def attr2dict(el):
    """Turns an elements attrib dict into... wait for it... a dict. Yea, it's silly to me too.
    But, according to the ElementTree docs, using the Element.attrib attribute directly
    is not recommended - don't look at me - I just work here.

    :Parameters:
        el : ElementTree.Element

    :return: a dictionary of element attrib key/value pairs
    :rtype: dict
    """
    return {k: v for k, v in el.items()}