The Best Pizza in Portland is in our own backyard!

Sparky's Pizza
7536 NE M L King Blvd
Portland, OR 97211
(503) 285-5656

If you haven't been to Sparky's Pizza yet, you really need to try it. Citysearch has somehow decided Hot Lips is the best pizza in town, and while I have to admit they're good, they got nothing on Sparky's specialty pizzas.

If you go to Hot Lips, you have to try their Sicilian Deep Dish--it's good stuff. The problem is, if you buy slices like we do, you're bound to be disappointed. Hot Lips is always out of the Sicilian Deep Dish, resulting in our being forced to eat the substandard thin crust stuff. Not to mention, Hot Lips is more expensive. You want a whole Sicilian Deep Dish? You're looking at $22+ for the pizza alone. Granted, Hot Lips really knows how to use gourmet ingredients, but the thin crust is really not that incredible.

Sparky's on the other hand, is really, really good. The crust is perfect, without going overboard on the whole East Coast pizza ideal. Yeah, sure, thin, crunchy, floury crust is good, but we're not in New York, people. Get over it.

Where Sparky's really shines is in the way they use plenty of fresh ingredients and real cheese. Yep, I said it. REAL cheese. If you want a great dinner, try the large Santa Fe. For a mere $13.99, you get the large pizza, breadsticks (you should get a side of Marinara or Ranch, depending on your preference - additional cost: $.25), and a 2-liter of soda. It's more than enough for two (maybe even three).

This place gives Hot Lips a run for the money and beats it on several points (especially price). I hope Sparky's gets their kudos on Citysearch next year because they really deserve it. Although, I'll bet they won't get many votes because they're in the middle of the northernmost part of the hood. That's unfortunate for all the fools out there who don't know what good pizza really is.

Need a Contractor? Try Service Magic

We've been in the holds of home renovation for a week or so now. At first, I was fearful of how long it would take to find quality Contractors. My experience here was formerly reserved to doing tedious searches on Craigslist and hoping to get a quality professional who wouldn't lie about his credentials.

This time was different.

I don't remember where I came across the link to Service Magic, but I'm so glad I did. I signed up with them (it's free) and started looking for Contractors in my area. The entire process was quick and painless. Literally 5 minutes after I was done, I got my first call from a contractor! I was astonished. Could this really be someone calling to set up an appointment for an estimate? It was. Shortly after I hung up with him, someone else called. Then I got several more calls during the day. In fact, I had contractors calling me up the yin-yang, all week! I even had one guy call me at 8 AM (needless to say, he didn't get hired).

So far, we've signed on with three contractors, all of whom have been very professional, fully credentialed, and very economical. I highly recommend this service to anyone who needs to make improvements to their home. They even have listings for service people (maids, gutter washers, computer repair persons... you name it).

A couple of days ago, I got a call from a Project Manager at Service Magic who was given the task of working with me to find contractors and make sure they were on task. I was like, wow. And this guy was no slouch. After I ignored his voice mail, he followed up with an email and another call. Service Magic is on the ball. They do their job almost too well!

If you need any kind of service done on your home, this is an excellent place to start.

If anything, the only problem you'll have is making it look like it was hard work finding these people. I'm reminded of the commercial where the woman sprinkles flour on her face to appear as if baking rice crispy treats is actually laborious. Somehow, I doubt flour will do the trick, in this case.