Coyote noisy

Hi guys,

Sorry it's been a while between postings. I'm working on a new dataset at work which is really interesting and exciting, so I've been pretty busy. It's all good though :) The data is based on the effects of smoking so I'm pretty happy to be working on that as a project. Hopefully we'll have some incredible findings to report soon, but for now I can at least say, smoking is BAD! (what do you mean we already knew that?)

I must be getting used to the heat because I'm starting to enjoy this time of year. I can now sleep with the AC on 30 degrees rather than having to push it below 25 and still feel hot. The mid-afternoon heat is still not something I want to go out in (unless it's to the pub) but I don't feel as sticky and miserable as I used to. I'm also about to housesit a place with a lovely outdoor pool so perhaps I'm looking forward to hot afternoons with a little more joy now :) I had a lesson on looking after the pool last night. It'll be great to be able to come home from work and have a swim. The pool at my apartment complex is pretty cool, but I feel self conscious swimming there on my own.

We've had a few storms over the last few days. Not a lot of rain, but enough that everything is looking a little bit more clean and green. There are lots of pomegranate trees around that have just finished flowering and the fruit is swelling. They look so much healthier than my little one in Tassie, but I guess the climate here is perfect. There are also these gorgeous crepe myrtle trees everywhere in full flower! They're stunning, ranging from white to bright pink to lilac. They are deciduous and have the smoothest bark, so when they have no leaves they look like the kind of tree you'd expect to see in Middle Earth, if you happened to be wandering about...

I've been woken up in the night lately by the sound of coyotes!! They sound like a cross between a pack of dogs and some kind of high pitched demon, and they're really loud! I mean, the rock trains don't wake me anymore but these guys sure do! You can hear what they sound like here Scary huh? And Vince has just informed me that squirrels are in the top three of their diet prefs... I hope they don't get my squiggle now that I've fattened him up...