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Clubhouse Climber Bounce House

The Clubhouse Climber from KidWise Outdoors is a residential grade inflatable bounce house intended for kids up to 12 years old and are under 100 lbs. Capacity is up to 5 kids at one time. This is an large bouncer slide combo. The foot print required for this unit is approximately 16' x 16'. Like all inflatables, it is recommended that you add a minimum of a 3' perimeter for your safety zone.

I am not sure who was more excited to test this inflatable bounce house out, the kids or me? I have been writing product reviews on inflatables for quit some time. Therefore, my kids have had a lot of playtime with inflatables. Be prepared, this arrives in one box and weighs approximately 130 lbs. The bouncer itself weighs under 120 lbs. It took me about 15 minutes to unpack and set up. Most of that time was consumed opening the packaging of this bouncer. The inflatable time was right at one minute.

Kids have several options for entering the Clubhouse Climber. On the front right corner of the inflatable is a ramp entry tunnel. This is the easiest way for kids of all ages to enter. No parental assistance needed. If this is were the kids enter they will come in to the bounce area. The bounce floor for the Clubhouse Climber is approximately 6' x 8'. Plenty of room to accommodate 3 bouncers at a time. In the back right corner of the bounce area is a climbing wall that takes the kids to the next level up. Once on this second level, the kids can venture down the slide that is right in front of them, turn to the right and exit through climbing wall, or turn to the left and explore the catwalk to the tower. If the kids choose the catwalk they will find the tower with the third slide. The tower slide is a curved slide that returns to the bounce area.

From a kids perspective, this bouncer slide combo has hours of imagination and adventure. From a parents perspective the Clubhouse Climber get 2 thumbs up!!! Once your kids are in this inflatable bounce house there is plenty for them to do. There is a natural counterclockwise flow that keeps the kids moving. This is a definite bonus. Not only does this wear the kids out, it keeps them separated, which ultimately promotes a safer environment. Not to mention, this inflatable is one of the only ones that I have come across that uses green and tan as the color scheme. This definitely blends in to the natural surroundings a little more then the traditional carnival colors.

Monday, 15-Nov-2010 08:02

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Pearl Jewelry - The Story of Pearl Hunters

As long as pearl jewelry have been known to people, they have been a highly sought commodity for their beauty. It's only in recent times however that the industry has taken the hunt for the perfect pearl to a whole different level. Today, the shiny orbs that we see on in display in jewelry stores have actually almost always been grown in farms.

That's a far cry from the dangerous extraction and collection methods used before the invention of modern technology. In the past, not more than 100 years ago, the only way to retrieve pearls was by diving in lakes, floods and the ocean to pick them up, one at the time. The unfortunate divers who'se job it was to do this, were often poor and lured by the relative large sums they could get. The diver would sometimes have to dive as deep as 100 feet on one single breath of air. In order to preserve air and to stay submerged the longest, the divers would hold on to heavy stones on the way down.

Naturally, this dangerous activity was reserved for the desperate or the powerless - in many cases slaves or extremely poor peasents. Today, this method is all but obsolete in most places of the world. The cheaper cultured pearls have become popular and are many times the only pearls available to the consumer.

There are however still a few isolated areas that practice this old art of pearl diving. Some of the finest natural pearl speciments come from the gulf of Bahrain. Here, divers still risk their health to retrieve what are considered the top of the crop in the world. In fact, Bahrain wants no part of the sale of cultured pearls, banned from trade. Bahrain is one of the few places on earth that does an active job in trying to preserve the natural habitat and waters from pollution.

It's an interesting story and one that continues to fascinate buyers around the world. Somehow, the beauty of the pearl grows when it's been retrieved from the depth of the ocean.

Monday, 15-Nov-2010 08:00

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Buying Pearl Jewelry Without Being Ripped Off

Buying pearl jewelry can be fun, exciting and confusing. Whether you're considering a gift of pearl jewelry for someone special or as a treat for yourself, take some time to learn the terms used in the industry. Here's some information to help you get the best quality pearl jewelry for your money, whether you're shopping in a traditional brick and mortar store or online.

