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I am not a die-hard sports enthusiast, but confess I enjoyed watching the winter Olympics held in Turino Italy. It was nice to watch something positive and motivational for a change and to delight in some truly amazing and generous acts. I find the wide variety of sports showcased fascinating, proving there is a lot one can do in cold climates of winter!

Consider the spectrum of sports. There are the many varieties of skiing. The downhill event has skiers reaching speeds of 140 kilometers per hour (87 mph), you get speeding tickets for going that fast in a car! Imagine what it takes to be a ski jumper as you attempt to imitate flight and defy gravity the longest once you are airborne. Picture the freestyle skiers who twist and turn in the air so fast I don't know how the commentators can describe their incredible aerial feats. The cross-country skiers have tremendous endurance, and some stop to shoot rifles while trying to manage their beating hearts and gasping lungs.

We were witness to a newer Olympic event that debuted in Nagano in 1998, snowboarding. I think the snowboarders had the most fun creating their lexicon when they speak of a McTwist, Fakie, Duckfoot, an Ollie or a Nollie! Didn't it just used to be Narly ... or was that suffer speak and I've just dated myself?

There are those flashy speed skaters in their skin-tight outfits who fly around an oval ice surface at up to 60 km per hour (37 mph) battling G forces in the turns. The figure skaters entertained us with their dance routines and inspiring jumps. They also showed tremendous grit when Zhang Dan a Chinese pairs figure skater had a spectacular fall which made anyone watching cringe. To our disbelief, this 20 year old got up, completed the routine, and won the silver medal. Awesome.

We can't forget the curlers. A sport many find strange, but appreciate the accuracy involved in curling your rock down a 44 meter (49 yard) ice surface and trying to hit a bulls eye with two sweepers helping control speed and direction of a heavy stone, while you opponent is attempting to block you or knock you on every throw. Lots of yelling and physics accompany this sport! Imagine four Newfoundlanders winning the gold - talk about a party when they get home!

There is the luge where, depending on the event, one or two people lie on their backs on a sled going down a tight twisty run ... feet first. You might think that is scary enough until you see those in the skeleton event, maybe appropriately named. These athletes go down a steep ice track, on a sled, that has no brakes, headfirst. Hmmm ... where do they find people to do this?

Then there is ice hockey. Grown men and women strap on boots with blades on the bottom, use curved sticks to shoot a hard rubber disk in the opponents net. This happens as they skate at up to 50 km per hour (30 mph) and shoot the puck at over 150 km per hour (95 mph) while maneuvering around on ice. A shame both the NHL laden U.S.A. and Canadian teams didn't even make it to the semi-finals. Perhaps too much talent, not enough "team".

Over the 17-day period, 2,500 athletes from 85 nations competed for 84 medals in seven sports. We shared the pride of those on the podium as they smiled or cried as their national anthem played before the world. Two single acts at this twentieth Olympic Games stand out in my mind and will for many years.

I applaud gold medalist Joey Cheek, the USA speed skater for donating his $25,000 bonus to Right to Play, an organization of former Olympic, Paralympic and professional athletes worldwide who support using sport for development, health and peace. Good for you Joey, you are an inspiration to many.

Perhaps the defining moment of the Games was when Sara Renner, a Canadian broke her ski pole in a cross-country team sprint event. A Norwegian coach gave her a pole to finish the race. She and teammate Beckie Scott went on to win the silver medal. To me this unselfish act defines sportsmanship and is hard evidence the true Olympic spirit lives on. See you in Vancouver in 2010.

If you want to catch more and bigger largemouth bass you must know some basic information about their biology. Here you will learn everything about largemouth bass from how their metabolism works to if they posses colour vision. This is extremely valuable information for a serious bass angler, or serious bass angler wanna be.

Metabolism:Bass are cold blooded, meaning their metabolism is controlled by water temperature. When the water goes below, oh lets say around the 50 degree Fahrenheit mark, the bass' metabolism slows down making the fish not eat as much. When the water temperature goes above the 50 degree Fahrenheit mark bass get more and more active due to their metabolism. The best possible water temperature bass can stay in is around 68-78 degrees Fahrenheit (20-25 degrees Celsius). Any temperature above 80 degrees Fahrenheit causes low dissolved oxygen levels and makes the largemouth bass hard to breathe. Another good temperature for bass is when it is steady and there are no sudden changes. Bass in northern climates live longer but do not grow big. In southern climates bass live shorter, but grow larger.

