It really shouldn’t be as hard as it is. It’s just a magazine, after all. A bunch of words and some pictures and the magic of a …
Limit
I’ve reached it. The limit. My limit. Our limit. The frost on my lawn and my breath stuck in the air, all of it is too much. Our taxe…
Summer Dreaming
I’m cursed with a malfunctioning ability to dream. It wasn’t always this way, but it has been for most of my adult life, or at l…
Endless Summer
The license plate said that. ENDLESS SUMMER. If you capitalize it, then it seems like some sort of horror film. It screams at you and demand…
Memorial Day Weekend
During any year, we celebrate this weekend. We celebrate in our remembrance, but we do not confuse meaningful reflection with the absence of…
Lake Geneva Market Update
May is a pretty good month. It’s the month that we see when our January minds concentrate to conjure up an image of spring. The calen…
Lake Geneva Home Search
You’re not really in the market for a home if you haven’t looked for said home on Zillow. You may have also used Redfin, Realtor.com, and ot…
This Day
This day is too nice to type at this computer. I sat down to type, and I wondered what I was thinking. Who could type on a day like this? I …
Frogs
In the middle of a Wisconsin summer, there are things that happen that you might not know about. I didn’t know about them, when I spen…
Lake Geneva Lakefront Market Update
I was sitting on a pier last night, just after a lakeside dinner, watching the remnants of a cloudy evening sunset. Kids jigged for bass und…
Lake Geneva Price Reductions
Now that was a weekend. Sure, we were forced to sweat through the first few days to get to the last few days, but what sort of people are we…
Weather Malaise
Well, I have it. The malaise. But this case is so severe it should be capitalized, like Malaise. I should add something more to it. Like T…
W4396 Basswood Drive
It’s still for sale. It shouldn’t be. Reduced to $8.495MM. The most complete estate listed for sale this summer. Email me for a…
Lake Geneva Lakefront Market Update
I spent much of Sunday on the lake. There’s a new boat in the Curry fold, and the boat must be used. Boats are like that. If you don&#…
Summer Homes For City People
In case you’re not around Lake Geneva at the moment and would like to peruse the new issue…
Memorial Day Weekend
Well, here we are. On the cusp. Don’t forget, this isn’t it. This is the cusp. This isn’t summer. This is a dress rehearsa…
New South Shore Club Listing
The South Shore Club is all quite nice. The pool and the entrance, the tennis courts and the piers. There’s nothing like it here, and …
Pending Lakefront
My newest pending lakefront contract, 389 North Lakeshore Drive, Fontana. It’s a great house on a great lot in a highly desirable loca…
Lake Geneva Market Update
I fished for a few hours last week. Me, the stream and the snow, deep and white, still soft, still clean, and the trout. It wasn’t a b…
Park Drive For Sale
Lakefront buyers know that a hunt for a lakefront house can be fun. Can, being the operative word there. It could be fun. Should be fun. But…
Spring Market
Let’s take a moment to appreciate the week that was. Monday we were roused from our slumber by snow, perhaps six inches of it, and we …
One Last Summer
Somewhere, sometime, there was a decision made. It was a decision based on indecision, really. This would be it. A lifetime here, in this pl…
Gone
This week wasn’t like the other weeks. It wasn’t like the one before it, or the two before that one. It’s been a week unli…
Not The Same
I don’t really know exactly how Hamburger Helper works. I assume it’s just a powder mix, with some starch to bind and some salt …
Novak’s Fish Fry Review
On one hand, I should have probably visited France before I turned 40. Maybe it would have been more interesting if I had been 20 years old,…
Today
It’s another nice day here. The sky is calm and the birds are chirping. Some water from the sky would be nice, but that’s an op…
Summery
My calendar said spring turned to summer last week. The first day of summer, it said, capitalized with an exclamation point. The hardware st…
Scarred
It’s still not clear to me whether or not the air conditioning worked. I remember a serviceman arriving in his rusted Suburban, the sm…
Lazy Patience
It was good to be a buyer in 2011. And in 2012. 2013, too. We know that now. What a time! We think. If only I could have been a buyer then, …
Off Season
It was January. Maybe February. The snow had piled up and the lake had frozen. It was winter, but not like last winter, it was real winter. …
Summer’s End
The streets are quiet now. The excited conversations of summer are now just a murmur, fading like the green in all of these leaves. There wa…
Of Agents and Inuendos
This is serious. You’ve been having the pain in your knee for quite some time. It bothered you during your junior year, but what could…
Lakefront Inventory
It feels like an epidemic. Each day starts full of hope. Each day passes choked with despair. New inventory should be here by now. But it is…
Mid-Summer Markets
This would be much easier if we weren’t here. If we were in some other absurd little Midwestern vacation home market, everything would…
Geneva Lakefront Market Update
Wow. That’s really all there is to say. Wow. Maybe Wowzers. The lakefront market on Geneva Lake is as heated as it has been since the …
Expectations
By now you know I have a problem with cars. I like cars, but I don’t like the process of buying a car. I don’t even like thinkin…
Let’s Play Ball
To be the Dodger’s lead-off hitter is to be the invisible man. That first at-bat is a thankless at bat, no matter the outcome. The v…
Lake Geneva Memorial Day Weekend
And away. We. Go. That’s best if read in the Joker’s voice, right before he ignites a bomb that has the power to destroy one th…
I Know What You Did Last Summer
I think we know each other well enough that we can cut through all the nuance. It’s time we had an honest discussion about me, about y…
Rain
There’s a front to the north and it’s high and it’s deep and it’s dark and it’s nearly here. I can see it from…
Lake Geneva Market Update
It’s getting late. The greens are no longer bright. The grass is beginning to fade. The corn is drying as it should, first at the bott…
Eternal Summer
In the middle of my living room is a large fireplace. It’s made of bricks and stone, mortar and sweat. Next to the fireplace thereR…
Summer
I remember the days when I would travel to the country to our north and engage my distant relatives-in-law in debate. I argued once against …
It’s Time
It’s a bit embarrassing for me to admit this. I didn’t do it on purpose, nor did I expect such an incredible, showy display. I d…
The Summer Of Our Lives
When it rains now it only rains for some of the day. When the clouds come, they never stay. When the sun warms in the morning it stays warm …