You know what I'm doing right now? I am FREAKING out. Why?! I found a salamander in my yard. EEEEEEEeeee! This is coolest thing since the mouse and the lizard before that. I really do have to start marking these things down. Googling reveals it is a garden slender salamander, and it probably likes the brush pile and all this rain we're having, not to mention my many slugs. I am so happy. Sigh. This is such a wonderful reinforcement of all the stuff you read in books about how if you don't eff with the environment too much it will balance itself out. I've been reading about natural slug control lately, and I keep sighing deeply when I get to the part where it says if you don't run them off "lizards and salamanders and frogs" will eat them. And I'm always like, "Where am I going to get a frog?!" Whoda thunk I could find a salamander in Culver City. Anyway, this is making me so damn excited. Off to kill more slugs now, but not too many. Gotta leave some for my new friend Rusty...