I recently checked out the Google Webmaster Tools for my site and found that there were a lot of prescription drug related hits from what the Google bot was seeing. I’m really not sure how they got there and really want to get rid of them.

I moderate all comments, have my blog comment spam filter turned on, and even had, at one point, comments locked down to registered users only, but, still, link spam is visible to the interwebs. Does anyone know of a way to spam comments on a website, but keep them hidden? And, conversely, does anyone know how to prevent this kind of spam? Is it time to do an update to the old website platform again?

Link: Epicurious.com’s Cheese Fondue Recipe

Ingredients:
1 garlic clove, halved crosswise
1 1/2 cups dry white wine (preferably Swiss, such as Fendant)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons kirsch
1/2 lb Emmental cheese, coarsely grated (2 cups)
1/2 lb Gruyère , coarsely grated (2 cups)

Accompaniment:
cubes of French bread on fondue forks or long wooden skewers

Special equipment:
a fondue pot

To make:

1. Rub inside of a 4-quart heavy pot with cut sides of garlic, then discard garlic.
2. Add wine to pot and bring just to a simmer over moderate heat.
3. Stir together cornstarch and kirsch in a cup.
4. Gradually add cheese to pot and cook, stirring constantly in a zigzag pattern (not a circular motion) to prevent cheese from balling up, until cheese is just melted and creamy (do not let boil).
5. Stir cornstarch mixture again and stir into fondue.
6. Bring fondue to a simmer and cook, stirring, until thickened, 5 to 8 minutes.
7. Transfer to fondue pot set over a flame and serve with bread for dipping.

I originally found this recipe over a year ago when we wanted to make some Swiss cheese fondue when a friend was coming over for dinner. Unfortunately, we had been used to making cheddar and beer fondue and decided to not follow the directions; the result was too much flour, a full bottle of wine in the fondue, and three drunk people eating a not-soft-enough cheese thing with sticks. Since then, we’ve tried it again with a much higher success rate. Our only major change to the recipe is to remove the garlic; all the taste of the original fondue, minus the vampire-killing aftertaste.

Baby Pandas

Just had to share…

Also while researching neighborhoods and houses, I came across the Tucson Police Department’s Crime Statistics website. Though it’s a clumsy and slow web-interface, the Tucson Police Department provide a means of looking up crime statistics by address and type if incident for the last few years. Firefox users need not apply; the site does not seem to work properly in anything other than Internet Explorer.

Another interesting fact found on that site is that Park Place Mall is in the top 10 list for places to get your car stolen.

Recently, I’ve starting my home searching efforts and have found it quite useful to know more about the properties that I’m looking at to get a bigger picture of the location. One such piece of information is knowing where the local flood planes are so that you can judge the risk of having a flood damage your property.

The easiest source of this information is FEMA’s maps website. Go there and enter the address that you are looking at and you’ll be given access to a map system that will show you the flood planes local to that address. The website even lets you save a .pdf copy of the information you are looking for for future reference.