May 24, 2008 Ben, Where does the time go? I can't believe 5 years ago we were blessed with being your parents.  You steal my heart everyday and it's been amazing to watch your personality grow over the past year. You love anything that has to do with the ocean. You will spend hours drawing and coloring. Swimming is yo

So this might be blindingly obvious and I just never noticed it before. I’d like to think it’s a new feature since last time I tried to debug this kind of thing, otherwise I took a whole lot more time …

Foreclosed homes.  Bank owned homes. Remember them?    They aren’t talked about as much any more but they are still out there and they still have the ability to affect the real estate market.           RealtyTrac’s first quarter analysis of foreclosure inventory shows that there are s

There's nothing q

safe, chemical free deodorant Folks are baffled when I tell them that I make my own deodorant (recipe here). Why make your own? It's simple, the ingredients used in commercial deodorant MAY cause cancer. Since this is something I use everyday, I felt I had to find something that was chemical free and safe to use on a d

The American Red Cross is assisting people in Moore, Oklahoma right now and has been literally since the tornado was touching down.Red Cross of Central and Western Oklahoma is providing u

How often do you have eggs for dinner? As we sat down and enjoyed this meal last Monday my husband said "We don't have eggs enough for dinner. We need to do this more often."Simple and quick meatless Mondays go far in our family and I'm pretty sure, this simple, quick and easy recipe will find it's way back soon i

This May I'm running the Happy Girls Half Marathon in Bend, OR. While this isn't my first half marathon event, this time I'm trying something different and I'm working with a Physical Therapist (Jay) and Coach (Stephanie) at Rebound Physical Therapy to keep injury free and improve my performance.  My goal race is a we

Central Oregon Beer Week is just around the corner, and one of

Once I find something I like, I revisit it often. Okay... yes, obsess over it might be a more accurate description. Take this Grilled Romaine Salad. I know, you foodies out there are rolling your eyes and calling me out-of-date. For you, the newness of grilled lettuce has lost its 'a-ha' edge. But for late comers like me, I

The Bend and Central Oregon real estate market continues to improve. The month of April brought with it a nice increase in the number of homes for sale.  The number of homes listed for sale jumped by 147 from 1413 to 1560.  That is the largest monthly gain since June 2011 when there were 2369 [...]

Wubba’s BBQ Shack is a Klamath Falls-based restaurant that has just opened up a new location on Bend’s northside, at the corner of Empire and Layton in the space f

  Address:  1352 NW Albany, Bend, Oregon 97701 Price:  $399,000 Square Feet:  1850 Bedrooms:  4 Bathrooms:  2.75 Acres:  .13                   This house for sale in the heart of the West Side of Bend is just where you want to be.  Not only does this home have 4 [...]

The real estate investment strategy of flipping houses recently received good news in the form of the FHA continuing the suspension of their anti-flipping rule through December 2014. The rule, originally enacted in 2003, was written to curb the practice of flipping houses by preventing the FHA from insuring mortgage loans o

My level of mid-week stress hinges upon my level of completed chores over the weekend. There are the usual chores, such as laundry, vacuuming, and such, but the chores that really affect my stress level are my kitchen chores. That is, food prep. Preparing food for the week ahead...

Central Oregon Beer Week starts in exactly one week from to

I have started reading Bill Plotkin's latest book, Wild Mind (Get it HERE). So far, I love it! I am only four chapters in at this point, but there is so much that is coming up for me... as is most often the case with Plotkin's books. I look forward to writing more on the book from a more personal perspective.

I love Mexican food. I could eat a plate of loaded nachos all by myself. When I saw this recipe on Pinterest, I had to make that for meatless Monday! By looking at the photo, you can see, it's very colorful and combine that with cumin, garlic and olive oil roasted for about 25 mins, this almost replaces my standby ground b

Big news to come out of McMinnville’s Golden Valley Brewery this week: Brewmaster Mark Vickery is leaving to start

This year’s second annual Central Oregon Beer Week is taking place May 20 – 27 (Monday through Monday, Memorial Day) and so far this year is lining up to be great with a lot of fantastic events and sponsors.

A little background to this post… one of the things I love most about living in the Bay Area, especially compared to Southern California, is how commutable the

I’m excited to announce a new program for business owners in Bend and the Central Oregon area.  I have just started an art leasing program.  The work will of course be my fine art prints. Below is an example of my work framed with my hand crafted Cheery wood frames.  All of my Oregon Fine [...]

Address:  628 NW Green Forest Cir., Redmond, Oregon 97756 Price:  $199,900 Square Feet:  2038 Bedrooms:  3 Bathrooms:  2.5 Acres:  .16             Beautiful, well cared for house for sale in NW Redmond built in 2007.  The master bedroom is on the main floor.  There is a gas fire place i

I’m pleased to announce that Hack Bend is adding another contributor, Caitlin Richmond! She is fairly new to Bend (just over a year) with a degree in journalism and writes for the Oregon Legal Journal as well as having articles in several local publications. All of w

I have been noticeably lagging on my blogging lately, and this is what has been taking up all of my spare time: planning this year’s Central Oregon Beer Week!

I often eat snacks at my desk as I work almost 55 hour weeks.  I was noticing that I was using a lot of plastic forks and spoons one day and then remembered my trusty camping spoon from Light My Fire. Slowly, my family has stopped using plastic bags, paper coffee cups, plastic sandwich bags so it's a natural fit I either