“Lakers’ House Not in Order April 7 Los Angeles Times (registration required): “The Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Lakers, 91-80, at Staples Center, and the Lakers’ 11-game winning streak became a two-game losing streak, their momentum gone slack.”

woke up extra early; about 5am. it was still dark and light didn’t appear till a bit after 6:30am. I took a walk down to the beach. The water shimmered and the surrounding quiet went beyond words yet said much. There were homeless people asleep and a few martial arts geeks meditating. I scribbled a bit in my journal. As the sun climbed behind the moutains in the east (the San Gabriel Mountains, i believe), more people started to come out to the beach and this is 7am i’m talking about! A few female rollerbladers came out and, believe me, they must be seen to be appreciated. walked over to Joe’s diner and had ice tea and the Huevos Rancheros. It was fantastic, just as i remembered it. Had a good conversation with Eddie, the waiter. Turns out that one of the other waitresses (let’s call her Missy) was about to get divorced. And i remembered how in love she was and how excited she was to get married and how they were both just in heaven. My how things change. I promosed to stop by on her shift and say hello. Walked back up the hill to Rusty’s and he was still asleep so i took a short drive to buy some shampoo and bubble bath (i love bubble baths!) and then i went to the local laundrette on main street and did 2 loads of laundry. when i came back Rusty was up and wanted to know if i had eaten. well, this was near 1pm and so it had been about 6 hours since i had breakfast so we went over to BAY CITIES (on Lincoln and Colorado) for sandwiches. I had the Salami with swiss and Rusty had the Godmother, which is kinda like a “Po’ Boy”. After that, we went back to Rusty’s place and chilled and watched Chelsea embarrass Arsenal 2-1 on a play that was as sweet as it was unexpected. It was a classic “give and go” play and Arsenal fell for it, hook, line and sinker. After that game i took a shower, shaved and then we went over to Rusty’s sister-and-laws house in mar vista and checked out their new house. Onnika had her sister help her install a pond. it looked really nice. Deborah called me and so i chatted to her while Rusty played basketball with his niece and nephews. We stayed there for a few hours and had a beer each. Then we left Onnika’s house about 6pm and drove to Brentwood. We parked on Broxton street (directly around the corner from an “X” of mine…ouch), and walked over to Q’s, which is a bar/pool hall/resteraunt. We caught the end of the SF giants game and the whole LAKER game. In the meantime, we tackled 2 pictures of lager. The LAKERS were pathetic and got handed their asses by the lowly Portland Trailblazers. We let Q’s and went next doot to HANA SUSHI. We walked the last 20 minutes of that Laker game while grubbing down on some damn good sushi. Left Hana about 10:30 and drove back to Rusty’s house. 2 of Rusty’s house mates were watching tv so we had some drinks with them (Black Bush) and then Rusty went down to main street, to the Tavern and i was too tired so i stayed in and eventually went to sleep around 12:30pm.

Mike Randle