I've lost somewhere around 3-5 pounds, maybe more from my highest (I didn't want to get on the scale so I don't know exactly). Nice to have progress. Intermittent fasting is okay. I'm not doing true IF because when I have coffee in the morning it is keto style coffee with cream, ghee and MCT. Pretty sure for true IF it should be without calories. But whatever, I look forward to the coffee in the morning, I have to take vitamins with some fat anyway, and I'm going to have it. Then I don't eat until 2pm. Definitely ready for food by the time that rolls around. I don't know if I could stick to it as well if I had a job, but for my current status it is effective to curb the boredom grazing.

Theoretically I have ~22 weeks before the masquerade event/the end of spouse's training. It's not insanity to think I could drop 20 pounds between now and than, and that would be quite nice. I could fit into my boots again. Wear real pants instead of stretchy pants. Could fit into the clothes I have packed away. Would be a lot easier to myself get up and down the stairs for the move. My legs are going to get rekt as it is. When I carry a load of groceries up, I can't help but think the groceries probably weigh as much as the extra weight I am carrying, and wouldn't it be nice to not have that burden.

I finished carving the wood block stamp and, as it turns out, I had better burrs for detailed wood carving than what I used. One of the sets had a couple burrs that are sort of like miniature millwork bits? Probably intended for cutting out small shapes of thin material for inlays. They work perfectly for incising precise shapes like letters. But now I feel dumb because I didn't figure it out until after I'd done a blobby job with less suitable bits. Now I have a substandard carving. It's legible, just could be better. Annoying. I'll probably have to do a fresh carving when I recover my patience. I still don't like carving wood.

I got the invite to the local "fine craft artisan" market, yay. Get this, the only payment option they have is by mail in paper check. What luddite uses paper checks anymore, with no pay online option? In a pandemic? Snobby old rich people who assume everyone has a stockpile of paper checks, that's who. (They don't think of themselves as rich, they just own a home outright and have a comfortable retirement account and a pension.) I haven't written a physical check in at least 3 years. Hopefully they'll let me mail in some cash, 'cause I ain't ordering a box of checks to write just one. So silly. Paper checks. Come on. Like, I want to believe I'm being too harsh on this local art cabal. Maybe they aren't the snooty elderly art mobsters I think they are, quashing upstart creatives in the area with their passive aggressive highbrow collective nonsense, expensive predatory art classes and fondness for dead boring watercolor. But then they're like, "fine craft artisan" and "pay by check" and I cannot roll my eyes hard enough. They're probably quite nice people in person, say all the right polite things, so long as you start your conversations touting your oil painting major (this is a dig at my sister, who majored in oil painting), are thrilled to talk about how interesting it is to paint different flowers and don't use expletives. These people don't like art so much as they like inventing hoops to make other creatives jump through, and also jumping through hoops themselves to reassure themselves they are card carrying "fine craft artisans". That's my gut take. It's possible to love the system that enslaves you, and these guys totally do. I feel agitated just thinking about it. You ever meet someone so stuck in their groove you want to pick a fight with them on principle? Doesn't matter about what, you just want to rattle them and make them angry? Like Squirrel Nutkin and Old Mr Brown? They have this neat perfected system laid out and you want to stomp through it like Godzilla, because it deeply offends you for reasons you can't quite articulate? That's how I feel about this local art group. Please just kill me if I start talking about joining the local watercolor society, 'cause I'll already be dead inside.

I had a stray thought that watercolor society folk are the ying yang compliment to cricut glitter epoxy tumbler wine mom folk. Opposite but same. I want to tell one group the other said they overprice their stuff and watch them throw down like the Jets and Sharks. Would be glorious! Better than the puppy bowl. I think I would put money on the cricut wine moms, but I bet the watercolor society knows tai chi, and everyone knows that's basically jujitsu.

The kitties are curled up together on the couch beside me and oh, they are so, so cute. It never gets old, seeing adorable snoozing kitties.

Found out there's a big convention in the city in August. Spouse and I went to it in 2019. Decent sized convention, upper tier celebrity guests, well attended, etc. I checked on vendor stuff and I am too late to sign up for my category, but I could put my info on the waitlist and see if I get lucky. I'm tempted. But it's $350 for a 3 day event, and it takes an hour and a half to get down there by bus/metro (parking in the city would be a nightmare). 3 long days in a row might be really hard for me by myself. $350 is a lot to scrape up, plus investing in enough product. Excellent chance I'd make the money back, it's just finding it in advance. I want to be bold and bet on myself, but that's a tough call when I'm just barely getting started. The way they word the application also makes me think it's very competitive. I don't think what I've got on the website is impressive enough. Like, I'd need to pull out the big guns, asap.

I want to vend at the farm women's market this saturday. Maybe I'll wait until after that to make a decision about applying.