AtomJohnson Blog

Apple computers are amazing! If you’ve kept up with this site for any amount of time, you’ve likely read something about my love affair with Mac. Perhaps my favorite feature of these computers is Photo Booth. It allows you to try on the various looks of living in a Star Trek world. Please enjoy our latest photo shoot.

It gives me great pleasure to announce that I will never be going to Sante Fe again to visit Andy, Debby and William.  Instead, I will be going to Denver to visit this fantastic trio.  Andy has accepted an undisclosed job with “the environment” in Denver.  Debby continues her role in “baby development”.  They have a little girl on the way….due in July.  Andy has given approval for Will and future-girl to learn the great game of soccer from Uncle Adam.  I’d be honored!

There are few things in this world sweeter than winning a cash-prize game.  I don’t care if its bingo, the lottery, or the bingo lottery.  In our case, we won the bingo lottery…the third one that I mentioned.

For our six month anniversary, we headed straight back to the scene of our first date….the Longmont Bingo Alley.  The games start at 7pm, and we arrived at 7pm on the dot.  So, we rushed to the counter, purchased our tickets, found empty seats, wished our opponents good luck and got heads down in our cards.  The exciting thing about Bingo is that every player in the room has at least one card that is really, really close every game.  There is a tension in the air towards the end of the game with every new number that is called.  We nearly exploded when Jess got within one number of winning when someone from the back yelled “Bingo”.  The caller had already placed the next number (B7), which is the exact number that Jess needed to win $150.

At intermission between game sets, they always have a raffle.  Everyone who purchases cards gets a ticket.  As she called 365, we got really excited….we had all three numbers (of course, so did everyone else in the room).  Then she follows that with 563…..our numbers!  Our excitement confused many in the room.  They thought perhaps we had won something much larger than $50 in groceries.  Hey…its just fun to win.

So, Happy Anniversary Jess.  You make me laugh every day and smile all the time.

After two full days of skiing with my father, I am absolutely exhausted.  The same thing happened yesterday after only a single day of skiing.  If I were a betting man, I’d say it’s the skiing that is causing the tiredness.  Dad flew in on Friday night for two reasons.  1) See 75-year-old cowboy musician/poet/legend, Ian Tyson perform at the Soiled Dove on Saturday night.  2) Ski his toockus off on Sunday and Monday.  Both have been accomplished, so I’d say the trip was overall a blooming success.

A few other folks from Atlanta flew out to see Ian as well.  One is the tall guy with the handlbar mustache named Paul Shane.  He is the “Shane” half of the famous Banks & Shane band from Atlanta, GA.  The “Banks” half of the band was not able to make it this time.  However, Paul’s better half, Rose, graced us with her presence.  She is as Southern as blueberry pie and just as sweet.  And helping us form a critical mass were travel agent superstars Steve Tobin and Diane Ross.  They’ve consistenly helped large groups of folks with Southern accents move in-mass from Atlanta to Steamboat Springs for week each year for 30 or so years now.

The show on Saturday was great.  If there was ever a show where my view would be blocked by a giant cowboy hat, this was the one.  Ian is not only a musician, he is also a very active rancher in Alberta, Canada.  Every time I’ve seen him he talks about horses falling on top of him….and his is 75!  Strangely, the toughest SOB in the room was also graced with the sweetest voice (Ian, not me).

After a late night of music and wine, Dad and I arose early Easter Sunday morning and made 2 hour drive to Winter Park for a full day of skiing.  Assuming that we would be treated to Spring skiing conditions, I did not wear my thermal helmet liner and I paid dearly for this.  I suffered brain freeze the entire way down each slope.  It got a bit better as the day progressed, but holy moly was it cold.  That night we stayed the night in Winter Park at The Sundowner hotel.  It would have been tough to settle for anything less than the accommodations that we had in January at Steamboat, but The Sundowner was a much further stretch than either of us had thought.  We also found that there is plenty of opportunity to open a good restaurant in Winter Park.  Hernando’s Pizza came highly recommended, but the hour long wait in the lobby with about 30 tired, cranky kids forced us to pass on this option.  Instead, we went to Randi’s Irish Restaurant.  It was a bit of a comedy of errors, but in the end we both walked away with full bellies ready for bed.

