TLAM speaks to all kinds of moms. From the new mom who has logged thousands of miles to the first-time runner with kids, there’s something for everyone. TLAM will help you (or a mother you know) train for a variety of distances, including 5K, 10K, half marathon, and marathon. Equally important is the book’s subtitle: “How to Get Across Any Finish Line – and Not Lose Your Family, Job, or Sanity.” Dimity and Sarah help running moms cope with day-to-day stress while helping them train to meet their goals.

Sarah and Dimity have a strong following. On Facebook, more than 15,000 users “like” RLAM. They’re often stopped in public by adoring fans who’ve read the book or who follow them online. Their  Another Mother Runner website features blogs, advice, giveaways, and links to podcasts; it has become one of the best sources for running moms to congregate.  If you’re looking for something to do on March 22, TLAM will be introduced at two locations. Dimity will hold a reading in Denver’s Tattered Cover Bookstore and Sarah will read at Portland’s Powell’s City of Books.

You might be wondering where to get a copy of the book (makes a great Mother’s Day present) or some fancy running apparel – including the now-famous Badass Mother Runner shirt to the right. If you attend either reading, Dimity and Sarah will gladly autograph a copy for you. You can also find the books here or shop for apparel at the AMR store.

Congrats on the new book ladies. I’m very proud of both of you and the community you’ve created.

Is it just my imagination, or have we been peppered with a pant-load of Year of the Dragon references this month? This year’s Dragon Fest, which began on 1/23/2012, celebrates the luckiest animal in the Chinese zodiac. To be sure, I feel lucky to have a full dance card in 2012. We’ve got Leap Day in February, the Summer Olympics in July-August, a presidential election in November, and the impending apocalypse in December. At least Leap Day gives us an extra 24 hours to crank REM’s “It’s the End of the World As We Know It” before the Earth spins off its axis.

Speaking of that, if the ancient Mayan prognosticators are correct (and there’s compelling reasons that they’re not), we’ll all be shuffling off our mortal coils on 12/21/12. I’m a glass-is-half-full guy, so I’m banking that those friendly aliens that shadow Comet Hale-Bopp will come to the rescue. In my latest Vision Quest, they beam us up and keep us in stasis until Newt Gingrich’s moon colony is up and running. That sure is a load off my mind.

Back to the Chinese zodiac, I was born in the Year of the Horse. It sure beats being a pig or a rat, but Bruce Lee never made a film called Enter the Horse. We equine types can claim National Velvet (5 Oscar nominations/2 wins), Equus (3 nominations), Seabiscuit (7 nominations), and this year’s War Horse (6 nominations), but where’s the box office draw to a real-life animal that can’t even talk? Even the famous Mr. Ed, who could talk, never got promoted beyond TV or Nick at Nite reruns.

Now a DRAGON, that’s a mystical animal that belongs on the Silver Screen (regardless of whether it can talk). So Mickey Rourke’s Year of the Dragon flopped at the box office, but look at Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (10 nominations/4 wins) and this year’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (5 nominations). The dragon on this page hangs over the entrance to Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood (California). They used to host the Academy Awards there, but now they use a larger theater next door. That shows you the power of the dragon in LaLaLand.

In the spirit of the dragon, here’s a link to find out which Chinese zodiac sign applies to your birthdate. Here’s another to see what happened during your birth year. Speaking of birthdays and dragons, have you visited Dragon Gate restaurant in yet? They’ll give you a free meal on your birthday – I know because I got mine last week. Enjoy – and I’ll see you on the moon in 2020.

My favorite of these three districts is Hollywood, mainly because it offers such a wide variety of convenient shopping, services, and restaurants. Hollywood scores bonus points because it’s so user friendly. On a typical day, I can leave home, drop the kids at Buckman School, put in three miles on a treadmill at 24Hour Fitness, pick up odds and ends at Trader Joe’s, make a deposit at Sterling Bank, get gas at Chevron, swing by the Hollywood Library to pick up a book on hold, and get home by 11:15 AM. Try doing that in the Pearl or Hawthorne!

