During breakfast today, I made a plan for the day. Here’s the plan.

– clean up the kitchen (after a dinner with most of the family, there is usually quite a few dishes. It takes several runs of the dishwasher to get them all clean and put away, and then the counters cleaned off and sink cleaned.

– work on the new ‘stealth site’ web project: get the add/edit screens working with all the checking and testing done.

– work on Client 2’s web site, which is waiting for more info from the client

– work on the CellarWebAds site (open-source ad display system at www.cellarwebads.com), plus check out the public distribution points to update information. This site has had 50+ downloads, which is not bad for a relatively new product. I need to get it on a few more public distribution sites.

– mow the lawn: take advantage of the sunny day today (after a couple days of cloudy and rainy) to mow the front and back yards.

– check out the garden area: see if the “viney” plants (tomatoes, cucumbers, peas) need to be threaded through the vertical netting. Check the strawberry plants.

– continue the tune-up of the $20 bike I picked up at the local Deseret Industries. I’ve replaced the brake pads, and did the adjustment of the gears and brakes, but they are not quite right.

– take a short ride around the neighborhood on the bike.

I’ve completed the kitchen cleanup (except the floors). Work progresses on the ‘stealth site’. And the other tasks will keep me busy today. So best get back to the list.

I finished up the integration of CellarWebAds with the FoodieFeeds site. All the pages on that site (except for the form pages for mail) now use CellarWebAds to display the graphic ads on the right side. The next step is to get CellarWebAds running on theBBQGrail site.

I also updated the CellarWebAds web site with some newer content, plus a “What’s New” page. Not much action there yet, I need to publicize it a bit more. Another little project was to get comment numbering working on the StickyFingerprints site. That helps with all the giveaways there — entries are the comments, and a random number generator is used to select the winner. Lots of comments/entries on that site, so now the blog author won’t have to manually count the comments.

Monday was the 1K/5K race at the grandkid’s elementary school. I was the designated watcher of the two youngest, while the other three and their parents ran. The 10yrold and 6yrold both ran the 1K, with the big sister holding the hand of her brother during the race. They both came in 2nd place in their age group. The 10yrold ran with mom, and kept up with her to the end; he won 3rd place. Dad also finished well. All got a prize in the drawings, and they all had fun. Mom’s running in a half-marathon on Monday, so that will be exciting to watch.

The weather is cool, there was a bit of snow in the area on Monday, but didn’t hit here. The plants in the garden are still surviving in spite of my beginner’s efforts.

Today there’s more on the web-design plate for several site, including starting a redesign for a new client. That will keep me in the cellar, but it’s comfy down here. So, back to work.

A bit rainy and cold here. Some snow reported near Salt Lake City, but out here just light rain and 40F, so don’t expect any snow here. Typical late spring weather — just Mom Nature giving us one last cool-off before summer hits.

Today’s plan is working on some enhancements for FoodieFeeds, some fine-tuning of style at CellarWebAds, along with trying to number comments on StickyFingerprints . That site has lots of giveaways, with entries in the comments area, so grabbing the 93rd comment right now means counting the comments manually.

So, off to the CellarWeb office (the basement) to get to work.

Returned from a quick trip to California for the anniversary of our son’s death. We left on Monday by car, making the trip from SLC to Sacramento via Interstate 80. Nothing much to report on that drive, the weather was partly cloudy when we started out at 8 am. Highs in the 50-60 range, and a bit of rain west of Lovelock (NV) (a nice cloudburst helped clean all the insects and dirt off of the car). A bit of rain as we exited Truckee (CA) heading over Donner Summit, where the light rain turned to a bit of light/small snowflake, but nothing sticking and no road problems. We rolled into Foresthill (CA) at the home of my cousin Bob and his wife Sue about 630pm. An uneventful trip.

A nice visit with Bob/Sue, along with a home-cooked meal. And the obligitory look at their computer, which needed a bit of fine-tuning. I removed expired anti-virus programs, and installed Microsoft Security Essentials, removed a couple of problematic programs, installed all the MS updates, and did a full Security Essentials scan to run overnight. And a recommendation to add some more memory – the computer is about 5 years old, running XP, and had only 512M RAM.

The next morning, Pam and I drove down to Rocklin to her favorite Waffle House restaurant for breakfast. Then to the local store for some flowers to take to Erica’s (2nd daughter, died shortly after birth) grave in Rocklin, and Jason’s grave site in Newcastle. Had to dodge the sprinklers there, so didn’t stay long.

Then back down the hill a bit on a search for the elusive Golden Grain Marinara Sauce, Pam’s favorite. (On our last trip to CA, we bought 15 jars, and we were running out. It’s not available in Utah.) Much to her dismay, we found out that Golden Grain is no longer making that sauce. 

Back up to Foresthill to grab Bob/Sue to take them out for Chinese food in Auburn (CA). While I am not a big Chinese food fan, it’s one of Pam’s favorites.

On Wednesday, we visited my Aunt June (Bob’s mother) for a bit, showing her some scrapbooks of Jason. She gave us some stories about her mother, and the Baxter (CA) cabin that was built by her father (my grandfather) in the mountains around 1938. There were some good memories to share about the cabin’s early days.

