DISTRICT COURTPROBATE DIVISIONFIFTH JUDICIAL DISTRICTNOTICE OF INFORMAL PROBATE OF WILL AND APPOINTMENT OF PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE AND NOTICE TO CREDITORSSTATE OF MINNESOTACOUNTY OF ROCKESTATE OFAnnabelle Hilger, a/k/a Bonnie Hilger DECEDENTNotice is given that an application for informal probate of the Decedent’s will dated October 19, 1978 and codicil (N/A) to the will dated N/A, and separate writing (N/A) under Minn. Stat. 524.2-513 ("Will"), has been filed with the Registrar. The application has been granted. Notice is also given that the Registrar has informally appointed William D. Sexton whose address is: Box 5032, Incline Village, Nevada 89450 as personal representative of the Estate of the Decedent. Any heir, devisee or other interested person may be entitled to appointment as personal representative or may object to the appointment of the personal representative. Unless objections are filed with the Court (pursuant to Minn. Stat. 524.3-607) and the Court otherwise orders, the personal representative has full power to administer the Estate including, after 30 days from the date of issuance of letters, the power to sell, encumber, lease or distribute real estate. Any objections to the probate of the will or appointment of the Personal Representative must be filed with this Court and will be heard by the Court after the filing of an appropriate petition and proper notice of hearing. Notice is also given that (subject to Minn. 524.3-801) all creditors having claims against the Estate are required to present the claims to the personal representative or to the Court Administrator within four months after the date of this Notice or the claims will be barred. /s/ Timothy K. Connell 12/03/2004Timothy K. Connell Registrar Date/s/ Sandra L. Vrtacnik 12/03/2004Sandra L. VrtacnikCourt Administrator DateAttorney For Personal RepresentativeDonald R. KlosterbuerSkewes, Klosterbuer & Vajgrt, L.L.P.120 N. McKenzieBox 538Luverne, MN 56156-0538507 283-911156674(12-9)

My fear of rejection is alive and well. Not since the club "The Pink Ladies" was formed in fifth grade have I actually applied to be a part of a group.Now I am awaiting approval from some "higher-ups" who will decide whether I’m fit to be a member of the Luverne Eagles Auxiliary.I signed up and paid my $15 fee because a lady Eagle friend of mine is trying to recruit the most new members to earn a prize.I figured the $15 would pay for itself in time with the discounted first drinks Eagles members get. But this week I started wondering when I’ll hear back on my application. I picture a secret meeting of Eagles who will judge my worthiness. And then, if I’m allowed in, will they make me wear some type of fez hat? Maybe I’ll have to call Bingo a few times a year. They’ll probably make me work in the kitchen buttering toast during steak fries.As long as the initiation isn’t too painful, I can handle it in the name of becoming an Eagle. The organization itself does many admirable things. About a month ago, the Eagles’ Jimmy Durante Fund donated $1,000 for handicapped accessible playground equipment. There’s also kidney, cancer, heart, diabetes, spinal cord injury and many other special funds that the Eagles Club supports. The local steak fries most Saturday nights are fund-raisers for many local non-profit groups.So I would be proud to be affiliated with the Eagles. But the question remains — will they want to be affiliated with me? In reality, they probably give everyone the rubber stamp approval to become a member. I’d still like to think I’m something special when (or if?) I get the final go ahead to use the secret handshake, though. But seriously, after all this free publicity, how could they say no to me? Now my biggest concern should be whether I’ll be called a sheagle , an eaglette, or just a plain old auxiliary member.

