Cary Perkins x 20

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 20 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

I've spoken to a Cary Perkins in Boston, who contacted me to ask me to sell her my domaine, Caryperkins.com. She is a massage therapist! Maybe I should work out a trade.

Technically, I'm using a male spelling for Cary, so I wouldn't be surprised to find that most of the Carys are men. I think I might start looking for the other 18!

As for my maiden name, and my honest to god first name, which I no longer use, I was the one and only! Maybe I should have kept it. I love being an original!

How many are there of you?

The Realtor

I don't know this guy, but I wish I did so I could have a beer with him! So funny!

Two pieces of good news

Kim and Tom's dog, Addie, is going to be fine. She had been sick for days on end, not eating, and not getting around, and she was thought to have swallowed something plastic that was lodged and not coming out on its own.

Last night she had surgery, and they removed a big black chunk of plastic (a toy?) and a Livestrong bracelet. Yeah, you can live strong if you don't eat Livestrong bracelets!

Seriously, thank goodness she's OK!










Secondly, I received the most gorgeous gift today from some amazingly fine people, who shall remain nameless, but whom I love like crazy, even without the beautiful bag. But would you look at this thing? It has a little pocket inside for my phone and one for my glasses. And it sometimes looks black, but it's actually a beautiful shade of blue. YUMMY.

Two absolutely terrific things to be happy about and I am.

Jo Dizzle

When you decide to become a Realtor with Windermere, you commit to donating a portion of the commission from every sale to the Windermere Foundation.

Besides our ongoing donations, we have mini-fundraisers throughout the year, capped off with a mad dash at the year's end to fill up the coffers.

What does the Foundation do with all of that money? (it amounted to millions over the last few years) Well, since we're all about homes, we help the homeless and low-income families with emergency and transitional housing, health care, employment and training, day care, scholarships and more. We specifically look to fund programs that help children.

So when the Windermere Foundation Board decided to put on a Cabaret, with all of the local offices parading their talent, the Johnson office decided to go with the unexpected. (we do have sort of a hoity-toity clientele and are the top producers on the West Side) We brainstormed some song parodies and came up with an act that brought the house down.

Best of all, we had a hilarious time doing it, with great wine-fueled practices and new friendships formed. And here, with no further ado, is Jo Dizzle.

Kabluey update

OK, stop drooling over Jeffrey Dean Morgan and pay attention. Plans for Sunday's Kabluey event are as follows:

All are invited! I will pre-purchase your ($9) ticket for you if you let me know by Friday morning. You can also call the theater on Sunday morning to reserve a seat. Our group is going to the 5pm showing.



















We're going to have a drink at 4 at Clyde Common. I'll have your ticket for you there, or in the lobby between 4:45 - 5.

Scott is planning to be there afterwards if you'd like to meet him.

Call me with any questions! Thanks for helping to fill the theater!
Previous KABLUEY posts and trailer here and here.

YUM!

I have my son, Whit, to thank for this fabulous and easy dinner idea...

I bought a little tub of jalapeno artichoke dip at the grocery store (Lamb's Thriftway makes a good one) because I just discovered that the boys love it. It's one of those reipes that I never make because everybody else does and I pretty much burned out on it over the years.

I was planning a good dinner for tonight because Whit would be in town, and now that he's a working man, we don't get to see him often enough.

So I grabbed the dip and some flax seed chips, plus a pack of steaks to throw on the grill, and some fresh cauliflower to roast.

But as we were getting ready for dinner, he told me to try grilling the steaks on one side, and then flipping them and topping the cooked side with the artichoke spread. "Like cheese on a cheeseburger, Mom."

Well........it was soooo good! I strongly recommend this for a quick and easy dinner that's flavor packed & crazy good!

Close-in West Side Portland Statistics for July 08

As you can see from the graph below, the situation on the West side of Portland may not be as alarming as the industry pundits would have us believe.

Close-in Portland's West Side currently has 587 *listings. 77 "went pending" in July, which leaves us with a 7.6 month supply. It's generally considered a Buyers' Market when we have 6+ months of inventory, so the conditions aren't as lopsided as you may think.

Well priced homes in good areas are still selling fairly quickly and the average number of days on the market is 56.

The average sale price last month was $582,000, the price per square foot averaged $228, and the median sale price was $415,000.


