Madison just got out of school for the summer (Friday was her last day).  We’ll have a couple of good weeks with her, and then she’ll get bored and drive everyone nuts.  If your kids are like that too, the KinderCare Learning Centers Summer Camp is something you should check out (I know I am).  According to a recent national “Summer Fun” parents’ survey conducted by KinderCare Learning Centers, more than half of parents surveyed believe that their children should enjoy a balance of relaxed fun and continued learning in between school years. Additionally, the KinderCare survey found that one in four parents of preschoolers send their children to day camp during the summer (25%) and more than half sign them up for recreational activities or lessons (59%).  That’s why KinderCare Summer Camp hosts 12-uniquely themed week-long summer programs that infuse the fun of traditional camp with learning, discovery and adventure for children pre-school through school age.  Summer Camp themes are:

·         Dig Ancient Egypt

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This is a guest post.

Learning how to do some easy DIY car maintenance tips will not only save you money, but also give your car a longer lifespan.  Don’t worry if you don’t think you’re mechanically inclined; these easy tips are not too difficult and well worth the time and effort.

1. Change your car’s oil.

Changing your car’s oil may sound dirty and a bit difficult, but with the right tools and some patience, it is a pretty simple task.  The general consensus on changing oil is about every 3,000 miles or every six months.  Changing a vehicle’s oil helps the engine to perform at optimum levels, thus extending the life of your vehicle.  A good idea is to ask your friends or family who know how to change oil and ask them to show and teach you how to do it.

2. Change your car’s air filter.

You can also change your car’s air filter to keep your car running at an optimal level.  A clean air filter will assure that your car will accelerate properly.  The recommended time frame to change air filters is every 12,000 miles, or once a year.

It does not take long to change an air filter. Simply go to your local auto parts store and they can assist you with purchasing the correct filter for your vehicle.  You will need a flat-head screwdriver to unscrew the nuts on the filter housing as well. Simply unscrew the nuts, take old filter out, and put the new filter in.  It’s that simple.

3. Replace your own headlights.

Have you ever had a headlight go out and think, “Oh, I don’t want to have to take the car into the shop for this”?  I have some good news for you: You don’t have to ever again because replacing your own headlights is quite simple.

Head to you local auto shop and tell them the make and model of your car. They will be able to help you pick out the correct replacement bulb.  Once you’re back home, open the hood of your car and find the back of the headlight.  There will be 3 wires leading out of the plug with some sort of fastener keeping them attached.  Unlatch these and pull the plug from its socket.  Replace with the new bulb, re-secure it, and you’re good to go!

4. Check and refill the fluids in your car regularly.

If you check your cars fluids regularly and add as needed, your car will perform much more efficiently.  The fluids that you can regularly check and refill include battery fluid, brake fluid, transmission fluid, and coolant fluid. You can always purchase these fluids and keep in your garage or trunk for when you need them.

5. Clean your air vents regularly.

You may think that your vents wouldn’t get clogged due to the wind rushing through them while driving at high speeds, but sometimes leaves and other debris can build up, and if left clogged, it can cause problems.

If your vents are clogged, it makes your AC work harder and overworks the fan.  This is simple to take care of.  All you have to do is open your hood and look at the main vents.  If you see any leaves, twigs, or any other debris, simply remove them and you’ll be able to rest assured that your vents will be able to perform their job effectively.

Dominique Rodriguez is a contributing writer at CreditDonkey.  She writes about roadside assistance credit cards and how to evaluate the options.

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People often wonder why kids are “so bad nowadays”. I really do think some of it comes down to parenting.

At both Madison’s school and Will’s school, I see kids coming out of cars with their coats not even zipped! Now, I live in Illinois where it has been hovering between 15-20 degrees all week. Not only are my kids zipped, they have hats, gloves, hoods up etc. Heck, they’d be in boots if there was enough snow for that right now.  We aren’t talking eight graders here either — I’m seeing this will preschools and kindergardeners.  You know, kids who don’t know  better.

Another parent lets their kids out at 8:40 or earlier (this is preschool).  The teachers don’t let the kids in till 8:50.  Again, in 20 degree or less weather, are you nuts?

This isn’t engineering jobs or rocket science people!  I just don’t get it at all.  Another example of this is parents who go to Monday Night Football game and stay out late on Monday night, only to keep their kids out of school the next day because they were too tired to take them.  The best is when these same parents tell their kids to lie and say they were sick.  Seriously?  What are we teaching our kids here?

