Category Archives: General

General information and announcements.

Help Me Enjoy the 2011 MN State Fair

General
2011 Minnesota State Fair
It's State Fair Time!

The Minnesota State Fair officially opens on Thursday, August 25 and, as always, runs through Labor Day.  This year, I’m asking everyone to do me a favor and take advantage of the free Park and Ride service that the fair offers every year.

You see, I’m a sucker for the State Fair.  I’m too fat and lazy to do the Midway rides any more, but I enjoy the other venues like Machinery Hill, the Agriculture Building, the Creative Arts Building, the Horse and Cattle Barns, the Grandstand, and especially the Food Building.  As it happens, my sister and brother-in-law live a mere half mile or so from the Fairgrounds near Larpenteur and Snelling in Falcon Heights.  And every year, their neighborhood is inundated with people packing every available inch of on-street parking so they can walk to the Fair.  And since they own more cars than will fit in their garage, the world gets a bit complicated for them…  and me, as it happens.  We have a tradition of Sunday dinner at their house, and when the Fair is running, we go together.  But we have to go through all kinds of gyrations to accommodate my car as well as theirs.  And it’s silly because there is much more convenient parking available all around Falcon Heights, such as the nearby Har-Mar Mall.  It’s free parking and you get a free bus ride to the Fair and back again.  My sister tells me that the Har Mar lot always has plenty of space during the Fair.  There are many other free parking choices for the Fair.  See the Official State Fair Park and Ride Guide for details.  So please, this year, give Park and Ride a try.  You’ll get to the Fair still feeling fresh and frisky, and I will be eternally grateful.  Thank-you!

This year’s Fair has some new foods that I’m looking forward to. Chocolate Covered Jalapeno Peppers – with several choices of heat, so you can go for the gusto or play it safe.

The Breakfast Lollypop, a corn meal battered sausage patty on a stick with a side of maple syrup, which reminds me of the Scotch Egg they serve at the Renaissance Festival.  A Scotch Egg is a large ball of sausage filled with an egg and fried.  Twenty-something years ago, intrepid WCCO reporter Susan Spencer described it as being perfect for “the protein addict looking for a fix.”  Deep Fried Cookie Dough – the name says it all.  Crab Fritters, battered with Caribbean herbs and spices and comes with a special dipping sauce.  And Grilled Yankee Apple Pie and Chocolate Sandwich, which is a brioche bread filled with apples and spices and covered in a layer of chocolate, grilled and dusted with powdered sugar.

I try a new food every year, but I have my favorites like every Minnesotan.  I always get a Honey Sundae and watch the bee keeper in the Ag Building.  Caramel Apples are often on the list, and every few years I succumb to the temptation of a basic corn dog.  I count myself lucky that I’ve never been fond of the mini-doughnuts.  And I hope the Salt Water Taffy is good this year.  I was sad to hear that the Epiphany Dining Hall was closing, or more precisely, being sold.  I haven’t eaten there since the 1970’s, but it’s one of those touchstones of the Fair.  Minnesota Wine At The Fair is purchasing the building.  Here’s hoping they do well.

It looks like some great shows at The Grandstand this year, too.  Country star Reba McEntire kicks things off on Thursday August 25, followed the next night by Def Leppard.  And this year could be one of the last Fair appearances of Garrison Keillor in his Prairie Home Companion show on September, 2nd.

As I said, I’m a sucker for the Fair, and I’m looking forward to it this year to take a break from the real world.

Online Coupon Aggregators

General, ,

I was a latecomer to the world of online coupon sites like Groupon and LivingSocial, but I’ve become a huge fan.  They offer great deals on restaurants, car repair, hair and beauty treatments, and even hotels – all of which are great for anyone looking for a staycation deal or just a good time on a budget.  The problem is that these sites all compete with each other for deals, so it’s tempting to subscribe to dozens of them just to be sure you don’t miss a great offer on something you’d really enjoy.  Of course, the Internet is the great organizer of information, and this has led to the rise of the coupon aggregator website.  These are websites that scan the major online coupon sites and present all of the deals to you from a single location – either on the own website or in your Email mailbox.   So you can make a quick check of the deals available to you every day just by visiting a single website or opening a single Email.  Nirvana, yes?  I recently checked out a few of the most popular coupon aggregator websites.

http://www.8coupons.com/ Aggregates deals from Groupon, LifeBooker, LivingSocial, Buy With Me, ScoutMob, Tippr, and kgb Deals.  You just enter your Zip Code on the main page to see the deals available near you.  List of current deals by category.  Fast and simple.

http://yipit.com/ Yipit aggregates deals from nearly 400 deal sites and Emails them to you daily without requiring you to be a subscriber to any of those sites.   It really helps cut down on the clutter in your Email mailbox.

http://www.dealsurf.com/ aggregates from roughly 100 deal sites.  Once you create an account with them, you can see the deals of the day.  In addition, they will store the coupons you’ve purchased within your account’s "Deal Wallet" to keep them organized and from accidentally expiring before you’ve had a chance to use them.  Of the sites I checked out, this one seemed to have the most to offer in terms of being personalized.

http://www.thedealmap.com/ is a very connected aggregator with their own iPad app, Facebook page,
and Twitter account which is great for finding last-minute deals when you’re out and about.  If you often decide to eat out or shop at the end of your workday, this could be your best choice.

All of these sites have the deals from the major online coupon vendors, and all of them filter the offerings you see by location in one way or another.  Some are organized by city, and others work by your Zip Code.  My hermit-like existence means I’m usually more interested in restaurants and shopping coupons, so I like the ones that allow you to sort the deals by category.  But no matter how you prefer to have your coupons presented to you, there’s an aggregator that will fill that need in a way that helps simplify the process.