Wolf's Den

This is what procrastination looks like. *nods sagely* I meant to post this, what?, 3 weeks ago. Whoops.



My private swap partner was annamosscity, who lives in Hong Kong. She really did an awesome job on filling the box too!

( More! )

Banana Peppers, nearly ready. There's a few more just starting, as well as a few Bell peppers starting. Yes, the near one (left) had to have a rock put against it, as it was getting top heavy.



Not the best photo, but it was really bright and I couldn't really see. Somewhere in there are 1"=2" Green Beans, Bush Type. TONS of them. (Look towards the center)



Maters! Last count, there was 13 Heirloom Tomatoes in various stages. Now? I need to recount, as I think there's more.



Tiny grasshopper on Black Prince Daylily. I've been hand pollinating these, as I've seen few bees lately. There's lots of seed pods started. I'm hoping to get quite a few seeds to share in a few months.}:P

Still no Zucchini or Squash.}:( Need to look uo hand pollinating of both, as I think that's what it's going to take.

Zone 7a in the US.

I think she was laughing at me.

All taken yesterday morning.

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... )

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...

So yesterday, I went down the street to the Goodwill store to take a look at the plates that might be there, so I could start a nice collection of plates for photographing food.

Well, I found a couple good condition plates, and then, I spotted something I'd been looking for for years...



This would be an old fashion Trifle dessert bowl. I say old fashioned because this style is rather hard to find, in my experience, and even then, they aren't over half an inch thick and extremely heavy. I've wanted one for years. Years, I say. YEARS.



The kid who rang me up said there was a chip on the bottom, did i still want it? Of course i still wanted it! I asked him if he realised how difficult it was to find one exactly like this, and that I'd been looking for years for one. Who cares about a small chip in the foot, the bowl is intact and that's what matters. Besides, you can't even SEE the chip unless you pick the thing up and look.



It was an absolute steal at $2.50 too! The most expensive thing i bought there yesterday. The plates ran from 25 cents to 50 cents each. I've no idea how much a Trifle bowl would be brand new, honestly, but most certainly not $2.50!



And now.. to make a Trifle!}:P

In overtime, The Red WINGS WIN!!!!!

The RED WINGS ARE GOING TO THE STANLEY CUP FINALS!!!!!!

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!

Osgood played beautifully. Helm made some awesome moves. This was a great game.

Drunken Goat Cheese, Genoa Salami, and Ritz crackers.

Expect a post about this weekend coming soon, more food posts, and a current work in progress beadwork post...

And Caena pics, and a video. That one up next, I do believe.

5 minute Major penalty against Kronwall of the Red Wings after a CLEAN, but hard, hit to Havlet of the Blackhawks.

Not only THAT, but KRONWALL WAS REMOVED FROM THE GAME.

What kind of fucked up refereeing is that?!?

So not happy.

Early morning earthquake confirmed in Roanoke; no injuries or damage reported

The Roanoke Valley felt tremors from a mild earthquake early Saturday morning.

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a 2.6 magnitude earthquake about 4:08 a.m., according to the National Earthquake Information Center.

The epicenter was about 4 miles west-southwest of Roanoke, in the Cave Spring area.

An "overflow" of people have called 911 in Roanoke, according to emergency dispatchers, though no damage or injuries have been reported.

Earthquakes of this intensity usually do not cause much damage, the Center said. Sometimes called microearthquakes, they often are only detected by seismographs and not felt by people.

By 5 a.m., the Earthquake Information Center's Web site listed more than 100 reports of weak or light shaking in Roanoke, Vinton and Salem.


Needless to say, YES I FELT IT. It woke me up out of sound sleep. I thought a tree had hit the house or something. Mark slept through it and didn't believe me.

Edited to add- They upgraded it to 3.0.

A few weeks or so ago, Beadweaving Emporium Market came up with bi-monthly Challenges, to help us jump start a new project or idea, or whathaveyou.

The theme for July is 'New Horizons'. Very interesting, I thought, quite a few different ways to interpt too.

So off I went to pull out all those pages of various bead stitches I'd printed off years ago and never really got around to teaching myself the majority of. I figured I'd narrow the selection down to 3 or 4 different stitches I've been meaning to learn and just haven't gotten around to, and have Mark chose one- or as he did, two.



See, I tend to stick with what works for me. And sometimes that can put me in a rut and I'll just keep doing the same thing, over and over and over again, in varying combinations of colors and shapes, generally. But it's invariably the same few stitches, repeatedly.

I've never motivated myself to want to learn a new stitch. Not in years. In fact, the last new stitch I learned was the 'Karmen' stitch and the 'NetWeave Drop' stitch, several years ago. I learned them, but then... never did anything with them.



BEM's bi-monthly challenge was a great jump start to get myself motivated again. To make me want to learn at least one new beadwork stitch and stretch my repertoire that much more. To that end, I had Mark chose from a stack of stitches I'd never done before.

He chose two stitches, suggesting that I use one as the base, and do the other off of it, incorporating the cab I wanted to use as a focal point to the entire piece. This is why I keep him around- he has an awesome way of helping me figure out a new design or color combo. For someone so technical minded, he has a great sense of creativity to go along with it.



