How to Host Your Own At-Home Wine Tasting

Celebrate your love of wine with a fun wine tasting party with some of your closest friends. Putting together a wine tasting event doesn’t have to be a big deal. Ask your pals to bring a bottle while you take care of the set up. Here are a few tips to hosting a successful wine tasting.

1. Be prepared.
Make sure to have the proper tools and supplies. Prepare a table with a white cloth, decanters, spittoons, glasses, and coffee grounds in small bowls to neutralize the odors of the many aromas of the wines.

2. Choose up to five wines.
Stick to a selection of five wines so as not to overwhelm the tasting options. Choose wines with some sort of unifying factor, for example, wines from the same region, color, or type.

3. Serve light bites.
Offer your guests small snacks or cheese plate. Doing so will add a new element to the wine, which may taste different paired with food.

4. Discuss.
Once the wine has been tasted, go around and compare notes on which wines made biggest impact. Reveal the labels after the wines have been tasted.

How to Have the Perfect Wine Tasting at Home [Huffington Post]
How to Host a Wine Tasting Party [Real Simple]
How to Host a Wine Tasting [Food & Wine]

Happy Presidents’ Day

Remembering the courage and vision of past and present leaders, we honor and share the spirit of Presidents' Day together as a nation.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Wishing everyone a day filled with fun and happy memories!

Must-Read Tips for a Perfectly Packed Suitcase

More often than not, you have to limit the amount of things you pack in your suitcase on a vacation or work trip. This often involves packing and unpacking items, and maybe even sitting on top of your suitcase to force it to zip! These helpful tips will help you pack a perfect suitcase and even save room for that last minute item.

  • Try a roll up. Instead of a normal fold, which can waste space and often result in messy wrinkles, roll your clothing into tight tube shapes.
  • Utilize shrink-wrap. If the rolled fold still doesn’t give you enough space, vacuum-sealed plastic bags will surely do the trick. This is especially good for winter coats, towels, or other bulky items.
  • Check the weather. This may seem like a no-brainer, but we’ve all forgotten a bathing suit, umbrella, or a warm jacket for chilly nights out when traveling in different climates.
  • Properly pack toiletries. Avoid leaks by only filling soap and shampoo bottles halfway, then squeeze the excess air out and cap them tightly.
  • Protect your shoes. If you have to pack expensive heels or leather loafers, stuff them with tissue paper and then place them in a cloth bag to prevent scuffing or crushing.
  • Check your list. After you finish packing, cross-reference your suitcase with your checklist. You’ll thank yourself later if you realize you forgot deodorant on your beach vacation!

How to Pack a Suitcase [Travel + Leisure]
How to Pack a Suitcase Efficiently and Perfectly [LifeHack]
Packing a Suitcase [Martha Stewart]
How to Pack a Suitcase for Airline Travel [USA Today]
How to Pack a Suitcase [Instructables]

Public Domain/Public Domain

Learn More About Math With These Math Websites

Want to learn more about math? Even if you found trigonometry challenging in school, learning more about mathematics can help improve your problem solving and critical thinking skills. If you'd like to learn more about math, these useful websites can help:

Math.com
Organized by grade level and intended (in part) to provide tutoring help for students, Math.com is also a useful resource for anybody who wants to learn more about math. You can browse the site to learn more about algebra, calculus, trigonometry, and other math subjects, practice your skills with sample problems and online games, and even make use of a number of online tools such as a savings calculator.

Wolfram Mathworld
Wolfram develops the popular software application Mathematica, and the company's Mathworld site avows to be "the web's most extensive mathematics resource." The site offers articles on a huge variety of math topics, many of which are organized by subject matter. For example, Wolfram Mathworld has a huge library of articles about discrete math, another about statistics, and many many more.

Wikipedia's Mathematics Page
Wikipedia's "Mathematics" article offers a readable survey of the history of math. It also gathers a huge number of links to different math-related articles. Visit and you might just spend some time clicking through to read Wikipedia articles like those on "Mathematical Beauty" and "Computability Theory."

 

Public Domain/Openclipart.org

Get Your Morning Tea in the Mail With These Subscriptions!

If you’re an avid tea lover looking to find some new favorite brews, you’ll love the convenience of having these convenient tea subscriptions delivered to your home every month. (These services also make great gifts!)

Handmade Tea
Handmade Tea started in order to offer unique natural teas as an alternative to the existing loose leaf varieties available in supermarkets. Today, Handmade Tea delivers blends of their handmade teas to member’s doors every month, as well as taste notes and a taste-along video that adds even more to the experience.

