integrated landing pages into your marketing campaign, you’re missing out on an incredibly powerful tool that could potentially reinvigorate your business.

So how can you get started? Well, you’re going to need a basic understanding of the internet and website building. Hopefully you’re already there. Once you are you can do quite a bit of the work yourself if you’re willing to put in the extra time and effort to learn the technologies, or you can defer to some tried and true services that make all landing page campaigns a breeze. Let’s get started by going over the basics of creating a landing page.

Landing Page Basics

The concept is simple. You set up a web page that describes your offering and include a call to action where your visitors can “opt-in”. At first, this can simply be signing up to a mailing list or joining a wait list. Basically anything that shows that a visitor is interested in your offering, as opposed to reading your page and leaving uninterested. Then you drive visitors to your site by any number of tactics and see what percentage of them opt-in. If the numbers make sense, then you can go on with developing your product or service.

Once you have a successful landing page you’ll want to continue development to get the most out of it. In essence what you’ll be doing is improving the design of the page to increase the number of opt-ins. You’ll manipulate layouts, try out different images, use different button colors, etc. to find what works best with your visitors. How can you know for sure which combination works best? You’ll utilize A/B testing.

With A/B testing you’ll split the traffic from your visitors evenly and randomly, and you’ll send one portion of the traffic to a version of your landing page as it currently exists (“A”) and the other portion of the traffic to a version of your landing page with your modifications implemented (“B”). Then you’ll give the your visitors time to use both versions of your landing page thoroughly and make the calculations to figure out which version performs better. You can do this in several iterations until your landing page is a finely-tuned conversion machine.

Integrated Landing Page Solutions

Conceptually this makes a lot of sense, but truth be told it can be an absolute headache to manage on your own. It will take in-depth knowledge of building websites and quite a bit of effort and resourcefulness. It this sounds a bit off-putting to you then rest easy, there are quite a few services out there that will handle the brunt of the work for you.

Leadpages, for example, is a simple and straight-forward tool that works great for people who have little interest in going deep into the design of their landing pages. They offer an excellent landing page builder that will have you up an running in minutes. With a variety of templates and built-in page elements you can have a professional design simply by clicking around with your mouse. If you take a look at Leadpages pricing, you’ll see that it’s quite affordable for the value that you’ll get out of it.

Instapages is another great service that also has a lot of clout. They also offer a page builder, though it may take a little more getting used to before you’re off and running. Your reward for the extra effort is a bit more of a custom touch on the landing pages you make. Both of these services provide an A/B testing system as well, making it very easy to work on improving your conversion rates once you’ve made successful landing pages. They’ll even integrate with tons of other marketing services such as MailChimp and Constant Contact so that you can view everything all in one place.

Landing pages are a powerful technique that you can incorporate into your marketing campaign. They’ll potentially save you a ton of expenses when testing new ideas, and they may even send your revenues soaring once you’ve come across an idea that the market loves. If you haven’t given them a try, there’s little to lose.

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Professional Resume Writing Services Can Kickstart Your Next Job Search

Bringing a professional resume writing service on board for your next job search can be quite helpful because these organizations already know what managers and HR teams want to see on a resume. In fact, these people can write something that will catch the eye of the specific person that you are targeting. Let them know the kind of work you are doing, the industries where you are applying for, and the jobs you would like to do. The company will write up a resume that can get you hired, and that will be based on trends in the industry, the way HR professionals are trained, and your signature voice. When you compare the resume writing costs to what you actually get out of it – a professional, high quality document and potentially a high paying job – it’s really a no brainer. Here are some topics a professional might include in your resume.

The Industry 

You must let your resume service know the industry that you are applying to. They will give you help writing for the kinds of managers that work in this field. These managers expect certain things, and you can get your resume in front of these people easily. There are many people who would like to get hired in their chosen field, but they might need to branch out to other industries. This is where the resume writer can help you align your resume with a new industry you do not know. 

The Style 

Your resume should be written in a style that is expected of you. The style that you use lets people know that you understand the industry you are applying to. You must have a resume that people actually want to read, and you’ll be sure to get that if you work with a professional to compose the document for you. You will get the resume written in the industry style, and the resume will even contain industry buzz words that you need to use to get the attention of someone who would hire you. 

The Sections 

Every resume has its own sections, and every industry requires different sections depending on what the HR people in that field want to see. Ask your professional resume writer how they would structure your resume to suit your needs. Someone with a lot of experience might need to list every job they have ever done, but someone who is new or just out of college might need to list internships and apprenticeships they served while working in the field. 

Length 

Some resumes can be long because the people in that industry know they must have long documents that will satisfy HR staff. Some fields do not want much of a resume because they do not think it is necessary to weigh people down with all that extra writing. You should ask your writer what they would do based on information from your industry, and you should only lengthen your resume when it is absolutely necessary. 

Font 

A professional resume writer knows how to choose a font that actually looks good. You do not want to use something that is too serious, but you should not use something that seems played out or outdated. You might want to be a little more creative with the font because you can give people the sense that you thought about what to do, and you should ask your resume writer how they would choose a font given the industry you plan to apply to. 

