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Where to Play?: As noted, your pickleball mentor will know of all the hot spots and hidden gems in your area. There are also tons of resources online for finding places to play. For example, almost every area has a Facebook group that you can join to find out all about court options, open play times and leagues. Another option is to just show up at the local courts and ask people where the best places to play are for beginners. Some of them may welcome you into their games or offer guidance on when/where are the best places for beginners to hop in.

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At Harmony Communities, we feel strongly that each resident has a sense of home. That they come home from work and feel pride in their environment and in their place in the greater community. That families are comfortable raising children in our neighborhoods, and that couples and singles know that they belong to something bigger than their four walls. In other words, we seek to create harmony within each community, making our communities not just passable, but peaceful, safe, functional, and beautiful.

The post How to Begin Playing Pickleball appeared first on Other CMS.

Those hours in which Sunday afternoon dissolves into Sunday night are the black hole of the American weekend. Sure, that time should be as much your own as Friday night or Saturday afternoon, but the reality of that looming Monday can’t help but cast a shadow. It might be no more than an echo of childhood memories of having to trade fun for school, but there’s no denying that the Sunday blues can be very real for some people.

Sunday p.m., however, doesn’t just have to be about coming to grips with the inevitable. Indeed, that time can be an essential part of your weekend if you just make a few plans. Here are some tips for taking back Sunday.

Hit the Stores: Is there a plasma-screen television or other special household product on your shopping list? Wait until Sunday evening. Not only do stores tend to be less crowded but you have the advantage of introducing a note of excitement into your Sunday routine.

Meal Time: Sunday evening is an ideal time to interact with friends and neighbors. Once a month, get together at someone’s house for a very informal dinner party. The idea is to make it as low-impact as possible – we’re talking potluck, BYOB and nothing dressier than shorts or sweats.

Head to the Cineplex: Nothing breaks the tired Sunday mold better than taking in a movie. But timing is essential – make sure you hit that last discount matinee. Also bear in mind that the most popular restaurants are often packed from Thursday to Saturday. Sundays, however, tend to be quieter. What better time to check out that new eatery everyone’s talking about?

Higher Power: A number of religious denominations hold Sunday evening services. These carry the benefit of letting you sleep in – a not unimportant consideration, depending on how you spent Saturday night – and also tend to be more intimate and less formal than their morning counterparts. Sunday evening also more readily lends itself to reflecting on the weekend’s events and the blessings of life.

Family Hour: Sunday evening is perfect for family fun. Whether it’s going out for dinner or simply a walk, gathering around a board game or dealing cards at the kitchen table, the mellow vibe enables families to talk and connect before the start of another hectic work and school week.

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At Harmony Communities, we feel strongly that each resident has a sense of home. That they come home from work and feel pride in their environment and in their place in the greater community. That families are comfortable raising children in our neighborhoods, and that couples and singles know that they belong to something bigger than their four walls. In other words, we seek to create harmony within each community, making our communities not just passable, but peaceful, safe, functional, and beautiful.

The post How To Lose the Sunday Blues appeared first on Other CMS.

At Harmony Communities, we feel strongly that each resident has a sense of home. That they come home from work and feel pride in their environment and in their place in the greater community. That families are comfortable raising children in our neighborhoods, and that couples and singles know that they belong to something bigger than their four walls. In other words, we seek to create harmony within each community, making our communities not just passable, but peaceful, safe, functional, and beautiful.

The post Here’s Why the Beach is Fun in Fall appeared first on Other CMS.

At Harmony Communities, we feel strongly that each resident has a sense of home. That they come home from work and feel pride in their environment and in their place in the greater community. That families are comfortable raising children in our neighborhoods, and that couples and singles know that they belong to something bigger than their four walls. In other words, we seek to create harmony within each community, making our communities not just passable, but peaceful, safe, functional, and beautiful.

The post Show Your True Colors with a July 4 Party appeared first on Other CMS.

What You Don’t Know About St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day in America has experienced an intriguing evolution over the past century and a half. Ostensibly a saint’s day in the Roman Catholic Church – in Ireland, it’s treated more as the equivalent of our Thanksgiving – it has morphed from an expression of Irish-American immigrant pride complete with parades and performances to an almost generic holiday anybody can celebrate as long as they like green beer.

