St Paul & Ramsey County Libraries Libby App E-Reader

Prior to the Covid lockdowns many people used to go to the library in person. Since then people have gotten into the habit of reading their books from a distance on e-readers. It’s not the same as an in-person visit as it used to be. Seeing the librarians, saying hello to regulars at the library and sipping on a cup of mocha at the attached coffee shop like at the Downtown St Paul Library or at the Ramsey County Library in Roseville MN.

It was also a plus when area school children had their artwork displayed in public. There are some great budding artists out there.

Metropolitan Library Service Agency, or MELSA has an E-Reader System called The Libby App by Overdrive or Libby for short.

Here’s a video from another public library in Texas, with an informal tutorial.

 

Libby books can be read on a Kindle device, in fact it will ask you which method of viewing your book selections you’d like to read it on. On my laptop computer it makes use of the full screen. It is crisp and fluid in its functioning.

The best news is being able to borrow magazines. Another favorite activity of many at a Library was to go to the area near the fireplace and read, or leaf through a magazine. Libby has that covered. There is no crinkle of pages or the sometimes hard to turn a page due to the metal spine.  The magazine pages are vivid and you can enlarge them or just leaf through the pages as you would in an actual magazine.  The best thing is it won’t take up too much space on your coffee or end table.


Life has returned to as close as normal as it was before Covid lockdowns. One can still use the e-reader but there are just some things your devices can’t replicate online.  Some of the things are seeing the librarians and saying hello, enjoying a mocha from Dunn Brothers, or hearing Howard’s Countdown Trivia at the Roseville Library in the last hour before closing.

#ProLifeSunday: Happy Mother’s Day May 14, 2023

Not enough flowers to say, "Thanks Mom for all you do for me."
Not enough flowers to say, “Thanks Mom for all you do for me.”

This Sunday is Mother’s Day and we would like to thank all the mothers out there for being there at every step of life.  You’ve nurtured, supported, and loved us.  You’ve made us into the people we are today.

#ProLifeSunday Thanks to Mothers

not enough flowers to say, "Thanks mom."
not enough flowers to say, “I love you mom.”

There aren’t enough flowers and presents to say thank you to mothers.

We House District 66B Republicans celebrate the entire family. We include Fathers, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Brothers & Sisters & Cousins, Friends & Colleagues.   Our extended families have helped us grow in areas that our parents may have overlooked, or helped us to relate to our parents to know that they were once like us at one point in the past.

Cutting any part of the family out of the picture diminishes the resources one can draw upon.

While there might be a number of fantastic mothers who vote for Democrat candidates, we have to take issue with them because they support the destruction of life during a pregnancy.  They support Planned Parenthood, a taxpayer supported organization that draws upon the tenets of Eugenics that were supported by their founder Margaret Sanger and the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg who had been their attorney, as well as Senator Tina Smith who used to be a Vice President of MN Planned Parenthood.  Eugenics derived from Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and the idea of “survival of the fittest.”  Sanger believed that there are certain undesirables in the human population.

Happy Mother's Day
Happy Mother’s Day

To end on a positive note we would like to thank all the Pro-life Mothers serving as legislators in the Minnesota State Legislature.

Happy Mother’s Day


It is a different sort of Mother’s Day this year as Roe v Wade has been overturned by the US Supreme Court and extreme abortion has been passed into law in Minnesota by party line votes. This article is reposted from saintpaulrepublicans.us and was edited for this site by permission. — admin

Legislative Update March 27th was a Success

Left to Right: Rep Patricia Mueller (R-23B Austin MN), Senator Eric Lucero (R-30 Albertville MN), Senator Mark Koran (R-28 North Branch MN), Rep Patti Anderson (R-33A Dellwood), and Rep Walter Hudson (R-30A Albertville MN). Republican Legislators addressed Republicans from Saint Paul at Falcon Heights City Hall.

On March 27, 2023, House District 66B Republican Leaders had invited Republican Legislators to visit and bring Republicans who live in Saint Paul up to date on what is happening in the Minnesota Legislature. Then they fielded questions about issues pertaining to individual legislator’s committee assignments or general political and policy questions.

Senator Mark Koran & Representative Patti Anderson serve on the Legislative Audit Commission. The Commission found the fraudulent Feeding Our Future. There was a suggestion from the audience to Audit the City of St Paul as the Mayor wants a sales tax increase to pay for fixing the potholes in St Paul.

Representative Patricia Mueller is on the MN House Education Policy Committee as well as the Public Safety Finance & Policy Committee. A suggestion from the audience was to require the St Paul Public School Board to be elected by Wards instead of at-large. She had the understanding that the City would need to do that, but it can only be enacted at the State Legislature as long time Rep Phyllis Kahn of Minneapolis had enacted this sort of action for the Minneapolis School Board.

