tragedy!!!!

this BREAKS my heart. i love the provo tabernacle, it is what makes downtown provo special. just wednesday i was up in provo and as caleb and i drove past the tabernacle we talked about how much we love it and all the cool things we've seen there. i remember going to stake conference there for a saturday evening session, i remember one year when i lived in provo and had season tickets to the utah valley symphony there, i remember seeing gospel groups perform there, folk group, the messiah, and i remember how i always love looking at the gorgeous minerva teichart painting that graced the back wall. this is such a huge loss and i'm so sad about it. :(
on a happier note, my aunt lucy, who makes the most awesome homemade soap, has a bunch of new soap and is offering a super deal on some free soap if you order 10 bars!!! seriously, this stuff is the bomb. smells good, lathers great, looks pretty and is good for you. buy it.

another thing i want for christmas is . . .

a somali wild ass foal!!!!

love this (thanks sam and chas!)

in two and a half weeks . . .

i'll be here. CAN'T WAIT!!!!

all i want for christmas is . . .

AN ORPHANED BABY WOMBAT!!!!

still proud it's my alma mater

every year sarah lawrence sends out a pretty rad holiday card. they always warm my heart and help me remember my undergrad days and the eternal push from slc to take your own path. i'm still glad i chose to go there, and where that path has led me.
enjoy! http://www.slc.edu/holiday2010/

don't mess with three girls in texas

hi folks. hope you all had a swell turkey day. i sure did! my good friend lindsey and i went to visit our other good friend kate who lives in austin, tx (where she has a super awesome life as a writer at utaustin!!!) and had loads of fun. austin is really such a nice city. i'd heard that. and it proved true. it had tons of cool things to do (like eat fresh doughnuts topped with maple glaze and bacon, or go to a movie theater where you could order food at any point during the movie and they'd bring it to you, a FABULOUS bookstore, lots of great food stores, the best knitting store i've ever been too, lots of great vintage shops, and good friends) but it felt like a small town at the same time. real nice. so here are some pics from the adventure. thanks to pack and kate for a most excellent holiday!!! remember the alamo bathrooms!!!

lest you begin to think that my blog is only for posting the strange and bizarre of the animal world

i'll post some non-rat like items.
this fall has been busy. B-U-S-Y. crazy busy. boarding school life is intense, and i always seem to make it more so with taking on lots of extra stuff (knowingly or not).
but there is a bit more to my life than just that. here are some things that i've enjoyed/loved/learned from lately:
1. i have been really loving listening (gotta love the itunes conference podcast!) to and reading lds general conference. stand outs so far are pres. uchtdorf, elder scott, elder christopherson . . . pretty much all of it. it is such a blessing to have modern day oracles of truth and guidance, i gain so much instruction, peace, and inspiration from conference.
2. i read 'home' recently by marylin robinson- which is a companion volume to her 'gilead' which i loved. 'home' was also a home run filled with slow, beautiful and so poignant details of a prodigal son story. the end made me cry and feel deeply the mercy and redemption that happens in unexpected ways in each of our lives.
3. the other night i watch the loveliest french film 'the girl from paris' about this computer science girl who quits her job when she is 30 and goes to agricultural school and buys a goat farm in the rhone alpes. its such a sweet film about relationships and doing what you love. pretty much i really just want to live on a farm.
4. some new music i've been listening to is the passion of st. matthew by bach. i just love the resonant choral pieces and find it good meditative background music.
5. i've been making a quilt! i don't have pictures yet, but promise i'll post some soon. i've knit a bit too, but quilting has had the main stage.
6. i've been making this bread recipe again and again. it's so easy you could do it in your sleep. seriously if i have time to make fresh bread once a week anyone does. do it. you will love it.
7. photo of my mom's dog ernie on a recent trip to little wildhorse canyon in the swell- the amazing perks of my job make the busyness totally worth it. :)

reuben really is cute when you compare him to this little guy . . .

The Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a lemur, a strepsirrhine primate native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth a special thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker. It is the world's largest nocturnal primate, and is characterized by its unusual method of finding food; it taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the wood and inserts its narrow middle finger to pull the grubs out. The only other animal species known to find food in this way is the Striped Possum.^[4] From an ecological point of view the Aye-aye fills the niche of a woodpecker as it is capable of penetrating wood to extract the invertebrates within.^[5][6]

if andy and reuben had a baby . . .

my little sister adah has this baby:
i have this baby:
if they had a baby . . . this would happen
weirdzies.

too cuuuuuute

how has this website eluded me till now?

i really like taking these jumping pictures

just a little peek into what i've been up to lately. teens. trips. nature. the good life.

the bar has been raised

i'm taking students to best friends animal sanctuary in kanab this weekend. it's a wonderful place filled with lots of darling animals . . . and i'm worried about coming home with some new furry friends. however, having just watched this little dude, the bar has been raised. i'm not bringing home a dog unless he can do ALL this. that should keep me safe right?

