i have decided to take on a new hobby.
i am going to learn how to create web sites. not a big deal.
web designers are all around, this i know. but i want my own site and i want it to be reflective of what i want, not some canned format... no offense to the lovely folks at blogger.com that make this all possible.
so this weekend i am begining.
i will keep my progress here.

also i wanted to take this opportunity to share with you a cultural phenomena that i witnessed first hand last night.
having seen a few legitimate cultural phemomena, i think it is fair to say this one ranks up there.
granted this is not like a running of the bulls type thing, but has its place in iowa.

so sunday was the kick-off day for RAGBRAI (Registers Annual Great Bike Race Across Iowa)
One: the Register is the Des Moines Register...local daily paper
Two: I have been informed that the acronym sucks. well, i had little, scratch that, NO imputs when it was decided some 20 odd years ago.

so here is the deal. every summer at the end of july people from all over the states (and a few from other countries as well) start at the west side of this lovely midwestern state and bike to the other side. 7 days total on a predetermined route. which is varied from year to year.
so a few of my motivated friends decided to give it a shot this year. i have now been enlightened to the fact (and i don't think i am revealing any real secrets here) that this week is more about partying and drinking than biking.
which leads me to my phenomena....
last night drove down to the town that was closest on the route to des moines and met up with my friends.
we hung out on the bus (the support vehicle, support of course means mobile bar) which was eerily reminescent of some bad college parties, complete with the busch light in a can and a lingering stench of old socks and then made our way down to the beer garden the local town folk had put up in the town square...and yes, they had a bandstand and everything, this is small town iowa we are talking about.
so every one that rides, does so with a team. the teams have names, logos, t-shirts, hats...your basic marketing wear.
they also get stickers made.
and here is where it gets interesting.
they take rolls of stickers with their team name and logo on it, and peruse the crowds at the beer garden for members of the opposite sex in which to plant them on.
nothing out of the ordinary there.
except, your goal is to get as many, in as many places as you can.
i watched a group of men (more than likely professional in their "real" lives) circle around a girl (and this was not just one instance, they did it a few times) grab her around the waist, turn her upside down and using a sticker that was being sucked against their lips plant them all over her butt.
good times.

crazy really. i suppose this is the nearest these guys will ever get to some sort of girls gone wildtype activity. not that i condone any of it, but i thought i would log it here for everymore recorded.
like i said, cultural phenomena. there is no rule that says you have to like/appreciate them. but you do have to at least think about it.

i might start a whole seperate blog on the events like this. Meghans Cultural Phenomena. of course it would be somewhat limited and may not hold a captive audience for those outside the midwest...who knows? i will record them when i see them. if volumes are sufficient, maybe then.
that is all for today from my little corner of the world.