Calling all Birds of Prey

While I've been hanging out in the backyard, avoiding dive-bombing humming birds, Erika has discovered a new hobby - counting ground squirrels on the Stanford Dish Loop. Monday she counted 52 and today - a record 76 SQUIRRELS! It's a veritable All-You-Can-Eat Buffet for some lucky hawk. And for those of you skeptics who think she might be counting the same critters twice - Erika has strict rules methods for confirming that each squirrel counted is a bona-fide unique and individual animal. She doesn't count non-descript rustlings in the bushes either. 4 legs and a fluffy little tail on each one.

Ok, others of you may now be thinking that Erika needs to get a job. She is making a tiny bit of progress in that area. Ironic, serendipitous progress, but progress nonetheless. Tomorrow she will forego rodent counting to sign a very short-term contract at the advertising agency whose client is the very same company where she worked in New Jersey. In fact, she will be working on the very same project that she was working on in New Jersey, albeit from an entirely different angle. Funny.

In other news, the Audi has been christened. She is now Maude as in "Maude, the crotchety old lady who did NOT like her parts messed with for a California smog check". For two full days after her idle was adjusted, she refused to run right. She would stall every chance she got, and rev up her engine at the MOST inopportune moments, such as while waiting at a stop light next to some souped up hot rod. Turns out she was lying about her age, too. Her birthday was actually in 1986, not 1984. After 2 mortifying days of this behavior, we drove 4 hours to Tahoe on freeways and nice curvy mountain roads. She's run like a serene grande dame ever since. But the name stuck. If Erika ever gets a new beloved Subaru, I supposed it will have to be called Harold.