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Wow, can you believe that it is Home Show time again? The Home and Garden show really signifies two things for me. The first is, that warm weather is usually right around the corner so this grueling cold winter is quickly coming to a close. The other is that I will have to ready myself for some serious jobs around the house after my wife sees some remodeling ideas at the show. I guess I win with the weather and she wins with the expanded honey do list.

I hope you are planning on coming out to this year's Home and Garden Business Show. The show runs Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.

This year you will be able to visit with over 120 vendors who would love to show you how great their product or service is. If you have been to other home shows in the state, relax, this show is very easy going. You will not have vendors chasing you down trying to get you to sign up for anything. But they will give you their full attention if you are interested in their product. I know the majority of the vendors that are in the show and they are all great people that live next to you and me.

With the economy being what it is, being able to stay close to home and still being able to attend a great home show has its definite perks.

As we are finding out, people are electing to improve their existing homes rather than testing the real estate market. If you were thinking about making improvements to your home or business, why not look locally? I know I am constantly preaching to shop local, but in my heart, I truly belive we have some unbelievable businesses here in the Chisago Lakes area. You should have received you Home Show circular with your Search Shopper last weekend. In the tab, you will find a list of vendors as well as a layout of the show. You will also find advertising by some of the many vendors that make up this year's Home and Garden Business Show. If you didn't get a flyer, there will be plenty available at the show.

If you have children, by all means bring them to the show. I remember being young and going to the Home Show. My goal was to collect as much free hand-outs as I possibly could. In fact, I still have an EF Hals hat that I got at the Home Show years and years ago.

There will be prizes given out every hour so keep your ticket when you get there. Here is the best part, It's free. Yep, there is no admission fee to enter the show.

I hope we see you at the show!

We here at the Press are taking another big step in technology. You are reading our last paste up newspaper. For decades, we have been compiling our news stories, upcomings, editorials and everything else you read in the Press, and pasting it up. For those hundreds of you that have had a Scout tour you understand what I am talking about. For the rest of you, it means that we have printed out our stories, waxed the back of the paper, and pasted them onto a piece of paper that is the same size as the one you are reading. The paper then would be sent to the printer and a photograph would be taken, from there the negative would be burned onto a printing plate and lastly printed onto the paper you are holding.

Starting next week we will be eliminating about 90 percent of that whole process which ultimately leads to a better looking product. When you take away the photography aspect of our process, you gain a generation. By gaining a generation, our paper will look crisper, darker and hopefully the pictures will be much more clearer. In the end, you the reader will be looking at a much better newspaper aesthetically.

There is one person looking down who is positively shaking his head right now. He was old school and relished the "pasting up" process. We have made some changes that would definitely go against his way of thinking, but I feel that the changes have been positive and progressive. Sorry Dad.

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