So, I beaded up the cab, a gorgeous piece of Lace Agate by Ahna over on that other site that starts with an 'E'. But then I also went ahead and beaded up a pair of fused glass topped tiles I had that I wanted to play with. If I tell you where I got them, you won't believe me, so I won't.}:P

Ok, yes, I beaded the 2 tiles as procrastination rather than actually starting on learning one of the other bead stitches Mark chose. Except, I finished them last night and now, besides taking photographs of my absolutely gorgeous German Bearded Irises, Siberian Irises and Japanese Irises that are all blooming, or catching up on the several days worth of food posts I need to do- one of which is the Daring Cook's challenge due on the 14th, I have no other reason NOT to start teaching myself.



The only thing holding me back is... myself. That little shadow voice in the back of my head telling me I'll fail won't shut up. That little sorrow filled other voice saying, hey, it's almost the 1yr anniversary of Dante's passing, shouldn't you be more depressed, also won't shut the devil up.

But I look at these freshly beaded pieces and I look at my gardens and I look at the myriads of photos I have of Dante in happier times, and I wonder, why the devil should I be depressed, why the devil should I feel like I'm going to fail when I can do THIS.



And thus, all reasons to continue to procrastinate leave. And thus, motivation once again returns.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have the herringbone beadwork stitch to learn.

.

I did not need to have to rescue a beautiful Husky from the damn road, where he was almost hit by not one, but SEVERAL cars, only two of which STOPPED (one car alerted me to there being something wrong even before Caena started woofing, because I heard their tires squeal).

Glance out the window to see a car stopped in front of the house, and a guy in the parking lot across the street start to kneel down as if His dog had gotten loose somehow.

Saw a quick flash of white/cream, and KNEW, oh gods, a dog in the road, during lunch rush hour on a Friday.

I didn't even stop to make sure the screen door was secured behind me so my OWN dog wouldn't come running out, before I was down the steps and in my driveway, trying to coax this gorgeous full grown cream/beige Husky out of the road and over to me.

Thank gods he's very social, as he came trotting right up to me, so I could grab not only his collar, but HIM as well, and hold him until his owners, 2 guys in their mid twenties I'd say, came jogging up, thanking me profusely. According to them, he's very stubborn and has run down this way before (I wonder if this is the same dog Eric says he saw, and thought was Dakota, the female up the backhill?).

His name is Ringo and Ringo got a stern admonishment from me to stay out of the damn road, as I've seen way too many pets get hit, or have been found, in front of my house.

Seeing another get hit is something I do not need. Not now, not ever again.

When I feel absolutely stupid and know I should have known what something was but was wrong anyway.

Today is one of those days and while I know he didn't mean to make me feel stupid- how was he* to know I'd taken Horticulture/Plant Care in high school nearly 20 years ago?- I still felt really dumb for assuming that since one Tree that was taken down years ago was a White Oak, the rest were too.

Well, they weren't. The ones taken down yesterday were Red Oaks.

So I stand corrected, I admitted my mistake and we carried on. But I still feel damn stupid for not remembering my Trees. Hey, I knew it was an Oak, after all, I guess that's a point in my favor.

But he cannot convince me that what I believe are in fact Elm Trees, are Chestnuts Trees. For one thing- there are several of them, and quite large, well mature ones, and I've NEVER , in the 8 years of living here, seen Chestnuts.

There are a few Chestnut Trees down at the park. I'll take a walk down there this week, and compare the leaves.

But I still think he's wrong on those Trees, at least.

So why doesn't that make me feel better?


(And I know for damn certain that the Tree in my Avatar[ on IJ] is a Sycamore)

*Neighbor's brother- although, you cannot convince me that they are brothers either.

This is why I am damn glad we lived OFF BASE and not in Base Housing while stationed at Camp Lejeune. Not that Jacksonville City or Onslow County water was likely any better, mind you...

Hell, we burned the ammo pallets and boxes, only to be told later that they were treated with chemicals that were used in PCP and that PCP was released in the smoke from said pallets and boxes. Yeah. And people wonder why I blame the Marine Corps for so many things.


In an about-face, the government has disavowed a 12-year-old federal report that found little or no cancer risk for adults who lived at Camp Lejeune, N.C., where drinking water was contaminated for three decades.

( Read the rest... )

Red bud blooms at Fishburn Park.




My pupper girl.

So, I went out about bought myself a new camera for my birth day today.

Kodak Z1012 IS 10.1mp.

Yup.

Major upgrade from the 6.1mp I was using. Lots of bells and whistles on this one.

Also got a spare battery and a 8gig picture card for it. Should last awhile. Heh.


Oh and if anyone's interested- this weekend I'm offering free shipping on everything in my Etsy shop, in honor of my birth day.

That's today through Sunday.

We Swap Snacks comm on LJ has these mass snack swap exchanges every few months. I managed to get in on #4.}:P
By the way, they need more INTERNATIONAL swappers. So if you're interested, and have an LJ, head on over and check it out!

I think that's right, at least.}:P I sent my box to karizma23 in Washington, and received one from him, here in Virginia.}:P



BOX! whee! Pardon the hockey catalog, was using it to cover addresses.}:P It arrived on Weds, which surprised both of us, as we really thought it'd take longer, coming across the US and all.

( But what's inside??? You ask... )