Nick and Dion's Room

Looking back on 2005

As you've probably noticed, we haven't made a post in almost a year. To make it simple, this entry is a look back on 2005. It was a big year for us. Nick got his first new car, Dion graduated with her master's degree and got a job, and we celebrated our first anniversary - just to name a few. Enjoy the pictures, and hopefully this site will get back to truly timely updates. For easier navigation, the pictures are in chronological order.

My First New Car

Dion and I bought a new car last week. A 4-door Honda Civic EX Special Edition. It's got some pretty big shoes to fill, but I'm sure it can handle anything the Saturn could. You can find more pictures of it here.

Gabrielle Cosette LaMarr

Mike and Tammy have a new baby, Gabi. She was born on March 18th, 2005. You can see lots of pictures of her here.

Happy Halloween

Here is my official Halloween post, accompanied with a picture of a pumpkin Dion carved.

A Couple of Big Announcements

It's been a while since I posted, but finally some interesting events have happened in my life. First of all, I'll be moving back to Magnolia this coming Sunday, and I'll be starting work at the new Conroe HEB on Monday the 28th. The other big news is that Christie had her baby girl on June 19th. Pictures can be found here. Oh, and Dion is cool.

The Wedding Shower

This past Sunday, Dion and I had our first wedding shower. We got lots of good stuff to aid in furnishing our new life together. You can see some pictures from it here. My new digital camera came in the mail today, so I'm back in picture taking action!! Oh yeah, read this true story. It takes about an hour, but is worth it.

My Big Move

I spoke to the Regional Director for the Houston Region today, and now it looks like I'll be interviewing for a position in the new Conroe store which opens on June 4th. Assuming I get that spot, I'd be leaving Austin in mid-May.

Greetings and Salutations or How I Decided to Stop Lying to Myself and Accept the Fact That I'm an Idiot

Not a whole lot has gone on in the month or so since my last post. Last week Dion and I went to Natural Bridge Caverns, which are just north of San Antonio. It was really cool. I went to Carlsbad Caverns when I was a kid, but I don't remember it, so basically these were the first caverns I'd ever been to. I highly recommend visiting a cave to everyone. Lupe and Sam had a garage sale this last weekend, to get rid of lots o' junk. I'm still waiting to hear a date for my transfer to Houston. However, the inspiration for this post's title comes from me accidentally washing my digital camera in the washing machine. It was in a carrying case in my garbage bag of dirty clothes, I forgot it was in there and dumped the whole lot in the washer. It doesn't turn on now. The memory card still works though. My plan is to take it to Best Buy and tell them it quit working; otherwise I'm screwed, and I'll have to buy a new one. All the events in my post took place between Tuesday and Friday of last week. The entire four weeks prior to those days were un-eventful

My whirlwind weekend.

It snowed in Austin on Valentine's day, you can see some pictures of it in the album to your left. I drove back to Magnolia that day and Lupe and Sam took me and Dion and Maria and Fabian out to eat at Buca di Beppo!. Buca is really good Italian food served in huge portions. The next morning my mom, Lupe, Dion and me all drove to Eagle Pass/Piedras Negras to visit/meet some of the family over there. We came back on Monday night. Tuesday night Katie was in a one act play at her school (my old high school). I attended that, it was weird being in the Commons again. I saw the Junior High principal, Rosales, there. He's horrible. He was one of the mean coaches in PE. He hated all of us because we weren't in athletics, maybe that's why I love running, jumping, and climbing trees now. (sarcasm) Now I'm back in Austin, and yesterday was Andrew's 23rd birthday and Savanah's 15th birthday. My mom's 48th birthday is today.

Quick recap

The new photos I've added basically explained what all I did from Christmas through 2 weeks ago. Since then, not much has happened. I finished reading Dune by Frank Herbert. It's really good. Arthur C. Clarke said, "I know nothing comparable to it except Lord of the Rings". Herbert wrote 5 more books in the Dune series, and in the last few years his son, Brian, has used his father's notes to write 4 prequel books. Hopefully the next book in the series, Dune Messiah, will be as good as the first.

I bought a game over Christmas break called Zoo Tycoon. It's basically what it sounds like, you manage a zoo, keep the guests and animals happy, all while creating exhibits, shops, and balancing the budget. It's really creative and cool, you can even have dinosaurs, yetis, unicorns, and mermaids. Last week Andrew introduced me to Roller Coaster Tycoon, which is even more fun than Zoo Tycoon. He had a cracked version which wasn't XP compatible, so we weren't able to load or save games. Obviously this wouldn't stand, so I shelled out $9.99 and bought Roller Coaster Tycoon 2. It's been commanding all of our time these last couple of days with no end in sight. Designing roller coasters is a lot harder than it would seem.

Finally, the day I've been awaiting since mid-December arrives! Tomorrow on Bravo, they will begin showing season 2 of The West Wing. I borrowed Ram's first season DVD, and was so blown away, I asked Dion to get it for me for Christmas, which she did. So I've been in West Wing limbo for far too long, but very soon, thanks to Ram's DVR (Digital Video Recorder) I will get my fix.

Last Friday, I saw The Butterfly Effect. I don't know why the critics dislike it so much. I think they just hate Ashton Kutcher. I thought the movie was awesome. It had a very cool, creative concept that wasn't so far out there that you had to be a sci-fi geek to follow along. I was totally engrossed in the story, and the audience I saw it with seemed to like it as well. I would definitely see it again. On a slightly related note, my uncle Mike gave me The Cannonball Run for Christmas. I watched that movie over and over when I was 3-6 years old. I'd watch it 2 or 3 times in a row. I watched it last night, and it's still awesome. I thought it'd be horrible, but Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Roger Moore, Mel Tillis, Terry Bradshaw, and the Lamborghini still do it for me.

