Wolf's Den

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Dante's Spirit- Hand dyed silk scarves, Handcrafted beadwork, and more.. All Unique/OOAK.

Dante's Spirit at 1000Markets- Handcrafted beadwork and handcrafted chainmaille pieces, all OOAK

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For the new readers...

( Continued... )

Italics are books currently being read...

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June-

26- Storm Glass by Maria Snydor
27- The Pretender's Crown by CE Murphy

Dried Tarragon and Parsley in my handcarved apricot wood mortar. I loved the brilliant green the dried herbs created.

**** If you get cut off on viewing the post here, it's possible that IJ is having server issues, as they were moving to new servers this weekend. In which case- try here-
http://dantesspirit.dreamwidth.org/604864.html

Otherwise, I have no idea why it's cutting off at a certain point. I'm using IE8, and it works fine for me.}:( ****

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Be forewarned- this is my longest Daring Bakers Challenge post yet. I lost count at 75 photos. Yeah.



Gathering of the cast of charactors. You see, I had several jars of local made jams and jelly in the cupboard. So I figured, what better way to try them! And I love almonds. Perfect match, I should think, almonds and cranberries, or wild black raspberries, or blackberries, or cherries, or homemade apple butter, or lemon curd or lime curd, or...

Yeah.

I got abit carried away. As you'll see.

And after the actual Challenge recipe, I included a Bakewell Tart Pudding made with almond paste instead of almond meal/flour.}:P It was the first one I really made, you see. But paste wasn't what the Challenge called for, so...

( Onward we go! )

Sneak preview of 2 new silk scarves- one in crepe de chine, the other habotai. Hope to have them listed for sale by Monday.

Yesterday we went by the Asian Market that's roughly a block away from the house. They carry this delicious bread that I honestly have no idea what it's called.



This is how it comes, in a bag with five 'sticks'. The bag says 'Maria's' and has the address of the company that makes it, but other than that, nothing.



Well, it does say 'Bread' and list the ingrediants. However, it says there's raisins in it. Umm, no, no there's not. There ARE , however, cranberries.



The tasty bits of nuts, cranberries, etc, are nicely balanced in the twisty sticks of bread. Every bite you get a walnut, or a cranberry or several.



The crumb is dense, moist and nicely sweetened. It's perfect as a morning breakfast or a quick snack. But I have no idea WHAT it's called besides 'bread'. Heh.



Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a bag of 'bread' to devour. Ok, maybe just these 2 sticks.

Seven show dogs die in Jefferson County

( Text for Link Phobic )

The woman told deputies that she went into the home and went to sleep.

Let me get this straight- you left 8 highly expensive show dogs, that YOU don't even OWN, in a van, in the garage, with only a door open, the windows 'partially cracked' and electric fans going, and expected them to be ok??


More Here.

This hits close to home with me, as Akitas are my chosen breed.

The Akita that died? Was the top ranked female Akita and the fourth ranked Akita in the country. She was worth thousands, if not more.

The others? Worth thousands as well- The purebreds included three Golden Retrievers, a Dalmation, a Siberian Husky, a Malamute and the top-ranked Akita named Jersey.

The second article, tthe vet says there's discrepancies in her story. That some of the doghs were already in rigor.

Yeah.

I want to punch the woman through my monitor right now. Instead, I'm going to go hug my Akita.

I think she was laughing at me.

All taken yesterday morning.

This is- WAS- the Demon Truck. A 1986 Chevy S10 Tahoe 4x4. This PoS cost me roughly $2500.00, about 4 years ago. Well, that's what I BOUGHT it for.

When it was all said and done, the stupid thing ran me nearly $7,000. Yeah.

Let's break that down, shall we?

Initial price- $2500.00

10 days after buying, front seals on tranny go- $1500.00

A week later, the temp gauge goes out, causing the radiator hoses to need replacing as well as the temp gauge. There's another $50.00. On top of THAT, as we're heading home from North Carolina after going back down to get the fool thing, the starter in the Banshee Car goes out. So by proxy, there's another $300.00. I hate North Carolina.

A month after getting that fixed, the oil pressure gauge, gas gauge AND battery gauge go haywire. Come to find out, the idiots in Warsaw, North Carolina, where the tranny went out, didn't know what the hell they were doing, so the wires to those particular gauges got wrapped around the driveshaft and chewed to pieces. Yeah. And a fuse blew.

That cost a case of beer to replace the fuse, cut the wires and tape to the inside firewall for when/if I ever wanted to fix them. That was the day I was told that the camshaft was walking, and not to bother putting too much money into it, as it wouldn't last long. $8.00 for the beer.

