Good bartenders always have advice for their customers' problems, which is why it's best not to bartend in a particle-physics lab or in a prison. Hone your listening ear with today's Groupon to ABC Bartending SchoolChoose between the following options:

• For $49, you get a 4-hour mixology class (a $119 value).
• For $197, you get 32 hours of bartending classes (a $495 value).

As part of the nation's largest privately owned bartending-class provider, ABC Bartending School's experienced instructors lend pub-keeping tutelage in a fully operational bar setting. A 4-hour mixology course shows prospective booze artists how to navigate the confusing waters of cocktail crafting as instructors pull from more than 100 basic and elaborate recipes for practice. Serious bartenders-to-be will learn the basics of alcoholic alchemy, blending liquors and mixers into sippable sensations in 32 hours of classes.

The extensive training and hands-on practice includes all aspects of tending bar, from setup and maintenance to cutting off customers and taking the jukebox off shuffle. Speed techniques and cash-handling procedures help newbies to meet the demands of a fast-paced job, and pouring procedures allow them to rake in tips quicker. The in-depth course also covers distinguishing different wines, draft pouring, and glass selection. ABC dubs all grads certified mixologists and offers classes in one- or two-week settings to make time for slow-motion bar slides.

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Even though water covers most of the earth's surface, humans spend most of their lives on land and a small portion in the air while they’re sleeping. Float on with this Groupon.

Choose Between Two Options

• $999 for a four-day rental of a Metolius 10-person sleeper houseboat (a $1,995 value), or $1,995 toward any four-day houseboat rental, valid May 20–June 20
• $999 for the same four-day rental or $1,995 toward any four-day houseboat rental, valid September 5–25

Metolius houseboats float vacationing clans on the calm waters of Lake Billy Chinook, surrounded by views of the Cascade Mountains. The water-bound domiciles come equipped with air conditioning, a barbecue, a gas stove with oven, a walk-around deck, gas refrigerator, and enough space to comfortably sleep 10 family members or cloning experiments gone awry. Four-day vacations must fit entirely within the valid dates. Customers can steer the boat anywhere on the lake, but gas is not included with the Groupon.

Cove Palisades Resort and Lake Billy Chinook Houseboats

Basalt spires, Cascade Mountain peaks, and steep canyon walls tower around. Eagles fly overhead and 32-inch bull trout glint in the sunlight as they jump. Smells of grilled bass ride breezes to nostrils on 72 miles of surrounding shoreline. Cove Palisades Resort and Lake Billy Chinook Houseboats put friends and families in the middle of this scene, floating them out onto Lake Billy Chinook in rental pontoons, WaveRunners, and party barges. The fleet's fishing boats give anglers an advantage as they hunt for rainbow trout, and houseboats grant luxurious respite for those weary of the poor diving opportunities and general lack of mermaids offered by land living.

To round out its offerings and let adventurers dry off, Cove Palisades Resort and Lake Billy Chinook Houseboats also facilitate activities such as hiking and camping. More than 10 miles of nearby trails grant photographers ample fodder for creating landscape images and let ornithologists fill up their journals with notes on plumage and bird phone numbers.

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The Groupon Guide to: the Mall

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Early humans developed the ability to sprint in order to chase down sprightly prey and invented long-distance running to escape from slowly approaching glaciers. Follow in their fossilized footsteps with this Groupon.

$39 for One Entry to the Spartan Race (Up to $100 Value)

On June 16, participants in event T-shirts gather at Washougal MX Park to take off on the approximately 4-mile Spartan Race. Heats start every half hour from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Spartan Race

Seven extreme athletes and one Royal Marine banded together to design the Spartan Race's intense miles-long course strewn with more than 15 obstacles to test resilience, stamina, and strength. Clad in event T-shirts, runners collect smudges and stains as they clamber across mud pits, slide unscathed under barbed wire, and juke feral linebackers. Upon crossing the finish line, victors are awarded a participation medal and of-age competitors sate thirsts with a cold beer. The top three male and female runners each qualify for free entry in the next highest race level. Combatants compare fresh battle wounds—or scars from filing folders—as a live band plays catchy tunes and the aromas of warm, savory food (available for purchase) tempt grumbling bellies.

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The Groupon Guide to: the Mall

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Teamwork is most effective in pairs, from the vaudeville acts of Laurel and Hardy to the crime-fighting melodies of Batman and Garfunkel. Reap the benefits of a sidekick with this Groupon.

Choose Between Two Options

• $27 for 5 drop-in sessions of badminton (a $54.75 value)
• $49 for 10 drop-in sessions of badminton (a $109.50 value)

When not occupied by classes or private lessons, badminton courts host drop-in games for singles or doubles. A single session spans the entire day, so athletes can leave courts and return at their whim. Customers can use their Groupons to cover 5 or 10 of their own sessions or apply them toward play with friends. On Saturdays from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., special sessions welcomes solo players who wish to find an opponent. See the full schedule of drop-in hours here.

Bellevue Badminton Club

In 2005, a group of avid badminton players finally pinpointed their favorite part of the game: community. Springing from this insight, they opened Bellevue Badminton Club, inviting members to mingle or hide from exes behind their rackets on 11 courts open 24/7. The club’s coaches, including Israel's 1998 national champion and a seven-time national collegiate title winner, lead private lessons and classes. For juniors and adults alike, classes range from laid-back to competitive based on pupils' abilities and goals.

When learners vacate the courts, members and nonmembers have free rein to play drop-in matches or trace outlines of each other in chalk. Round-robin doubles and singles leagues cultivate atmospheres of amiable competition, enabled by top-shelf Yonex equipment found at the pro shop.

