Best Easy Day Hikes Great Smoky Mountains National Park provides 29 easy-to-follow hikes through all the Great Smoky Mountains have to offer. Explore exquisite vistas, enjoy wildlife in natural settings and explore trails ranging from Grotto Falls to Big Creek to Clingmans Dome. Look Inside to Find: Hikes suited to every ability Key points along every trail GPS coordinates Difficulty ratings, distances, and key elevation gains

Best Easy Day Hikes Blue Ridge Parkway offers concise descriptions and detailed maps for thirty-four easy-to-follow trails from the southern end of Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. Featuring: Thirty-minute strolls to full-day adventures Hikes for everyone, including families Great hikes featuring waterfalls and wildflowers; great hikes for dogs Mile-by-mile directions and clear trail maps Zero-impact tips

Fate. Divine faith. The laws of attraction. Free will. Or a shared calling to achieve a greater good. Whether we believe in supernatural forces or random odds, we speculate over what brings together two people who consider themselves soulmates. HIGHER LOVE, the epic true story of a gay couple's lifelong struggle to be recognized together as the parents of four multiracial children, draws readers back to this question-a question with no clear answer, but only the beauty of possibility. In its magical telling by Paul Campion and Randy Johnson, two of the plaintiffs in the SCOTUS case that would legalize same-sex marriage, the memoir shows us the higher purpose of the obstacles Paul and Randy tackle as gay dads to build a family and live their dream.

Build super-flat and strong with a torsion box workbench, assembly table and alignment beams. This title offers great storage solutions and expert advice for making a workshop more efficient. It provides everything a woodworker needs to know about building a workbench, making outfeed tables for shop machines, making work tables, assembly tables and storage cabinets.

This title includes shop tested expert advice from American Woodworker on how to build 50 attractive & functional woodworking projects for all areas of the house, from storage for the kitchen and the outdoors, to furniture and heirlooms. With a variety of style and skill levels included, there is something for every woodworker in this book. Step by step guidance, workshop tips and plans for projects that can take a few hours to a weekend to complete, make this an ideal resource for woodworkers looking for a new project or wanting to spruce up their home.

Enjoy outdoor living to the fullest with these functional and decorative furniture projects for deck, patio, yard and garden. From Adirondack chairs, patio bars and picnic tables to showcase Victorian trellises and planters, the experts at American Woodworker provide complete plans and instructions for building great-looking pieces that will beautify your outdoor space. Expert advice on finishing and varnishing ensures that your durable wooden furniture will stand up to the elements for years to come. How to Make Outdoor & Garden Furniture offers 23 do-it-yourself projects for both novice and experienced woodworkers. Superb step-by-step photographs and excellent working drawings help ensure success for both amateur and experienced builders. Each project takes from just a few hours to a weekend to complete, making this book an ideal resource for transforming your outdoor decor.

Supplemented with clear workshop photography, each insightful pointer has been workplace-tested by the editors. Sharpen your woodworking skills for drilling, sawing, routing, clamping, gluing, joinery, finishing and much more.Avoid common pitfalls and solve everyday problems with materials, tools, techniques, shop organization and maintenance. Even the most experienced woodworker doesn't have all the answers, but this big, well-organized book is the place to find them.

Find The Home Mortgage That’s Right For You

Finding the right mortgage can be complex, confusing, and frustrating. But that doesn’t mean you have to settle for anything other than the terms you want. This indispensable and newly updated second edition of How to Save Thousands of Dollars on Your Home Mortgage spells out everything mortgage hunters need to know in clear and accessible terms. It covers more loan alternatives than any other book and examines the importance of discount points. It offers complete details on virtually every mortgage option currently available, what advantages each option offers, how to choose the right one for your needs, and how to save money in the process. New information in this edition will help you use the Internet to find a home and get a mortgage, examine automated underwriting models and conforming loan limits, and weigh new shopping strategies. Easy-to-read charts and graphs, helpful sample forms, and numerous examples will help you understand:

• First-time buyers programs
• APR, buy-downs, reverse mortgages, accelerated payoffs, and zero point loans
• Refinancing strategies
• Closing costs, lender fees, and other expenses
• How to dispute credit report errors and fix credit problems
• How to use the Internet for loan analysis

Throughout history, advances in technology have come in spurts. A single great idea can often spur rapid change as the idea takes hold and is propagated, often in totally unexpected directions. Exadata embodies such a change in how we think about and manage relational databases. The key change lies in the concept of offloading SQL processing to the storage layer. That concept is a huge win, and its implementation in the form of Exadata is truly a game changer. Expert Oracle Exadata will give you a look under the covers at how the combination of hardware and software that comprise Exadata actually work. Authors Kerry Osborne, Randy Johnson, and Tanel Poder share their real-world experience, gained through multiple Exadata implementations with the goal of opening up the internals of the Exadata platform. This book is intended for readers who want to understand what makes the platform tick and for whom"how" it does what it is does is as important as what it does. By being exposed to the features that are unique to Exadata, you will gain an understanding of the mechanics that will allow you to fully benefitfrom the advantages that the platform provides. Changes the wayyou think about managing SQL performance and processing Provides a roadmap to laying out the Exadata platform to best support your existing systems Dives deeply into the internals, removing the black box mystique and showing how Exadata actually works What you'll learn Configure Exadata from the ground up Optimize for mixed OLTP/DW workloads Migrate large data sets from existing systems Connect Exadata to external systems Support consolidation strategies using the Resource Manager Configure high-availability features of Exadata, including Real Application Clusters (RAC) and automatic storage management (ASM) Apply tuning strategies utilizing the unique features of Exadata Who this book is for

