Anna Glebova

Breakfast and brunch / lunch place in Wayland MA: Mel's Cafe, or Mel's Commonwealth Cafe, which is right on Commonwealth ave, aka Rt 30.

Mel's Cafe specializes in American Breakfast and Lunch (or you can call it Brunch).

It's open Monday through Saturday 6 am to 2.30 pm

and on Sundays 7 am till 2 pm. Lunch menu is no offered on Sundays.

But what's on the menu? Yummy stuff! Their specialty seem to be egg dishes: puffy omelettes, egg benedicts, followed by sandwiches, pancakes, waffles and french toasts.

For lunch, you can have soups and salads, burgers and roll ups.

And of course there are deserts - cheesecakes and pies.

Coffee is refilled free of charge, and lightening fast! I loved how the service is fast and friendly. You just mention something - and here it is already, on your table. By the way, table is stocked with a variety of jams, and a handful of half&half single servings, as well as sugar and ketchup - so you can get to enjoying your food just the way you like it, at the moment is appears in front of you.

There might be a hold up and waiting time to be seated on Sundays, say between 10 and noon. It eases up afterwards. It's a great place to get the fastest brunch / lunch served. It's usually more quite between noon and closing time.

Food is very tasty, freshly made form quality ingredients - you can certainly feel that!

Here's the address: 310 Comonwealth ave, Wayland. TEL: 508-653-7777

Short drive from Natick, Framingham, Weston and Wellesley. Or if you are just passing by on Rt. 30 - make a quick stop for a great breakfast.

http://www.melscommonwealthcafe.com/ordereze/1000/Page.aspx

I was at Whole Foods today and bought a beautiful calendar for next year. It has colorful paintings, inspired by Asian brush painting technique, and next to each painting there's an inspirational quote.

This calendar is called "Brush Dance", which apparently is a healing ritual of Yurok Indians.

Main idea is: being true to yourself means giving your best to help a person in need.

This thought made me stop and think: that's what we have to be as Realtors: true to ourselves, to our inner spiritual voice of strength. And then we can serve our clients to the best of our abilities.

I log in to Active Rain every day, and read blog posts by many agents, home inspectors, mortgage brokers, home stagers and other professionals. They are all different. Some are outspoken, some are reserved, some are true social butterflies - be it on Facebook or in real life or both. They come from all walks of life. Yet - the ones that are true to themselves are successful, their business is growing, and happy clients can't recommend them enough.

All 12 quotes on this calendar are beautiful and inspiring. Yet a couple especially caught my eye, and I want to share them with you:

"When you love life, life will love you back".

"I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within: it is there all the time"

"Open your arms to beautiful moments, and they will come to you"

Times are tough now for many of us, let's embrace the beauty of life, it's always there...

What is under my kitchen sink? And what might that tell you about me and my household? Now, let's see:

A gallon of white vinegar - I used to add it to my dishwasher cycle, so that it works better.

But since I love everything organic, I've tried many and found, that organic cleaners and detergents do much better job, AND are better for the environment, now I use an organic dishwasher detergent, and problems with dishes dissolve (pun intended, of course).

Big container is for recyclables. I'm a big believer in "do-it-now" and "clean / throw as you go" principle, so once I'm done with a jar or a can, I rinse it and put in that container.

Now, what's in that spray bottle? The Green one is my favorite brand of cleaning solution - organic of course as well. I actually prefer the pink one, but I'm out of it at the moment.

Smaller spray bottle has Plain water in it. It's a "scare the cat" bottle. Someone recommended that if your cat is not behaving properly, and wants to get into places he shouldn't get into, light spray of water might work wonders.

And our cat has always been very curious. He especially likes places, that even in a cat lover household should stay "cat free" - like dishes storage, dishwasher, dining table...

We use the spray bottle occasionally, and it seems to work. Our cat is overly curious, makes moderate trouble, and we love him dearly. Not only because we do love cats in general, but also because he is a perfect fit for our family. We have two small children, and were concerned, how they and new cat will interact, especially since he was just a kitten when we adopted him. Turns out - he is the sweetest cat of all. He never objected when kids would carry him around holding like an old rag doll... My youngest also pulled his tail, would pet him against the fur, and also use her toy doctors kit to check blood pressure, and if there is any heart beat...

