Victoria Frieberg, @Realtor, Broker, ABR,CRS,TRC

Hey, 30 below tonite..piece of cake. More snow tonite, what the heck, more to bank the fish house with, holds the heat in when the wind whips up a 50 below windchill! Some people run from their house to the car. Some people are stuck outside, and some people (on the news tonite) are enjoying their jobs down in the sewers below the metro cities, where it is warm! They are interviewing the gravediggers in town, and proudly showing off that the ground (at least) is so warm that it steams when they dig a new grave.

Minnesotans are not always easy to amuse, maybe in the winter a little more than summer..but we are a very intelligent lot. We put bells onto wheels to let us know when walleye bite the hooks dangling through hard water, we carry ice picks when we humans dangle through the ice, and wear cleats strapped to our shoes when we fall down on the very slippery surface.

Move to Minnesota, we are fun to watch.

Whaddya think?

I love Minnesota! As the owner of the local bait shop, I get daily reports from the lake, even if I don't get a chance to get out on it. A large portion of West Rush is visible out of my window, and this morning as I was working, I watched boats traversing the lake with Eskimos piloting around the newly formed ice packs. Well, maybe not packs, more like skims..but hard water none the less! At our store, the past week has seen excitement build from some of our favorite (albeit crazy) fishermen, as the north end of the lake has frozen over. Todays report ranges from 3-5 inches, with ice fisherpeople already set up with tip ups, heaters, and more expectations than common sense! Eagles are feeding on the edges of the newly formed ice, and gulls

This summer proved to be one of the busiest times of my life. I have had the good fortune to work with a local lender in clearing their inventory of new construction homes, at a hugely reduced price. The REO and short sale market can be a rough one, and if you are one of the first contacts with a homeowner who will be losing their home, or take over inspecting a home just after the owner has vacated, it can be gut wrenching. New construction homes are a wonderful breath of fresh air emotionally for this agent, and putting a young family or single homeowner into one of these sparkling units is very exciting.

The city of Cambridge is thriving, with new infrastructure, new shopping, thriving industry..and now it looks like the Rush Line Corridor may be providing mass transit to the metro area sooner than later. I love it here, just enough city in the country, surrounded by lakes, within an hour of the metro.

Cambridge has an awesome school system, performance arts program that lets us enjoy big city acts (Leo Kottke, Tony Sandler, Lori Line), in our local high school! Talk about spoiled! A new community center promises to help those of us who are putting on the weight with the age, and walking trails grow by the year.

Cambridge has something for everyone. My dad, at 93, still drives the ladies to Wal-Mart, and my kids enjoy the opportunity to explore theatre performance, music, hunting or fishing, all within minutes of their front door. It is indeed a home for the ages, I'm sure glad it has adopted me!