Pearls

Natural or real pearls are made by oysters and other mollusks. Cultured pearls also are grown by mollusks, but with human intervention; that is, an irritant introduced into the shells causes a pearl to grow. Imitation pearls are man-made with glass, plastic, or organic materials.

Because natural pearls are very rare, most pearls used in jewelry are either cultured or imitation pearls. Cultured pearls, because they are made by oysters or mollusks, usually are more expensive than imitation pears. A cultured pearl's value is largely based on its size, usually stated in millimeters, and the quality of its nacre coating, which give it luster. Jewelers should tell your if the pearls are cultured or imitation. Some black, bronze, gold, purple, blue and orange pearls, whether natural or cultured, occur that way in nature; some, however, are dyed through various processes. Jewelers should tell you whether the colored pearls are naturally colored, dyed or irradiated.

Clams, oysters, mussels and many other mollusks with limy shells are known to produce pearls. But very few kinds yield gem pearls of jeweler's quality. The pearl is an abnormal growth of mother-of-pearl, or nacre, imbedded in the soft bodies of these shellfish. It is built up, layer upon layer, in the same way as nacre is added to the lining of the growing shell and always has the same color and luster. For example, over the country, hundreds of good-sized pearls are found each year in the oysters we eat. Unfortunately these have no commercial value regardless of whether they have been cooked or not because they are dull opaque white or purple like the shell of the parent oyster. In recent times almost all pearls of gem quality come from the oriental pearl oyster which has a bright shimmering translucent nacre.

A pearl starts growing when some irritating foreign substance such as a sand grain, bit of mud, parasite or other object becomes lodged in the shell-producing gland called the mantle. Pearls formed in the soft flesh where nacre can be added on all sides are most likely to be spherical and the most highly prized. By far the great majority are flattened or variously distorted and have little value. Size, color, luster and freedom from flaws are other essential qualities. Unlike other gems, such as diamonds, pearls have an average life of only about 50 years. In time the small amount of water in a pearl's make-up is lost and its surface cracks. Because they are mostly lime, necklaces which are worn often are injured by the acid secretions of the human skin.

Saturday, 6-Nov-2010 06:23

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Buying Pearl Jewelry Without Being Ripped Off

Tuesday, 10-Nov-2009 00:56

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All that is required

The key fifth vote in the 2005 case was cast by Justice Anthony Kennedy. He may be in a position to cast the deciding vote again, but how he might vote was not clear by his questions and comments during the freshwater perl jewelry oral argument.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens seemed receptive to imposition of a ban. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito challenged that approach.

Chief Justice Roberts repeatedly questioned why harsh juvenile sentences like those of Sullivan and Graham couldn't be reviewed case by case to pearl earrings determine if they were out of proportion to the underlying crime. He said that approach – rather than a categorical ban – fit neatly with the high court's existing approach in Eighth Amendment challenges.

Gowdy countered that the high court, in the 2005 juvenile death penalty decision, drew a categorical line at age 18.

"That is because 'death is different,' " Roberts shot back, referring to the frequently cited justification for imposing special rules in capital punishment cases. The chief justice wondered aloud why the court shouldn't follow a shell pearl earrings less disruptive path toward case-by-case review.

"It just comes down to 'adolescents are different,' your honor," Gowdy replied.

Later, Justice Ginsburg raised the chief justice's proportionality issue again, saying such a review done on the spot at a juvenile's sentencing would not work. "You can't make a judgment until years later to see how that person has done," she said.

States would still be able to mete out wish pearl long prison sentences in juvenile cases, Gowdy and Stevenson said, but they would have to recognize the possibility of rehabilitation.

"All that is required is a meaningful opportunity for the prisoner to demonstrate he is reformed and can play a meaningful role in society," Gowdy said.

Colorado and Texas have rewritten their juvenile sentencing laws to end life-without-parole punishment for those under 18. Instead, the maximum juvenile sentence in both states is now 40 years in prison followed by an gemstone jewelry assessment for potential parole.