I'm not telling you anything you don't already know when I say the Vikings are the most schizophrenic team in the NFL.It's not just that they can look so good one Sunday and so crappy the next. It's that they can look so good for one quarter and then stink in the next three. Or that they can play so well at home, but then not even resemble that same team on the road.They are a team that can beat any team in the NFL or lose to any team. I don't have an answer or know anybody who does, but I don't see other teams in the NFL acting like this bunch of split personalities ,and I don't know a psychiatrist with a couch large enough to fit them all.Sooner or later people are going to have to ask who is responsible. I would like to think that, if you're getting paid millions of dollars to play a game, that in itself would be incentive enough to show up for a game with your head screwed on straight, but apparently not. So then you'd hope a coach would have the ability to motivate them or at least keep them on an even keel rather than have such up and down swings, but apparently not.I guess I'm just not too impressed with Coach Mike Tice. He's supposed to have a good rapport with the players, but so did Dennis Green. I don't think a coach has to be buddies with his players anyway. I don't think he's been a particularly good clock manager or flag-tosser when it comes to reviewing plays. I don't have major problems with his game plans and play calling like I did with Green, and we probably haven't had enough time yet to grade his draft picks, though they initially seem pretty good.But I say, if the Vikes don't make the playoffs this year and win a postseason game or two, Tice is cooked. I, for one, won't cry when he's gone. Patience is not one of my virtues and, hey, I'm 40 years old and I'd like to see a Super Bowl victory in my lifetime.Calling Mike Ditka!MAT NOTES: * It was nice to see the pep band at Thursday night’s Luverne wrestling match against West Central and to hear them sounding so fine. * Coach Tim Homan’s wife, Pam, was able to get away from her busy schedule as Sioux Falls school superintendent to watch her husband’s Luverne coaching debut.* West Central High School is located in Hartford, S.D., home town to a gaggle of Kappermans, including my wife’s mom. In fact, my wife’s cousin, Nick Kapperman, was one of the two Trojans defeated by Luverne wrestlers. It must run in the family, because my wife isn’t a very good wrestler either.GRADS IN THE NEWS:Luverne grad Hannah Dietrich, a senior at Augsburg College, earned All-MIAC honorable-mention honors with her 23rd place finish at the conference cross country meet this past season.She also competed in the NCAA Division III region meet and finished 40th, running the 6,000-meter course in 24:09.

Sometimes a person can get a little stressed during the holiday season. I am one of those people. Some individuals just can’t handle the pressure of shopping, writing Christmas letters, wrapping gifts, attending Christmas programs, traveling to visit the relatives, etc. I like all of those Christmas activities. My holiday stress comes from baking. My mother and I used to make 15-20 different kinds of cookies and bars and candy: fudge, peanut butter fudge, maple fudge, toffee, divinity, caramels, cappuccino caramels, sugar cookies, maple sandwich cookies, peanut blossoms, Martha Stewart’s Chocolate Chunk Molasses Chewies, pecan tarts, candy cane cookies, peppernuts, popcorn balls, turtles, almond bark, macaroons, etc. Each year we might abandon one recipe and add another. We distributed plates of goodies to all of our friends, relatives, and co-workers. I gain 10 pounds every Christmas, because each time I bake something, I have to conduct a taste test (several times) not only the finished product, but the dough, the batter, the frosting, the chocolate chips, the pecans, the coconut, etc. Once I read that if you chew gum, you won’t be tempted to taste everything. I tried it. But let me ask you. Can a piece of gum stand up to the temptation of Martha Stewart’s Chocolate Chunk Molasses Chewies? Not in my lifetime. Another year I tried taping my mouth shut with Scotch Brand packing tape. That worked the one baking day I used it. And I didn’t need it for subsequent baking days because when I removed the tape, certain parts of my lips went with it. Pain works. Last year we decided to cut back. We limited our baking efforts to 12 recipes, and it worked out well. We don’t have as many friends and relatives anymore. Many have died or moved or are on the low-carb diet. I may cut back even more for 2004. Maybe I’ll make just one or two of my favorites, eat them all myself, and gaining that 10 pounds won’t be so much work. You can also relieve holiday stress by escaping with a good novel. The Loop Group, by Larry McMurtry might do the trick. Maggie Clary’s three grown daughters arrive at her Hollywood home to try and make sense of her life. This isn't easy, first of all because their own lives are a mess, and secondly, Maggie thinks her own life makes perfect sense. She is self-supporting, running a successful "loop group" dubbing movies. She has a boyfriend (admittedly he is her psychoanalyst, and very old), and leads a busy life that intersects with lots of interesting, (all right) bizarre people. Still, her daughters cause her to have a few second thoughts, and these are reinforced when her best friend, Connie, seeks an escape from her own world of complex and difficult relationships with men. Since neither high-end nor low-end shopping seems to relieve their angst, Maggie comes up with the idea of driving to visit her Aunt Cooney's ranch near Electric City, Texas. This road trip will end by changing their lives. Alternately hilariously funny and profoundly sad, "Loop Group" is a joy to read. "Black Wind," by Clive Cussler. In the waning days of World War II, the Japanese tried a last desperate kamikaze mission, this one carried out by two submarines bound for the West Coast of the United States, their cargo a revolutionary new strain of biological virus. Neither sub made it to the designated target. But that does not mean they were lost. Someone knows about the subs and what they bore and has an extraordinary plan in store for the prize inside — a scheme that could reshape the world as we know it. All that stands in the way are three people: a marine biologist named Summer, a marine engineer named Dirk, and their father, Dirk Pitt, the new head of NUMA. Pitt has faced devastating enemies before and has even teamed up with his children to track them down. But never has he looked upon the face of pure evil ... until now.