Rishi Tea World Tour
Rishi Tea World Tour members can choose from the Tea Adventures Tour, Flight Club Tour, or the Tasters Tour to customize the experience with preferred blends. The site even allows you to view each month’s tea before committing to a subscription package.

Tea Force One
Tea Force One is a monthly tea subscription membership that delivers two unique blends of tea every month. Each tea chosen is hand selected after extensive taste testings by the Tea Force One team, and only teas produced by small farm growers are included in the service.

Batter Up: Three Websites for Baseball Enthusiasts

Baseball is everyone’s favorite all American pastime, no matter if you play baseball yourself or you just enjoy watching your favorite professional team. These informative and entertaining baseball websites will provide you with everything you need to follow your favorite sport while at work or on the go.

MLB
Major League Baseball’s official website features news, video, and stats from every team around the country. Fans can check the schedule of upcoming baseball games, keep up with stats, and research new players, as well as manage fantasy baseball teams — all from this one convenient site.

USA Baseball
This website is the online source for USA Baseball, an amateur league home to some of the most promising young baseball players in the nation. On the site, you’ll find schedules and information about USA Baseball events, photos and videos of recent games, and a detailed history of all of the players and coaches in the league.

Baseball Reference
Baseball Reference is a website created for baseball fanatics, with detailed statistics and elaborate player information that allows fans to follow along with games from their own home computers. This site also provides trade rumors, payrolls and signings, and leading scorers that you won’t find on other sites.

Public Domain/Public Domain

Give the Gift of Java With These Gourmet Coffee Sites

For gourmet coffee lovers, that first morning cup is one of the best parts of the whole day. The smell of roasting beans, the aroma as you pour, that first steamy sip—there are few things more enjoyable than a great cup of coffee, and these high-end coffee websites are full of delicious and caffeine-fueled gift ideas for the java enthusiast in your life.

Boca Java
An all-inclusive online resource for all things coffee, tea, or cocoa, Boca Java’s vibrant website is a quick and convenient way to purchase gourmet coffees for all of your loved ones. The site features Boca Java brand coffees in dark roasts, vanilla flavors, espresso blends and many other unique styles for everyone from the black coffee drinker to the frothy cappuccino lover. Boca Java also sells fair trade coffees and coffees that directly benefit respected charities, so you can keep on giving when you purchase one of their fresh roasts.

iGourmet
iGourmet is a popular website for a variety of gourmet foods, but their coffee section is one of the site’s very best features. There are a variety of respected brands to choose from, and each one features different roasts, flavors, and price points for coffee lovers of all tastes and budgets. iGourmet even offers gourmet coffee accompaniments and a six-month Coffee of the Month club that makes a great gift for anyone who loves that daily cup of joe.

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Learn to Balance Calories for a Healthier Lifestyle

Counting calories is one of the most frustrating things about any diet, but it’s a necessary step for losing weight. If you want to learn how to properly balance the calories you consume without feeling like you’re constantly scrutinizing the foods you eat, these simple tips from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can help.

Carbohydrates, fats and proteins all contain calories, and they’re all necessary parts of a balanced diet. A calorie is a unit of energy supplied by food, but unfortunately it is also what can cause you to gain weight if you consume too many. Once you balance the number of calories you eat with your physical activity level, that’s when you’ll start to lose weight.

Being in “caloric balance” means that you’re eating the same number of calories that your body is using, and it is a desirable state once you meet your goal weight. This online guide can show you how to determine if you’re in caloric balance, and it can also show you how much physical activity you should get each day based on this scale. Visit the CDC's Balancing Calories website to learn more!

Balancing Calories [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]

Public Domain/Freeimagescollection

3 Reasons to Take Time to Read Every Day

Whether you get lost in an e-reader, your smartphone, or a good old-fashioned hard-cover, the benefits of reading remain the same. Here are three reasons to always keep reading a part of your daily routine.

1. Reading reduces stress.
Studies report that reading is a more effective means of stress relief than listening to music, going for a walk, playing video games, or sipping tea. Pick up your favorite engrossing novel, enjoy some peace and quiet, and get lost in the story weaved by your favorite author.

2. Reading keeps your brain in shape.
Consider reading a form of exercise for your brain. A person's participation in creative activities, like reading, while young has been shown to slow cognitive decline later in life. Such activities may even ward off Alzheimer's disease.

3. Reading is free entertainment.
A visit to your local library can provide you with several hours of free entertainment. Compare this to the price of a movie or amusement park ticket, and your wallet will thank you.

Benefits of Reading: Getting Smart, Thin, Healthy, Happy [Reader's Digest]
7 Unconventional Reasons Why You Absolutely Should Be Reading Books [Huff Post]
10 Benefits of Reading: Why You Should Read Every Day [Lifehack]

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