This is my first time in Limbo, one of Portland’s fresh produce markets:

After my morning meetings today I stopped in at the Starbucks in the lobby of the PacWest Center in downtown Portland.

I was treated to some very nice live piano music, a rarity these days. Mike Horsfall is tickling the ivories in this short video:

Several times in the past weeks I’ve had the pleasure of touring the produce department of the Zupan’s store on the corner of West Burnside and 23rd in Portland.

The Zupan’s stores seem to pride themselves on opulent sensory overloaded experience. I’m reminded of Gelson’s Market in Pacific Palisades, California. Lots of beautiful food stacked on very tall shelves.

In a store with such an abundance of amazing food and experiences, I was more than a little miffed today when I found NO raw foods section. How can such a high end brand be so behind the times?

When I asked the very friendly grocery clerk about the raw food section, she grimaced and said, “We don’t have one of those, yet,” and that I should try New Seasons or Whole Foods. The thing is, I’m on foot/transit, and I’m not going to trek across town for lunch.

The old standby for a raw foodist is the produce section, which she recommended. I made my way over there and found a pint of very yummy ripe figs and a creamy ripe haas avocado. A perfect lunch for me today.

In addition to getting into the raw food groove, it looks like Zupan’s could use some serious social media expertise on their marketing team. Such a great store should be known and loved by all!

Photo: shawnlinehan.com
I wasn’t able to get home to make lunch today, and was riding around town with a friend looking for a salad bar that had organic produce that wouldn’t require me to take out a credit line just to have lunch.

We were in Southeast Portland and happened by the People’s Co-Op Farmers Market. I decided to see if I could create a salad with just what I found there. Someone lent me a bowl, and I started around the market, poking my head into the tents.

First I received one head of red leaf lettuce from Michelle Calascibetta of Myriad Growers at Jean’s Urban Forest Farm.

I then went in search for some more “myriad” greens, which I found in the tent occupied by Neil Robinson of the Farmageddon Growers Collective. I grabbed 1/4 pound of mixed salad greens.

Wanting more complex flavors in my salad I headed over to The Mushroomery to learn all about this season’s mushroom crop from Dustin Olsen.

I ventured inside to find some yummy raw dressing, and saw that People’s Co-Op carries Abby’s Table products, and chose to slather my salad with some Nude Ranch.

I ventured outside once more to find some fruit and discovered the strawberries offered by M. C. Farms.

I had a lovely lunch and met some wonderful people today. I love living in Portland!

As someone who gripes as little as possible, I have finally come to the end of my rope.

No matter what anyone “in the business” says, VoIP sucks. Using Skype for business phone calls sucks. Google Voice sucks. It is all unreliable, intermittent and the sound quality just plain sucks. There, I said it.

I will have to get a “land line” and DSL to augment my Comcast internet “service,” so that I can have reliable phones.

After asking a brilliant friend what his solution would be, I’m going to implement it, at roughly 5x the cost of a regular phone line. Having 100% uptime is critical to any business, and I’m in business, so I need phones that work when people call.

Enough complaining from me. My brilliant friend is available for problem solving and consulting. Send me a comment on this post, and I’ll reply with his email address.

It’s time to get out in this gorgeous Portland weather!

appcookie.com

I was pleased to see a 4th of July Parade flyer in Palio, a favorite cafe of mine, located in Ladd’s Addition, one of my favorite neighborhoods in Southeast Portland. What I missed (it actually wasn’t on the flyer) was that this was going to be a kids’ parade.

I enjoyed myself as much as a non-parent could in such a situation. I asked a young man, Alexander Harding, to share his photos with me, so I might have something to show for my morning. You can find his amazing photos (and not just of the parade) at appcookie.com.

I spend a great deal of time with Dr. Todd Michael, assisting him with his myriad projects, and appreciate all that he is doing in the world. He is a deep and old soul, and I am honored to have the opportunity to be of service to him and his mission.

Helping Dr. Todd spread the word about his books through this web site has been an ongoing labor of love. It’s wonderful to see that someone with Mike Dooley’s credentials has taken notice.

It appears that Mike Dooley of “Notes from the Universe” fame and co-star of The Secret has taken a liking to The Evolution Angel.

I have been a fan of Mike for years and years and explained to Dr. Todd just how amazing this acknowledgement is:

I just read a book that I am in no way connected with (nor do I know the author), which absolutely tripped me out and got me thinking some wild new thoughts!! It talks about the afterlife, reviews why we’re here and how we may choose to pass, dishes cool stuff on “God,” explains wealth and money, and has amazing insights on soul mates, being alone, other worlds, religion, even a particularly famous prophet (in an unconventional light), and more. I cannot recommend this short paperback highly enough!!!!! ~ Mike Dooley

In my years of teaching the Law of Karma from the Tibetan Buddhist, as well as the more contemporary Law of Attraction perspective, I have not found a more useful phrase to explain how it all works than Mike Dooley’s, “Thoughts Become Things.”

