'Runaround Sue'

Wednesday was a day for running around.......but, first there was a little matter of morning nourishment.  Our first stop was Simple Simon's Bakery & Bistro in the 'mall' next to the Mission Inn.  Simple Simon's has been a favorite of ours ever since we began to live full time in the Newell four years ago.  Whenever we are in town we must visit there at least one time.......and one cup of their amazing coffee is simply not sufficient.  They bake everything on premises, and personally I like their bagels.....TLE usually gets a scone.

The next stop on our list of many, many stops this day was the local car wash......our poor Beetle hasn't had a proper washing since early November when we first arrived in Sparks, NV to work at Amazon.  She has been mostly outdoors during that time in pretty harsh environments, and really needed that $20 spa date at Main Street Car Wash......

Then it was my turn.....my last haircut was just before Sharon's wedding, and it was really only a trim, so I was getting pretty shaggy.....10 am was the perfect time to arrive at Supercuts.....I was able to walk right in and sit in the stylist's chair.  While I got my ears lowered TLE went across the street to the Goodwill to browse....by the time I got there she had found a couple pair of shorts.....you can never have too many pairs of shorts.....seriously....I know.

Then it was off to the bank to deposit our just received IRS refund for 2013......I had indicated on my tax return that the refund should be direct deposited, but for some reason they chose to mail it.  My bank will not let me scan tax refund checks in remotely and deposit them, so thankfully we got the check when we were near our bank!  On a side note, has anyone else noticed that the IRS seems even more inefficient these past few years than they usually are?  I've gotten mail from them the past two years asking for information that was clearly provided in my original tax return.  Of course, our mail is always chasing us, so responding to them each time to point out they already had the information they were requesting took longer than it would have had we been in a fixed location, thereby delaying our refunds.

Next up was Trader Joe's to resupply our wine and scotch inventories, and then it was over to the Ontario Mills to visit my watch maker guy to get new batteries in one of my Seiko watches, and one of TLE's.  I also needed to leave one of my Seiko Automatic watches to be cleaned and serviced.

I have been looking for one of my favorite beers (Samuel Smith's Organic Chocolate Stout) ever since we left Cape Blanco and was hoping the local BevMo (Beverages and More) in Rancho Cucamonga might have it, and SCORE!  They had just 3 bottles in stock so I cleaned them out.  

And then, since we were soooo close to my son's (Chris) office we stopped in to see him one more time and get a couple more hugs, and then headed up to another favorite spot of ours......Rubio's for another fix of their amazing fish tacos before visiting one of our favorite Goodwill stores just a few blocks away.  I rarely ever leave this store without finding one, or two things I can't live without.  In this case I found a nice rain jacket (it will be raining this weekend, and I forgot to bring something somewhat waterproof) for $4.99, and another gray t-shirt.  TLE found another sleeveless blouse.

By the time we finished at Goodwill it was closing in on 3 pm and time to head for the barn.....SoCal traffic begins to get dicey after 2 pm, so we were pushing our luck.  By the time we hit HWY 60 there was an accident that backed up traffic for two miles, but finally we got passed that and were back to Kate's home by 3:30.

We were joined by three of our children (Tim, Sharon and Meredith) for dinner at Kate's, and as usual, there were at least 4 conversations going on at all times.  Our brief two day reunion with our kids is fast coming to an end, and Thursday we will be heading into Pasadena for TLE's reunion festivities.

Thanks for stopping by!