Scott and Ann each got an iPhone this weekend. Scott proceeded to call and taunt me that he had an iPhone and I did not. They are both evil and should get no cookies.

While I may get cookies, I won't be getting an iPhone until next spring. Dev and I have a Sprint contract that runs until then. Sprint wants $200 per line for early termination. We will be staying with Sprint for the very foreseeable future. The only upside to this whole shebang is that Dev and I might get the new and improved rev 2 iPhone, if said new and improved iPhone has been released by then.

Radio silence has ended.

Okay. So I've been remiss in this whole posting to the world business. Sorry all. Been busy this summer. I climbed five mountains so far: Adams, Hood, South Sister, Middle Sister and Columbia Peak. Pictures are at my picasa pages here. My buddy Bill has big plans for some winter climbs in the Cascades this season. I'm looking forward to hopefully joining him for a few of those trips.

And then there's the car camping we did this summer. Last weekend we car camped with our friends Lori and Jon and their two daughters Rhienna and Hazel down at Nehalem Bay and had a lot of fun. Lazing around on a windy beach in the sun created a nice counterpoint to the mountainous backpacking I did this season.

I've also been busy drooling over the new toys from Apple. Well, one new toy - the iPhone. I can't get one yet. Sprint has me locked in to a service plan for a little while yet. I can buy out of it, and I probably will. But I have to save the $399 for the device first. And I demoed a friend's phone for Dev this morning. She was smitten in 5 minutes.
As a side note: I find the lack of full calendar features on the iPod Touch to comprise the weakest of weaksauces!

Dev's prepping for her week long adventure with Best Friends in Utah. She'll be volunteering with them for a few days and helping rehabilitate and heal some of the lonesome pets the shelter there has in for adoption and recovery. And bonus: she gets to spend 2 days hiking and exploring around Zion National Park. I'm very jealous.

Pictures from my trip to climb Mt Adams can be found here.

Good company. Great weather. Awe inspiring views. And a 2000 foot glissade on some of the best glissade snow ever. I almost didn't mind forgetting my rain pants at camp when we left for the summit on Sunday morning.

Weaksauce!

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates said that Cheney and White House aides cannot be held liable for the disclosure of information about Plame in the summer of 2003 while they were trying to rebut criticism of the administration's war efforts levied by her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. The judge said such efforts were certainly part of the officials' scope of normal duties.

From the Washington Post

So breaking the law comprises part of a presidential administration staff's duties now?

Happy Birthday Ann!!!!!!!

As of Sunday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

Dang, over a week with no entries. Eeek!
More should be coming soon. I have two mountain climbs in the next five weeks. And I have another possible climb Labor Day weekend. And Dev has some things coming up. And we have a trip to norther Idaho in mid-August. So lots and loads of fun coming up soon.

Dev took me surfing for the first time yesterday. She went for the first time last week with Sue and loved it. Great conditions. Not too chilly. Not too hot. Dev and I both got baked. Pictures to come soon.

Powells Books here in town (Portland) occasionally posts vintage reviews of books. A fun diversion for a few minutes. Here's a review of one of Steinbeck's novels.

Skipping insulin shots to stay thin? Oh yes, today's crazy kids are doing just that.

Idiots.

I'll admit that I want the iPhone (released Friday at 6pm) badly. Quite badly. Apple packed almost every feature that I want from a mobile internet device with personal info organizer and phone capability into the iPhone. And then they added the multimedia capabilities of an iPod. (Funny enough, the iPod parts are the capabilities I care least about.) And the toy just looks gorgeous. Like something you want to use because it is pretty and slick and (as one tech pundit put it) "lickable."

Sadly, I have Sprint phone service. And I will have it until next April. So for me to switch to an iPhone (and the attendant AT&T service plan) would cost me $650. $499 for the iPhone and $150 to cancel my Sprint contract. If Dev wanted one too, then we're looking at 1300 bones. So I'll be watching from the sidelines. For now.

Maybe I'll get a deal through work that makes it somewhat less expensive.

Word has it that "of the 1,000 U.S. employees at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, only 10 have a working knowledge of Arabic."

Awesome.
1% of people do all the work anyway, right?

These pictures came from the Pet Hotel (a "kennel") where Moxie and Bojangles spent the night while we camped up in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest for our friend Warren's birthday (happy birthday again Warren!). I thought that Stay did an amazing job of capturing each dog in a characteristic pose for their personality. Absolutely uncanny how well they portrayed our dogs in a single snapshot.

Dev and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary quietly at the same place we got married - The Resort at the Mountain in Welches, Oregon. Funny enough, we got the same room this last weekend that we stayed in on our wedding week. And it was merely chance - we didn't ask for that room! We had a short hike along the Salmon River. We relaxed to a mindless movie with a bottle of wine. Basically had a good time on a quick getaway from normals-ville.
And to all of your who sent cards and called and sent emails with well wishes for our anniversary, thank you! Though be careful, if I ever forget the date and you guys remember, you could get me in trouble!

Apparently my readers miss me. This is a good thing. Maybe I'll start a cult of personality with me as the center of the target for adulation. We all know I would do a better job of running the worlds than all the crazy plutocrats that hold the reigns of power right now.

Cheeky!
Safari for Windows.

Hiked in Forest Park yesterday with Dev. The rain tried to catch us a few times, but Cowboy scared it off. He's our good luck hiking charm. Six miles and 960 feet of elevation gain went pretty quickly. We saw a lot of trail runners and a few other dogs, but mainly got a lot of quiet forest path to ourselves. A nice way to spend a few hours on an otherwise un-splendid weather Sunday. We forgot the camera so I have no pictures to share. Maybe next time.

I am officially a Mazama. Paperwork came in the mail today. Yay!

Pictures from Dog Mountain here

Good Sunday yesterday. Dev and I hiked Dog Mountain to see all the wildflowers. Her and Jami handled themselves quite well. Jamie proved the toughest of us - she roofed a blister on each heel, finished the hike without complaining about the blisters (she complained about her shoes instead) and poked a rattlesnake with a stick to scare it off!
Then we cleaned up, had some snacks with Jami and her mom Jan. After that we went and ate some excellent barbeque ribs made by our friends Jon and Lori. We sat around in the shade and ate some sweet potato and pineapple potato salad, fresh green salad and homemade peach cobbler. They gave us enough food so that I was fit to burst.

Pictures of the hike coming later tonight.

I've been listening in to a trip that one of the editors of Backpacker Magazine took last fall through the High Sierras. Really inspiring stuff. You can listen to it starting here. He has 30 days worth of satellite phone from-the-trail-reports.

Truly spectacular accomplishment.