It’s tough all over, but some say these 5 cities have the best chances for speedy recoveries. By Dorothy Pomerantz, Forbes

Last evening I had dinner with several girlfriends and the subject of rats in one of their homes came up. As it turned out everyone at the table had dealt with a similar situation at some point and were very frustrated. I thought having a better understanding of what we can do to prevent pests from entering your home was important for many of my friends and clients.

I decided to call my friend, Jim Osborn, owner of Paratex, to get some professional advice from an expert! He was full of great information and really gave me the skinny. In short, rodents and bugs are very common to our area. Under “general pests” there is some information about how to identify and differentiate between the plethora of rodents and insects that may affect your home.

While pests pose a nuisance and sometime health problems (for those with asthma or allergies) in our homes - they are useful to our outdoor environment (in moderation of course). There are a lot of things we can do to reduce pests’ interest in our homes. The WA Toxics Coalition has some great fact sheets on indoor pest control (fact sheets in pdf at the bottom of the page). So, rats for instance, can be discouraged with a few, no-cost control standards, such as:

• Store garbage in tightly closed cans.

• Keep pet food inside.

• Compost grass, brush, and yard cuttings but not garbage or food scraps.

• Remove fruits, vegetables, and bird seeds from the ground.

• Start your wood or lumber pile at least 1-1/2 feet off the ground.

• Do not pile wood next to your home.

• Remove animal droppings, trash, and/or garbage from your property.

• Have junked cars towed away.

• Prune tree limbs so that they do not touch the home.

• Close every possible entry to your home, including windows, doors, vents, pet doors, and small gaps under the eaves.

• Keep your home free of litter.

• Any food stored in basements should be in rat-proof containers.

They also include information about trapping or hiring professional trappers. Sometimes, the infestation of rodents or bugs is so huge that taking the aforementioned measures or trapping seems to not be making a dent. That’s when Paratex’s fumigation technology might be your solution. It is super important to remember that once the pest is removed from your home, to integrate the no-cost, control standards mentioned in WA Toxics Coalition’s fact sheets in and around your home so that you can continue to have a pest free home.

It is obvious that pest issues (something realtors deal with quite regularly) are a real stress to my friends and clients who are raising families and living in their homes. I hope this information and the links provided are useful to all of you.

Washington CASH is hosting their 8th annual holiday bazaar this Saturday (11/22) from 11-4 at:
Northwest African American Museum
2300 So. Massachusetts Street
Seattle, WA 98144

Washington Community Alliance for Self Help (CASH) is an organization that helps individuals start or grow local businesses. Shopping at local businesses is one of the easiest ways you can give back to your community (see the Puget Sound Community Change program for some details on that) and tread a little more lightly on our planet. However, it is sometimes hard to find a local businesses close to our homes that meet our needs. Washington CASH can, in theory, help bridge that gap.

Even if you don’t want to go to the bazaar, check out their website to see all the great things they are doing.

Get away from all the 411 fees and use Google 411! Haven’t used it yet myself (with the fabulous Diana and GPS - I don’t need anything else!) but it sounds like an awesome way to get the service you need on the road while avoiding the obscenly expensive 411 fees. Try it out and let me know what you think. This link takes you to a video tour of the system - check it out: 1-800-GOOG-411

I wanted to share with you a super sweet thank you card I received from the daughter of one of my clients. It’s a bit dated now (been married 6 months already!) but it warms my heart every time I read it.

My wonderful seller has given me the go ahead to reduce the price of her English Cove townhome in Redmond to $385K…at this price we should get some real interest because it it just too good of a deal to pass up!

With approximately 1669 sq ft, the home offers 3 levels of private, contemporary living with a peek-a-boo, winter view of Lake Sammamish. (I just showed it last weekend and the cute couple I was givng a tour of the home to  asked what ‘body of water’ we were looking at!!) So, do keep it in mind for anyone you might know of that is looking for a beautiful home and location- just past Whole Foods on Redmond Fall City Road and just minutes (literally 3-5) to Microsoft and I-520 and Lisa Dupar’s Pomegranate Bistro-yum!!. More details are available on my website.

Give me a call (206-418-6260) or email me if you would like to check it out or have questions.

Vijya & Associates hopes you will join us in a volunteer opportunity we’ve been participating in for several years now- Operation Nightwatch.

The 4th Tuesday of every other month, we make a trip to Costco, buy enough food to feed dinner to 100+ people and then we go to Operation Nightwatch - in the central district of Seattle.  Once there, we chop, dice, slice, boil, and cook until the first people arrive.  (Soup, spaghetti, and sandwiches have been our specialties so far!)

When:  Tuesday, November 25th
Time:  8pm-9:30pm
Where:  300 14th Ave South, Seattle

Once we start serving the food to those waiting to hear if they will be fortunate enough to get into a shelter for the evening - the time flies and we are cleaning up and heading home before you know it. Each time is a humbling experience, and we are newly reminded of how fortunate we are to have food and shelter and the support of friends and family around us.

Operation Nightwatch is a Christian ministry seeking to meet the physical, social, psychological, and spiritual needs of Seattle’s night community. They are dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor by caring for the homeless men, women and children late at night.  They provide emergency dispatch to shelter, hotel vouchers for families, meals, blankets, and pastoral care for those in need. The services they offer are free of charge and are all funded principally by contributions from individual donors. They are staffed by hundreds of volunteers. They do not require any religious activity for access.

