Broken holiday lights? Hold that trash can lid!

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Snyders Drug Stores have teamed up with Xcel Energy and WCCO to sponsor a recycling program for those strings of holiday lights that no longer work. So instead of throwing them away, you can take them to participating Snyders Drug Stores to be recycled. In addition to keeping them out of the landfills, you are also providing employment training and job opportunities for adults with disabilities—and you get a $5 coupon valid towards a $20 purchase. Check the Snyders Web site to see a list of participating stores. Continue Reading

THEATER | “Nunset Boulevard” at the Chanhassen: The nun also sets…and sets, and sets, and sets

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The Chanhassen Dinner Theatres are currently presenting the world premiere of Dan Goggin’s Nunset Boulevard in their Fireside Theatre. Nunset Boulevard is the seventh show in the Nunsense series—a series that is showing its age.Though I haven’t seen any of Goggin’s most recent shows, I have seen the original Nunsense several times and it still ranks among my all-time favorites—I still listen to the soundtrack regularly. But think of your favorite authors who have a new book published every year. At what point do the books evolve from the great reads that you couldn’t wait to get your hands on to books written just because they’ll sell large numbers of copies? Nunset Boulevard feels like it’s on the latter side of that line. (In fact, Goggin told the Pioneer Press—supposedly in jest—that his business manager advised him, “With the economy the way it is, just keep those nuns dancing.”)The premise of this show is that the nuns have been invited to appear at the Hollywood Bowl and arrive to find that they are actually performing at the Hollywood Bowl-a-Rama. Continue Reading

Joy to the world of the Minnesota Twins!

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I can’t let 2009 pass away without a word of thanks to the Minnesota Twins baseball players and managers for another great season.  The Twins were competitive all year and there were some of us who never gave up hope that they could come back again this year and capture the division. Continue Reading

THEATER | Plymouth Playhouse’s “Away in the Basement” recruits the Church Basement Ladies for feel-good holiday entertainment

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Playing at Plymouth Playhouse for the holiday season is Away in the Basement: A Church Basement Ladies Christmas. This production is the third in the series inspired by the book Growing Up Lutheran written by Janet Letnes Martin and Suzann Nelson, both 100% Norwegian-Lutheran themselves.  Away in the Basement finds the church ladies in 1959 completing preparations for the Sunday school Christmas program. The church has Helen, a new intern from the Bible college, helping out with the production this year. The pastor’s wife, who always ran the program, passed away several years ago and everyone has welcomed Helen into the fold and appreciates her assistance, except for Vivian Snustad (Robbie Mancina), who is skeptical of the changes Helen is introducing. Having grown up German Catholic in New Ulm, Minnesota, the most German community in the United States, I was smart enough to realize that I needed to bring along an interpreter. Continue Reading

Twins still in the hunt

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by Jean Gabler | 9/30/09 • We are in the last week of regular season baseball and the Twins are still in the thick of a pennant race. Every game still counts. Because of a rain postponement on Monday, the Twins played two games against Detroit on Tuesday. We won the first game and lost the second so we ended the day still two games out of first place—with two more games against Detroit and a three-game series against Kansas City this weekend. Again, all you have to do is some simple math to see how we could be Central Division champions by next Sunday. We just need to win one of the two games left against Detroit to enter the final series still in contention. Continue Reading

I do believe, I do believe, I do believe!

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by Jean Gabler | 9/17/09 • Since I have been writing this blog, the question I always get is how I came to love baseball as much as I do. I always answer that question by saying that I just always have. I grew up surrounded by baseball in New Ulm, Minnesota. Every Sunday we would be at a Tomahawk League game in some small town around New Ulm. Continue Reading