this man changed my life

ilja wachs was my beloved don at sarah lawrence. he is the most amazing teacher i have ever had and he changed the way i learn, write, teach and approach literature forever. if only i could sit in on his class from time to time . . . this is as close as it gets.
Literature Discussion: Ilja Wachs on the 19th Century Novel

one of them

cheerer upper

last night i had a lot of really scary bad nightmares. i've been having a lot more of those lately then ever before. :( i called a friend this morning to try and get the bad taste out of my brain. he sent me this link to the cutest otter pics in the world to cheer me up. it totally worked. how could anyone not be cheered up by these little dudes? zina trivia factoid: when i was five years old i got lost in the monteray bay aquarium because i was transfixed by the baby sea otters playing and totally lost track of my family. now i'm going to spend the rest of the day figuring out how to get a baby otter and wondering if reubs will get along with it.

77 days and counting

school started today! and while i'm excited for this new year and LOVE my job . . . i'm pretty dang excited that i purchased tickets to fly here for the first week of 2011. part of having a job where you work so hard all the time, is the great vacations. and i have learned that one really needs to relax and rejuvenate. i think by the time jan. hits i will be ready to take on the beaches in puerto vallarta (remember how last feb. i bought a time share condo on a whim at a live auction? that spur of the moment decision will be paying off in the bleak midwinter). happy start of the school year to you all!

acquisitions

i've been a really crappy blogger this summer. and i only check email about once every two weeks. and i never listen to voicemail. i just love being on vacation!
i realized that i haven't updated my acquisitions in a long time. and frankly i've not been as precise it what i've aquired- it's been more organic over the summer. but here is a list of some of the movies and books i've gotten and what i think of them:
this book is really fantastic. i'm only half way through and it is so wonderful. fromm speaks my language relating everything back to the story of adam and eve. my favorite. the principles he teach make so much sense to me and align so perfectly with my beliefs and understanding of truth, love and relationships. highly recommended. thanks dana for turning me on to it!
next up is the criterion collection box set of three of the amazing danish film maker carl dreyer's films. i recently watched his 'passion of joan of arc' and was blown away by it. his film 'ordet' is one of my all time favorite films, and i've been wanting to own it for some time. however, you can only buy it on dvd in this box set, so i went for it (especially since i found a super good deal on a slightly used set). his films are very intense, sparse, and magnificent.
at one point this summer i wound up with six hours to myself in the albuquerque airport (coming home from visiting some friends and my flight was overbooked so i opted to take the next flight which earned me a free ticket!) and i quickly ran out of reading material. so i bought this in an airport bookshop as i've always wanted to read it and it was the perfect summer read filled with mystery, literary allusions, complex ideas and plot and lots of nerdy medieval history details that i loved. such a great read.another trip this summer was out to missouri to see my grandma and aunts and uncles. my grandma bennion and aunts are all amazing quilters and fabric magic workers and i have finally decided to try my hand at sewing. my aunt lucy and i went to one of her favorite quilt shops where i fell head over heels in love with kaffe fassett's designs and fabrics and bought this book to guide me in my first quilt.

probably i should get this

thanks hailey for finding it, reubs would be the cutest little halloween shark. i went and saw 'how to train your dragon' yesterday at the dollar theater. so great. and toothless the main dragon, so reubs.

summer is . . .

teen land

well i am settled in a birch creek service ranch for the 8th year (i think? losing track . . . ) sleeping in a bunk bed, playing ninja destruction, constantly filthy, making hemp bracelets, having a ball. you get the picture. the kids are as great as ever, but i find as i get older that i am in a continual burn out phase. my energy just does not match that of these bouncy 12-15 year old girls. sigh.
oh well. i saw this photo on my friend rosie's blog and it made me cry i laughed so hard, so i had to share it. that dog, that kid. amazing. peace out teens.

summer finally

photos by jonathon ong

sweet glorious summer is finally here and i am relishing in sleeping in till the sunlight is so bright and the birds are so loud i have to get up. then i read and eat breakfast on my porch swing. and then i garden planting lots of flowers and veggies. then i putter- lots of work to do around the house, office, etc. and i make food. and i read. and i am getting ready for the rest of summer. this photo is lovely, i think i'll have to try this in my backyard, i'm envisioning some pretty sweet garden parties there. mmmmmm. . . .summer. popsicles, drive in, evening walks. so good.

dear winter,

i sure love you . . . in months like nov. dec. jan. or feb. however, in may (almost june) you make me feel like this. right now my lilacs are waiting to bloom, my garden is trying to grow, my trees are breaking from the weight of their leaves + you, so pretty please, pack your snowy bags and start moving south, they are waiting for you down there.
love,
zina
NOTE: ALL PHOTOS TAKEN THIS MORNING ON MY WALK TO WORK