I should have sold it right then.

One year later, as I was getting ready to make the final payment on the PoS, the fuel pump goes out. With a full (22gal) tank of gas. $600.00 right there.

6 months later, after the first really good, heavy snowfall, I get to use the 4 wheel drive for the first time. Less than a week later, the torque converter goes to pieces, causing the tranny to burn out. Another $1600.00.

THEN it develops a brake line leak. Ok, fine, I give up on dumping more money into it. Brake fluid is cheap.

A year after THAT, the distributor gasket seal blows out, dumping all my oil on the ground as I'm driving down the road. I manage to limp it back home with Mark following me.

After trying to get the distributor off, and giving up because it's right against the firewall, it sat, in the driveway for a year and a half.

Not any more.

Yesterday, I called a auto parts place that hauls away old and junk vehicles.

At 745 this morning, they came to get it.



Going...



GOING...



GONE!!

Man is the driveway empty. WooHoo!

And now, I won't have to listen to the FiL bitch that we haven't gotten rid of it yet.



Goodbye, Demon Truck, you pain in my ass. I won't miss you one bit.

So here I am, sitting at my computer. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch something small climbing up through the Clematis (which isn't doing as well as previous years on that end, no thanks to Caena) on the side of the porch towards one of the suet feeders...



I tried to get a photo of him ON the feeder, but I think he saw me in the kitchen where I had left my camera, because he immediately climbed down again and sat here long enough for this shot before climbing all the way down...



Where he again paused to look at me before scampering off to where ever the chipmunks have been hanging out all this time. It's nice to know they're still here and that the 8ft Black Kingsnake a few years back didn't eat all of them or chase them off.}:)

I immediately went out, filled the feeders and scattered lots of sunflower seeds and various other seeds for the birds, squirrels and now, chipmunks. Even if it is raining, they still have to eat after all.

I hope my little visitor comes back again. He was cute.

Maybe next time I'll be able to get clearer shots, instead of through the screen door. Heh.

I hear Carolina Wrens now.}:P

My thoughts and what I'm doing at the end.

Meta Tags on Etsy Shop Pages Adversely Affecting External Search Engine Results

June 10, 2009 at 6:03 pm · Filed under SEO, Search, Shop Sections, Tags · By GreenMamba

It has been brought to light that changes made to the Meta Tags on all shop pages may be causing Google and other search engines to bypass Etsy in results. What may seem at first to be an insignificant, single-word change - the addition of the tag word ‘handmade’ to all Esty shop section titles - has in fact resulted in dramatically negative results.

According to this Storque article, a number of SEO (search engine optimization) changes were made in April.

Meta keywords are a less critical component to SEO, and various search engines use them differently to help rank relevancy of a page in search results. For Etsy shop pages, we have automatically pulled the Section Titles for the shop to be used as the meta keywords. We observed that many sellers use basic terms for their sections that translate relatively well into keywords. For example, it’s common for jewelry shops to have Section Titles such as: bracelets, necklaces, rings, earrings. To edit your Section Titles, go to Your Etsy > Sections. (excerpt)

While Etsy has downplayed the overall importance of Meta Tags, sellers are discovering that the use of the keyword ‘handmade’ in conjunction with shop section titles - regardless of top-level category - has rendered their shops and items virtually invisible to search engines. Running shop URLs through an SEO checker, such as scrubtheweb.com, has revealed some troubling results, among them ‘keyword stuffing’. This practice, repeated use of the same word in the Meta Tags data line, is forbidden by major search engines and could result in pages being bypassed or excluded from results.

Another issue raised by this overuse of the term ‘handmade’ is the fact that it is being applied across the board in every shop, regardless of whether they sell handmade, vintage or supplies, often causing inadvertent false claims regarding the products being sold. (To check your own meta tags, click on View>Source, or View>Page Source, in your browser’s menu bar at the top of your shop page - not Your Etsy page.) Or just pull up a listing and look at the top of the page, see what it says.

( Continue... )

A very special little Akita was born.

After a rocky and uncertain start, she thrived and eventually found me.



She's not Dante, no dog will ever be Dante. But I see a lot of Dante in her, and honestly, I'm thankful for that.



While she's not Dante, she's gone a long ways towards filling that emptiness Dante left behind.



She's my happy-go-lucky, silly pupper.



And today.. she turns a year old.



Happy 1st Birth Day, Caena Kamikaze Ryu. Thanks for being a part of my family. Thanks for being the silly you.

This month, Jen from Use Real Butter, hosted the Daring Cooks Challenge.
She chose a doozy, let me tell ya, in Chinese dumplings/potstickers (aka gyoza in Japanese).



