diff --git a/rethinkstuff/__init__.py b/rethinkstuff/__init__.py
index cb3d95b..7e196a3 100644
--- a/rethinkstuff/__init__.py
+++ b/rethinkstuff/__init__.py
@@ -6,6 +6,14 @@ import time
 import types
 import socket
 import os
+import datetime
+
+def utcnow():
+    """Convenience function to get timezone-aware UTC datetime. RethinkDB
+    requires timezone-aware datetime for its native time type, and
+    unfortunately datetime.datetime.utcnow() is not timezone-aware. Also python
+    2 doesn't come with a timezone implementation."""
+    return datetime.datetime.now(r.make_timezone("00:00"))
 
 class RethinkerWrapper(object):
     logger = logging.getLogger('rethinkstuff.RethinkerWrapper')
@@ -144,13 +152,13 @@ class ServiceRegistry(object):
         if not 'pid' in status_info:
             status_info['pid'] = os.getpid()
         result = self.r.table('services').insert(status_info, conflict='replace', return_changes=True).run()
-        # XXX check 
+        # XXX check
         return result['changes'][0]['new_val']
 
     def unregister(self, id):
         result = self.r.table('services').get(id).delete().run()
         if result != {'deleted':1,'errors':0,'inserted':0,'replaced':0,'skipped':0,'unchanged':0}:
-            self.logger.warn('unexpected result attempting to delete id=%s from rethinkdb services table: %s', id, result) 
+            self.logger.warn('unexpected result attempting to delete id=%s from rethinkdb services table: %s', id, result)
 
     def available_service(self, role):
         try:
@@ -169,3 +177,4 @@ class ServiceRegistry(object):
             return result
         except r.ReqlNonExistenceError:
             return []
+
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index ca1d2c9..08236c8 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ import setuptools
 
 setuptools.setup(
     name='rethinkstuff',
-    version='0.1.2',
+    version='0.1.3',
     packages=['rethinkstuff'],
     classifiers=[
         'Programming Language :: Python :: 2.7',
diff --git a/tests/test_rethinker.py b/tests/test_rethinker.py
index 066cf0a..6abe609 100644
--- a/tests/test_rethinker.py
+++ b/tests/test_rethinker.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import rethinkdb
 import time
 import socket
 import os
+import datetime
 
 logging.basicConfig(stream=sys.stderr, level=logging.INFO,
         format="%(asctime)s %(process)d %(levelname)s %(threadName)s %(name)s.%(funcName)s(%(filename)s:%(lineno)d) %(message)s")
@@ -164,3 +165,15 @@ def test_service_registry(r):
     svc0 = svcreg.heartbeat(svc0)
     svc1 = svcreg.heartbeat(svc1)
     assert len(svcreg.available_services("yes-such-role")) == 2
+
+def test_utcnow(r):
+    now_notz = datetime.datetime.utcnow()  # has no timezone :(
+    assert not now_notz.tzinfo
+
+    now_tz = r.utcnow() # solution to that problem
+    assert now_tz.tzinfo
+    assert now_tz.tzinfo.delta == datetime.timedelta(0)
+
+    # XXX should really run this test in non-utc timezone environment
+    assert now_tz.timestamp() - now_notz.timestamp() < 0.1
+