Another annoyance of mine happens daily at Will’s school.  We are suppose to line up (as parents) behind the orange cone that has your kids’ teacher’s name on it.  Simple, right?  Well, it’s now, what, December?  Parents still aren’t doing this.  They aren’t asking for engineering recruitment here.  They are asking you to stand in line!  You aren’t getting your kid any quicker than I’m getting mine by NOT listening.  Most of the time, the teachers call the kids out who’s parents are doing what they are suppose to.

By no means am I a perfect parent.  I’ve made a ton of mistakes along the way.  However, if I don’t stand in line like I am suppose to, what am I teaching my kids?  If I tell my kids to lie, what am I teaching my kids?  If I don’t follow the rules of the road, what am I teaching my kids?

Kids learn by example.  The watch what you as a parent does.  If you don’t follow the rules, how do you expect your children too?  Madison and I butt heads every single day.  However, it’s for her own good (I hope she sees that when she’s older!).  If I didn’t care, I’d  let her do whatever she wanted.

And unfortunately I see a lot of that lately.

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I know I have talked about how much I love Entrecard.  They are a great way to drive traffic to your blog and have a great community.  Today, some cool changes took place and some not so cool changes too.

First, the cool changes.  Now, you can see how many times a person has dropped their Entrecard on you.  It also lists your last 5 posts that you have done on your blog.  Both are very cool changes that I think are great.

Now, onto the not so good changes.  The change that I absolutely hate that happened today (without any warning) is that you can only drop 600 cards per ip.  Now, if you have one blog this is no big deal.  However, if you have more than 2 blogs in the system (I have 3), this royally screws you.  How?  Normally, you can drop 300 cards per account you have.  Since I have 3 accounts, I was dropping up to 900 cards a day.  Yes, I actually do read the majority of those blogs I was dropping my cards on (not everybody updates daily or weekly).  It would take me several hours a day to do.  However, the traffic that I received from that made it well worth me doing.  By looking at my entrecard stats, I can definitely see the difference in my traffic depending on the number of cards I dropped.  More cards = more traffic.

Now, this not only effects me.  This effects every person who has more than 2 blogs in the system.  If I drop evenly between my blogs, I will drop only 200 cards per blog.  I am losing out on potentially 100 more drops (if everyone reciprocates).  If this is the case, this blog will never make the top three spots nor will my other two blogs since I won’t be able to reciprocate everyone who drops on me.  I am also going to assume that the top three blogs are people who only have a single blog in the system.  If that is the case, they will be dropping 300 cards to my 200 on a daily basis.  Tell me how I ever catch up to the lost traffic.  The top spots got there by dropping 300 cards daily.

This change effects anyone who uses a shared computer and/or ip to do their drops.  Husbands and wives won’t be able to both have accounts and not effect each others ability to drop.  People won’t be able to drop (or be limited) from work if anybody else in the building does Entrecard.  And heaven forbid, if you have to use an internet cafe or library to drop.  Who knows if somebody already used up the 600 drops off those ips?

What’s the reason for this change?  Well, according to Phirate (one of the head guys of Entrecard):

It’s not a penalty, it’s just our only real rational response to people creating multiple “spam blogs” and going nuts dropping a thousand + per day. Unfortunately, some legitimate users will get caught in the cross-fire.

Well, go after the spam blogs.  Set up a system where the blogs have to be 30-60 days old and have 10 posts or so.  That should weed out a bunch of them right off the bat.  I would think they would rather be able to say that they have 7,000 good blogs in the system instead of 6,000 good and 1,000 not so good.

Another issue with this is that it is pretty easy to change your IP.  If you use AT&T like I do, it is simple (just a pain in the butt to have to do everyday).  I won’t go into how you do it, but if I know how to do it, the spammers definitely do to.  Also, another way around this is to use a proxy.  Again, if I figured this out, so can the spammers.

Entrecard, I love your system.  It does exactly what it is suppose to — it drives traffic to my blogs.  However, you are hurting the very people who make the system great.  I would think that you would want your best users to be able to put more of their quality blogs into the system.

If you agree, please let them know.  From the few people I have talked to like Jenn, I am not the only one who doesn’t agree with this change.  Entrecard has made tons of changes based on what the users want.  I am hoping that the users can bring about change again.

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Bill and I thought we were going nuts for about a week now.  Every so often we would hear what sounded like a radio.  It was driving us nuts.  It wouldn’t last long enough, so we could figure out where it was coming from.  Last night, I finally located where it was coming from.  I had already tested the speakers from the entertainment center, so I knew it wasn’t coming from there.  Bill lifted the love seat last night and guess what we found!

A cell phone.  What sounded like a radio was a ring tone.  And how did that get there?  Well, Bill had a poker party at the house while I was gone and one of his friends spent the night and slept on the couch.  It was his phone that has been ringing for the past week!

I am glad to say that I am not crazy and that we got to the bottom of this mystery!

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