Weigh day yesterday and I'm up again by 3 pounds. Which to me makes no sense - I was more careful with what I ate than even in January. Frustrating.

It's still so cold - and we had more snow yesterday. And this is supposed to last until the weekend at least. This is most un-Rupertlike weather - at least for the years that I've lived here. It certainly makes getting up and down my hill very interesting, to say the least.

Old Ironsides

Ay, tear her battered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon's roar;--
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no more!

Her deck, once red with heroes' blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o'er the flood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor's tread,
Or know the conquered knee;--
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the seas!

O, better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!

Oliver Wendell Holmes
1809 - 1894