Monday morning we woke up early, grabbed bagels and coffee and drove over to Copper Mountain.  Copper is my favorite mountain and is now my father’s favorite mountain.  It was an incredibly gorgeous day without a cloud in the sky and temperatures in the 30s.  There were winds out of the West that threatened to blow us back up the hill, but something had to balance out the perfect day.  I’m afraid we’ve created a monster out of my father on the slopes.  He tossed around the word “ski bum” enough that I won’t be surprised if he tries to convince my mom to move into a Summit County condo and gets a job as a lift operator and bartender.

Happy First Day of Spring everyone! The weather is gorgeous here in Boulder today….almost 70 degrees. My father is coming into town tomorrow for a concert and a bit of skiing. So, the snow on Saturday looks as if it will be just in time for anyone coming from Georgia to ski. I hope its as nice where you are today :-)

Thanks to Greg, Kristen, Ronnie, Anne, and the lovely Jess for celebrating my 30-something’th birthday with me at Sol Azteca.  You were all selected by a computer program that I’ve been working on that chooses the most awesome people in the world according to zip code.  I also programmed in a height parameter that Anne barely made it into…..so, good job Anne!  I really did not intend for you all to buy my dinner (and Jess’s)….much gratitude!  I really didn’t expect that wicked of a hangover either….much Advil…

My favorite thing about this year’s birthday is the fact that I have Jess to celebrate it with. Yesterday she spent several hours in the loft making me somthing for my birthday and wrapping my presents. She came down the stairs last night with two of the nicest wrapped gifts I’ve ever seen. She was as excited for me to open them as I was myself to open them. The first was a new pair of shorts for our trip to Costa Rica. And all of the noise I heard coming from the loft was her making me some custom mirrors out of some antique-looking picture frames with mirrors that she had custom cut to size. Jess….thanks so much for putting so much time and thought into my gifts. You always give me the most creative gifts….and I love them!

The wheels are in motion for my brother’s visit this summer to attend the 2008 Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Single day tickets went on sale this weekend, so we’re all set to attend on Thursday and Friday. We’ve been talking about doing this for a while, so I’m glad we’re finally pulling the trigger and going.

Last Saturday I decided to drive down to Charlottesville to visit my high school friend Tish and my college friends Meredith and Cindy Bragg (guess which one is actually a dude?). Tish and I were going to meet up during the day and I’d meet Cindy and Meredith for dinner. So, I’m at Mudhouse Coffee Shop waiting for Tish while surfing on their wireless network (that is cleverly named “hot mud”) when I get the following text message:

Kudos to Aimee for giving me ample warning and time to sign off. Poo poo on me for not knowing my computer well enough to find where the heck the Skype message was before the next part of the message was delivered:

Fortunately, I was still able to hang out a bit with Tish on Saturday and for better or for worse, I found time to down way too much wine with Cindy and Meredith on Saturday night. I really thought I’d come down to sea level from my mighty perch “at altitude” and be able to drink anyone under the table. Not only was I incredibly misguided there, but as we were sitting around the fire pit on Saturday night draining fermented grapes into our light-weight bodies, I was also the only one absolutely freezing my tuckus off. So much for training at altitude…

Sunday began a 24 hours work-a-thon that would leave me drained of energy and refilled with the flu virus. After a 12 hour day on Monday, I climbed into bed for a night of shivers, shakes, fever and aches. I finally climbed out of bed around 5:30am on Tuesday morning and moved fast enough only to keep from vomiting or feinting. With Val being pregnant and a set of two year old twins, staying at Eric’s house for the day did not seem like a viable option. So, I sucked it up and ventured back into the office to wait out the day until my flight back to Colorado that evening.

Tish expresses how awesome Lakeside High School is on the Free Speech Wall in Charlottesville.

Meredith and Cindy Bragg both chew with their mouth closed.

Cindy makes giant fires on Saturday nights.

With this GPS and automatic transmission, I feel like I can go anywhere. I simply type in an address and it sends me there. I am now spoiled and will never be able to navigate on my own again. Normally I would have been intimidated to find my way from Herndon, VA to Adams Morgan in DC. Last night, the Garmin took me through streets of DC that I didn’t even know existed. I hope they upgrade it at some point to show you where to park.

Steve and Becky…soon to be married