Alexsandra Stewart, Broker -Portland Oregon Real Estate-

Women in Business Holiday Market

It's a chance for some one stop shopping - and gift wrapping to boot!

Saturday, 6 December 2008, 9am - 3 pm, at the Kennedy School Gym. 5736 NE 33^rd Ave, Portland, OR

Gifts and gift certificates for your entire family from local women retailers, artists, clothing and jewelry designers, botanical-based spa and body products, health and wellness gift ideas, the latest eye wear and more. Door prizes and a silent auction - with all auction proceeds to benefit the Oregon Food Bank.

More than 20 vendors including

Arbonne - Tonya DeCroce and Loris Eastman

Buchic Clothing - soft, stylish and sustainable wear for women and children

Lia Sophia Jewelry - stocking stuffer ideas

Music and CD's, Folk, Blues, Musician, teacher - Anne Weiss

NO Sweatshop Children's Clothing - Maggie McOmie

Re/Max equity group, Alex Stewart, Broker - register for door prizes

Symple Life Concierge - Services for busy people

Sofia's European Boutique -European Style Clothing for the urban woman

For a complete list of vendors, and more information visit the Women in Business Holiday Showcase website. For vendor inquiries: call 503-998-6157

We've a saying in Portland, "it's a really small place."

You never know when you'll run into some one you know. And as for six degrees of separation, it's small enough that we are really only about three degrees, maybe fewer, of separation. It's not unusual to meet someone and during the initial conversation discover that one of us knows someone who knows someone to whom the other is connected. And after almost 5 years in Portland, I'm not surprised when I run into someone I know when I'm out and about in town. But wine country? Forty miles southeast of the city?

Friends and I went down to Yamhill County today, one of Oregon's fabulous wine regions. There are over 200 wineries in the state, and we planed to check out just a few of them. It was a beautiful fall day. High sixties, clear skies, sunshine, and a green and gold countryside. A day to truly appreciate, most likely one of the last we'll have before the rains.

We stopped for lunch at the Dundee Bistro. Another car arrived at about the same time and I was waiting for them to pass so I could take a few photos. One of the men politely motioned me to go ahead, and as I said "no, that's okay, I'm waiting to take a photo," the woman in front turned around. It was one of those moments. Simultaneous recognition and loud voices! "Alex/Renee!" Renee Dobbes, a mortgage broker, was also down from Portland with friends for some wine tasting. We hadn't planned to go over to the Dobbes Family Estates, her family's winery, so it's on the list for next time. They do have some great wines, and also produce Wines by Joe.

As I joined my friends inside, I laughed and said small world. I really hadn't expected to see anyone I knew.

If you go to Dundee, please don't miss the Dundee Bistro. The food is fantastic, they showcase regional wines and foods of the northwest. The salmon was grilled to perfection. The chicken melted off the bones. The bread something to dream about! After a glass of the Ponzi Vineyards Pinot Blanc at lunch, couldn't resist and bought a bottle to take home.

After lunch we drove a little further south on 99W and turned off at the Archery Summit Road toward Domaine Drouhin. A winding and rutted gravel road means a slowed down drive, but all the better to ooh and ah at the vineyards' fall colors. Domaine Drouhin is at the top and you'll pass several other wineries. You'll be tempted to stop - but catch them on the way back. You definitely want to see the views from Domaine Drouhin.

We were on the deck, basking in the sunshine, watchng the light change on the hills and sipping our second taste, a 2006 Pinot Noir, when I heard my name called. Paula Springer, a stager colleague, is walking toward me. Paula, her husband, and her parents have driven from Portland for a day of wine tasting. Small world indeed! By now my friends are giving me a teasing time, saying I know everyone, and can't get away for a day.

I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised to see people I know. Yamhill County is not that far, Dundee is only about 40 miles and it's one of the things Oregonians do -- wine tasting. I wonder though, if we had chosen to go to one of the other regions in the Willamette Valley, would we have run into others that I knew? Possibly, or it would have been another of our group's small world day!

After a leisurely tasting at De Ponte Cellars, just a little further down the ridge, we headed back to Portland.

And here's the topper for a small world day, we stopped at Market of Choice on Terwilliger Blvd on the way home, and I ran into Simone Meekins who works there, and used to work at Burdigala - a favorite wine shop in Portland!

I don't have to wonder about this though -- when you're in Oregon, whether you are visiting, planning to move here, or already living here - you'll be spending time in our wonderful wine regions.

I'll meet you there,

or take you,

maybe we'll have a picnic.

I promise, it will be a day you won't forget, and you might even run into a friend or two!

Went to Hopworks Urban Brewery - HUB - the other day. And I'm totally impressed. Not only is it the first eco-brewpub in the Northwest, they've done it fantastically well!

Housed in the old Sunset Fuel Company's building on SE 30th and Powell, it was a gut rehab to end all gut rehabs. Thick concrete walls had windows sawed into them, timber was saved and reused in booths and the bar. In an interesting twist on the original location's function the oil from the fryers is recycled in the biodiesel tank which powers the trucks and the brew kettle.

Everthing possible is reused, recycled or designed to have minimum impact on the environment. The exterior planters are old beer kegs that have been cut in half. The parking lot pavers allow rain to drain into the soil.

In each of the booths, the salt and pepper are stored in old power utility switch boxes.

Even the tissue holders in the women's bathroom are from old pipe.

The brewpub is the dream child of Christian Ettinger, and for that story you'll have to read the blurb on the HUB's menu, and his family has been super involved as well. Designed by his architect father, Roy; his mother, Karen who formerly owned a plant business, has taken on keeping the planters filled with native and non-invasive plants.