'Tis the Season

If you'll notice I now have a wedding day countdown clock. Extremely mad props to G for finding it for use on another wedding page. Andrew and I have gone all out this year, I encourage you to view our Christmas album.

I've also included a tour of Andrew's and my apartment... Christmas style. Insane props to Ram for patiently wading through my stupidity and helping me get these images to align properly.

Hear Ye Hear Ye Pt. 3

The wedding is now set for Saturday, July 31st, 2004. It will be held at the First Presbyterian Church in Tomball, as was mentioned in an earlier post. Contact me for directions.

Hear Ye Hear Ye Pt. 2

The date has changed for our wedding. We were going to have it in May because that way Sam, Dion's brother, could be there. As it turns out he'll be shipped out to Iraq in April, so obviously, he won't be able to attend. It'll now happen either at the end of July or in early August, this will allow for more prep time.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

Our wedding is going to take place on Saturday, May 15th, 2004. It will be held at the First Presbyterian Church in Tomball, Texas. It is right across the street from Tomball College. The ceremony will probably take place in the late afternoon.

Big Announcement

Although most everyone already knows, I thought I'd post about it anyway. Dion and I are engaged. We don't have a date set or anything, but as soon as we do, I'll post it here for all to plan around.

New baby on the way!!

Dion's brother, Albert, and his wife, Christie, are going to have another baby in about 7 months. They currently have two boys, Christian and Ethan.

The last 2 weeks...

In an effort to keep my posts from being exceedingly boring by posting every other day, I suddenly let 2 weeks go by with nothing posted. I'm gonna try to keep it around 1 a week or so. That being said, here's the rest of my post.

A couple days after my last post the free cable Andrew and I had been getting since last November was turned off. When the cable guy showed up last November to install the basic package we had ordered, he said they had given him the wrong part, so we ended up with the mid level package, which was all the cable channels but no HBO, etc. Every month we only had to pay for the $10 basic package we had ordered. It was a glorious system, but they finally caught up with us.

The big problem was that the finale for Joe Schmo was a few days away when the cable was turned off, but Ram was good enough to let me watch it over at his and Parker's place. He recorded it using his DVR for Andrew, who has yet to watch it. The ending was awesome. Parker and Ram both got into it enough to ask questions about it and watched the finale with me. It was a very cool show.

The same week our cable was turned off, Andrew and I played a couple rounds of miniature golf at this new place called Austin Park 'N Pizza. Afterwards I was in a golf type mood, so I thought I'd give his Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2002 for PS2 a try. That game is easily as much fun as Gran Turismo or the Grand Theft Auto series. I can't really explain it, but it's addicting. Sadly I'm very near the end of the game. However, to Andrew's delight I've decided to rent Tiger Woods 2004 after I'm done with this one.

Last weekend was my family's annual Halloween party, not just the Wilkys but all the aunts, uncles, etc. In keeping with my family's "Griswold" status it isn't just a regular party, it's a lip-sync contest. I assume we all know what that is, but basically it's pretending to sing a song while doing some sort of routine with it, trying to be as funny as possible. We videotape it and oh yeah, this year was the 17th one we've had. You can see some pictures from the party here.

Finally this brings us to Monday, a scant 3 days ago. Where Andrew and I while flipping between commercials during Monday Night Football found a new show to watch religiously. This one is called Average Joe. It's like the Bachelorette, which was a show where a very attractive woman chooses her soulmate from a group of equally hot guys. Average Joe, however adds a twist to it, 95% of the guys are not hot, in fact some of them are downright nerds and dorks, and some are bald on top of that. The girl, Melana, is a former NFL cheerleader, and had no idea that the guys aren't as hot as she is until the first contender gets out of the bus and she sees him in all his 5'4 bald software test managing glory. The expression on her face is priceless as all 15 "average" guys meet and greet her. A couple are decent looking, most aren't. Mine and Andrew's favorite is a 21 year old university professor who is nearing completion of his PHD. His name is Tareq Kabir. He's by far the coolest looking guy on the show, he's got the Indian appeal, but he has no game whatsoever. He exudes a terrifying amount of self-confidence and pretentiousness. On Tareq's being pretentious, Andrew said, "He helps define the word, he is on par with Akash."

Movies and Free Stuff

I just watched The Life of David Gale with Kevin Spacey and Kate Winslet. It wasn't a bad movie. It started off kinda rocky, but it found its pace and wasn't the suckfest everyone said it was. It was cool seeing parts of the UT campus and Austin on screen. Huntsville was in there too, of course. I also rented a Mighty Wind, from the makers of Best in Show and This Is Spinal Tap, but I haven't watched it yet.
Yesterday Dion was jogging and my neighbor who lives across and beneath me and Andrew told her he had to move out suddenly because he got a job, and he was getting rid of a queen size bed. She called me at work and asked me if I wanted it, I gave the go-ahead. She got the frame and box spring for the bed; both items are in good condition, so it was very fortuitous that she was out jogging when she was.

Photo album up and running.

That's right folks, you heard correct, my photo album has begun and can be accessed right here.

My first post!

Hi, I'm Nick. This is my first post!