Other Temperature Facts:When the water temperature turns to about 62-68 degrees Fahrenheit (16-20 degrees C) largemouth bass begin to spawn. Largemouth bass make beds on the bottom of the water in shallow areas of the water body. A good rule of thumb is for the deeper the bed, the bigger the fish. But in some places fishing for bass while they are spawning is illegal. Shortly after spawning they head to shallow water areas. Bass can tell when a cold front is coming, they binge eat as much as possible before the cold front and then stop eating altogether during the cold front. Oh, and if you do not know how a bass can tell what temperature the water is, it is proven that a largemouth bass can feel a change in temperature of 1 tenth of a degree.

Senses of The Largemouth Bass:

Lateral Line:The lateral line is made up of nerve endings on the side of the fish. The lateral line picks up vibrations in the water. This is so sensitive it can tell what size, speed, shape, etc. of the prey or predator.

Sight:Yes, largemouth do posses colour vision. The bass relies mostly on colours in clear or other high visibility water. In muddy water bass do not use this sense as much as their lateral line or smell. Fish see in 2 dimensions to the side of their body. Bass can see in 3 dimensions from about 5 inches from their snout and out to, depending on water clarity, 100 feet to 5 feet.

Hearing:Sound travels through water much better than air. But, bass have ears inside their skull instead of outside. Bass do, however, have a keen sense of hearing.

Smell:Bass use smell to detect prey or predators. Their smell is very sensitive and if they smell a predator nearby they will swim away from the area. And, therefore, if they smell prey they will go in search of it and eat it.

Our family home in Palatka, Florida was a grand Victorian dream that we salvaged from spiders and neglect. Our Victorian Lady featured a fabulous dining room, complete with twelve-foot high ceilings, ornate carved fireplace, and a ten-by-eight foot antique mirror. Furnishings included a pump organ, an English side table, a huge triple-tiered wrought iron chandelier, and an antique banquet table with twelve chairs.

We wallpapered the dining room ceiling with a faux-tin pattern, and then painted it a glossy forest green to reflect shimmers of candlelight. An Anaglypta border (thick, embossed wall covering), painted rouge red, framed frescoed plaster walls that were layered in transparent ambers, creams, and a hint of pink.

The dining chairs and antique overstuffed reading chairs matched the fabric window dressings that framed the huge water-color-effect leaded windows. The undulating fabric pattern tied together all the colors we'd chosen to enhance our dining delight. The gentle swags, imitating nature's motifs, had been selected to make us feel relaxed and connected to Mother Earth.

Embellishments to the chandelier included huge red and amber crystals that we'd uncovered in an antique-junk shop and mini shades. I had spray-painted the shades black with gold-gilded interiors. The elegant room, dressed in its finery on a budget, was the setting for our nightly family dining, because it offered the only place to sit and eat together in the house.

One evening, as I prepared for guests, I got out my string, to make sure that the table, now beautifully set with turkey and all the trimmings, was aligned perfectly with the center of the chandelier. My children laughed at my obsession, but helped hold the string while I measured to make sure the table was correctly centered.

We met our friends on the front porch as they arrived, and then migrated to our perfectly-arranged dining room, where our magnificently-staged table was waiting. But as we walked into the dining room, we found our beloved golden retriever, standing at attention in the middle of the table, after having devoured our feast.

No one noticed that the table was sitting in the exact center of the room.

Creating a fabulous dining room for your family and guests deserves careful planning. Design your eating space using colors that enhance taste, small patterns mimicking nature, and soft textures to counter hard surfaces. Remember, the most important ingredient, the people, deserve a fine backdrop. And, feed your pets first!

If you own an apartment you should well consider purchasing renters insurance. What does it cover? Renters insurance covers a number of incidents and will protect you in the event of the sudden loss of your valuables. Let's take a look at the benefits derived from purchasing renters insurance.