There are plenty of restaurants in Hollywood, from the old (Pal’s Shanty) to the new (Killer Burger). Keep it on the Q.T., but there’s a rumor that an Indian restaurant will replace the wildly unsuccessful Wild Tiger Thai. Along those lines, there’s very tasty ethnic food at Shandong (Chinese) and my favorite Scottish restaurant.

Whether folks rent, own, or work in Hollywood, there’s always something happening there. The Hollywood Theater runs some great indie and foreign films (even saw the Wizard of Oz there recently with the kids) and there’s a handful of taverns and cafes to wet your whistle. Word on the street is that Tony Starlight’s will be taking over the old Poor Richard’s. I just hope they keep the shrimp cocktail on the menu. Over and out.

Pumpkin Ghost at Lee Farms

It’s October and Halloween is quickly approaching. Portland Metro has loads of places for Halloween fun, from pumpkin patches and corn mazes to frightful attractions that’ll scare the dickens out of the wee ones. Here are some suggestions and tips on how to stay safe and have a gruesome, ooops, awesome time.

In my opinion, it all starts with the pumpkin (hard to figure from a guy named “Jack”). Luckily, there are several farms that are a quick drive from Portland. I’ve been on enough family outings and school field trips to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff, so here’s a couple of recommendations.

Happy Hayseed in the Haybale Tunnel

Lee Farms is great for little kids. They’ve got acres of pumpkins, haybale pyramids with tunnels, and really good sugar-cinnamon doughnuts and fresh-pressed cider. They have more than 20 varieties of pumpkins/gourds for carving, eating, and just plain decorating. The brilliant orange Cinderella wins best in show and the whitish-orange Long Island Cheese Wheel wins the best name prize. Lee’s staff is friendly and knowledgeable (you’d have to be to keep track of 20 types of pumpkins).

Kruger’s Farm Market and The Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island have great pumpkins, too. They cater to the little guys, but their corn mazes (we call it “maize”) are a hit with older kids. You can literally get lost in the corn. Click on the links to see great aerial shots of the mazes.

As for haunted attractions, it’s fun to get the blood moving around Halloween and Portland has a variety of eerie places. There’s Fright Town at Memorial Coliseum (click here for coupon for $10 off) and the Scream at the Beach (Jantzen Beach) to name a few. You might want to leave your costume behind, though, as it will impede your speedy getaway from demons, ghouls, and zombies (sounds like going shopping at Costco).

Cinderella and Her Pumpkin Wagon

Turning to safety, here’s a couple of websites that will help. The Center for Disease Control offers a variety of safety tips (reflective tape, scanning candy (and poaching the Reeses) before the kids eat it, etc.). The ubiquitous Dollar Tree offers a cornucopia of glow-sticks, flashlights, and reflective bags for the kiddos. They also have some reasonably priced mylar balloons for decorating.

A couple of recipes for those who like pumpkin soup and pumpkin seeds. I like my seeds sautéed in butter, but there’s a variety of healthier ways to cook them.

Happy Halloween (and Halloween Birthday to Grandma Lynda)!

Board members, Brian Schaeperkoetter (ICA Secretary) and Barbara Christopher (ICA Director), will lead the charge on the project, which should take a few months. In preparation, they held several community-wide “visioning” meetings to determine what people want in the website. They prioritized the “wish list” and will hire a web design/implementation team. In addition, they will work closely with the IHT Board to integrate marketing, blogging, and e-commerce elements into the site. This will allow the IHT a better platform from which to operate. Hopefully, the new site will be operable in time for the 2012 Irvington Home Tour.

The ICA operates on grants, charitable giving, and fundraising events. The ICA generally receives a few thousand dollars in grants each year. The Charitable Giving position is currently vacant, so the ICA is looking to fill that chair (hint, hint). The Home Tour is the main fundraising event of the year with more than $30,000 net revenue in 2011.

The ICA allocates a large portion of those funds to a variety of community capital improvements (including park projects) and provides grants to non-profits and schools that are located in (or serve) Irvington. Public schools that meet the criteria are Irvington, Sabin, Alameda, Beverly Cleary (Hollyrood/Fernwood), and Grant. The new website will have information for non-profits and schools who want to apply for grants from the ICA.

