The Zoo!

It as been many years since I last visited Hoogle Zoo. I drove on Sunnyside Avenue once when my friends were visiting from Buffalo, that was two years ago. It's been a while, a long while. Long enough for me to forget basically everything about the zoo with the exception of a few things like lion headed drinking fountains and plastic animal vending machines.
Here are a few things I noticed during our stay:

1. The Lion shaped water fountain outside of the primate house decorated with the stone head of an elephant. Now they have TWO of them! The other one is up by the wild cats. Avery just wanted to play in the water.


2. I was also looking forward to seeing zebras....check!


3. We always had fun comparing ourselves to gorillas with the handy paintings on the walls. It looks like Avery is right on track for a baby gorilla!


4. I heard there were some baby animals. We saw a bunch but not the baby elephant because it needed bonding time with the mother.
5. I also wanted to see if they still had those awesome plastic animal model machines. I had been a while so I wasn't sure if they were still around. I loved those machines because not only did you get a plastic animal but you could WATCH the machine make it! I swear I can still smell the burning plastic and I feel the mild burns that the "cooled" plastic would leave when I picked it out of the slot. Unfortunately they are gone. Just like the lions and the hippos. Although, according to a helpful zookeeper, the lions and hippos will return as soon as the African savanna habitat is finished. On the plus side we did carry on tradition and get a photo on the bridge.
6. Did I mention that there wasn't a lion? There also was no stuffed Liger. The zoo had it displayed in the large cat house. I always thought it was so cool, like a unicorn or a pegasus. (Before you call me out as a total geek, I was in ELEMENTARY SCHOOL at the time so it's acceptable. Right?)

Anywhoo. All in all it was a fun day. Here are some random shots from the day and the picnic we took afterwards. We went to Memory Grove and ate a lunch on a blanket. That was yet another location that I haven't visited in a very long time. It was amazed at how quiet it was even though it was close to downtown.

Goodbye Armstrongs! It was fun to see you so much this summer! See you in October!

(I'm so glad Vegas isn't further away than it is.)

Work Profile, courtesy of Ace of Cakes by way of James Lipton

Full Name: Lindsay Anne Keller
Nickname(s): Linds, Lin, Keller, Heidi, Kelly (when people remember my last name and not my first)
Work Title: Graduate Assistant/Costume Technian/Student Designer
Hometown: K-Town
Pets: None!
My Themesong: Maybe You're Gone by Sondre Lerche
What is your favorite word? Theophany, Defenestration, Sphinx (I guess that's words)
What is your least favorite word? Like
What turns you on? Knowledge, Zest (a love of life, not the soap) Ambition
What turns you off? Laziness, not to be confused with leisure
What sound or noise do you love? Laughter
What sound or noise do you hate? Nails on a chalkboard or other comparable sounds
What profession, other than yours, would you like to attempt? Cake Decorator
What profession would you not want to participate in? Surgery
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive? "Welcome back! These people have been waiting for you..."

How I spent my summer vacation

I would be lying if I said I wasn't ready for summer to be over and I could handle another three months of it. There was a mixture of happy and sad times, boredom and busyness...you get the idea. I did a couple of things I have never done previously. Things like ventilating wigs and speaking at a funeral for a friend. Here are some of my favorite moments from the past three months:
Spending quality time with these two fine looking people:
Going on a fun hike to Timanogos cave, primarily with these two:
Spending oodles of time with this cutie:
And watching my Grandpa pass on traditions, like horsey rides:This last picture is courtesy of the Deseret News. I haven't seen these two wonderful people in almost a year and I'm hoping we have a mission reunion. Especially now that their assignment is local as opposed to, say, Peru.

Basically, this summer was great because I was able to hang out with some of my favorite people. I'm hoping that the trend will continue into the fall and I'll be able to spend time with some of my favorites, like school friends, and mission friends...you get the picture.

__________________________

This past weekend I saw these guys in concert.
They sang a lot of fun songs including "the greatest TV theme songs" and "the greatest rock and roll songs." Here's a better view:
It's "The Blanks!" (crickets)

Ted's band, from Scrubs! That's Sam Lloyd on the left, he plays Ted. They've appeared on several episodes and Paul Perry (standing next to Ted) was nominated for an Emmy for writing the song "Guy Love." It was an enjoyable concert, even though it was a cappella. I'm never going to hear the theme song for "Charles In Charge" quite the same way again.

Sometimes that can be really nerdy and annoying.

I Hate Hidden Valley Ranch

Today had all of the potential to be a really great day. It started out well enough, I woke up early and went for a run and found a really cool path by a stream. After a shower and breakfast, I decided to have a Harry Potter movie marathon in preparation for the "Half Blood Prince" on Saturday. Sometime during the movie I decided to start eating some of the chocolate chip cookies I made yesterday. That was probably when it started to go down hill. Combine the cookie overdose with dribbling raspberry Crystal Light down my front and possibly staining my "Live United" tee shirt, and I wasn't feeling (or looking) too hot. I tried to remedy the situation by drinking more water and eating healthier food for the rest of the day. I also changed my shirt before I headed out to Wal-Mart to buy more allergy medicine.

