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Thank you to all of you who have sent in your blue renewal cards. If you have yet to mail yours in, please do. Everyone's subscriptions are due on May 5. If you have already paid and still received a blue card in the mail, please disregard the blue card.

Remember the special we are offering right now. If you are a subscriber, and you refer a new subscriber, you will be offered tickets to the historic train ride in Osceola or tickets to a Saint Paul Saints baseball game. Please make sure the new subscriber mentions your name. Thanks again for reading.

If you and your buddies have been talking about entering the Carp Festival on May 21, I would urge you to enter soon. There have been quite a few entries already submitted, so don't wait.

The good folks (and Steve Levey) that are putting the contest on, would like the public to know a few things. They are not holding the contest because Carp are such ugly fish. The contest is held to hopefully keep the Carp population down to a manageable number. Carp are very detrimental to our lakes. They stir up phosphorous on the lake bottom and create more algae. Carp destroy the good lake weeds and habitat for desirable fish. Catching and removing carp will help to improve the water quality and fishing habitat for game fish.

At the festival, all the Carp harvested will be available for anyone to take home. Carp make an excellent fertilizer in gardens. If you can believe it, many people love to smoke Carp and eat it for meals. Carp is a highly sought food in the eastern seaboard and also across seas. If you would like to take some home for your garden or (gulp) for eating, just show up at Lions Park on May 21. There will be fun stuff going on all day in the park and you can go home with some fish.

We have had hundreds of phone calls asking about the road closed signs in Lindstrom. People are wondering if the "split pairs" are beginning early. The answer is no. The road is being closed to repair the shoulder on the South Lindstrom Lake side of the road. The closure will hopefully only be one day and we will be back to normal.

I know this is a little late, but it is something that we are very excited about. If you have been thinking about opening a retail store, but have been leery about sinking money into a building and all the expenses that go along with it, we have the perfect opportunity for you. On Friday, you are invited to Northwoods Roasterie for an informational meeting called the Launch.

The Launch is a springboard for new inspiring retail stores coming to Lindstrom this summer. It will consist of booths in a downtown Lindstrom building where vendors can sell their products and really get a feel if their ideas will fly. Vendors will receive marketing support and free small business coaching from the Chisago County EDA. Come out to Northwoods Friday, April 29 at 6:30 p.m. to learn more.

We have a neat giveaway here at the Press.  We have some tickets for the upcoming LEGO Kids Fest on May 21 and 22. We will be holding a giveaway for the 100th and the 500th email we receive. The only thing we ask of you is an email. Just send (only one) an email to [email protected]. If you are the 100th, 250th or the 500th email, you will be awarded tickets to LEGO Kids Fest held at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Good luck.

I hope you had a wonderful Easter. The weather cooperated and we finally saw the sun a little bit. Hopefully we have turned the corner and are headed for warmer weather. If there is one thing I can't stand, it's going from winter into summer with no spring. It seems like we have had that in the last few years. Or even worse, we go from a hot summer into winter with no fall.

Much of a pleasure to the majority of people that work here, local greenhouses are for the most part open and doing business. It has been a long time coming, but the planting season is upon us. Stop into any of our great greenhouse businesses in the area, you will find some great deals.

Remember last week when I wrote about how old I am and how lost I am with the trendy sayings kids are using these days? Just this morning I was on a website that required you to type in a security word. I know you have seen these. They take some letters and then somehow swirl them and ask that you type in what you see. I remember the SAT tests being easier than deciphering these swirly letters. I find myself asking people what they think the letters are so I don't type in the wrong letters and have to start over with a new batch of impossible letters.

It got me wondering, what is this actually protecting me from? Why can't they just list the letters in a normal font that you don't need five people's opinion if that is an "r" or an "h"? Like I said, I am old.

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