Date

5/07 6/07 7/07 8/07 9/07 10/07 11/07 12/07 1/08 2/08 3/08 4/08 5/08 6/08 7/08

For
Sale

361 391 429 489 512 495 455 399 400 420 462 501 539 567 587

Sold

97 116 109 87 64 69 67 60 40 64 64 52 95 71 75

Pended

100 104 83 64 74 80 50 47 64 57 56 90 74 84 77

Months of Inventory based on Closed Sales
3.7 3.4 3.9 5.6 8 7.2 6.8 6.7 10 6.6 7.2 9.6 5.7 7.9 7.8

Months of Inventory based on Pended Sales
3.6 3.8 5.2 7.6 6.9 6.2 9.1 8.5 6.3 7.4 8.3 5.6 7.3 6.7 7.6

Avg. Active Price
766 782 728 700 664 667 679 729 721 726 693 718 739 726 715

Avg. Sld Price
544 541 531 505 526 591 460 568 458 448 510 458 455 493 582

Avg. Sq. Ft. Price
222 215 220 221 220 228 204 224 194 198 208 207 203 201 228

Sold/List Diff. %
100 97 98 98 97 93 97 95 95 97 97 98 97 97 95

Sold/Orig LP Diff. %

99 95 97 97 94 94 95 92 91 93 93 96 95 94 93

Days on Market

38 49 31 42 52 42 49 58 61 85 78 59 53 57 56

Median Price
426 418 440 424 457 475 380 376 395 391 422 379 395 400 415

* this is for houses only, not condos, and includes both new construction and resale homes.

Also, sorry about this formatting. I've tried several times and blogger messed up the columns... we'll get right eventually!

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Olympics

There's nothing more exciting for me this week than to spend the evenings watching Michael Phelps.

Did you know I used to be a competitive swimmer?

When I watch the swimming events, I still hold my breath.

Oh, and does a little blue eye shadow and glitter convince you that those little Chinese gymnasts are 16? Not me. (Of course I was 5'11 by then, but seriously...Junior in High School age?)

Here's more on that ....

They sure were lovely to watch, though!

8-8-08

A lucky day for a wedding!


My first comment has to be about the most wonderful shoes to match an impossible-to-match dress color. Can you believe these perfect shoes? Thank you Nordstrom! LOL

















The ya-yas strike a pose.



















Mother of the Bride - and she doesn't even trip or fall or lose her shoe! Well played, Joy!























Here comes the groom! Maybe a little nervous, but he sailed through the BAR EXAM last week, so what's a little wedding thrown in?

















Will and Joy watch as James walks down and mom smiles but does not cry!


















He looks so much like his father. And we all missed Ken on this important day.

















Ta-Da! The bride in the first of three gowns!

















And then my camera battery died! arggghhh!

Martha's Rocky Ledge Bars

Quadruple the recipe to serve 50 after Willy's wedding rehearsal dinner in the park. That's a lotta dough! Look at the mixer when I finished!


















Butter and line 4 pans with parchment paper. Butter the parchment paper. As if we needed to add one more stick of butter Then pour in the chewy tollhouse style dough - made with lots of brown sugar and vanilla. Top with chunks of semi sweet chocolate, white chocolate, butterscotch, chewy caramels and miniature marshmallows. My teeth hurt just thinking about all the sugar! But they were the perfect mix of chewy and sweet. They turned out great and they were a big hit! (If you'd like the recipe, just let me know)


The bakery provided the delicate pink and orange hearts and lemon bars that weren't too sweet.


















Speaking of sweet, you should have seen the groom and his blue eyed brother work the 'room' and thank their guests! Great fun, a great family, and tonight is the big wedding! Can't wait!

Flugtag Saturday

It all started with parachuters rocketing out of the sky and landing on the ramp overlooking the Willamette. Precision landing, huge excitement, a roaring crowd.



















80,000 people came to watch the wacky and weird contraptions attempt to fly off the ramp. (the same number who came to hear Obama!)




















People were jamming the bridges. Can you see them all along the railing?


















It's hard to believe all of these people were on boats! It was like a parking lot out there in the river. One giant happy parking lot - with grills smoking and beers cracking open.

This is the first entry - a beaver, being rolled off the ramp by a bunch of Oregon ducks. Of course, Beavers can't fly!!



















Penny was everyone's favorite, with her little aqua dog jacket, and we just passed her from boat to boat! She had so much fun she was smiling!


















Captain Fun, with his pocket full of beer.


















The beautiful people, D&D, rushing her off to catch a flight to New York.



















The crew. I love these people! K&G, Captain & Mrs. Fun, D&D... oldest and dearest.