Due to that odd evolution, most Americans know little (and, to be fair, care less) about the holiday’s origins or even its namesake. To cite but one example, few St. Patrick’s Day revelers realize they are celebrating not the saint’s birthday but that of his death: March 17, 461 AD. While you rummage through your closet for the proper green attire and consider cooking corned beef and cabbage, here are a few overlooked facts that can make your St. Patrick’s Day more rewarding. Erin Go Bragh!

Ireland’s Patron Saint Was British: Much of what is known about St. Patrick is shot through with folklore and legend, but historians generally believe he was born in Britain near the end of the 4th century. At 16, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and sold as a slave to a Celtic priest in Northern Ireland before escaping back to Britain six years later. He later returned to Ireland to serve as a Christian missionary. By the way, his real name was Maewyn Succat until he changed it to Patrick when he became a bishop.Those Snakes? Just a Fish Story: Among the legends most associated with St. Patrick is that he stood atop a hillside and banished snakes from Ireland. Truth be told, the latest research indicates there were no snakes in Ireland to begin with. There are no signs of the reptiles in the country’s fossil record and water has surrounded Ireland since the last glacial period. Before that, the region was covered in ice and would have been too cold for snakes.

On the March: Records show that a St. Patrick’s Day parade was held on March 17, 1601, in a Spanish colony in what is now St. Augustine, Fla. More than a century later, homesick Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched in Boston in 1737 and in New York City on March 17. Enthusiasm for St. Patrick’s Day parades in New York City, Boston and other early American cities grew from there and took on a much larger importance with the arrival of massive waves of Irish immigrants.

‘Irish Need Not Apply’: While the nation has long embraced St. Patrick’s Day as a shorthand celebration of Irish culture, the first wave of immigrants to these shores was positively reviled. Beginning in 1845, a devastating potato blight caused widespread hunger throughout Ireland. While approximately 1 million perished, another 2 million abandoned their land in the world’s largest-single diaspora of the 19th century. More than 1 million came to the United States, where they were looked down upon as disease-ridden and unskilled and regularly denied work and basic human rights. The first ghettos in American history were built to house the Irish.
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At Harmony Communities, we feel strongly that each resident has a sense of home. That they come home from work and feel pride in their environment and in their place in the greater community. That families are comfortable raising children in our neighborhoods, and that couples and singles know that they belong to something bigger than their four walls. In other words, we seek to create harmony within each community, making our communities not just passable, but peaceful, safe, functional, and beautiful.

The post What You Don’t Know About St. Patrick’s Day appeared first on Other CMS.

Spring brings with it the year’s prime wedding season, as brides not just in June but across the next six months take advantage of warm weather and abundant sunshine to plan ceremonies they and their betrotheds will remember and celebrate for the rest of their lives. Suffice it to say, hundreds of details and decision go into making that wedding day vision a reality.

The happy couple’s parents have a role to play in that process but what shape that takes depends greatly on factors ranging from economic necessity to the type of ceremony the couple prefers. As a parent, you want to do all you can to help; that said, you must be very careful not to overstep your bounds. With love in the air and weddings in preparation this spring, here are a few dos and don’ts for the parents of the bride and groom.

Talk It Over: As a parent, you are a generation older than the couple and as such might have outdated notions of what a 21st century wedding should look like. It is imperative to sit down early in the process and frankly discuss the matter with the engaged couple. Remember that weddings are a show of independence and are in no way a reflection of your parenting skills. Be careful not to meddle.

No Unsolicited Advice: Weddings are nostalgic occasions for parents, an opportunity to reflect fondly on their own nuptials of years past. But as parents, it’s important to keep in mind this is ultimately the couple’s day, not yours. Make it clear that you want to be a resource for the couple but keep your advice to yourself until they ask for your input.

Meet the In-Laws: Marriages extend your family ties so reach out to your child’s partner’s parents after their engagement to relish in the excitement. Traditionally, the groom’s mother reaches out to the bride’s mother but nowadays the order doesn’t matter. The important thing is to get in touch in the spirit of friendship and family.

