Amanda and I are FORTUNATE to have Sergio shoot our engagement photos, and we'll likely go out a few more times to take "official" photos before now and the wedding. In short, we'll have more engagement photos than both of our baby book photos combined.
Here are a couple from a shoot yesterday afternoon. We also posted these and a story of how we met over at our engagement blog, AM | PM.
I bought Amanda and myself iPhones over the weekend.
Having worked for the competition for the past few years, I wasn't initially inclined to buy an iPhone. It caused me so many long work days that I was bitter toward it for at least the last year. Considering that I am an early adopter of all new technology, that was a notable holdout.
However, something happened that changed my opinion:
I bought a Macbook.
I had long been a PC fan and was defiant when Gramps, for decades, argued the superiority of Macs. I should have recognized his wisdom much earlier. I finally broke and bought the Macbook for grad school last October and have since become a reluctant Mac fanboy.
The iPhone is just plain slick. It was Time Magazine's 2008 Invention of the Year for crying out loud. When Apple announced the iPhone 3Gs and the iPhone 3G dropped to $99, I saw my opportunity. My contract with T-Mobile expired many months ago, so I signed us up for an AT&T contract and bought myself the 3Gs and Amanda the 3G. It was a no-brainer and reasonably affordable with a family plan.
The only problem now is that Amanda is attached to her iPhone. I haven't seen her eyes for days. Actually, I saw them once in a picture that she sent from her iPhone.
The thing is addictive, and I'm glad she likes it because a) it was expensive and b) she hasn't really liked smartphones before. The difference between the iPhone and other phones is that it just plain works, and the apps are awesome. I listened to Pandora on my iPhone the whole drive into work this morning. Amanda uses the Facebook app non-stop, which is probably why you see her more frequent updates there.
Apple announced that it sold more than 1 million iPhone 3Gs models over the weekend. “Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a press release. “With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever.”
Steve Jobs didn't write that quote. A PR hack like me did. But that hack was absolutely right.
Welcome home, Fabrizio.
To celebrate the engagement, Scott generously offered to take Amanda and me on a hike in the Olympics the following day.
We only had to wake up at 5 a.m. on a Sunday -- our first day being engaged. I should have read that omen.
Scott and Courtney arrived at our house promptly at 5:30 a.m. Scott was jittery after already downing a Red Bull. Courtney looked like she hadn't slept in days. Amanda and I were still high off changing our relationship statuses to "engaged" on Facebook. We drove a little more than two hours to arrive at our destination to hike into Mildred Lakes.
We never actually made to the Lakes. Infact, we almost turned around immediately after realizing that there was no trail, only ribbons tied to trees.
The trail is approximately 10 miles roundtrip and all ridges, with constant elevation gains and losses. In total, it's a 2,300 foot elevation gain, but really you're either losing or gaining several hundred feet at a time. We debated whether or not we were actually just rock climbing. As the Seattle P-I puts it, "The so-called trail is an outdoor gymnasium -- all your limbs, joints, and muscles come into play and it's a challenge to remain upright along several portions... However, if you can stick it out and don't get off route or injured, the rewards are there." Lovely.
The hike was exhausting and I sweated like a hooker in church. I felt like that dude from Into the Wild and I desperately looked for that school bus where I could die in peace.
Approximately halfway through the hike we again considered turning around. Scott opted to continue. Courtney declared mutiny. We held a tribal council to discuss and the ensuing arguments would have made for great reality TV. Little did we know that we had an audience.
A man came walking down the slope carrying a large backpack, professional hiking gear and sported a long, curly, Amish-like beard. He was in his thirties but looked like he had been hiking for years (maybe he had?). He looked like an Abraham to me. He gave us a better indication of how far we had to go and we pressed on.
We finally turned around after we lost the trail after another hour and likely less than half a mile away from the Lakes.
In total, we hiked approximately seven hours without hitting our destination. I probably earned a blister each hour and rolled my bad ankle a couple times on the way back.
Still, we got some great pictures out of the ordeal:
Thanks for the hike from hell, Scott! Check out more about the hike on his blog.
Also, we posted Scott's congratulatory video over on the engagement blog, AM PM.
