Down a pound from the lowest I’ve been, period. So all the holiday weight is off, plus one. Jane’s aggravated because she’s not losing at the moment, and we have indulged a bit in low-carb (but not carb-free) ice cream—which, let me tell you, is a new product that tastes better than some real-carb ice cream. The buttered pecan is to die for!) but she’s working on the end of a book, and the rule is that the writer who’s on the end of a book doesn’t worry about diets…so yes, she’ll lose it, just not this week or so.

I found that coffee interferes with my thyroid pills—a new study—and while I don’t pay attention to most such if-you-eat-this-you’ll-die-in-a-ditch reports, my thyroid meds are serious. Well, like most people, I do wake up midway through the night pretty predictably, so I just take my pill then, and still get my precious morning coffee on time.

It’s also teasing us with snow this morning. We want a real snowfall.

And we may, depending on where Jane is in her work and what the weather’s doing, go to Home Depot and get someone to come out and measure our fence for a replacement: it’s being held up by board patches in one corner, and the paint is peeling. We’re not fond of this fence, which is rickety, with the posts rotten here and there; and I don’t know its vintage—it’s younger than the house, which is sixty years old; but it’s got some years on it. Every time you open the big gate, you have to get a shovel to lever the right side back so it’ll close. And that whole wall wobbles, not to mention the one in the far back which is now being held by boards I screwed on. It’s not likely they can do this in winter, but we can at least get first dibs on fence replacement in the spring.