Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Patch picks the best of the Southwest.
Christmas is over, Hanukkah is wrapping up, piles of tissue paper are stuffed in your garbage, and you just ate leftover pie for breakfast. Even so, your hosting duties might not be over yet. With relatives in town or kids out of school, there is still a lot of entertaining left to do. Luckily for you, Southwest Minneapolis Patch's Joanna Solotaroff has compiled the top 5 things to see and do and see this week. Salon Saloon: The 2011 Show Salon Saloon is one of my favorite shows at the Bryant Lake Bowl. It is a live, monthly talk and variety show focused on the local art scene. This month, Salon Saloon celebrates 2011 with the "Heavy 100", featuring all of the best things from this year, ranging from the best contemporary rural art to …
Saturday, December 24, 2011
The Air Force is tracking Santa's location tonight.
The US Air Force is reporting a mysterious object entering North American airspace. Radar images show...reindeer! That's right: the North American Air Defence Comand, better known as NORAD, is booting up its annual "Santa Tracker" in time for Christmas Eve 2011. Watch here as he makes his way around the world...and to Southwest Minneapolis.
Friday, December 23, 2011
However you plan at arriving at your holiday destination, we have tips and tricks for smooth travel.
According to the American Automobile Association, 42.5 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home this holiday season. Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, November 23 – 27, AAA estimates that 90 percent, or 38.2 million people will take to the nation’s roadways; 8 percent will take to the air and 2 percent will take a bus, train or ferry. By Plane Melissa Scovronski, public affairs and marketing manager for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, says the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Sunday after will be the busiest flying days of the year. Travelers who can leave on Thanksgiving day and return the following Monday will be able to avoid most of the crowds—and the ensuing hassle. Scovronski recommends opting for an …
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Police trying to prevent alcohol-related fatalities.
Citing a battery of statistics about the role of alcohol in fatal car accidents on Minnesota roads, the Minneapolis Police Department says its officers will be out in force this weekend in an effort to keep drunk drivers off the road. The police department's efforts are part of a coordinated state-wide effort to continue shrinking the numbers of alcohol-related traffic deaths. In Minnesota over the past three Decembers, police say there were 89 traffic deaths of which 24 were alcohol-related. In 2010, only 131 people died in alcohol-related crashes, compared with the five-year average of 170 deaths per year. “The holidays are a time for celebrating. They are not a time to throw common sense and safe driving choices out the window,” says …
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
For many Minnesotans, celebrating the season means hitting the slopes.
It's beginning to look a lot like a brown Christmas, but that doesn’t mean the many ski hills in and around the Twin Cities aren’t ready for the season to start. As the image on the right from the National Weather Service attests, if you want real snow, you'll have to go far, as far as resorts on the north shore like Lutsen. If you'd rather stay in-town and stick with the man-made snow, however, there are several options for downhill skiing within an hour’s drive of Minneapolis. Let’s look at some of them: Buck Hill Ski Area 15400 Buck Hill Road Burnsville, MN 55337 (612) 435-7174 Boasting a 310-foot vertical drop and 40 skiable acres, Buck Hill is the south metro’s go-to skiing spot. The ski season there opened the Monday before …
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
For the procrastinators, there's still time—at Southwest's many nurseries and garden stores.
Southwest Minneapolis has a (relative) ton of places to get Christmas trees. Six for a population of 48,000? That's one for every 8,000 residents, and that assumes no-one is hopping across to South Minneapolis, Edina, Richfield or St Louis Park to places like the popular Our Lady of Grace Christmas Tree Lot. So if you're still looking for the perfect tree—or if you're resolving to stop procrastinating—here are a few places around town to considder: Klier's Nursery Center Where: 5901 Nicollet Avenue Hours: Mon.—Fri. 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Sat. 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Sun. 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Bachman's Where: 6010 Lyndale Ave S Hours: Mon.—Fri. 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Sat. 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Sun. 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunnyside …
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Some basic tips can fireproof your home this season.
The beauty of Christmas can easily turn to tragedy without a few basic fire-safety measures. Here are a few suggestions to keep in mind when stringing lights around an evergreen or relaxing beside a cozy fire. Fireplaces The folks at Fireside Hearth and Home warn customers to be aware of how hot fireplaces can get and take precautions to keep flammable materials safely away from them. Children also should be closely monitored at all times, as should pets. They also remind customers to make sure to use a protective screen—and to handle those screens with extreme care, and they can get extremely hot. The US Fire Safety Administration (USFA) cautions that a fireplace should never be left unattended and must be extinguished before retiring for…
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Campaigners urging a switch to efficient LED lights, and offer a way to get rid of the old ones.
For anyone who gets serious about holiday decorating, the older, incandescent style of Christmas tree lights can be a real drag. They burn out all too frequently—in some older models completely knocking out the entire chain—and they can draw so much electricity to burn a big hole in your wallet. Even Patch felt compelled to offer up to $500 to pay for the electric bills of the finalists in our Deck The House holiday lights contest this year! Now, two Minnesota nonprofits are urging people to switch to more energy-efficient LED-based lights, and giving people a way to recycle their old lights. The Recycling Association of Minnesota and Clean Energy Resource Teams are working together to coordinate five drop-off locations in Southwest …
Cafe Ena owner looks to refill stocks of toys taken from Minneapolis nonprofit.
- VOLUNTEERS IN THE NEWS
- James Sanna
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Wednesday, December 14, 2011
When burglars broke a hole in the window of The Family Partnership’s offices, they might have broken something more precious at the same time. Toys and other presents taken that night had been donated to brighten the Christmases of 150 low-income families across the metro. "This is going to sound cheesy, but it made me think immediately of the 'Grinch Who Stole Christmas,'” said Café Ena owner Erin Ungerman. “It broke my heart a little. I understand that there are people out there who’re hard up and do things that you and I can’t understand because I’m not in their shoes, but still!” Ungerman said she found out about the theft almost by accident—she had already set up a cocktail date with a good friend who worked as a social worker for The…
Local business owner Julie Sandberg helps me narrow down the perfect gift.
What do you get your mother for your favorite gift-themed winter holiday? It’s that horrible, torturous feeling that attacks many a child once they get old enough to earn their own allowance. Growing up, I revered my mother. Finding her a killer Christmas present was, well, not necessarily the highlight of my December, but close to it. That was reserved for the moment just before I surgically removed the wrapping from my present to see if that pin or whatever had been good enough to get a huge Lego pirate ship that year. But there was a dark side to this, too. Gift giving was sometimes a competitive sport for me. Chalk it up to some kind of twisted, brotherly competitiveness, but I, as the responsible child, whose tastebuds had matured …
Alison Dunkelberger
8:17 am on Thursday, December 15, 2011
Cafe Ena/El Mason is also donating food for the cast of Annie at Ramsey Fine Arts. The kids are talented and the musical is going to be fantastic. Most kids at Ramsey qualify for free or reduced lunch, so the donation means so much to the Ramsey community. Thank you Cafe Ena and El Mason! Please support them by patronizing them. more ›