Elbow Grease: The DIY wedding trend is on the rise because it allows for maximum creativity at minimum cost. The downside, however, is that it requires family members to pitch in more than usual. Be proactive by volunteering to tackle the most difficult tasks at hand. Also enlist the help of able-bodied family members and friends; you’ll be surprised how willingly they are to help out.

Circulate: Wedding receptions simply do not enable the couple to spend as much time with their guests as they’d like. The solution is for the parents to work the room and make guests feel welcome through conversation. Sincere wedding-reception small talk is better than no talk at all.Practice Makes Perfect: Not everyone is a gifted spontaneous speaker so if you want to make an impactful reception speech, write it down and rehearse it. Not only does this show love and support for the couple but it will empower you to speak clearly and effectively from the heart.

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At Harmony Communities, we feel strongly that each resident has a sense of home. That they come home from work and feel pride in their environment and in their place in the greater community. That families are comfortable raising children in our neighborhoods, and that couples and singles know that they belong to something bigger than their four walls. In other words, we seek to create harmony within each community, making our communities not just passable, but peaceful, safe, functional, and beautiful.

The post Wedding Etiquette: 10 Things You Should Do as Parents of the Couple appeared first on Other CMS.

There is no shortage of significant events in the month of March, not with a calendar that in 2023 includes St. Patrick’s Day (17th), the arrival of spring (20^th) and the opening of the Major League Baseball season (30^th). All these highlights, however, in recent years have taken a back seat to the NCAA basketball tournament, that American cultural phenomenon known as March Madness.

The most watched (and debated) U.S. sporting event between the Super Bowl and NBA Finals, the tournament pitting 68 of college basketball’s best men’s teams against each other has given rise to bracketology, in which gamblers both professional and amateur put their best guesses to work trying to identify the eventual national champion. Whether you’re in a friendly pool with family or co-workers or trying to make some serious money on one of the many online wagering platforms, here are few tips to maximize your chances to come out on top.

Know the Rules: There are as many variations on bracket pools as there are teams in the tourney. To be sure, most award the following number of points for a correct pick in each successive tournament round: 1-2-4-8-16-32. But if your pool is different, don’t even start selecting teams until you fully understand the intricacies of its particular scoring system.

Conduct the Research: Let’s face it, no one save the most dedicated college hoops aficionado is going to know everything about every team in the tournament. Fortunately, there are scores of online sources you can consult to research each team’s season to date and likely tourney prospects. In addition, you can gleam a sense of national trends by consulting major bracket contest sites like Yahoo and ESPN.

Avoid the Obvious: The four No. 1 seeds are the best teams in the country, right? Well, yes and no, and besides March Madness is notorious for breeding upsets. Suffice it to say, do not pick all the No. 1’s to reach the Final Four; it has never happened. Likewise, the winningest teams rarely win it all; just twice has a team with 30 victories actually been crowned national champion.

Know Your Opposition: You can only win your bracket pool if you get right the picks your opponents get wrong. So before filling out your bracket, consider what teams everyone else is likely to select and take a very close look at the strengths of their potential opponents. With March Madness, thinking outside the box can potentially pay off.

Avoid Upset Madness: As noted, hardly a March Madness goes by without its share of Cinderella stories, usually in the form of a squad from some comparatively obscure conference knocking off a projected Final Four team. Romantic as the notion is, it also can lead you to some borderline reckless selections. It’s OK to identify a potential sleeper or two but resist the urge to bet the house on them, even if they are your beloved alma mater. Go Hoosiers!

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At Harmony Communities, we feel strongly that each resident has a sense of home. That they come home from work and feel pride in their environment and in their place in the greater community. That families are comfortable raising children in our neighborhoods, and that couples and singles know that they belong to something bigger than their four walls. In other words, we seek to create harmony within each community, making our communities not just passable, but peaceful, safe, functional, and beautiful.

The post Tips to Win Your March Madness Tournament Pool appeared first on Other CMS.

At Harmony Communities, we feel strongly that each resident has a sense of home. That they come home from work and feel pride in their environment and in their place in the greater community. That families are comfortable raising children in our neighborhoods, and that couples and singles know that they belong to something bigger than their four walls. In other words, we seek to create harmony within each community, making our communities not just passable, but peaceful, safe, functional, and beautiful.

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