Apology accepted, Universe.

[constance]

Perhaps you may recall that when I first moved into my house, I couldn't park in my garage, which is underneath my house at the back, because it was knee-deep in other people's crap. Perhaps you will further recall that even after I got the garage cleared out, I didn't like parking in it at night because my back yard is a very dark place in which to navigate an uneven terrain and a full-story flight of deck stairs. But then -- you may even remember this -- after I had my sideview mirror knocked off my car in a December hit-and-run accident while parked on the street, I decided to suck it up and park in the garage after all, and I've been doing it faithfully ever since, using my back door and everything, and no terrible fate has befallen me. You know, yet.

As a matter of fact, it's just the reverse. I've never negotiated my deck stairs on a regular basis before this past winter, and so that probably explains why I never realized that the exasperating, encroaching tree-thing which sits at the base of my deck stairs and which I've been seriously considering clipping right down to the ground is, in fact, a two-story-tall raspberry bramble. I realized this today when I was coming in from dinner -- my last meal for a while eaten out, I swear -- and said to myself, GODDAMN IT WHAT IS THAT RED GUNK ALL OVER MY STAI-- Oh. Ohhhhhhh.

Anyway. Give me a couple of weeks, and then come on over. We'll have raspberry tarts with homemade ice cream, or something.