Tuesday, 10-Nov-2009 00:56

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"We can't tell which adolescents

The heart of the argument is that because juveniles are more impulsive, less mature, and less able to appreciate the pearl earrings full magnitude of their wrongdoing, they are less morally culpable for their crimes. If they are less culpable, the argument goes, they should not be punished as harshly as adults.

A second, parallel argument is that because a juvenile's character is not yet fully formed, it is impossible for experts to accurately predict which young offenders will grow out of their violent, unlawful behaviors and which gemstone jewelry will not.

Mr. Graham's lawyer Bryan Gowdy argued that this uncertainty about which juvenile offenders are capable of reform justifies a categorical ban on life without parole sentences for juveniles in nonhomicide crimes.

"We can't tell which adolescents are going to change and which won't," he said. But he added, "Graham at 47 will not be the person he was at 17."

Mr. Gowdy and Bryan Stevenson, Mr. Sullivan's lawyer, are asking the high court to extend the reasoning of a 2005 decision in wish pearl which the Supreme Court ruled 5-to-4 that the juvenile death penalty violated the Eighth Amendment.

Tuesday, 10-Nov-2009 00:55

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Florida Solicitor General

The two cases, Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida, ask the justices to consider whether sentencing a juvenile to pearl earrings spend the rest of his or her life in prison is cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Constitution's Eighth Amendment.

"It is unquestionably unusual," said Bryan Stevenson, whose client went to prison for life at age 13. "To state to a child of 13 that you will die in prison is cruel," he told the justices.

Joe Sullivan was sentenced to life without parole after being convicted of beating, raping, and robbing a 72-year-old woman. He was 13 at the gemstone jewelry time of the crime.

Terrance Graham was sentenced to life without parole after pleading guilty to armed burglary and assault and after having his probation revoked for participating in a series of armed home invasion robberies. He was 17 at the time.

Florida Solicitor General Scott Makar defended the sentences, saying they reflected a balance struck by state lawmakers and shell pearl strand Florida judges. "It goes to the core of state sovereignty," he said, for a state to develop and administer its own justice system.

Tuesday, 10-Nov-2009 00:54

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It is a potential watershed

Events will now move fast. There will be an emergency summit possibly next week to chose a President of the European Council and wish pearl a High Representative for foreign affairs.
With the treaty signed Tony Blair will have to decide whether he is a candidate for President and whether he'll lobby Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, the power brokers.
If he fails then speculation will re-surface that the gemstone jewelry current British foreign secretary David Miliband may get the foreign affairs post.

Britain's opposition Tories will now have to say whether they are committed to a referendum now the treaty has been signed. All the signs are that they'll back away from a vote but try and re-negotiate, to claim some powers back from Brussels

Washington - A sharply divided US Supreme Court on Monday debated whether to invalidate state laws that permit juveniles to be sentenced to life in prison without parole for nonhomicide crimes.

It is a potential watershed decision. But after two hours of freshwater perl jewelry arguments in two different cases, it was unclear whether a majority of the high court's nine justices were in agreement on the issue.

Tuesday, 10-Nov-2009 00:48

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At Supreme Court, no accord over life sentences for juveniles

There was no fanfare, no announcement beforehand. The euro-sceptic Czech president just went ahead and signed a treaty he dislikes intensely. Some had hoped he would hold out longer but his options had shell pearl strand gone. He had won a concession to opt out from the charter of fundamental rights but in exchange he had agreed to sign. The last legal hurdle was overcome this morning when the Czech constitutional court ruled the treaty did not violate the Czech constitution.

So ends an eight-year journey. The treaty started life as a constitution but it was rejected by the French and Dutch. It was re-born as a pearl earrings treaty although it was largely the same document. It had been shorn of some references that implied Europe was growing closer to being a federal state.

The British goverment, who promised the people a vote, changed its mind. The treaty was described as a technical change that did not require a referendum. All the indications were that the British people wanted their say and most likely would have rejected the treaty.

The Irish were the last to vote a few weeks ago. They had earlier voted 'no' but fears about the economy persuaded them to freshwater perl jewelry change their minds.