Information 

You need to include contact information that will allow people to find you easily. Professional resumes likely only have a LinkedIn profile and email address attached, but you might need to add social media pages if you are applying to a field that relies on social media to survive. 

There are many people who would like to write up a new resume that will say good things about them, but they might not know how to do that. You can get a professional resume writing service to help you, and they will build a new resume that looks good, has the right information, and is the right length.

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High-Paying Jobs for Americans in 2019

 Everyone wants to earn a good living and make good money, but it’s not so easy if you’re in the wrong job or you made a career choice that has limited earning potential. Let’s face it, some jobs simply don’t pay well no matter how long you’ve been at it or how good you are. The good news is that it’s never too late for a career change. 

Getting a degree or a supplementary education in a field that has real earning potential is not completely out of reach no matter what your age is as long as you have the time and are willing to put in the work. With online classes and technical schools that make learning a new skill and getting a degree more convenient and affordable, you can make a new career choice that can yield you the big bucks. You only need to be willing to sacrifice some of your free time and maybe a few hours of sleep, but the payoff can be well worth it. If 2018 was not your year for earning an above average salary, then here are some of 2019 best-paying jobs so you can get in on the big money. 

It’s apparent that the healthcare industry is leading the pack with the most high-paying jobs, however, IT technology jobs, finance jobs, engineering jobs, and a few other professions are also in the running. To start off, we’ll take a look at some of the top paying healthcare jobs. 

Anesthesiologist 

While this might not be a wise choice of job or a career change if you’re heading into your golden years, it is a great choice for anyone just getting into the healthcare field who is still fairly young. An anesthesiologist can earn an average salary of $265,990.

Surgeon 

A surgeon can earn an average salary of $251,890. Of course, it takes a lot of study and schooling to become a successful surgeon much like it does to become an anesthesiologist. If you’re pushing your mid to late fifties, then you may want to rethink the idea of being a surgeon. 

Orthodontist 

If the idea of surgery and blood is unappealing to you, then consider a healthcare job in the field of oral care. An orthodontist can earn a salary of $229,380, and the field is a lot less stressful than that of a surgeon or anesthesiologist. 

Below are some of the top paying jobs of 2019 that are not in the healthcare industry. One key thing to keep in mind is that generally the higher the pay, the higher the stress level is for any job. 

Lawyer

Lawers can make millions of dollars per year depending on their area of expertise and how good they are. The average lawyer, however, can average an annual salary of $141,890. The stress level and work hours involved in earning a good living as a lawyer can be very high, so it’s not a career choice for the faint of heart. 

Petroleum Engineer 

Engineers, in general, can earn an above average salary, but petroleum engineers are in high demand these days. This particular field of engineering can earn you an average annual salary of $154,780. 

IT Manager 

Information technology is a booming industry, and jobs will always be in demand. Just about everyone uses a computer of some type for information whether it be a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone, and someone has to do all that programming and tech stuff to keep us one click or tap away from the information we’re looking for. That’s where the IT professional comes in. An IT manager, like most other management positions, has an above average stress level job. IT managers can earn a salary of $149,730.

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How To Make Your Home Perfect For Entertaining Guests

Entertaining guests is often a fun idea, yet hard to execute once you stare at the open space in your home. You may fear you don’t have enough room or enough things to entertain people, but you can actually make any space party-worthy. Attention to detail and planning go a long way when it comes to making your home the place to party. 

Before you begin, you must decide what your needs are when it comes to entertaining. Decide if you’re going to throw elegant cocktail parties, fun happy hour bashes or just your everyday barbecue gatherings. You can match your style to your type of entertaining to maximize your entertaining space. You don’t always need elaborate decorations or a perfect place, but more of a space designed to match your parties. 

Lots of Seating 

Make sure you have adequate seating for the number of people. People love to mingle and chit chat, but they also love to sit while they drink and just talk to friends. You can have tables set up throughout the room or just rely on your couches and chairs to accommodate people. Put enough seating in the area of the food so people can grab food then sit down to talk. You can even set up action stations where food is at each table so people can mix and mingle with guests and food at the same time. 

Food and Beverages 

Entertaining guests means having lots of food and drinks. If it’s a casual gathering, snacks and alcohol or sodas is perfect. If it’s more of a formal gathering, have different types of wine and spritzers available for guests. Everyone loves a good food tray so it’s always safe to go with different types of food. People love to stand around and just eat. Set out the food in different areas so guests have easy access to it. Make sure you have enough plates, cups and silverware as well. It also sets the mood so make the tone of the music match the tone of the party. If it’s casual, go for fun music. If it’s formal, go for more of an orchestra sound. 

Music 

Guests love good music. Create a fun playlist or tune your radio in to a great station to entertain guests. Don’t have it too loud, but at a nice volume for background music. If there’s a lull in conversation, it doesn’t seem as weird when the music is flowing. 

Clean and Declutter 

When entertaining guests, make your house look like those in the magazines. Put away the remote controls, the extra blankets and the dishes stacking up on the counter. Clean up the things you use on an every day basis. It’s often a joke that you want to make it look like no one lives in the house! If you have kids, put away the toys that are usually thrown across the living room floor. The stacks of mail on your counter can easily be put in a drawer. Don’t worry, you can get it all back out after the party.