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Sitting for a photo was once a long and arduous process, as evidenced by the unkempt facial hair grown by our earliest presidents during their portrait sessions. Capture a clean image with today’s Groupon to SnapShotSandy, with locations in North Bend and Issaquah. Choose from the following options:

• For $59, you get a three-hour basic photography introductory course (a $150 value).
• For $59, you get a three-hour advanced photography class (a $150 value).
• For $99, you get a two-session full photography course (a $300 value).

Seasoned photographer Sandy Horvath helps students master their digital cameras, learning the lenses, settings, and exposures that transform snap shots into high-quality pictures. Beginners work with their own digital cameras to apply the principles behind framing, focusing, and lighting in basic classes. Sandy uses simple explanations to show small classes how to optimize shots on automatic settings or with a manually set aperture value, then sends students out to take a list of photos that demonstrate the techniques or prove Bigfoot exists. Advanced sessions delve deeper into the advanced capabilities of digital equipment. Students take pictures throughout the workshop that they review with Sandy to see how they could alter the shutter speed and adjust the focus to freeze an action or melt hearts with a family portrait. When combined, the two classes comprehensively cover both theoretical and technical ends of photography between 9 a.m. and noon and 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. during the week, and on various Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The schedule lists basic and advanced classes throughout the month. Class sessions may meet at the instructor's studio or on certain locations that feature dynamic photographic subjects, whether they are flowers or models dressed as flowers.

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The Groupon Guide to: the Mall

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Although frozen-yoga joints have been popping up in cities all over the country, yoga insiders know that heat is an essential ingredient for burning calories, sweating, and maintaining bodily processes. Get fit and stay animate with today's Groupon: for $45, you get 10 90-minute hot-yoga classes at Hot Yoga Tacoma (a $105 value).

Hot Yoga Tacoma's certified instructors lead yogis of all ages and experience levels through hot-yoga sessions held seven days a week. During 90-minute sessions, pupils contort their way through beginning hot-yoga poses designed to increase strength, flexibility, and resilience to insults from trash-talking limbo sticks. Taking place in the warm confines of a heated room, movements stimulate the endocrine, nervous, immune, and cardiovascular systems and eliminate toxins by means of sweating. Participants can nurture calm inner spirits while detoxifying as atmospheric warmth soothes joints and muscles and helps to prevent injury and relieve chronic pain. Students gain a sense of camaraderie as they stretch together, sweat together, and talk about the drawbacks of trying on leather pants together. After classes, guests may freshen up in the studio's large private showers. Hot Yoga Tacoma recommends each student brings light stretch clothing and a large bottle of water.

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Where can I get pretzels that aren't sinfully twisted?

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Golf is one of the few sports in which players can compete against themselves, along with paddleball and seeing how many potatoes they can eat. Put yourself to the test with this Groupon.

$36 for 18-Hole Round of Golf for Two (Up to $72 Value)

Tee times can be scheduled for anytime before 7 a.m. or after noon any day of the week.

Lake Spanaway Golf Course's rates fluctuate during the day and throughout the week.

Lake Spanaway Golf Course

Tucked in the breezy shadows of towering douglas firs, golfers hunt birdies and pars across Lake Spanaway's 7,083-yard course. Fairways tunnel through communities of trees that convince errant golf balls that they are pinecones. Three of the course's holes earned honorable mention in the _Seattle Times_’ Puget Sound Area's Dream 18 Holes, including the par-4 12th, where tee shots must trace the fairway as it curves left through a narrow tree line and toward a green shielded by an oasis of vast bunkers.

A covered, lighted driving range sits beside the course, where golfers smooth out swings undisturbed by waning daylight, rain, or hail caused by skydivers eating sunflower seeds. The course's staff of golf pros also helps manage on-course techniques with a variety of instructional options, including complimentary 10-minute lessons.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 71 course
• Length of 7,083 yards from the farthest tees
• Course rating of 73.5 from the farthest tees
• Slope rating of 124 from the farthest tees
• Four tee options
• See the scorecard

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Video games revolutionized entertainment by offering people an alternative to such dull pastimes as head-butting floating coins and shepherding frogs across busy streets. Keep up with modern excitements with this Groupon.

$20 for an All-Day Game Pass for One ($45 Value)

Each all-day pass grants a single user unlimited access to more than 150 interactive games, valid from the first swipe until the arcade closes that day.

GameWorks

GameWorks fosters friendly competition between kids and adults by surrounding pizza, draft beer, and half-pound burgers with a mosaic of interactive pursuits. Each location holds more than 150 arcade-style games, which include racing and shooting challenges from Sega as well as lower-tech classics such as pinball.

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Carpeting covers cold floors, cushions bare feet, and muffles the beating of telltale hearts. Relieve auditory hallucinations without sacrificing cleanliness with this Groupon.

Choose Between Two Options

• $65 for carpet cleaning for two rooms and one hallway, valid for up to 600 square feet (up to a $252 value)

• $85 for carpet cleaning for three rooms and one hallway, valid for up to 750 square feet (up to a $315 value)

Technicians assist in spring cleaning efforts by pretreating, steam-cleaning, and rinsing carpets using nontoxic products.

Though Continental Carpet Care sometimes offers a discounted rate, today's Groupon still offers the best available discount.

Continental Carpet Care

Continental Carpet Care‘s technicians go beyond the call of cleanliness in order to meet their commitment to customers’ health. For every residential and commercial carpet services, the cleaners use biodegradable, nontoxic products to safely eradicate bacteria, eliminate allergens, and remove pet odors and stains. Technicians inspect carpets before each service and create a customized cleaning plan based on manufacturer’s recommendations and messages from a highly experienced magic eight ball. In addition to scrubbing carpets, Continental Carpet Care cleans upholstery, mattresses, and tile and natural stone, and offers emergency water restoration to treat flood damage.

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The Groupon Guide to: Appearing Smart in Public

Is prison good for bad horses?

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