The following articles appeared in the local column in the Rock County Weekly Herald on February 1, 1884: "E.N. Darling murdered a turkey Wednesday that weighed, denuded of all its feathers, and deprived of its head, legs and digestive organs, 26 pounds. This monstrous fowl attracted the attention of mine host Joles, and he, always on the alert to secure for his excellent hotel the best there is in the market, purchased the bird and will serve him up in first-class style for the gastronomic edification of the guests at the Luverne House next Sunday at the usual dinner hour. "The interest manifested by the public in the skating rink continues unabated. The attendance every evening during the past week has been large and the day sessions have been well attended. The beneficial effects of the exercise to say nothing of the sport is becoming generally appreciated by many of our business men as well as by the young people, and the rink promises to maintain its large patronage throughout the season. Sheriff Gillham has not yet completed the construction of his mastodon skates, but it is understood that the work will soon be finished and that he will make his appearance on the floor some time next week. Judge Haley has made rapid improvement and promises to become a formidable rival of Mr. Nelson. Mr. Skyberg has been an earnest and faithful student of the art and has attained a degree of success which enables him to maintain his equilibrium at least three-fourths of the time. Hon. P.J. Kniss’ skill as a skater is still somewhat embriouis, but gives indications of development. President Jacobsen has made but few attempts as yet but these have served to distinguish him and there is reason to believe that he will yet become a master of the art." Donations to the Rock County Historical Endowment Fund can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, P.O. Box 741, Luverne, MN 56156.Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

Caution should be exercised when comparing a new product on the market with an old one. For example, a new car model shouldn’t be touted as "the Ford Edsel of the new millennium." It was no accident that the front grilles of the short-lived Edsels and the often horrified expressions on their owners’ faces reminded us of Edvard Munch’s 1893 painting, "The Scream." A similar negative association came up recently when a new surgical device was referred to by the media as "support hose for the heart." According to The Wall Street Journal, "The Corcap, made by Acorn Cardiovascular, is a fabric mesh device that is implanted around the heart to support the muscle." Support hose became a natural comparison when describing the new device. Regardless of the success rate of the new heart sock, the negative associations with support hose will not be kicked off easily. In fact, women might carry the association one step further. Support hose. Support pantyhose. It’s an unpleasant leap. For many women, wearing pantyhose, support style or not, can be a positive experience. They make legs look smooth and flawless. Unlike the Corcap, which is designed to keep hearts beating, truly effective pantyhose should be heart-stopping. The exceptions with pantyhose are those that we can’t forget and that tend to haunt us forever. One of the drawbacks to wearing pantyhose is the possibility of having a run. Runs, which are appropriately named because they can race in a southerly direction from the waistband or spiral upward from the toes, can be stopped in their tracks with small dabs of clear fingernail polish. The same can’t be said of a run which might develop in CorCap’s fabric mesh. Even a fairly wide paint brush dipped in a pail of varnish and smeared over the heart area of a person’s chest wouldn’t do much good in a similar situation. In addition, lugging around a gallon of shellac and a paintbrush would be much less convenient than tossing an emergency bottle of fingernail polish into a purse. From time to time, support pantyhose will develop blow-outs. That’s when a small hole in the stocking, usually on a tightly bound thigh, will mushroom into a large gaping crater. The body fat beneath the surface of the pantyhose, yearning to be free like so many early immigrants to Ellis Island, will burst through the surface and form an unsightly, conspicuous bulge. To an untrained eye in a grocery store, it might appear that a woman with such a suspicious bulge under her skirt might be shoplifting a smoked ham. Similar blowouts with a CorCap could create unsightly bulges on people’s chests. Support stockings are difficult to keep in place. With worn out, tired elastic waistbands, they are nomadic by nature. They tend to slip down to the widest part of a woman’s hips, inch uncontrollably down her thighs and eventually form a circulation-stifling tourniquet at her knees. Support stocking slippage is easier to remedy on legs. If a CorCap begins to shift and feel uncomfortable, there can be no pulling a car over to the side of the road and removing the offensive stocking. The promoters of CorCap should take these negative comparisons with support hose to heart.

