Nick ‘n’ Heather

We had a busy weekend this time around.  After I wrapped up work on Friday we headed out to Hutchinson for the tournament Saturday.  We crashed at Tim’s place Friday night after meeting Master Roy & Teresa for supper. 

We got up early Saturday and headed to the tournament.  Started off with patterns, then it turns out there was nobody in my division for me to compete against.  So I got myself all worked up for nothing.  Oh well, maybe next time.  After refereeing and judging for a while they did the black belt breaking.  I ended up taking first in my division for that at least.  After that I ended up running a ring for the rest of the day.  It was a lot of fun, but really tiring. 

I had one little girl smoke a boy in the head a little too hard for the controlled contact rules.  I feel bad for penalizing a kid for kicking hard, but the rules are the rules.

After the tournament was wrapped up, we headed out for a quick bite and then there was a short team practice.

We went back to Tim’s and cleaned up a bit and headed over to the hotel where a lot of the people were staying.  I ended up tossing a couple of kids in the pool as a joke and it quickly turned into a full-out carnival ride and I had like 8 kids in a constant line waiting to be tossed.  I really should have been charging for it because I would have easily made over a $100. 

Sunday morning we got up again early for a black belt class.  It was a pretty easy day because everybody was so beat up.  We did some timing drills, worked on forms and I showed a couple of wrist locks to everyone.

We finally made it home today around 5 and immediately took a nap.  Got up a bit later and started the process of unpacking/cleaning/getting ready for the week.

In sadder news, though, after I got up from my nap I found that my beloved betta fish, Edward, had died.  He was looking pretty rough a couple weeks ago, but seemed to recover just fine, but I guess it just went south over the weekend.  It’s too bad because he really was entertaining to watch eat.  Still haven’t decided if we’ll get a new fish or not.  We’ll have to see.

Just a quick note, this site will be moving shortly… The address www.bignickolson.com has redirected to this site for a few months now. Well within the next few weeks it will no longer direct and will become the permanent home for this blog. This site, bignickolson.kicks-ass.net will no longer work, so make sure you update bookmarks and that crap so you can keep up on my exciting, hip life.

In other news, Heather has been blogging again…mostly about how great of a guy I am. On the weight loss side, I’m down ten pound so far and still dropping.

Last weekend, Heather came down late Thursday night because she didn’t have school on Friday. Friday, she sat on her butt while I worked my ass off all day long…Friday night we ran to Old Navy because she had some gift certificates to use up.

Saturday morning we got up early and grabbed a bite to eat. We met Tim in Chaska and rode together to Waterville to help out at his TKD school. His sister took us out to eat after class and it was a bunch of fun. Except for it was cold as heck and I didn’t fully wake up until we were driving back. When we got back, Heather and I took a nap and didn’t wake up until 5. Then we slowly came to life and went shoe shopping. I bought a new pair of workout shoes and Heather got some girly-schmirly stuff. We came back and I cooked some salmon while she ate some shrimp.

Sunday we slept in late, and when we woke up we ate some food and I helped Heather pack up so she could get on the road. I didn’t do much…had the superbowl on in the background but didn’t really watch it.

Today, I’m back at work, things are going pretty good…busy though, this weekend I’m heading up to Fargo to hang out with Heather and workout. It’s time for kangeiko, which is the winter training festival in Japanese martial arts. So we get together and workout from 9-5 on Saturday and then go out for some food and socializing afterwards…should be a lot of fun.

Had another good weekend this last couple days.

Heather came down Friday and we hooked up with a bunch of people from work and hung out for a while. Played some pool, this and that. Afterwards we rented a couple videos and took it easy.

Saturday, we were going to help Tim with the gym in Waterville but neither of us were feeling that great in the morning. We finally came to life around noon and decided we needed to leave the apartment. Luckily, we had just the excuse. Some old friends from judo up north were in St. Paul competing in a tournament. So we went and watched them. They did really good…right until they lost. Oh well. It was fun. They kept hassling me to put on gi and sign up…but I wasn’t feeling up to it. There’s one in March…who knows? Saturday night we watched the X-games on TV because of Heather and then we watched one of our movies.
Sunday we finished off the other movie and she finished packing up and took off this afternoon. I’ve done a bit of cleaning since…made some supper. Nothing too exciting. Back to work tomorrow so I’m going to spend the rest of the night relaxing.

Some new pictures as well…go to the photo gallery and click on recent to check them out.

Last week flew by and here we are again.

What else has been happening? Well, I passed my second certification test. Which now makes me a Microsoft Certified Professional and a Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist. Two tests down, three to go.

Heather came up this weekend. On Saturday, Tim, Heather, and I went to watch an iaido (sword) class. It was pretty cool. We all hung out for the rest of the day and went to the Old Country Buffet and almost killed ourselves on food. Good times.

This week is going to be cleaning and getting everything in order…also going to Waterville, which is right by Mankato with Tim on Saturday. He is trying to open a new gym there and is doing a demo and open house. Should be some fun.

Otherwise, Christmas is coming soon…Magenic is giving everyone a Zune and the car accessory kit for Christmas. So that is pretty cool. We should get it by the beginning of next week at the latest.

Ok, more later…have a good night all.

I don’t know how you people can go so long without updates from me.

Let’s see where was I when I left off…

Ah, yes. I was getting ready to head off for Thanksgiving weekend. Well, Let’s check back in with the Hall of Awesomeness.

So Wednesday night I drove back up to Fargo. Didn’t do much, although I did surprise Heather. She thought I wasn’t gonna get there until 11 pm or so. So she was excited when I showed up at 7:30. She was making a pie and we grabbed some food for supper.

