My "Magic" Hardware store

We have a magic hardware store on Maine Ave. in downtown Lakeside. Picture an old movie with one little block that is "downtown" and you've got a pretty good idea of what downtown Lakeside looks like. It's part of the charm of where we live. We're in San Diego county and we have all the big city stuff, but travel down the road one mile and you'll see a quaint little shopping area, rodeo grounds and horses walking down the street. And right smack dab in the middle of Maine Ave., is Paytons True Value hardware.

We have lived in Lakeside for about 15 years now and we have had many little home improvement projects that we have had to do. You know, the kind of projects that send you to the hardware store over and over again. And over the years we have found that our little old house just isn't "standard." Sometimes we have to find a special part to make things work. We'll try the local Home Depot or Lowe's and over and over again, we end up at Paytons and they always have exactly what we need.

It's Magic!

Seriously, have you been in a Home Depot or Lowe's lately? They are absolutely huge. They have row upon row of boxes and yet, the little tiny Payton's Hardware Store in downtown Lakeside always seems to have exactly what we need!

A few weeks ago I was on the hunt for Hula Hoop making materials. I found the tubing, but I could not find the insert connectors. I even had the part numbers from Lowe's and I showed them to a "helpful" Lowe's associate and I could not find the parts!! It was driving me crazy. At the time I joked to hubby and said "I should check Paytons."

Well I did finally find the parts, thanks to a more helpful Lowe's employee. He used an unusual tactic. He listened to me and then he, are you ready? He looked up the part number on the computer. Wow!

Well yesterday, we went to Paytons (for another home improvement project. We have a new kitchen faucet. Thank you hubby!) and I just had to check. Do they have the connectors?

Yep!

I drove to four different home improvement stores, made three trips to Lowe's in Santee, and my favorite little store, in downtown Lakeside, had the connectors. I could've ridden my bike there!

So if you live in the area, I think you should pay a visit to Payton's. I bet they'll have exactly what you need. And in true small town fashion. Make sure you pick up a free bag of popcorn while you're shopping.

New Obsessions

Hubby was home for 9 days! We had a great time and enjoyed ourselves even though during that nine days, he had a 24 hour flu bug and I caught a cold. Fun times! Don't feel too bad for us though, we went to a fun Valentine's Day party and we (the non-drinkers) had a blast at happy hour. Yummy $1 tacos will sucker us in to paying premium prices for fountain drinks anytime. Haha!

Hubby also spoiled me while he was home. He saved up to buy me a kindle, but ended up buying me a new bike instead. It was a tough decision.. kindle...bike...kindle...bike.... I decided to continue on in the fitness regime and go for the beautiful new bike. Sport (aka new bike) and I have been trying to get to know each other. I struggled with the whole toe clip thing and thanks to Jane, decided to give up! I plan to buy clip in shoes/pedals at some point so why stress over figuring out how to use the toe clips/cages when they aren't going to be there forever anyway. Love that logic!! Especially because now I am excited about riding home...instead of worrying over how many lights I'm going to have to stop at.

And I have a new obsession - Hooping! http://www.hooping.org/ (Like I really needed ANOTHER obsession). It's all good though. I had fun hooping when it was raining and I couldn't ride my bike and it's fun for a quick little workout at home. And there are so many more things you can do with a hula hoop than I ever thought possible. It should keep me entertained for a while. The only bummer is that I haven't found any cool hoop blogs...you know so I can tie a couple of obsessions together.