docs: def _squeeze(self, var_tbl: dict) -> dict:
          """
          Makes sure no extra dimensions are floating around in the input arrays
          Returns inferred dict of variable: val pairs
          """
          var_names = var_tbl.copy()
          # squeeze any numpy arrays
          for v in var_tbl:
              val = var_tbl[v]
              if isinstance(val, np.ndarray):
                  var_names[v] = val.squeeze()
          return var_names