When I have time on Sundays, I try to buy a couple of the Sunday newspapers. I was fortunate to get the local newspaper this past Sunday. There was an insert for Boscov’s and it mentioned a special event they were going to be doing today, starting at 8:00 AM. It is Boscov’s 23rd Annual Friends Helping Friends event. If a customer wants to donate $5 to one of the participating non-profits of their choice, they will receive a coupon for 25% off. Since that sounded like a good idea to me (even if I didn’t end up buying anything), I decided to plan my morning. We were scheduled to get some heavy rain starting anywhere between 10AM and 12PM, so I knew I would need an early start.

The two places I wanted to visit before Boscov’s were JeannieBird Baking Company and Birdie’s Cafe. They are about 3/4 of a mile apart. I decided to park close to Birdie’s Cafe and then walk down to JeannieBird, and then come back up. Sometimes a walk can do you good.

When I arrived at JeannieBird’s, there was not a long line (this was around 8:30 AM on a weekday morning, so it’s not surprising). I looked through the different sweet options since I had ordered a savory breakfast sandwich the last time I was here. The thing that caught my eye was Pumpkin Rolls. Think Cinnamon Rolls, only with pumpkin. I asked if there were raisins in it, and thankfully the answer was no. I had three options, though: regular frosting, cream cheese frosting, or crumb topping. I decided to go with a crumb topping, and I’m glad that I did. They warmed it up for me, which was even better.

The three main components to this are the dough, the filling, and the topping. The dough had good flavor. Not a heavy yeast flavor, not too sweet. And cooked to the right consistency. The filling was also very good. The spices and the pumpkin blended well together, so the pumpkin wasn’t overbearing, but it was definitely there. The crumb topping was great. There was a texture that I wasn’t used to in crumb topping, and it worked really well. I thought that it might be oats, so I asked the team, and they confirmed with the chef that they indeed use oats in the crumb topping. This was definitely a good choice by me, and something that I would order again.

While making the walk from JeannieBird’s to Birdie’s Cafe, I saw a couple of neat signs. The first was in front of the Post Office building and the second was on the building itself. I don’t remember when or if I’ve seen a Fallout Shelter sign before, so I thought this was pretty cool.

Birdie’s frozen coffee drinks are called Snowbirds, which is a pretty fun take on their name. They have plenty of options as well. Since we are still in the season, I decided to go with the Pumpkin Snowbird. There was a nice pumpkin flavor, which was not too heavy, and a very subtle spice flavor. This was not icy at all. The straw was very thin, and there were no issues drinking this, which means there were no chunks of ice to clog things up or get stuck on the bottom. Very good drink and one I’ll get again. I’ve been to Birdie’s Cafe several times, but haven’t had a chance to write about it until today.

I took a couple of tree pictures, but this was the best of them. Quite a few colors, which made for some nice scenery. I was walking when I took this one. There were some other tree ranges which looked really nice, but I saw them while I was driving. There are signs that indicate no stopping unless for emergencies, so I couldn’t stop to take pictures.

I did finally make my way over to Boscov’s. I paid $5 for a non-profit of my choosing, and got a coupon. I only bought a couple of clothes that were already on sale, so my 25% got me less than $5 off, but I was perfectly fine with that. I wasn’t sure if I was going to buy anything. I had to assess my needs versus my wants, with a little grey area for in between. My wants included an all in one turntable/CD player/Radio/Cassette, but that was not something that I really need right now or have the room for in my house right now. There were some cooking appliances that fell into that same category. It didn’t matter to me, since I was just there for the $5 to a non-profit anyway.

The rain started to pick up a little after 10:30AM, so it was while I was finished shopping at Boscov’s, but still running errands close to home (grocery shopping). I took a video of the sounds of the rain from my enclosed patio. Feel free to check it out on my Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Tumblr account if you would like.

There are days when I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. Today was one of those days. I can’t help but feel positive after a morning like this.