AtomJohnson Blog

I’ve blogged before about my sister’s Relay for Life team.  It is a fund raising team that she organizes at her high school to raise money for the American Cancer Society.   Last year they raised $112,000!  Their goal this year is to raise $100,000.  They are currently at $21,000 with only 2 weeks left.  So, they need our support.

Last year I made a donation in honor of my good friend Michelle Cervi at work, who was diagnosed with breast cancer.  This year I donated in Honor of my good friend Jill, here in Boulder, who just went through an ordeal with breast cancer.  She has started a great community blog called Blog For A Cure.

So, please take a few moments to make a tax-deductible donation to help Amy and her team reach their goal again this year.

Click on this link to donate to Amy’s Relay For Life team.

You can also click here to check up and see how they are progressing towards their goal of $100,000.

The weekend has been gorgeous here in Boulder. Yesterday the temperature hovered around the high 70s all day. On a day like this, you want to be doing nothing but drinking margaritas, eating tacos and throwing horseshoes. Fortunately, there was such an event at Greg & Kristen’s house yesterday evening. So, my buddy Ronnie and I hopped on our bikes and cruised down Broadway to their house. I was a bit hesitant to get back on the bike, but it felt so good once I got going. Fortunately the Boulder bus system has bike racks, so we were able to hitch a ride back up the hill later that night.

Yesterday was my first of many Saturday morning visits to the Boulder Farmer’s Market.  Every Saturday morning and Wednesday night, Central Park in downtown Boulder fills up with fresh produce, flowers, food vendors, artists, and hundreds of happy people like myself who just love where they live.

Everything was perfect yesterday at the market except for two minor mishaps.  First, I could not find a trash can to throw away Sadie’s poop bag.  Apparently, the Farmer’s Market is a zero waste zone, so there are only receptacles for compost and recycling.  I finally convinced some poor, older gentleman that it was a bag of nectarines and sold it to him for $7.

The second mishap took place at the coffee stand.  Only half paying attention, I heard the vendor tell the woman in front of me that “it is free on Saturdays”.  Thinking that she meant the coffee, I dropped a dollar in the tip jar and walked over the creamer.  Then I heard her tell another person that “all proceeds go to the such-and-such”.  I asked how you have any proceeds on a product that you’re giving away.  She looked confused.  It turns out that the coffee costs $2, but the museum is free on Saturdays.  I informed her that I’m an idiot and gave her my $2 for the coffee.

My friend Whitney from Lakeside High School came for a visit this week. She and I went to 10th grade homecoming together. If I can dig up our homecoming photo, I’ll see if I can get it posted. The sad/happy thing is that we both look the exact same. Not the same as each other, but the same as we did in high school. We reinacted our homecoming photo below…just try to imagine it in a high school gym lobby.

The visit was definitely fun! I was a bit stressed out on Monday and Tuesday as I was trying to finish a bit of work and my computer kept freezing. I finally had to rebuild it from the ground up on Tuesday night. It was a huge pain, but it is running faster than ever right now. I’m sure I have about 2 weeks of this bliss before it starts crapping out again.

I also got my first flat tire while Whitney was here. We fought over who got to jack the car up and change the tire. Since she was the guest, I let her do it. As she is changing the tire, a girl and her boyfriend walked by and delivered a look of disbelief. Whitney says to them, “Quite a man, huh?”. The girl turns back and replies, “I was just thinking that”. I advised the boyfriend that my other tires are racing slicks, so just say the word…

This past weekend was a whirlwind of shopping and packing activity.  Nat came into town briefly in order to get her stuff out of storage, pick up her killer vintage refrigerator, and shop at all of the stores that they don’t have in Ft. Bridger, Wyoming.  The list is pretty long, but we concentrated on The Apple Store, Best Buy, Costco, and of course, Chipotle.  It has been about six months since we’ve seen each other, so it was so great to hang out again.  She has purchased a house in Lyman, WY and has completely renovated it herself.  In true eco-fashion, she has installed bamboo floors and dual flush toilets.  It sounds like a house after my own heart.

There is no doubt in my mind that Google, Apple, and Frank’s Hot Sauce Company are the three most important company’s of my generation. Apple is doing things in the computer industry the likes of which haven’t been seen since Frank’s introduced their Chile n’ Lime Hot Sauce to the food industry (mmmm….delicious).

Now Google is doing work in the Earth industry that hasn’t been done since Creation. I’m specifically speaking of their Google Earth application. It is a free, navigable, desktop version of the entire planet. I realize that sounds ridiculous, because it is completely and totally ridiculous.

In this latest version of Google Earth, they have included hiking trails (the red lines in the photo below) and geographically-specific photographs that are contributed by users. So, if you’re coming out here to visit and hike in Rocky Mtn National Park this summer, be sure to download the latest version of Google Earth and plan out some hikes.

I may shut down all bank accounts and credit cards tonight in order to protect myself from what is sure to be a hemorrhaging of money….

Here’s to the crazy ones.

The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently.

They’re not fond of rules
And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can quote them, disagree with them
glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing that you can’t do is ignore them.

Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.

While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can
change the world, are the ones who do.

I am so happy here in Boulder. It is funny to look back and remember when this place felt so foreign and threw me into minor fits of funkiness and depression’ness. The Holiday Neighborhood has so much to do with it. This past Saturday, I wondered out onto the common green around 6pm and by 7pm, there were three full tables of people who had brought out food and drinks to enjoy with one another. I hung out with everyone and their kids for about two hours and then walked over to my friend Ronnie’s house where we gathered with six other friends for pizza, drinks and the world’s greatest game of “you can’t say that”.

Despite the forecast of snow measured in feet, we didn’t get a single flake. We got the next most logical weather pattern…70 degrees and sunny.

Friday night was jam packed full of activity. My friend Jill and I started out at Happy Hour at St Julien’s Hotel bar in downtown Boulder. We were joined by her friend Kathy. They sipped cosmopolitan’s while I chewed on something a bit more manly….beer. Afterwards, we drove down to Louisville for the opening of my friend’s yoga studio that they just designed. There was sushi, brownies and enough Charles Shaw wine to guarantee anyone at altitude a hangover. We were all at altitude.

The final stop of the night was Joy Engine. Joy Engine is a collective of young artists in downtown Boulder who have setup a very successful art gallery, retail shop and design studio. Everyone was dressed as if we were actually in NYC…which was eye-candy to the mouth candy that is PBR. At one point in the evening, I looked to my left only to realize that I was standing right next to Chris Sharma, who is arguable the best rock climber in the universe. Watch this video and you too will believe.