{ The "Hugging" Lion }

I know this has nothing to do with what's going on in my life, but I figured we could enjoy it together. I read this story on MSNBC the other day and I loved it! It was just so odd and totally great.

Back in the 70s, these two guys in a hipster part of London decided to get a lion as a pet. Now, I can see how that would be a fun idea, but they were rudely awakened when Christian, their lion, quickly became too large for their flat and subsequently too large for the den they had created for him in the basement of a furniture store they owned. They turned Christian over to a wild-life handler who introduced him back into the wild in Africa. The photo above was taken about a year after Christian was reintroduced into his natural habitat. I guess when his owners arrived for the visit after not seeing him for a year, Christian recognized them immediately and ran to greet them -- this is where he got the name the "hugging" lion. So cool, huh! Here are some of photos from the article slide show (courtesy of John Rendall and MSNBC). I don't want to post too many of them in fear of copyright infringement, but you can see the rest of them through the article link above -- there a little slide show link from the MSNBC article site.


Christian rummaging through a drawer in his owners' flat


"Making a young friend" is in the description given for this photo in the MSNBC article. I guess he had a really gentle demeanor -- tender.


Napping with his owner

{ Sunday Walk With Rita }

When I visit with Rita, my 78-year-old Sunday friend, we sometimes get to go for walks, weather permitting. It really is one of my favorite things that we do together. We have our favorite houses along the route that we make sure to pause at (who knew south Provo was such a charming place? And, as a side note, it just happens to contain one of my favorite arbors ever! Man I love those! So good looking). We visit our favorite tree, and we wave at cute little families having BBQs or couples taking Sunday walks. It's just a pleasant experience. It was especially beautiful outside this week, which made our walk especially nice (and especially good for taking pictures). Conversation topics of the walk included Rita getting new clothes from her good friend Debbie Woodward, what Rita does at "work" (activities at her job/place she goes everyday include arts and crafts and going out to eat) and how good Rita looked in her shirt this week. Her shirt is pictured above and below.


Getting ready for the walk, Rita puts on her shoes.


Rita's wheelchair isn't equipped with foot rests for whatever reason, so she holds her legs up like this for the entire walk (and whenever she's moving around in her wheelchair). This lady has to have some SERIOUS ab muscles. Seriously.


Flowers along the route. I'm just realizing I probably should have taken pictures of our favorite houses and the arbor. hmmm.


Rita flexing her arm. How stinking rad is this? What a babe.


The tree we visit. I think it's either a Dutch Elm or an American Elm -- I can't remember which. Either way, it is a hybrid three that grows heavy limbs that shoot straight out only a short distance from the ground. It looks really sweet, but the branches are too heavy to support their own weight so Provo city has given it stilts to help.


Above mentioned stilts.


A glimpse of our shadow on the way back to the care center.


In other, completely unrelated news, my favorite grey pants became my new favorite grey shorts this weekend. One of my better clothes-cutting decisions.


My new favorite grey shorts in my new favorite shorts length.

{ Pictures from the 2 foot perspective }

This is so fun! A while ago, my now one-and-a-half-year-old niece was playing with her family's digital camera and, upon dropping it / hitting it against something (I'm not sure which) promptly broke it :) So the family bought a new one and gave the broken one to Anza (said niece) to play with. Crazy thing is, after a good six months of nonfunctionality, the broken camera started working again after my sister-in-law put new batteries into it. For the last couple weeks, Anza has been taking photos, and my sister-in-law posted them to flickr and sent the link to the family over the weekend. I love them! So wonderful! And I love seeing how the world looks through that cute little girls eyes. I guess I had forgotten how tall everything would look to her. My fav fav is the one I posted as the header photo -- look at those adorable little feet!! Oh my goodness. Here are my other favs...


Chele's (my sister-in-law's) family in my brother's backyard in Seattle


Lawn-lounge area in the Seattle backyard


Baby brother Mojave


A picture of the Savior. That hangs about face level for me.


Front entryway to my brother's house


My brother / her dad. This one turned out sweet, huh?


Mr. Mojave James in his calmy bouncy seat

{ Sunday Evening in Pictures }

Me and Cam (which I know is not proper English, but don't you think it sounds better said like that?) decided to spend a little bit of Sunday evening in the park, just reading and listening to talks and playing the guitar. So pleasant, no? We grabbed a patch of grass under a tree and laid our blanket part way in the sun and part way in the shade. I brought my camera along for documentation and entertainment purposes, both of which were accomplished.
















We got A LOT of laughs out of these last two.

{ Biking to Work }

In an effort to be on my bike more often as well as save some pricey petrol, I decided to try riding my bike to work one day a week. I started last Monday. I figure once a week is a reasonable amount to ask myself to ride to work. And it would save me one tank of gas every two months. Not too shabby.

Overall it was a great experience. The mornings are starting to cool off around here, so I wasn't sweating like crazy on my way there, and a majority of my ride was covered in shade thanks to my living and working so close to the base of the mountains. Riding home was kind of warm, but nothing I can't handle ONE day a week. I mean seriously. Who can't commit to doing something once a week? I love setting little goals. They're just so attainable. It makes it easy to stay motivated, which in turn makes for large rates of success and soaring levels of confidence for doing such a great job in life. I think this could be an excellent plan.