Speaking of which, why is that whenever you go somewhere looking like crap you see someone you know? Some how I have managed to avoid this twice so far this year. The first time I went out with a coat over my pajama shirt (don't worry, I was wearing jeans, my first name is Lindsay but my last name isn't Lohan.) I was sure I would see someone as I tried to pass my pajama top off as a plaid shirt, apparently they were hot this past winter. But, I didn't see anyone. The cashier didn't even give me a weird look. It probably has something to do with the following facts:

1. I live in Logan, land of flannel shirts, jeans, and hiking boots.
2. It's a college town, there are some pretty sloppy dressers.
3. It's Wal-Mart.

Anyway, this time I went out wearing a tee-shirt (not the raspberry splattered shirt from before) with track pants and my graffiti KangaRoos. I didn't see anyone I knew. I was actually a tensey bit disappointed because I haven't been really social today. Oh well.

Back to the day's events...I decided to take advantage of the fact that NBC.com has a ba-jillion full episodes of "30 Rock" on their web side. Little did I know the price I would pay by watching several episodes (including my favorite one, guest starring, Oprah.) Rather than replay all of the commericals, the folks at NBC designate one sponsor per episode and play ONE COMMERICAL OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Unfortunately for me, I chose episodes that were mostly sponsored by Hidden Valley Ranch. That commercial makes me sick. You know the one I mean; it starts out with a carnival scene and everyone is eating vegetables dipped in Ranch dressing and having a great old time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKwT6eVDJ64

Not so.

1. Cauliflower masquerading as popcorn just looks gross. The sick factor is upped by the shot of the girl dispensing ranch over the bucket of cauliflower like a soda jerk would dispense fudge sauce on an ice cream sundae (or a movie theatre attendant would dispense fake butter over a bucket of popcorn...I wanted to choose a less obvious comparison.)
2. The tag line: "It makes vegetables delectable." It's probably the repetition alone but it makes me feel sick.
3. The copious amounts of ranch dressing poured over the salad at the end? Disgusting.
4. Did I mention that I don't think I can eat ranch dressing any more? It's far from my favorite dressing anyway but I think I'm going to abstain for a while

I just needed to get that off my chest.

"I would never swim in a pond! they're infamous for serpents!"

I went to FHE this evening with the understanding that there would be a pond to swim in and a slide for umm, sliding. Generally I share Dr. John Dorian's philosophy although I have more issues with large fish and pond scum than serpents. Anyhow, despite my initial misgivings I decided to bring my swimming suit just in case I changed my mind.

I am SO glad that I did! The slide was made out of old vinyl signs draped over hay bales and all of that was placed on a fairly large hill above a pond. It was so much fun! I only wished that I had my camera out sooner because by the time I got it out of the car and I was in my suit, the sun was already going down. Here are some pictures anyway, sorry about the quality. My awesome roommate Clarissa accidentally made two short films as she was trying to take my picture. I was happy with the mistake.

The pond with the slide and the picnic pavilion:

The brave souls congregating at the top of the hill, awaiting their turns.

Sliding down on a pillow in a garbage bag, effectively slippery and cozy.

The splash down in the pool. I managed to go down the slide several times and NEVER go under nor did I swallow any of the water.
And the videos
Part One:


INTERMISSION

Part Two:

It's not quite homesickness but...

I got feeling sort of "Mission-Sick" today at church as I sat in almost every meeting. It may have been the fact that I was fasting and that tends to make me feel a little more...I don't know...something along the lines of more emotional without being actually hysterical (far from it actually.) Anyway, it seemed that in every meeting someone mentioned something about Western New York. There were a couple of mentions of the Historic Sites and then there was one about Perry's Ice Cream (oh wait, that one was me. We were talking about our favorite ice cream: Lemon Meringue Pie.) Anyway, I have been missing Western New York. I've been home for just over three years now and I think that is plenty of time to feel __________sick. I don't feel like I can fill in the blank with "home" and using "mission" makes it sound like a disease of some sort.

Anyways, here is a list of things that I miss:

#1 My friends: companions, members, investigators...

#2 Wegmans. Yeah, I miss a grocery store. I'll have you know that grocery shopping is the high light of my Saturdays. I love grocery shopping.Especially when the produce department looks like this:

#3 Perry's Ice Cream

Fantastically delicious! It's probably a good thing that we have Perry's here in Utah because I think the thirty pounds I gained on my mission was divided between these three flavors.

I want to go back and I want my family to come and see everything. I might not make it back until after grad school but it's only 2 1/2 more years.

Whoa.

That's a long time. We'll see what happens. The way my life seems to go it could happen sooner or it could happen later. I make tentative plans rather than defined plans.