There is a lot of work ahead for the redesign team, but I’m confident that Brian and Barbara will handle this job very well. They’ve both been involved in web design (either personally or professionally) and have the support of the ICA and IHT Boards. That’s a great combination for the new website. Best of luck, Brian and Barbara.

Click here to learn more about Irvington and Irvington Real Estate.

I’m not a geologist and I don’t play one on TV, but I watched enough disaster movies as a kid to know that an earthquake can be a bad, bad thing (so can being trapped in a towering inferno with OJ Simpson, but that’s another post). In February 2001, Portland had a 6.8 magnitude quake that lasted about 30 seconds. Thankfully, most of us were safe, but that doesn’t remove us from the potential danger of the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

I’m no Chicken Little, but if we get a large enough seismic event, the earthquake itself could be the least of our worries. I still remember the multiple fires in San Francisco’s Marina area during the 1989 quake. With Portland homes relatively close together, one fire could lead to a similar conflagration and damage.

On March 12, 2011, exactly one day after the 9.0 quake hit Japan, one of my safety-conscious neighbors started a campaign to see if people were interested in installing seismic shutoff valves on their gas lines. PGE’s website wasn’t terribly helpful, so the neighbor started doing some independent research.

After some careful due diligence, my neighbor selected the best of the lot – the Northridge 2000 valve. The valve is named after the 1993 Northridge quake (“only” a 6.7 magnitude) that cost 72 people their lives and injured nearly 12,000 more. In the event of a 5.2 or greater quake, this valve uses a simple mechanism to shut off the gas. After everything is safe, you can turn the gas back on by turning a dial. Simple to react and simple to reset.

Once my neighbor picked out the valve, he started calling around for seismic contractors to install the device (hopefully with a group discount). About the cheapest he could find was $400 for all the neighbors with a freebie for him. He asked me if I knew anyone and I told him I would call Bart Gerba of Alaska Mechanical Inc. (AMI Heating) (503) 327-3744 – CCB#92527.

Bart is a great mechanical contractor who installs and services furnaces, air conditioners, ducts, air filters, and the like. He often gives me over-the-phone bids for my real estate clients. He honors those verbal bids with written bids later. At any rate, we found 10 neighbors who wanted valves and Bart was able to install them (it takes about two hours per house) at a significant savings (far below $400). I offered to refer more groups of safety-conscious neighbors to Bart, so if you’re interested, give me a call or drop me an email. Thanks again Bart for a job well done. I feel safer already.

Greek Festival Link:

For 59 years, Holy Trinity has thrown a big, fat Greek Festival. With all that practice, number 60 ought to be something special! The party starts on Friday (9/30) and runs through Sunday (10/2). Friday and Saturday hours are 10AM-10PM, while Sunday is noon-8PM. Holy Trinity Cathedral is located at 3131 NE Glisan. Hundreds of people attend this event, so plan on parking a few blocks away during peak hours.

There will be music and dancing, tons of food/drink, an agora (serious shoppers will want to haggle), and a children’s corner (face painting, etc., ending at 8PM each day). Some of my favorite dishes are the Greek-style lamb (you can get a traditional Greek dinner or order a la carte), souvlaki, spanakopita, and other savories (rinsed down with an adult beverage). My kids are more partial to the sweets, particularly the loukoumades (awesome little fritters doused in honey (aka donut-hole soup)). I sure hope I’m around for the next 60 of these.

Oktoberfest Link:

When you think of German beer, food, and atmosphere in Portland, there’s only one name – Prost! Actually, two names (it’s really called Prost! Portland). This October 1st and 2nd, they’ll be hosting their second annual Oktoberfest at their uber-cool North Portland brauhaus at 4237 N. Mississippi (at the SW corner of Skidmore). The party kicks off at 11AM on Saturday and ends at 10PM on Sunday (not sure if they quit in between).