( Hungry? Read on! )

D-Day Memorial 1 by =WolfSilverOak on deviantART

Dear Penguins fans-

Before you gloat too loudly, just remember- the Detroit Red Wings have ELEVEN Stanley Cup Championships under their belts.

Your Team? Has THREE.

Yeah.

Let's see....

Watching Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, cheering on the Red Wings (obviously).

My mom called last weekend. Seems THAT WOMAN had called her up right before Mother's Day, once again wanting to get in contact with me. Something about how she found the letter I wrote her when I was 18, and I guess she thinks that after 31 years, she'd like to be a part of my life.

Well, sorry, but you tried this last year too. The answer is still the same- No. You weren't there for my formative years, Mom was. You are not my mom, Mom is. what Dan decides to do in regards to contact with you is his choice. But me? No. I want nothing to do with you.

I officially no longer work at the store. My old manager and somewhat friend who was keeping me on the books, even though I've not worked a day there since Sept? Oct? last year, no longer works there. We'll just call it a casualty of the economy and leave it at that.

While my gardens are going nuts with all the rain we've been getting, I'm thoroughly sick of it. The lettuce, leaf and mesclan, are trying to take over the raised bed out back. The rhubarb isn't happy though, I think it might be getting too much sun. Need to turn the crap out of my compost in the bin, ants are trying to take up residence.

My forays into the world of the Daring Bakers/Daring Cooks has been very fun and interesting. I've done quite a few new things I might otherwise not have tried on my own so far. Next Daring Cooks entry will be posted Sunday, so watch for it.

I have a number of food posts, non -DB/DC related, that I need to post. Yes, a few will make people hungry.

Took Mikayla and the SiL to the Science Museum today. It's free every 2nd Friday of the month. Next time, I'll take Excedrin first. And the Planetarium? Made me have vertigo, big time. Ugh. Of course, I paid for the parking, and I bought lunch, as all the SiL had was a credit card. Add that to the cellphone drama when I tolf her I couldn't give her the June payment early as I had *this much* for the entire week until payday again. At least Mikayla thanked me for lunch.

Decided that by the end of the year, I will be giving the SiL back the cellphone I have that's on her family plan and getting my own account. Why? I'm tired of dealing with the drama when I can't give them my payment early when I say I might and them getting pissy over it. I've long since learned not to count on any funds until it's in my account or hands and not to spend it before I have it, but apparently, they haven't.

Tomorrow we're heading over to the Bedford D-Day Memorial, as we've never been and we live 30 minutes away. Yeah. Also, they need donations, as they are in danger of losing their funding. So if you need a good place to donate? That's a good one. Was going to see if the BiL and SIL wanted to go, but after today? Nah, we're go alone, thanks anyway.

Sunday, Charlie and CJ are coming over, to play Tekken 5 wiuth Mark and I. Then I'm grilling out some steaks, boiling up some corn on the cob, heating up some garlic bread and we're chowing down.

2nd period of Game 7 has started... Let's Go, Red Wings! There's no score, by the way. Heh. I take it back, the Penguins just scored. Grr. Still a lot of hockey left though...

<
Our Lady of Seas by =WolfSilverOak on deviantART


Available Here or if you prefer Etsy, Here.

It's rather hard to believe, let alone accept that it's been a year already. I keep hoping, occasionally, that I'll wake up and it'll have all been a bad dream, that she is still here and always will be. That I never lost her in the first place. That she never left me. That her body never wore out on her, when her spirit never did.



I know, I know, she'll always be with me in spirit. But it's not the same. It never is. And honestly? It doesn't make me feel any better. I want my Dante-Inu back. And I can't have her. I want my four-legged best friend and soul mate. I want to see that smile whenever I want, feel her fur whenever I need to, just know she's there when I need her. I won't have that ever again.



Mark saw her the other night, at the top of the stairs. He thought it was Caena until he came back downstairs and realised she was sleeping next to the couch, in the same spot Dante always did.
He said he was sorry, because she showed herself to him first. I said, I see her every night, she's the last thing I look at before I turn out the lights. I have a framed photograph of her on the nightstand next to my pillow. It helps a little bit.



Having hundreds of photos of her helps too. It's not the same, it's not like running my fingers through her fur, or feeling her lean against me when she knows I'm upset, but it helps. I wish, sometimes, Caena could have known her, especially in her later years when she had mellowed out drastically in regards to other dogs.



I miss her so much.

Taken today. In just over a week, she'll be a year old.





I've said it before, I'll say it again- it's her couch, we just get to use it.}:P