By Leah Shaffer, correspondent

Ben Krueger, a native of Eden Prairie, is among the finalists that could have their Doritos ads aired during the Super Bowl

Thirty seconds of pure silliness has been the ticket to some serious career opportunities for two local aspiring filmmakers.

Last week’s snowstorm added an exclamation point a year that was already sludgy. Instead of barreling ahead, everyone was holed-up, waiting for the storm to pass.

Long gone are the days when Chaska was growing by a thousand people a year and houses were popping up like spring dandelions.

Instead, everyone – residents, politicians, business owners – were all coming to grips with the fact that cash just isn’t flowing into the coffers like it used to.

In celebration of the start of its 15th season, CVFT is bringing “Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” back to the stage. The troupe last performed the Andrew Lloyd Weber/Tim Rice musical 10 years ago.

Auditions will be held Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 7 and 8 at Chanhassen High School, 2200 Lyman Boulevard in Chanhassen.

The year was 1953 and Joan Rein was getting her first taste of cribbage, as a girlfriend’s uncle taught her to play. The card game, characterized by the use of a wooden board and pegs to count points, struck a chord with Rein almost instantly.

“I’ve always liked numbers and this is a number’s game,” said Rein.

Fifty-three years later, the Carver resident is still moving the peg around the board. In late September, her skills earned Rein her first ever title at the Grand National cribbage tournament in Grand Rapids, Mich.

As a little boy, Tony Abena fondly remembers spending time with his father in the garage. Today, the Edina resident carries on that family tradition with his own kids. And while the idea is the same, the garage is anything but.

For the last year and a half, Abena has set up shop in a car condo at the Auto MotorPlex Minneapolis, off of Audubon Road in Chanhassen. He is one of more than 70 owners at the complex and one of the many who have turned their spaces into the envy of men the world over.

Joe Jensen knew he had a big pumpkin on his hands this year.

“I wondered if it would even sit in the back of the pickup truck,” he said.

Early measurements of the pumpkin’s girth put it at an estimated 1,044 pounds, but when it was finally weighed, the pumpkin tipped the scales at a whopping 1,183.50 pounds.

“I was quite proud,” the Chaska resident said.

The pumpkin was one of a dozen weighing in at over 1,000 pounds in Stillwater’s Harvest Fest Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off earlier this month.

Recipes – they were one of the few things immigrants could carry from the old world to the new world with ease. Tastes from home sustained those that tried to forge a new life in the wilds of Minnesota.

But over time, as those recipes were passed down from generation to generation and bound together in books, they became more than just directions for how to make gingerbread or biscuits. They became an historical record.

“What you have is a history book, not just a cookbook,” said Wendy Petersen-Biorn, director of the Carver County Historical Society.