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Tuesday, December 30, 2003

New Years Resolutions

By Michael B. Lasko

1) Learn to play the guitar. This one is a requirement, as I made the mistake of walking into Guitar Center tonight. Here's what I walked out with.

2) Spend more time sailing.

3) Spend less time at Crescent Healthcare.

Monday, December 29, 2003

This last Saturday, I practiced the fine art of no wind sailing. It's much more difficult than it sounds. To make things even more difficult, I had invited along a friend from work and his daughter/nieces (for a total of: two nine year olds and a five year old). Things were going better before I decided that it would be funny to ask if they had seen Finding Nemo. From that point on, there was a chorus of: "Mine, mine," every time a seagull flew past us. But on to the no wind part: After floating around in the jetty for a half hour, the very kind captain of Mom's Attic offered to give us a tow. Unfortunately, Mom's Attic is equipped with what appeared to be a 2 stroke trolling motor. Upon making the turn out of the jetty I mistakenly reached the conclusion that we could sail faster without the tow. Casting off the towline, we proceeded to sail backwards against the outflowing tide for another 20 minutes until a fantastic looking boat named, "Elan" gave us a second tow. Thank you Doug and Sandy Mills. If I ever see you guys again, I owe you each a beer. My new goal in life is to never require tows from two separate boats on the same day.

On a completely unrelated note, I have completely sworn off mad cow burgers. I am, however, allowing myself grilled cheese sandwiches from In-N-Out Burger. I am sure there is still some risk of contracting mad cow from the grill, but I guess I'll take my chances. I know what you are all thinking, "In-N-Out makes grilled cheese sandwiches?" Yes they do. They have a whole hidden menu that they don't want you to see. And I have a copy!

Thursday, December 25, 2003

How I spent my Chrismukkah.

By Michael B. Lasko

In spite of the forecasts, I did indeed go sailing this morning. Aside from the fact that it was a little gusty, and that Columbia's reefing outhaul had been removed (I think I'll start checking for that before leaving the dock), things went pretty well. We did not even get rained on. Unfortunately, it was so windy (we had her at hull speed on a broad reach going up harbor) that we were done sailing in 90 minutes. I needed something else to fill up the rest of the day.

As it was Christmas, this meant going to lunch at Denny's with my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew. I had pancakes. Afterwards, I went over to my mother's, who needed help with her com-pu-ter. I believe that in the future, computers will become even more important. I know I'm going to get one. For dinner, I was trying desperately to avoid eating at Denny's again. I had already exhausted the pancake angle, so that does not leave a whole lot on the menu other than mad cow burgers. We drove around for an hour before settling on El Pescadore, some weird Whittier Mexican restaurant. I had a vegetarian burrito, sans cow.

All in all, I must admit that this was the best Chrismukkah ever!

Wednesday, December 24, 2003

I seem to be spending a lot of time (money) in Starbucks lately. I am not sure why. The coffee is not particularly spectacular, and I do not really care for the atmosphere. I think, for some reason, I keep ending up in the vicinity with an hour to kill. That is how they've taken over the world.

Wednesday, December 10, 2003

I remember once, many Christmases (sp?) ago, my sister-in-law was playing Space Invaders on her Gameboy. Handing the machine to me, she asked if I knew how to play. "I've been playing Space Invaders since before you were born," I replied. Several hours later, I realized that this was probably true.

Japanese game machine maker Taito said Friday that it plans to restart sales of "Space Invaders" in the United States, almost 25 years after the video game first appeared in arcades.

Wow, it costs 50 cents now. Hey, how old are you Tricia?

Monday, December 08, 2003

Can you believe that I am not the number one result on yahoo for search term: Michael Lasko? It makes no sense. But anyway, here is the cool OC link of the week: The OC Drinking game.

Sunkist Regatta #2 was yesterday. My boat came in third if anybody is interested. It was only raining a little, and there was a pretty cool rainbow across the peninsula.

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

New Hotmail sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is this some scam to get me to add people to my address book? As far as I can tell, that's the only way to tell if there's new mail from the start up screen. All I can say is, they're pretty lucky I'm so cheap.