Makes Me Wish...

...I knew how to ride a bike.  Oh, by the way, did you know that your teen librarian never learned how to ride a bike?  (I also don't know how to ice skate.)  My guy Kris tried to teach me how to ride a two-wheeler last fall, and it was kind of a disaster, not because I fell a lot (I don't think I fell once, actually), but because the seat was REALLY uncomfortable, and I could barely walk for like, two week afterwards.  I'm thinking we might go the tandem-bike route--Kris gets to do all the work, and I get to happily sit on the back of the bike, pedal, and pretend I'm actually doing something.  Works for me!

So basically, what we've got here is a 2-story high bike named the Stoopid Tall bike by its creator, Richie Trimble.  

Let me stop here to say that there are times in my life when I'm just utterly tired of humanity (one of my dreams in life used to be to move to rural England to become a sheepherder with Kris; he wasn't as into the idea as I was).  People do terrible things to each other -- war and violence and abuse and poverty are very real and very terrible and there are people who experience these things every day of their lives.  Then there's the smaller stuff that's just annoying, like the jerk lady who honked at me yesterday even though I had the right of way.  And when my cat throws up on the floor and it's disgusting and slightly stinky, and I have to clean it up and it makes me late for work.

And then you have something like THIS.  This utterly bizarre and completely wonderful giant bike that makes you glad there are strange and creative and smart people on this planet.  Apparently, Trimble had to climb a series of beams just to reach the seat.  I wonder if his bike is still functional and if so, whether we could convince him to come visit us in Ames for a demonstration?  I do have a little money to hire a performer....

Awesome. Yeah, That Pretty Much Says It All.

Courtesy of Carol Hartsell/Huffington Post via npr.org

Um, yes.  This is THE coolest house ever, beating out both the entirely underground house (which I guess may or may not be cool, as I've never actually really seen it, since it's, you know, underground) and the octagon-shaped house that were both near my home back in New Jersey (although to be honest, I guess they were more "kind-of-weird-and-therefore-sort-of-interesting" than actually "cool"). Anyway, this house is awesome.  Aaron Jackson, the guy who bought and painted it, is awesome.  And let's face it, it just LOOKS awesome.  I wonder how much Mr. Jackson would charge to come paint my apartment?

So basically, Jackson went out and bought this house that's across the street from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. For those who haven't heard of Westboro, it's basically a group of people led by this guy, Fred Phelps, who are (in)famous for hating on LGBT people and crashing funerals with signs that say things like, "God hates [insert insulting, derogatory word for gay people here]."  Apparently their rationale behind such pickets is to proclaim their belief that God is punishing the world (through war / gun shootings / other events that result in death) because of humanity's moral decline as more and more people accept our LGBT friends/family/neighbors/acquaintances as being equal and, you know, basically exactly like everyone else on the planet.  Basically it's weird and ridiculously horrible, but hey, that's just my opinion.

I wonder what the folks over at Westboro think every time they look out the window of their church and see the rainbow house across the street.