Turkey Day
So, of course, there was lots of food and bouncing back and forth. We started out at my Aunt’s place and after dinner went over the Heather’s place for dessert. Then after a bit we went back to my aunt’s place to play some cards. My memory is fading, but I’m pretty sure the rest of the night was uneventful. We went to bed pretty early.

Friday, 4:17 am - UGHHH! Heather woke me up to go shopping on Black Friday. We went and stood outside Office Max so Heather could get a laptop, and I picked up a digital camera for my mom. Then tried to go to Best Buy, yeah right, it was a mad house and we called that one off. Although I still want some LCD monitors for my computer. Then we stood outside GameStop for over an hour to try to get a new Nintendo Wii. But no luck…

I called an end to our Black Friday adventure and it was only 7am. So we grabbed a bite to eat at the IHOP and crawled back into bed. After a few hours we woke up and grabbed some dinner and packed up to go to Ada. But not before I grabbed my own ping pong paddle from Scheels. It had been a while since I had really hung out with the family so I thought it’d be nice to drop in. Everybody was gone, so Heather and I played ping-pong at the community center where my mom was working. She’s not to shabby, I think she practices when I’m not around. Friday night we just sat around the house.

Saturday
Ok, woke up…air mattress had deflated. Comfy. Heather spent most of the day baking with my mom and I went out to Ben’s for a while to hang out. Ben came into town and we hung out with Heather for a while too. We went to Santa Clause 3 in Ada. Then we picked up Ben and brought him back to Fargo with us because he had to take the midnight train…to nowhere….ummm, anyway…

We dropped him off and went to Heather’s apartment and watched Pirates of the Carribean.

Sunday
Sunday we slept in and when we got it we had some food and tried to decide what to do before I took off. We agreed upon going to see Pirates of the Caribbean II at the Safari. Then I took off down that long, lonely road home.

Monday
Not much to report still pretty burnt out from the weekend. Got off work and stat around with in my apartment…started playing with a program called Blender, which is used for 3D modeling and animation, so you may see some crappy movies from me sooner or later…probably later.

Today

Not much to report again, work still is a little busy, went to Aikido tonight. Then I came home and have been pretty much doing the blog redesign you are seeing. I think it looks a lot better. Then I started writing this and a few hours later, my mini-novel is finished.

You don’t realize how hard blogging can be. To get the motivation to continually write about your life can be pretty hard. Especially, when you have to constantly filter out all the naughty stuff you don’t want the rest of the public to know about ;).

Not much else to report coming up, gonna take another test for work soon. Going back to Fargo again this weekend to help out at Northwest’s black belt testing. I’m teaching another jujutsu class at Tim’s next Thursday.

Haven’t posted in a few days….thought I’d try to catch everyone up.

Didn’t do much last week, still resting up from the last test and didn’t feel like studying anymore.

So I’m taking a few days off after passing my test before diving into the next one. Today at work I actually had some stuff to do, which was nice. If things don’t pick up soon I may ask to get added to another project.
Tonight when I got home I went and worked out for a while, really starting to focus on this whole “weight loss” thing. After the workout, sat in the hot tub for a few minutes before coming back to the apartment. Otherwise, I didn’t do much tonight. Sat around and wrote out checks to pay bills. Gonna start reading the Lord of the Rings. It has been my tradition to read the books every fall. It was really easy in college, just start reading when I went back to school…but I almost missed it this time. Luckily, it popped into my head tonight. I can’t remember how many times I read it now, I think five…but I still pick up stuff I missed each time, it’s kinda fun to do. It was pretty fun to not do anything tonight. Haven’t had a chance to relax in a while.
Time to take a deep breath for a few days before plunging back into it all again.

OK…

Let’s see, it’s been a few days since I’ve written anything. Sorry about that. When I started this the idea was to write at least a few times a week. I think I’ve been doing good so far.

Anyways, Monday my parents came into town to stay at my joint before they went to Rochester. I surprised them with a homemade apple pie. Otherwise I spent the rest of the week studying for my test for work.

Heather tried lying to me on Wednesday night by saying she was in bed, but she was actually driving down to see me. I saw right through her though. She got down here late on Wednesday night. I stayed up just long enough to say hi and goodnight to her. Thursday we went to Tim’s gym and I taught some jujutsu to the tae kwon do people. They enjoyed it and Tim and I thought it would be fun to do it the first Thursday of each month. So that should be a reoccurring event.

Friday we sat around the house for a bit after work and then went to Barnes and Noble so I could study some more.

Saturday I woke up early and got ready to go take my test. Got there a bit early and they let me start early. I needed a 700/1000 to pass and I squeaked by with a 771. Passing is passing and I was pretty happy. Then I had the great…pleasure.. of meeting Heather’s dad. He just moved to Eden Prairie and now lives about 15 minutes away from me. We went bowling where Heather embarrassed herself by dancing to the Backstreet Boys while trying to throw her ball down the lane. She actually won the first game but lost it all the second time. Then we all went out to eat at a nice restaurant called the Red Stone. I had some sea bass and Heather had the baby back ribs. Then…dessert. We ordered the chocolate cake and the chocolate chip cookie sundae. My god, it was delicious. The cookie sundae was a bunch of cookie dough in the bottom of a skillet with ice cream on top. Pretty sure I have a new favorite restaurant. Then we went to hang out with Tim for a few hours.

Sunday, we got up and made a big breakfast and watched TV. Then we went to see Borat with Tim and Nikki. Came back and Heather grabbed her stuff and ran to avoid some bad weather. I started writing this and cleaning up my place after the Heather tornado that destroys it every weekend. Now, I’m just relaxing and thinking what I want for some supper. See everybody on Thanksgiving.

Pics will be up later.

Update: Pictures are now up from the last week or so…