Tyler and I have been having fun with Collector Crypt. I decided to join their Card Club and grabbed an NFT in the market place.

Venusaur Holo

I had never heard of a Gacha before but I was intrigued when Collector Crypt sent an announcement about the Elite Pokémon Gacha Machine. I forwarded it to Tyler to investigate.

The gist is you pay a fixed amount and get a random card with a minimum value. Collector Crypt does this all on the Solana blockchain. We decided to give it a whirl and pulled a Venusaur Holo (1996) with a near-mint 8 PSA rating.

A PSA-graded Japanese Venusaur holographic Pokémon card with a rating of NM-MT 8 from 1996.

Tyler digs Collector Crypt because they have good Pokémon cards. I dig it for that and that it is a great use of NFT’s and smart contracts. The transaction for this Gacha machine is a complicated one with seventeen different steps.

We will likely “burn” the NFT and have Collector Crypt ship us the nearly 30 year old card.

David Francey at Celtic Junction

A couple of months ago my cousin Josh sent me a text that David Francey was coming to Minneapolis and wondering if I’d like to go? I had no idea who Francey was or where he was playing, but after clearing the calendar the answer was an instant yes! Last year Josh had turned me onto the High Kings and they have been on high rotation for me ever since, so I was happy to get introduced to another musician. Josh and Dawn, and their good friends Paul and Jodi, joined Tammy and I to see Francey at the Celtic Junction last night.

It was a great show.

Before we get to Francey there was a short set from Terra Spencer to open the show. Spencer was a great opener with a novel-like background of being a funderal director in a small town. Her songs were captivating. “Coyote” stood out in her songs for me.

For the final song of her set David Francey came on stage and joined her, and then Chris Murphy came on as well and Francey’s set started, with Spencer staying for a couple of songs but the majority of the set was Francey and Murphy.

I had listened to some of Francey’s songs before coming so I was expecting a delightful evening of folk music and we got that and some more. He shared a story for every song he played.

“This Morning” stood out for me. He wrote it on John Prine’s passing and brought in components of Prine’s music into it. I’ve listened to this song several times now. “The Breath Between”, the title song off of his newest album had me rapt as well.

As I listened to him it hit me that his accent and singing reminds me so much of the late Shane MacGowan of the Pogues. Francey doesn’t have the gravel and drunk sound of MacGowan. But the cadence and lilt is very similar.

Lastly, the Celtic Junction was a cool venue. They partner with the Irish Fair of Minnesota and have a nice community center.

I thought for sure there would not be a Weekly Thing this weekend. Then my afternoon opened up and it is happening. That makes me happy. Will go out tomorrow morning! 📬

I was excited to see my question, how to choose a donut, answered in latest issue of Mike Monteiro’s Good News!

We all watched Scrapper tonight. It was loved by critics and won multiple awards. For us it moved very slow and was too much “in your face” indie. The story was good and all, but a rare case of a movie we almost stopped watching.

Another morning at Getaway Motor Cafe. Got a mug for home and a Nose Warmer Latte. Very good breakfast treats too.

Tammy and I rescued Robin Hood in the Sherwood Forest room at No ESC Puzzle Collective in Shakopee tonight. Took 59m 36s!

Tammy and I had our first free court time at Mega Pickleball today. We practiced various drills getting ready to play others.

It was a bit windy today but otherwise good time on the Three Mile Walk at the Minnesota Arboretum.

Nice morning at Getaway Motor Cafe in Carver. Great coffee and food. Love the vibe. Surprise bonus that they have Cardigan Donuts on Saturday! ☕️🍩

We watched Game Night tonight. Fun movie!

Two times this week I attempted to add a link to Pinboard and found out I had already added it. In one case I added it two years ago and in another five years! It always makes me chuckle a little bit when that happens.

We all had a fun time at Lucky Shot Pickleball taking the beginner class tonight.

Another Ice Throne. This time at the Ice Palace in Delano.

Enjoying a Potica Latte with my brother Isaiah at Lynette.

Helped my brother transfer his domain name ikeating.com from GoDaddy to NameCheap this morning. We were able to complete the whole process in about an hour. As long as you do all the steps right it wasn’t too difficult. Also see his blog post covering the move.

We had another super fun evening at Activate in Roseville playing fun games! Highly recommend checking this place out.

Me looking serious on the Ice Throne at Ice Castles.

Mazie brought a variety of chocolate and coffee back from Costa Rica to share with us! 🇨🇷🍫☕️