After Sarah Dillon sold about 2,000 of her "GoGirls" every day of last summer's Minnesota State Fair, a friend offered that Dillon was a threat to become the "Betty Crocker of the 'pee business.'"

That remains to be seen.

To be sure, Dillon, who two years ago was an at-home Hopkins mom and part-time market researcher, is building a business that she expects will sell 1 million of the urination devices to female customers this year who want to avoid dirty toilet seats and squatting in the woods.

"Men have been able to use the world as their bathroom," quipped Dillon. "Today's active women go off to war, deer hunting, fishing, running and bicycling, but when we go to the bathroom we have to undress. I mean, who really wants to drop their pants in a Porta-Potty?

"A GoGirl enables a woman to stand up and to be as discreet as a man."

A GoGirl is a reusable, soft-silicone device with a short funnel that, after a little practice for most women, seals to their body and enables them to pee without sitting or squatting.

My colleague Kristin Tillotson, more eloquent than I, has referred to it as a product that "brings the sexes one step closer to true equality. Just ask any girl who's ever grimaced and bared it at a truck stop toilet or fairground outhouse."

The GoGirl, which sells for between $8 and $10, comes rolled -- along with tissue and a bag -- in a small tube slightly larger than a glue stick. It fits easily in a purse or jacket.

Dillon, 47, launched the product just 13 months ago at the annual Women's Expo at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

"We had it in the store for a while last spring, shortly after it launched, and it wasn't selling," said Chris Beckmann, pharmacist and co-owner of Center Drug in Hopkins. "Then Sarah had a booth at the Hopkins Raspberry Festival last summer, and at the State Fair, and suddenly we couldn't keep it in stock. The company was bringing in a couple dozen a day. They were huge stocking-stuffers at Christmas."