Of course the purpose of a brewery and brew-pub is the beer. I didn't have any yet! It was lunch and sad to say beer makes me sleepy. Food and service were great! I am going back though and test out some of the organic ale and award winning beers. Meet you there?

When you go, be sure to ask to see the professionally published photo book by Tim LaBarge that chronicles the rehab. He also has some great photos on the walls.

The work crew had to dig out a portion of the dirt floor - it's a crawl space under my house - in order to pour the new foundation.

I was amazed at what they found.

A brown bottle with Purex etched on the surface, filled with burnt wooden matches, water and sludge. I had an image of a teenager sneaking smokes down there, hoping to hide the evidence by dropping it all into the bottle. There were tin cans, partially rusted with crumbling labels, remnants of the home's staples: Carnation Condensed Milk and Folger's Coffee.

The woman of the house, or perhaps the adolescent daughter, used Noxema face care, packaged in the familiar deep blue glass jar and white lid now turned rust.

Weights and pullies from windows, a few brick cobbles from an unknown Portland street, more bottles and jars now unrecognizeable, encrusted with 40 or 50 years of dirt and most surprizing of all, a High School Diploma.

Encased in musty, semi-moldy black leather turned greyish, the gilt lettering still gleams in an Old English font, Robert Service High School, Anchorage, Alaska. Inside, under a plastic casing is the certification that Michelle Rene Warren has satisfactorily completed the Course of Study prescribed for graduation, and is awarded this Diploma, given in May, 1987.

The saved Commencment program, on gold paper has frayed edges, and a similar type face as the front of the diploma. Inside, the list of the evening events and the graduates. Michelle Rene Warren, one of 441 graduates, wasn't the Salutatorian or Valedictorian, nor listed as one of the Honor Graduates. She might have been a cheerleader for the Cougars, or is it a Bobcat sketched on the front? Perhaps she sang in the Swing Choir and perfomed "Brothers and SIsters", or played the recessional piece, "The Crowning Glory" with the Symphonic Band.

Or maybe none of these activities were hers. Perhaps she was a student who loved literature and language and went on to get her Ph.D in French language and Medieval Studies at Stanford in 1993. A Michelle R. Warren did, and taught at University of Miami in Florida perhaps, and then went to Dartmouth? I googled the name and found that. Of course they are not necessarily the same person, there could be a dozen women with the name Michelle R. Warren. Maybe she stayed in Portland, in Sellwood and I've passed her on the street.

She would have been one of the last to receive her diploma that night. Was she thinking of her future as she waited, was she getting ready to move? How did her diploma get to the basement of a house on Sherrett Street in Sellwood, in Portland, Oregon? Did she live there? Or come to visit an aunt or uncle the summer she graduated, a fun trip before she went to college? And, where IS she now?

It's another mystery.

... people! That's the number by which Oregon's population is expected to grow in the next 30 years.

After saying WOW, I realize it's no wonder that sources like Forbes have gathered information that puts Portland on a top ten list like " Where Home Prices Are Likely to Rise." (Other cities on the list were Atlanta, Minneapolis, Colorado Springs, CO, Salt Lake City, UT, Austin, TX, San Antonio, TX, Charlotte, NC, Albuquerque, NM, and Oklahoma City). They are obviously looking at some of the long term trends.

People are attracted to Oregon's beauty, green reputation, life style, and the easy access to many outdoor attractions and activities. I came back to Portland for the slower pace of life and the home town feel of the neighborhoods I knew when I was younger.

But when I read something about the growth projections for the state and for the Metro region, I ask myself, "What will change? Where will everyone live? and OMG, what about traffic?" I am sure I'm not alone in having these questions, or opinions on what the answers should be!

So, I was excited to read about the project called The Big Look. This is a bi-partisan task force established by the Governor and Legislature in 2005 with the purpose of reviewing Oregon's statewide land use system. Yes, I know - that's a subject fraught with passions! The task force has been getting input, traveling the state, conducting research and getting ready to present recommedations to the 2009 Legislature.

But the project is also allowing for ordinary folks -- like you and me - to have input on communities, preservation, transportation and infrastructure, state agencies and citizen participation. They want to know what changes we want to see and would support. I can only hope they mean it! And trust that the mechanisms they have set up for input will be taken seriously.

Some of those mechanisms are the web site The Big Look where there are videos, access to research and documents, opportunities to host meetings in your community and lists of upcoming events. They have established a series of Town Hall meetings scheduled for September 17th through October 2nd in Tillamook, Portland, Klamath Falls, Medford, Coos Bay/Noth Bend, Eugene, The Dalles, La Grande, Burns and Bend. The dates, times and locations are listed at the Big Look site.

I'm planning to attend the one in Portland! I do have lots of opinions and passions. I want housing to be affordable. I want public transportation to be reasonable, available, accesible - and I want lots of it! I want the wine industry, tourist industry, farming and the resources that support them to remain strong. I want green spaces, and parks, and the coast to continue to exist. I don't want strip malls! I want communities that are sustainable and support local people, families, local businesses. I want people to be able to live close to where they work, to shop, to walk and bike in their neighborhoods and be safe. -- to name just a few!

I'm guessing you have a list of wants and don't wants too. I hope you'll join the Town Hall meeting in Portland on the 18th, 6:30 to 8:30pm at the Buckley Center, University of Portland, 5000 N Willamette Blvd, Portland. I plan to be there, hope to see you. Or if not in Portland, hope you'll attend the one in your community.

If there isn't a Town Hall meeting near you - check out the Statewide Public Opinion Survery on line. It was easy, gave me a chance to be thougthful and state my mind. Be a part of the future! I know you care too!