Mike, we are so glad that you found Dr. Todd’s book to be so valuable. We are grateful beyond words for your heartfelt endorsement.

“My Precious,” my MacBook Pro, recently had to have its DVD drive and display replaced. I made sure to get Apple Care coverage, so the repairs were free. I dropped it off on a Sunday morning, hoping that it would be done by the end of the day. When the end of Sunday came, it hadn’t been looked at yet. I got to know Ken, the store manager. He’s a very high energy guy and was more than helpful.

I wandered downtown Portland on Monday, in the midst of serious withdrawals. I had sought out free computer time somewhere. I couldn’t see paying 10 cents/minute to use a computer at Backspace, so I went to the library. There were dozens of people on their own laptops, using the library’s WiFi. There was even someone in the lobby with a BIG monitor hooked up to his laptop. It looked like he’d been camped there for a while.

All of the internet computers were taken, and reserved for what seemed like days in advance. Dozens of “Catalog Only” computers were unused, which seemed like a waste of resources, at least to me. I left the library, without my internet fix, and made a bee-line to the Apple Store, hoping my computer would be fixed. It was not.

I saddled up to one of the iPhone demo stations, found a web browser and logged into gmail and Twitter. I was there for maybe fifteen minutes. I don’t know if anyone noticed me, or if Ken told them to let me use the station, but it was nice to get my internet needs met.

I use my laptop as a phone (with Skype), as well as for everything else (email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). It’s amazing how dependent I have become on this magic light box for my interaction with the rest of the world. I learn about what others are doing. I research how to do anything I want to learn. I make reservations. I look up recipes. I watch movies. I correspond. I chat. I remain connected to my world through this box.

Even when I am interacting one on one, face to face with others, I need to go to Google Maps to find out the best bus route to get to the meeting, or I need to pay for the event, or make a reservation online. I am so looking forward to taking the plunge and getting a smart phone, which will be an extension of my laptop, allowing me to do many of the same things, but without having to lug a big computer bag around with me.

On Tuesday I read books, something I hadn’t done in some time. I was once a voracious reader. The call came around 2pm and I boogied down to the Apple Store. I was told that the hard drive would fail some time soon, so I had to come back down in a few days and go through the same process. I hope that this time I’ll be able to get same-day turnaround. Going without my Mac for that long again would be a challenge.

Part of why I chose to move to Portland is its large vegan community. There seems to be a vegan restaurant on nearly every corner, and there’s usually a vegan option or two on even the most non-vegan menus.

I started down the path to better nutrition in the later 90s, when I was a Buddhist monk dealing with severe stomach spasms. I read a book by Dr. Peter D’Adamo about his Eat Right For Your Type program, and I was hooked. I followed the guidelines in the book and dropped 50 pounds.

By avoiding corn and wheat in all forms, my stomach spasms stopped. I later visited the D’Adamo’s clinic in New Hampshire and got a “prescription” for my specific needs, and dropped another 50 pounds. This was amazing to me!

Some raw gurus dispute the validity of the D’Adamo’s premises, but I know what happened to me. Regardless of the scientific arguments, I have not had another stomach spasm.

Ever since then I’ve been looking for ways to improve my health and how I feel. I was introduced to the raw/living food lifestyle by friends in Colorado, and dove in immediately. I blogged about my experiences on My Raw Year, expecting to be 100% raw for a full year. That experiment didn’t go to plan, but I learned a lot about raw food and about myself in the process.

I’ve been an aspiring 100% raw/living foodist since then, and have been slowly progressing back to that place. I have yet to find a completely raw vegan restaurant in Portland, something I hoped to find here. If I don’t find one, I’ll likely start one, and will keep you posted on that, too.

I have resumed blogging on My Raw Year, and have just recently posted some recipes.

We have lots of very interesting neighbors. The building is one of the only apartment buildings in the area that accepts dogs, so everyone has at least one dog. Several have cats, too. The residents’ ages range from late 20s to late 60s, with more on the younger end of the spectrum.

There’s a house next door that our living room window looks out on. We can see into their back yard. Their kids are often playing out there, making lots of kid noise. There’s another noise that we often hear, a noise that’s accompanied by a delicious smell, the smell of roasting coffee.

Apparently the couple in this house roast their own beans one batch at a time. The sound reminds me of a vacuum cleaner or hair dryer, but the smell is more like toast. Portland has some die hard coffee folks. That’s for sure, but these are the first I’ve found who roast their own coffee. Too cool!