We share this with you because we would like to invite you to take part with us the feeling of community and sharing. Giving back to our community is one way we show that we truly care! Let us know if you can join us - vijya@vijya.com or 206.418.2620

For several years now, the members of Emerald City Business & Professional Women stuff 300 Christmas stockings for the homeless women served by Angeline House - a women’s day shelter in the Belltown neighborhood. This year is no different.

The stockings are filled with toiletries, socks, gloves, and goodies. Their goal is to give these women a little something special at this wonderful time of year. “We want them to know that they are not forgotten,” says a Emerald City Business & Professional Women (ECBPW) representative. “For many of these women this is their holiday.”

The ECBPW members have donated many of the items necessary. Due to the large number that they are filling, they are asking members of our community for help. If you would like to donate to this rewarding project, they would appreciate your help.

Goods they need include: socks, individually packaged goodies (chips, cookies, nuts), paperback books, costume jewelry (to be wrapped ultimately - by you or ECBPW volunteers). The coordinator, Dolores Gohndrone, is happy to pick up your donation - just call 206.587.5360 or email her.

Want to feel like Santa? Volunteers are needed on Monday, December 8th to help fill the stockings. They’ll be meeting at the Best Western Executive Inn in Seattle at 5:45pm. I’ll be there and hope you can join me!

Alternatively or in additon, ECBPW will accept cash donations. Checks can be made payable to ECBPW (a non -profit 501(c)3; #37-1423219)  and sent to ECBPW Foundation, c/o Dolores Gohndrone, 1511 - 3rd Ave, Ste 520, Seattle, WA  98101.

In times of economic challenges - like these - non-profit organizations feel it bad. They often work with very limited budgets in good times and in bad times they have to start cutting services, actions, and sometimes people.

I make giving back part of my regular regime. Whether its providing a monthly meal at Operation Nightwatch, walking for Water 1st, or captaining a table at the UW Women’s Center auction - it’s part of what I do throughout the year. I know many of you make annual contributions to charitable organizations. It doesn’t have to be a lot — it could even be in lieu of a material gift and made in another individual’s name. Whatever your time or money ability is, I think it’s important to give back to your local community organizations in a small or huge way. Not only are you supporting the mission of the organization but your dollars and your time also bolster the people involved by saying, “I believe in the work that you do.”

Below is a short list of a few organizations I believe in (in alphabetical order). I would love to learn about some of your favorites!

Charley’s Fund

CoolMom

ElderHealth

Local Food Banks (pdf of Seattle and King County food banks)

NW Harvest

Operation Nightwatch

Prosthetics Outreach Foundation

Treehouse

Treeswing

UW Women’s Center

Water 1st

WestSide Baby

I haven’t written in awhile…there has been so much going on with the transition from summer to fall and of course the ‘falling’ of our national and local economy. Just like all of you are probably doing, I’ve been talking with friends and colleagues and the ‘people on the street’ …’joe six pack’ as one of our vp candidate likes to say. I know there is a great deal of nervousness out there.

As a Realtor, I have a range of clients dealing with the situation in various ways- for some, this is not really affecting their personal day to day life very much. Other clients are having to sell an asset such as a car or furniture or get an extra job to create some additional income to aid their situation. I think this is a vital time for Americans to remember the sacrifices our prior generations and forefathers have made in building this country. At the time they didn’t know what they were giving up by working as hard as they did, but they did it for a better life-without really defining what better was. If “better” meant access to education and health care for all Americans, and enough food for every individual and family and a place to call home…to me that was a pretty good dream.

Unfortunately the past two generations of Americans have taken that dream to mean that we are entitled to having anything we want at anytime. That is not only unrealistic but also in my opinion, unhealthy. It is like giving a young child the dessert without earning it by eating the meal that their bodies really need. Short term ’yum’ for long term ’unhealthy lifestyle choices’. Well, if kids can learn to eat well and take care of themselves to become healthy adults, then we as Americans certainly can take better care of ourselves too. We built this country on principles of hard work, sacrifice, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit - as Nike’s slogan says… Just Do[ing] It!!

So, this is a time to welcome the challenge before us as an opportunity to show ourselves how what we’re made of. What’s the old saying? “when the going gets tough…the tough get going”  We need to think long term and not short term (what is the best thing for a growing child? -the good healthy food she needs to grow or the quick fix as in the dessert ?) and as the economist, Thomas L. Friedman said in an Opinion column this past Tuesday, Sept 30, 08 in the Seattle Times, we need “a Buildup, not a bailout”. He explains that we need to get back to making stuff based on real engineering and not just shuffling financial paperwork… Americas No 1. resource are its people. We are not afraid of hard work and embracing change and a vision and enginuity…in fact..it is what drives the engine of our country states Mr. Friedman. In a green economy, we would rely less on credit from foreigners “and more on creativity from Americans,” argues Van Jones, president of Green for All, and author of the forthcoming The Green Collar Economy. Van Jones continues by stating, “It’s time to stop borrowing and start building. America’s #1 resource is not oil or mortgages. Rather, our #1 resource is our people. Let’s put people back to work — retrofitting and repowering America…You can’t base a national economy on credit cards. But you can base it on solar panels, wind turnbines, smart biofuels and a massive program to weatherize every building and home in America.”