Myrna CG Mibus - Idyllwild

It's Monday and normally I'd be getting ready to head off to Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra rehearsal tonight but I won't be doing that for a few months. Why? Well, I did something sort of crazy, I auditioned for a Merlin Players theater production and I got a part. I'll be playing Sister Robert Anne in a Nunsense musical directed by Julianna Skluzacek -  Meshuggah Nuns . Meshuggah, by the way, is a Yiddish word meaning crazy . Huh? Yiddish words in a musical about nuns? Well, yes - because the Nunsense Sisters are on a "Faith of all Nations" cruise where they were to see Fiddler on the Roof but the cast, save the man who plays Tevye, all get sick.  So the Sisters and Tevye put on a musical review complete with Fiddler on the Roof type songs. Sounds crazy? Yeah - but most of all it sounds fun! We started rehearsals two weeks ago then, thankfully, had last week off which was a great relief because last week was the craziest week of the year - the first wee...

April 1st 2012 - April Fools Day - is going to be a big day in my life - and I'm not kidding! First, as most of you know, I'll be staring my 5th round of 30 Days of Biking on April 1st. 30 Days of Biking is a challenge to ride your bike every day for 30 days. I did my first 30 Days of Biking two years ago  during April of 2010 and it really changed my life. Seriously. I'm now a way more active person than I ever was before and my whole family has taken up bicycling. We now spend a lot of family time with bike-related activities. Just today we biked the Midtown Greenway so we could stop at a bike shop/coffee shop called Freewheel Midtown . While at Freewheel we visited with Patrick Stephenson (aka @patiomensch), one of the 30 Days of Biking founders and got fun spoke cards for our bikes. After that, we headed over to another bike & coffee shop, Angry Catfish , for a benefit bike art auction called Big Ring: 2nd Gear . The art auction is a benefit for an organization...

About four years ago I decided I'd like to play the mandolin. So I purchased a nice, inexpensive mandolin from Homestead Pickin' Parlor in Richfield and started taking lessons with fabulous musician, Karen Mueller . I played steadily for over a year then upgraded to a beautiful Michael Kelly "F" style mandolin. It's a beautiful instrument and I loved playing it - but then I was in two Northfield Arts Guild musicals in a row. With rehearsals and life I pretty much stopped playing and my Michael Kelly sat in its case for a long, long, time My mandolin - the Legacy Dragonfly Flame. Picture from the Michael Kelly website. It's a shame to let a beautiful instrument sit so I started thinking about ways to get myself playing again. There are lessons and jam sessions I could attend and, of course, I could be self motivated and just play at home. But each of those options presented challenges - among them lack of funds for frequent lessons, schedule conflicts wit...