The first thing that one needs to keep in mind when thinking about rental insurance is that just because a property owner has insurance on his or her building or buildings it does not mean that your valuables will be protected through the owner's insurance. Rather, when a property owner purchases insurance for their rental properties it covers the basics - that means the property itself and not what resides within it. Therefore, to adequately protect yourself, you will need to acquire renters insurance.

What kind of things does an insurance policy cover for a renter? Well, in truth coverage varies from one policy to the next. Nevertheless, most policies will cover your valuables in the event that certain acts of God cause the destruction of your property. For instance, if you are the victim of a fire caused by lightening, a windstorm, a hail storm, an explosion, a civil upset, vandalism, theft, or water damage, you may be able to collect on any policy that you have that is active. Conversely, without insurance you may find yourself in quite a bind. You can lose your furniture and all your property and have no way to replace such items when they are damaged.

One of the first things you should do before you start looking for an insurance policy is to take a full inventory of everything you own. In fact, you may even want to get estimates on various items, especially antiques and the like. Once you have a complete inventory you will want to store your list in a safe place like in a fire proof box or safe or even in a safety deposit box. You will also want to update the list once a year to add any new purchases you may have made and keeping your receipts is a good idea.

Different insurance policies have different regulations attached to them. Be sure you understand the type of coverage you are getting. It is a frightful event when you don't know what kind of coverage you really have until it is too late - when something bad happens is not the time to find out that your insurance won't cover the incident. Be a wise consumer and really pay attention to what you are purchasing.

Ultimately, every renter needs insurance. Insurance is created for the "what if" events in your life and if you encounter problems, the last thing you want is to be caught off guard. With insurance, you may have to deal with some losses, but you will be able to successfully recover from such losses in a little time.

Anybody who has visited my website at Motivation & Self Esteem for Success or has read any of the many articles I have written will realise what a proponent I am of reading books and educating yourself. If you want to become successful at anything you simply must do this, in my opinion.

However, not everything you learn and/or read is of equal value. As the world's store of information becomes exponentially greater, almost by the minute, you must learn to become more and more discerning about what you read and believe.

With this in mind, I believe you need to understand five basic things:

1. - Find out what you are interested in,
2. - Look for information on subjects of interest,
3. - Search for constants to confirm your understanding,
4. - Filter out needless information and garbage from real knowledge,
5. - Act only on what you believe to be the truth.

To demonstrate the above points I have devised a little mystery for you. I hope you will find this not only a stimulating exercise but also a bit of fun.

Listed below is a set of 16 clues to a murder investigation involving the occupants of five consecutive houses. They are all you need to solve the mystery of "Who Killed Who."

The "Who Killed Who" Murder Mystery Clues:

1. - The Motivator plays bowls on Saturday.
2. - When facing the houses, the house with the blue roof is immediately to the right of the house with the grey roof.
3. - The man in the middle house plays golf twice a week.
4. - The woman in the house with the blue roof is a hockey player.
5. - The Scientist lives in the first house, near the cheesecake shop.
6. - The person who drives a Jaguar lives next to the man with the Dalmatian.
7. - The person who lives in the house with the red roof drives a Renault.
8. - The Scientist lives in the house next to the house with the green roof.
9. - The Accountant's house has a Volkswagen parked in the driveway.
10. - The man who drives the Lexus owns a Shitzhu.
11. - The Doctor lives in the house with the brown roof.
12. - The house with the Renault in the driveway is next to the house next door to where the Doberman lives.
13. - The murderer's Poodle went missing on Sunday.
14. - The Lawyer hates dogs but loves cheesecake.
15. - The man who drives the Porsche is a keen jogger and was seen running past the victim's house just after midnight on Wednesday.
16. - The victim used to enjoy playing lacrosse on Tuesday evenings.

If you solve the mystery all the clues will fit together like a successful crossword puzzle. If you are having difficulty you can email me for some clues.

If you would like to drive all your friends crazy with this you may copy it and send it to them providing nothing is changed and the full contents, including the resource box below remains intact.

Happy problem solving and remember - books are a wonderful source of education.

Hint: Make a drawing of the five houses.