Senator Eric Lucero is on the MN Senate Education Finance Committee, and the Energy Utilities Environment Climate Committee. 

Representative Walter Hudson is in his first term in the Minnesota State House and he has had some very interesting floor debate lately concerning Gun Control and also protecting our children in schools. He is on the MN House Children and Families Finance and Policy Committee, and Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee. He also had a successful podcast prior to being elected in 2022.


Feel free to click on the highlighted Legislators’ links to their legislature pages which contain their contact information, their districts, and what committees they serve on.

Conny’s Creamy Cone Opens for the 2023 Season on March 11th

Conny’s Creamy Cone always has a line during the summer.


Every year the opening of Conny’s Creamy Cone is waited upon with baited breath. It is quite possible that the weather might be snowy, cold enough that your soft serve ice cream cone won’t melt in the sub freezing weather, but it’s the first promise of Spring in the North End Neighborhood of Saint Paul Minnesota.

At the Southwest Corner of the Dale St North and Maryland Ave West intersection, Conny’s Creamy Cone has been serving up soft serve in 32 flavors, and Flurries (like DQ Blizzards except there’s more stuff in them than DQ puts in Blizzards). They have almost everything DQ has except it is cheaper, and the line is longer in the Summertime than any of the nearby DQs.

Conny’s Menu

Conny’s Creamy Cone Full Menu link

Flurries: Banana Cream Pie, Banana Split, Brownie, Butterfinger, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough,  Chocolate Covered Cherry, French Silk Pie, Fudge Nut, German Chocolate, Green Mint, Heath, M&M, Mocha, Oreo, Pina Colada, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, Sea Salt Caramel, S’Mores, Snickers, Strawberry-Banana, Turtle

Small: $4.79, Medium: $5.59, Large: $6.39, Extras Add $0.99

Dip Cones:  Chocolate, Butterscotch, Cherry, Dip of the Week, Crunch (the Flavored Cones can’t be dipped as they are too soft) 

Cone Cost: Baby $2.89, Small $3.49, Medium $4.19, Large $4.59, Waffle Cone $4.89 (2023 Prices)

Cheese Curds: $4.45 (more than what you get at the State Fair)

32 Flavors of Soft Serve

Some people try to do the cycle of trying every flavor of Soft Serve Conny’s has during the summer. It’s hard to do when you’re on a diet. With limited parking around it you can park a block or two away and get some exercise to work off a dip cone, Flurry, or a flavored cone.

32 Flavors of Conny’s Soft Serve: Amaretto, Apricot, Banana, Blackberry, Black Cherry, Blueberry, Butter Pecan, Cake Batter, Caramel, Cheesecake, Coconut, Coffee, Cotton Candy, German Chocolate, Irish Cream, Key Lime, Lemon, Mango, Maplenut, Mint, Orange, Peach, Peanut Butter, Pina Colada, Pistachio, Pumpkin, Raspberry, Rum, S’Mores, Strawberry, Tutti Fruiti

Cone Cost: Baby $2.89, Small $3.49, Medium $4.19, Large $4.59, Waffle Cone $4.89


Conny’s Under New Management–Her Nephew

You may have wondered about the origins of Conny’s and have stumbled upon this letter to the editor from Conny’s nephew Thomas McCullough, from November 4, 2020, “An October like no other.” 

Thomas McCullough explains in his letter to the editor that his Aunt Conny McCullough, bought Creamy Cone 25 years prior to then (that would be 1995). He says she bought it not to become rich, or to open up franchises, but to own a place that would provide joy to the community from a friendly face at an affordable price.  Prior to purchasing the shop, Thomas worked for about 10 years there and it was a great place to work as Conny was someone who cared about her employees. She understood the flexible schedules of the employees and knew their birthdays to give them the day off without them asking her.

Conny closed the shop for her last October in 2020. Thomas’ first opening was in March 2021

Never Closed for Covid

During the time of Covid lockdowns, Conny’s Creamy Cone never closed down. Since they are strictly a take out eatery they were allowed to stay open. One can only imagine they were still providing joy to their customers as there wasn’t much joy for people to look to during those dark times.

We thank them for that.  We like to support the area businesses inside and on the edges of HD 66B, so we gather the menus of area restaurants and bring them to the Republican Caucuses in the Minnesota State House & Senate. It isn’t hard to get them to go to Conny’s, many of them already knew of its existence.

Conny McCollough’s dream of bringing joy to St Paul, and surrounding suburbs from a friendly face at an affordable price has been realized.

Thank you.


This post was not authorized by anyone, nor do we get any sort of compensation for posting it. ~~ admin

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