About Wright County, MN

Halfway between St. Cloud and the Twin Cities lies this quiet little town with a huge presence in the retail world. We have one of the best outlet malls in the state. I might argue the BEST! Check out the retailers who have come to this "little town", Active Sports Board Shop, Adidas, Aeropostale, Alfred Dunner, Anne Taylor Factory Shop, Calvin Klein, Banana Republic (one of my faves), Converse, Gap Outlet, Columbia Sportswear, Eddie Bauer, Guess, Bass, Chico's, Polo Ralph Lauren, Old Navy, Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, Jones New York, Van Heusen, Nautica, Liz Clairborne, and dozens of others! What more could a shopper want? And, if you could live within minutes of these terrific stores, wouldn't that be the best? You can! Call me, I can give you directions

I can tell you about the great schools we have. I can show you the great parks and recreation. I can show you the best and most thriving community around. We have festivals, days of this and that, community pride and small-town values and caring. We have a business district with many wonderful stores, an antique mall, scores of great restaurants, and an old-time business district. When you want to leave the rat-race, find a beautiful, affordable home, please let me show you the wonders of our "little big town". The motto is Small Town Living, Big City Life. Check us out. We'd be happy to show you

Sing this out loud....yes, you, too, Susan, loudly! (So you can hear it! LOL!)

"A few of my favorite things...is the tune"

Manhattans with olive and lunch with the ladies; Phone calls and golf balls and fresh newborn babies, Tender beef sirloins, prepared very rare, Give a hint of a party and Rene will be there.

Red wine and bleu cheese and Friday night parties, Crab legs and pork ribs and Matt's Juicy Lucy's. Birdies and bogies that come in the spring, These are a few of Rene's favorite things.

Refrain: In the morning, before coffee, when we're feeling sad, we'll simply remember Rene's favorite things and then we won't feel so bad.

Football and show tunes and the PGA tour. Go Gophers, go Tigers and go Washburn Millers, Boating on Bylesby, the July Fourth parade, Five kids, but no mortgage, hell we've got it made.

Bridge club and best friends and four-hour lunches, Viceroy's and Bailey's and political hunches, Democrats..Kennedys, Michelle and Barack...Liza and Judy and comic Chris Rock.

Refrain

St. Patrick and shamrocks bring Rene a big smile..those things that come from the Emerald Isle. "Holy crap, not so much, oh for God's sake. Door County apple crisp all she would bake.

Not bad for an obituary, eh? She sounds like a hell of a woman and one I would have loved to have been around.

Back in August, I wrote a little post about purging my belongings. It was well-received, and a few fellow agents asked me how it was going.

My little experiement got out of control. What a surprise. I decided that I needed to get rid of 365 things...one for each day of this year. Oh, really? At first, I truly didn't believe that I could. My belongings have never been completely out of control, and I felt that I really needed and wanted what I had so carefully acquired.

However, I gave a good deal of thought to how much time it takes to care for all these items. Then, I began to work in earnest...it took me a week and a half. 365 things in 11 days. Compulsive? Absolutely. But, I can't begin to tell you how satisfying it was. And the local charities were very happy, too!

You might want to try a modified version...one item a week. Most of us have stuff we keep for someday...that someday may be here!

Let me know if this inspires you!!

My broker effected a short sale with Bank of America again. It worked because he continued to hound them, and that is what it takes these days. He ran up the ladder, we both worked the media, he finally got to the President's office and got some attention to the issue and the particular property we were working.

I am certain that he will be writing a post about this soon which I will reblog to you all. And, I may get long-winded enough to show you all how frustrating it can be from other writers on Active Rain to get something accomplished with BOA/Countrywide these days. For now, I want to celebrate this one small victory with my broker. the sellers , the selling agent and buyers. Congratulations to all.

I've had the luxury of reading late at night lately just for fun. Amazing. But, one of the first books I read was "The Book of the Dun Cow" by Walter M. Wangerin, Jr. It was a book I read within 24 hours, mind you it is a children's book. But, it had been on my bookshelf for over 20 years, knew it was a classic, and so I thought, it would be an easy read at 2:30 in the morning. Not so much. It has made me think and rethink my world.

It could be easy for me to tell you how how I felt and what I inferred from this amazing book, but I would rather you read it and take from it what you will. It has many layers of meaning. And, while it is a children's book, it will not be one you read to your children without a LOT of conversation with them, which is the point of reading to children, in my humble opinion. You might want to be firmly in control of your religious, social and spiritual beliefs or you might want to examine them simply with your child/ren.

I now want a dog I will name Mundo Cani whose nose will be too big.