I have been able to stay Apple-free up to this point in my life. I have used a Palm pda for at least the last 5 years. My mp3 player is a refurbished Sandisk Sansa running Rockbox. I have resisted installing iTunes on my computer and instead use HappyFish as my podcatcher software. I don’t even install QuickTime as a matter of principle (and an unhappy experience trying to untangle if from an office computer years ago).

Our 5th 2 year commitment with U.S. Cellular was up so it was time for a new cell phone. The Palm Pre came out this weekend, so a quick stop into the the Sprint Store showed that the little keyboard would never work with this old geezer’s fat fingers. Besides, they were out of stock with a waiting list and only a hope that they would get more in this week.

Next it was the Verizon store. They had the Blackberry Storm which looked pretty good but their rate plans just didn’t make sense. U.S. Cellular gives us free incoming everything.
All incoming calls, texts, whatever are free. So our 4 phone, 2,000 shared minute plan would be equivelent to a 4000 minute plan anywhere else. 4,000 minutes at Sprint was quite a bit more than we were paying.

Well, off to U.S. Cellular. Looks like we will have to decide between a Blackberry Curve and an HTC TouchPro. Before making a final decission, decided we should go back to the office and see if Google can help us choose. Interesting. I could not find anyway to find out what apps were available for the Blackberry without buying a Blackberry! Maybe I missed something but all I could get were the ‘hype’ pages telling me that thousands of apps are available but no links to any descriptions of actual apps. Time to go back to U.S. Cellular and ask the salesman some more questions.

Our salesman was at lunch, so after playing with the units for bit we decided to get some lunch at Red Robbin. As we pull up my business partner asks why we are not considering AT&T. I told him it is because they carry Apple. But then again, maybe they carry something else. Maybe they will have a phone plan that will be competitive with U.S. Cellular. We looked at the phones and ended up playing with the iPhones. While we were looking a salesman came around and said Apple just officially announced their new phones and cut the price of the current phones in half. Temptation… I could feel the dark side coming over me but when we see the rate plan we are able to resist. Let’s go get that lunch.

Over lunch we discuss possibilities and how the iPhone was an incredible phone. My business partner says he wants one just because it has that Carpenter’s Level program shown on the TV commercials. Safeco, one of the companies we represent, has discounted AT&T rate so we went back to the office after lunch and find out if that rate will make the deal. Yes, 20% off the regular rates will help. So it is back to AT&T and make a final decision.

Well, I am Apple-free no more. myPhone is now an iPhone.

“How about children? Well not children who don’t understand these things because at Passover, remember, the child who took the meal had to say ‘father what do these things mean?’ The child had to be a discerning, understanding child. But now how young can the child be? The answer to that question is ‘I don’t know.’ You bring me a two-year-old who can give me a two-year-old profession of faith and we’ll have that two-year-old take the Lord’s Supper. Some will say well that’s not possible. I don’t know, I don’t know enough about human psychology to tell you whether it is or not, but if it happens I’m not going to say God’s word says eleven years old before you can join the church. There’s nothing like that. And if we’re going to be true to our principles as Reformed people we should not impose prerequisites that the Bible doesn’t impose. There’s no age requirement for the Lord’s Supper.”

Source: Found at the bottom of Covenant Media Foundation web page, apparently part of lecture by Greg L. Bahnsen: Course in Church Membership.

It is time once again for the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Taste Tri-Cities, the annual event where the region’s finest wineries, breweries, restaurants, caterers and specialty shops strut their stuff. Admission is only $5 for chamber members and $10 for non-chamber members. Once inside, the food and beverage samples are free. You are asked to RSVP by calling the chamber at (509) 736-0510 or by email

Probably the best $5 I spent last year! Guess it cost me $10 since my wife would not dream of missing this either. There is always an abundance of great food and go well with the adult beverages (though it may take a few trips back to each winery to get the equivalent of a glass of wine). Hope to see you there.

Participants Include:

• Ice Harbor Brewing Company
• Heaven’s Cave Cellars
• Taverna Tagaris/Tagaris Winery
• Terra Blanca Winery & Vineyard
• Sleeping Dog Wines
• Tip Pit BBQ
• Crow’s Nest at Clover Island Inn
• Bin No. 20
• Country Gentleman Restaurant & Catering
• Tastefully Simple
• PF Changs
• Henry’s Restaurant & Catering

Event Info

• Location: Red Lion, Pasco
• Date: Thursday Martch 5th, 2009
• Time: 4:30 - 6:30 pm
• Cost: $5 Chamber Members / $10 Others
• At the Door: Same Price
• Age Limit: Must be 21 or over
• Contact: (509) 736-0510 or info@tricityregionalchamber.com
• Website: Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce

Wondering where I should go today to take my little schnauzer dog, Fritz, for a walk and get a little workout myself. I decided on hiking the ridge line of Little Badger Mountain. I had a couple of good excuses:

• A local cacher had just placed 3 geocaches along the ridge line
• I could map the trails and send them to Northwest Trails for inclusion on the next update.
• Next week I hope to hike up around the Wallula Gap overlook and this would be a good practice.

Little did I realize it would take me 3 hours and would end up walking 4.8 miles. The trail starts at an elevation of about 700 feet and the primary summit is a little over 1200 feet but with all the ups and downs my GPS reports that I climbed 754 feet on the way out and a total of 1156 feet by the time I was back to the car. My legs believe those statistics! I wish I had put a GPS on my dog. I am sure he must have covered at least 20 miles. Next time I take him out I will attach my old GPS to his harness. Besides seeing how far he traveled, it will be fun to superimpose his track log on top of mine.

I transferred my GPS track of the hike to Google Earth. I started out at the position marked “Trailhead NW” in the upper left corner of the map. The green line is my hike out to the end of the ridge line. On the way back I strayed a bit, shown with the blue lines, to pick up some of the other trails. The hike down to the spot labeled “Trailhead SE” and then back up just about killed me. I was glad there was a lower trail around the side of the mountain (that, of course, had to be mapped) and did not have to hike back up to the summit. The track file has been submitted to Nothwest Trails and includes the trails marked in red that I did not walk but felt needed to be included. The last time I was here I came up the trail labeled “Trailhead NE”. That was a steep hike. I did not want to walk down it today since I was pretty sure I would not make it back to the top.

The three caches I had come to ‘hunt’ were Yankee II, Yankee Go Home, and Just BPA II. All three were found without too much difficulty. Another cache, Hawk’s View, is on the ridge line but I had found it and a couple of other caches in the area back in December 2007. I wish I had brought a couple geocache containers up with me since there is plenty of room for a few more good hides. Guess I have an excuse to come back!

After I got back to the car I did drive to the point labeled “Trailhead NE” to get the exact GPS coordinates and while there I replaced a cache called (Canteens’ Fantasy II). Another cacher originally had hidden it nearby but had archived it. The location was a good spot for a cache so I decided to resurrect it.

Now I am home and cannot move without groaning but my little schnauzer dog seems to be just fine. Here are some more photos of my hike.