Prost! (the exclamation point IS part of their name) will open their taps, kitchen, and 5,000 SF biergarten for the event. The flyer says there’ll be live music (can you say Oompah band?), traditional dancing, BBQ chicken, a Masskrugstemmen competition*, and bier, bier, und more bier. They encourage folks to come sporting Lederhosen and Dirndls. Think Clark Griswold from European Vacation and the St. Pauli girl’s dirndl and you’ll get the picture. As always, Prost! patrons are allowed to cruise the food carts next door at Mississippi Marketplace. They can bring their food back to enjoy with their beer. Prost! also sells their glassware, so you can take home a souvenir stein for between $10-20. This promises to be a great annual event.

*A Masskrug (a one-liter stein) is held with a fully extended arm that’s held parallel to the floor.

The Hollywood Farmer’s Market is located on NE Hancock between 44th and 45th Avenues (mainly in the Grocery Outlet parking lot). Click here to see map. The market is open on Saturdays from 8AM-1PM (9AM opening for Novembers). This year, on May 15th, the Farmer’s Market will celebrate its 15th birthday with a party!

My kids love the Farmer’s Market for the fresh fruits and vegetables and the occasional flavored honey straws. I also like the produce, but enjoy bumping into neighbors and clients who shop at the market. I also like interacting with vendors, many of whom multi-task while chatting about their organic methods, weighing/selling produce, and keeping a constant cheery attitude.

On the community side, the Market has a great lineup that covers young and old, prosperous and needy. This year’s community booths include the Loaves and Fishes Health Fair, Hollywood Senior Center, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Northwest Mothers Milk Bank. The latter is close to my wife’s heart as she has authored a book on breastfeeding.

The entertainers and special events are equally diverse. Each week, there’s a featured musician. Many of the weeks have a special event (e.g., cooking demonstrations, health fairs, Fest O’Pesto (pretty much what it says), and the Crazy Eggplant Day. Click here to check out the 2011 calendar.

I look forward to another great season at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market!

Sunday March 13th was a great day to be Irish. To be sure, Daylight Savings cost us a wee bit o’ shuteye, but the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow was the extra hour of sunlight – always a welcome treat in Portland. The other highlight of the day was the 22nd Annual Northeast Neighborhood St. Paddy’s Day Parade. Plenty of people and pets showed for the wearin’ o’ the green and to show support for some of their favorite BIGHAT neighborhoods.

The weather wasn’t ideal (rain/parade pun withheld), but that didn’t keep hundreds of people from attending. Folks showed up with slickers, rain gear, umbrellas, and (dare I say) BIGHATS! Unlike the Rose Parade, people aren’t out the night before staking their claim with duct tape and folding chairs. This parade is much more civilized. It starts at Fernwood School in Grant Park, heads west into Irvington on Hancock, north on 17th to Tillamook, then back to Fernwood. The route allows you to see the parade twice if you move from Hancock to Tillamook.

Parade founders and organizers, Steve and Julie O’Slavik, who live at the NW corner of NE 25th and Hancock, offered up another gem. President Barack O’Bama presided over the parade from their porch – joined by three young bagpipers. The parade included a full-on bagpipe band, Robert Gray Junior High marching band, a collection of Irish Wolfhounds and Greyhounds, and several floats and unique cars. A police escort with motorcycles and squad cars and fire engine #13 provided public safety.

Our kids got up for the festivities. Why not – they’re seasoned vets at hoarding candy thrown by marchers, float riders, and other passersby. Ankle-deep puddles made it a little tricky for the ankle-biters to get to the goods and the three-second rule was strictly enforced on unsealed candy (nothing like a road-oil-infused Tootsie Roll to stunt your growth).

We’re looking forward to next year’s parade already. As part of my BIGHAT Community Outreach Program, I plan to interview the O’Slaviks to learn more about the event, its history, and why they still love a parade after all these years.

I spoke with the day manager, Sophie, who told me that the menu was substantially the same as the Belmont branch, which has been serving authentic Lebanese cuisine since 1999. Although I haven’t eaten there yet (my visit was at about 11:00 AM, a little early for lunch), I am very excited for a lunch or dinner. Sophie assured me that the veggie mezza and meat mezza were the best in the city. 

Here’s a copy of their lunch menu and dinner menu. I think it’s great that Hoda’s came to Beaumont Village. I wish them many years of success.

Find Hodas at 4727 NE Fremont or call (503) 668-5577.