He never scratches anyone, he actually plays with balloons, and has never ever popped one yet! He does use his scratch board quite a lot instead.

At the same time, he is not a "rag cat" without any spark of life. He loves to hunt any insect that comes into the house, as well as his tail, tiny piece of paper or just imaginary things. He jumps up high trying to get a little spider on the window. He runs around, and plays hide and seek with us. He's fun! And very cuddly.

So, I might repeat it again - he is a perfect fit for our family. And why? Because he was referred to us! Yep. I come from Russia, a country where you don't even try to start any worthwhile project without getting referrals for people to talk to and to hire. We use this approach here in the US. My husband had a student, who was a veterinarian and who also worked at Animal Rescue League. We told her, we are looking for a cat, or a kitten, and she said, there are 3 kittens at their shelter right now. They were too young for adoption at the moment, but if we wait, we can have one. She highly recommended that particular kitten named Kenny. He was the favorite of all personnel.

We took him, and couldn't be happier. We call him Kenny G (my husband is a musician, so that explains the name - our Kenny doesn't have any musical talents unfortunately).

So, referrals are the way to go. If we were going around asking for referrals for a CAT, doesn't it make even more sense to ask for referrals for a good real estate agent when you need one?

OK, that was it, my entry to this interesting contest. And now everybody will know what a cute cat I have!

Who doesn't need a fresh start? We all think about it here and there:

- I will start working out next Monday

- in January I will start a new life completely, eating healthy and all!

- When I move to Hawaii all will be different

- I throw out this note book, and start putting all the info in my iPhone

Well, you get the idea. We all love it - thinking about it, talking with friends, and eventually even contemplating the changes.

YET, what too many people in service industry forget is a simple thing: START FRESH WITH EVERY NEW CUSTOMER OR CLIENT.

Well, what do you mean, you may ask?

I mean, that a new client has presumption of innocence that we should honor. Especially as Real Estate Agents.

• Innocence of NOT knowing how things "are usually done".
  • (What is usually, anyway? Is it how YOU do it? Is it how it has been done for the last 10 years? Is it a way of doing things in this town/office/grocery store? In this country?)
• Innocence of NOT knowing what is involved in the standard process
  • (be it purchasing a home or buying a token to get on a T - a story will follow up in a minute) Besides, isn't it your job, to explain things, and BE THERE for that client who hired you?
• Innocence of daring to ask same question 100 other people (or 10 000 - it doesn't matter) asked you before.
  • (Maybe you should come up with a plan to PREFACE these questions, and address the issues upfront, so that nobody has to ask?)
• Innocence of repeating same arguments 10 000 people have
  • (Please NEVER say "do you know how many people told me this? Do you know how many times I heard that - and it doesn't make any sense..." - well, apparently it does - because you keep hearing it)
• Innocence of daring to call you RIGHT AFTER you hung up on a very difficult (and heated!) conversation
  • (Please, never start with "Yeah, WHAT NOW?" - it might be someone else calling you! And even if not, do you think this greeting is going to smooth things down?)

And here's the story I promised to share with you.

Join our Home Buyer's Seminar in just two weeks, 10/12/10 from 6 to 7 pm.

With interest rates at record lows and home prices near bottom now is an excellent time to buy!

RE/MAX HomeFinders is partnering with TD Bank for an information packed seminar covering all aspects of the home buying process.

The Seminar is scheduled for Tuesday, October 12th @ 6 pm at TD Banks new Cochituate store, located at the intersection of Route 27 and Route 30 in Wayland, MA.

Visit www.reseminar.net for a list of presenters, topics to be discussed and a link to register for the event and receive a *$1,000 credit toward closing costs.

• *(Please note the closing cost credit is available to all buyers purchasing a home through RE/MAX HomeFinders and financing through TD Bank)