Expert Oracle Exadata is for database administrators and developers who want to understand what makes Exadata unique so that they can take advantage of all the platform has to offer. It is also for anyone who needs to plan and execute migrations of systems to the Exadata platform. Finally, the book will be invaluable to those who support and maintain such systems. Table of Contents What Is Exadata? Offloading / Smart Scan Hybrid Columnar Compression Storage Indexes Exadata Smart Flash Cache Exadata Parallel Operations Resource Management Configuring Exadata Recovering Exadata Exadata Wait Events Understanding Exadata Performance Metrics Monitoring Exadata Performance Migrating to Exadata Storage Layout Compute Node Layout Unlearning Some Things We Thought We Knew

Expert Oracle Exadata, 2nd Edition opens up the internals of Oracle's Exadata platform so that you can fully benefit from the most performant and scalable database hardware appliance capable of running Oracle Database. This edition is fully-updated to cover Exadata 5-2 and Oracle Database 12c. If you're new to Exadata, you'll soon learn that it embodies a change in how you think about and manage relational databases. A key part of that change lies in the concept of offloading SQL processing to the storage layer. In addition there is Oracle's engineering effort in creating a powerful platform for both consolidation and transaction processing. The resulting value proposition in the form of Exadata has truly been a game-changer. Expert Oracle Exadata, 2nd Edition provides a look at the internals and how the combination of hardware and software that comprise Exadata actually work. Authors include Martin Bach, Andy Colvin, and Frits Hoogland, with contributions from Karl Arao, and built on the foundation laid by Kerry Osborne, Randy Johnson, and Tanel Poder in the first edition. They share their real-world experience gained through a great many Exadata implementations, possibly more than any other group of experts today. Always their goal is toward helping you advance your career through success with Exadata in your own environment. This book is intended for readers who want to understand what makes the platform tick and for whom-"how" it does what it is does is as important as what it does. By being exposed to the features that are unique to Exadata, you will gain an understanding of the mechanics that will allow you to fully benefit from the advantages that the platform provides. This book changes how you think about managing SQL performance and processing. It provides a roadmap to successful Exadata implementation. And it removes the "black box" mystique. You'll learn how Exadata actually works and be better able to manage your Exadata engineered systems in support of your business. This book: Changes the way you think about managing SQL performance and processing Provides a roadmap to successful Exadata implementation Removes the "black box" mystique, showing how Exadata actually works

There has never been a better time to explore the Blue Ridge Parkway! This updated edition of Hiking the Blue Ridge Parkway is ideal for anyone who uses the Parkway as a portal to the Southern Appalachian experience. It includes the best trails in the national forests, state parks, and private preserves that line the 469-mile roadway-from the southern end of Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina-making it a single-volume solution for the serious explorer, whether on foot or by car. Look inside to find: Hikes suited to every ability, from 0.1-mile nature walks to 13-mile backpacks, with options for longer treks Accurate directions to both popular and less-traveled trails Up-to-date trail descriptions and detailed trail maps Difficulty ratings and elevation gain for each hike Mileage log for the entire Parkway and a guide to wildflowers Tips for zero-impact hiking, trail etiquette, and hiking with kids

Best Easy Day Hikes Great Smoky Mountains National Park includes concise descriptions of the best short hikes in the area, with detailed maps of the routes. The 22 hikes in this guide are generally short, easy to follow, and guaranteed to please.

Randy Johnson's Forced Reckoning delves into politcs, labor issues, family struggles, and wealth inequity. The resounding message proved throughout the book is: You can achieve great things through commitment, change and a drive to do better things with your life. Johnson details his link to Mitt Romney, and discusses Romney's mega-bucks business dealings during a time when Johnson's co-workers and their families felt the stinging burden of crippling job losses brought on by corporate greed. Inspired by his initial successes during this time, Johnson went on to fight for these families for more than two decades, becoming one of Mitt Romney's most vocal opponents. Johnson became involved with Senator Ted Kennedy's re-election campaign in 1994, and went on to be a part of the greatest Presidential campaign of our time, which ended with President Barack Obama's re-election in 2012. From humble beginnings, Johnson went on to become a family man, political campaigner, union leader, author and speaker. Today, Randy Johnson considers himself blessed and wishes to pass along what he's learned to the next generation through his new career as a motivational speaker and consultant.