Your "On Second Thought" piece in the Dec. 2 Star Herald was absolutely perfect. I could really feel, in your words, the awareness of what Kevin Miller's parents were feeling. You can see it on the news a thousand times, but when it touches home it takes on a face and a life of its own. Thank you for passing on your feelings to so many that are not directly connected to this generation's war. Thoughts such as yours are badly needed in the open media.Thank you, Steve and Kari Schultz and your family, for sharing your personal story. It is not only the service member that sacrifices for their country, it is also the family. Each year thousands of families live without their loved ones at war and peace, spread throughout the world protecting us in our everyday lives.And to Pfc. Kevin Miller, thank you for serving your country. We could not live in freedom and safety without you and every other person who has ever served or fought for us. We all owe you and your comrades a deep debt of gratitude for what you do.Curtis Hendel,Adrian

A television special, "Home for the Holidays," will feature children who are waiting for families and will air at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 22, on CBS. As the mom to 10 great kids who my husband and I have added to our lives through the adoption of waiting children, I encourage everyone to tune in. In the United States today there are more than 115,000 children who are waiting to be adopted. They have a history of abuse or neglect and are currently "wards of the state" as their birthparents’ rights have been terminated. These kids have no family and long for a place where they know that they belong. Many of them are children of color or in sibling groups. There are families waiting to adopt the younger children, but few are interested in the majority of these children who are over the age of 10. Through my volunteer position as an Adoption Specialist for the Adopt America Network, I am finding myself inundated by the descriptions of teens and pre-teens who flood my e-mail box every day. Their social workers are asking me to find homes for children who, often because of choices others have made for them, remain in foster care for years. These kids have issues, complicated by the fact that they are dealing with the tough job of growing up without the support of a parent or parents who will love them unconditionally. I find these kids haunting my dreams, because I know that the number of individuals who might consider adopting teens are few. More than likely it is because people who do have the courage and the character necessary simply do not know about this need. They do not know that the majority of teens who turn 18 before being adopted end up incarcerated, dead or homeless before they are 30. Any person or couple who knows how to love unconditionally and who has what it takes to make a commitment and stick to it can change the life of one of these kids forever. The requirements are not tough: you can be as young as 21 or even older than 60. You can be married, single, widowed or divorced. You can own your own home or rent. The only qualifications are that you have clear background checks and good references. Because of my passion to find homes for these young people, I have advocated to secure funds to offer NO COST adoption for any families willing to adopt children over the age of 10. Through Permanent Family Resource, which has an office in Luverne, families can be trained, prepared, home-studied and matched with a teen or sibling group free of charge. I would love the opportunity to explain why adopting a teenager is a great idea to anyone who would consider this option. I invite you to call me at my home at (507) 283-4551. On behalf of teenagers without families across our country, Claudia FletcherLuverne

The City of HillsThe Hills city council will hold a public hearing on its budget and on the amount of property taxes it is proposing to collect to pay for the costs of services the city will provide in 2005.Attend the Public HearingAll Hills city residents are invited to attend the public hearing of the city council to express their opinions on the budget and on the proposed amount of 2005 property taxes. The hearing will be held on:Tuesday, December 14th, at 6:00 P.M.Hills City Office301 South MainHills(12-9)