Then we stopped by the Newcastle Cemetery to clean Jason’s grave marker (no sprinklers this time), then back down to Rocklin area for some shopping (mostly at Pam’s favorite scrapbook stores, although one of them had gone out of business). An extended stop at the Barnes/Noble bookstore and a few other places.

Then to Round Table Pizza in Roseville for the main purpose of the trip, a get-together with some friends and family to remember Jason’s death date (or “angel day”). Pizza for all (Round Table is one of our favorite pizza places), some scrapbooks to look at, and a chance to meet with those that we don’t see often now that we are living in Utah.

Thursday was travel day back home. The weather this time was mostly clear and cool, not much traffic, and nothing of significance on the ten hour drive. We got home about 700pm, so were able to relax a bit.

Today was outdoor day – I mowed the lawns (front/back), then washed the exterior windows and hosed off the driveway. Once that was done, I’ve been doing some work on the various web sites. Some work for clients, and some minor enhancements to the CellarWebAds site (a free and easy way to display ads on your web site). There were some new sign-ups for FoodieFeeds (a great place to get your food blog fix), and I looked at some of the food blog sites via FoodieFeeds  (there’s a good one for cinnamon rolls, and how to BBQ a tri-tip).

The weekend arrives. Not that that’s any different for me than any other day. It’s been sort of restful after yesterday.

Wherein I did some minor modifications for CellarWebAds to make it slightly more efficient. And then, since it was nice outside, I grabbed my boots and the weed whacker and cut down some of  the weeds on the empty back lot in the back yard. Cut down about a four-foot wide swath, in which the weeds are growing very nicely. Then some trimming work around the edges of the lawn, and started mowing the front yard. I got the front and sides done by lunchtime, so took a break to wander off to the golden arches (they have my favorite orange drink there).

By the time I made it through the road construction area back to the house, there were some dark clouds to the east that were rumbling a bit. I started on the back yard mowing, and mowed while hearing the rumble of thunder as the storm grew a bit closer. I finished the back yard, and sat on the covered back patio, and about ten minutes after finishing, it started raining with a bit of small hail. I enjoyed watching that for a bit until it started to get a bit too cool.

I also worked on the garden area on Thursday. We went to a local nursery and grabbed some more tomato, cucumber, and strawberry plants (which were cheaper and better than the ones I previously got at the local big-box store). The tomatoes and cucumbers I planted a couple of weeks ago didn’t survive the cold weather; I planted them a bit too soon, and didn’t get the plastic tent over them fast enough. So I removed the dead plants and planted the new ones.

The strawberries I planted a couple of weeks ago were just fine, though, so added nine more plants to that area. Then I fashioned some chicken wire to protect the berries from the local winged marauders. The weather is turning warmer, so I have good hopes for plants that grow.

Today has been sort of low-key. Some more work on CellarWebAds, a minor tweak to FoodieFeeds (a site for food blogs; the recipe for Strawberry Shortcake Cookies looks quite interesting), and some work on a new project.  And a new digital background for this place.

The “Stealth Project” I’ve been working on for a few months is now ready to un-stealth. Presenting “CellarWebAds”, an easy way to display ads on a web site.

I’d been looking for a way to put display ads (graphic images) on a web site without hard coding them, and a way to track the views and clicks for an ad. There’s some free and not-so-free solutions out there, and I tried many of them. But they just didn’t work right for me. They were too complex to run, and hard to integrate in a web site. After spending a bit of time looking at other non-solutions, I decided to write my own. Besides, I wanted to learn more about PHP and MySQL.

So, I’ve been working on CellarWebAds, and it’s ready to be foisted on the world. If you look on the right side of these pages, you’ll see a few ads at the bottom of that right column. Each time you view these pages, a different set of ads will be displayed in a different order. CellarWebAds makes it easy to add display ads to a web site. Only two simple PHP commands are placed on the web page (it even works in a WordPress widget). These commands perform complex functions on a series of database tables that specify the ad to display.

An administration program is used to add the necessary information to the database tables in order to display the ads. As each ad is displayed, a tracking counter table is incremented. And a ‘click’ on the ad increments a clicking counter. Those counters are used, along with a rate table, to create a bill for the advertiser.

I think it is a quite simple way to integrate ads on a web site. You’ll find all the details at the new CellarWebAds.com web site.

The best part of CellarWebAds is that it is free (although we will accept donations). CellarWebAds will work on any web site (even WordPress), and is quite easy to install and implement.

So, that’s the “Stealth Project” I’ve been working on the past few months. The next step is to get CellarWebAds installed on some client web sites (especially the ones that I am part-owner of). And then some nice little unobtrusive ads.

Check out CellarWebAds, and let me know what you think.

Our oldest daughter, Christine, had her birthday today. I am not allowed to tell you the actual number, but the two-digit year of her birth is a natural progression of the month/day of her birth.  She’ll probably mention the nice start to her day on her blog <a href=’http://stickyfingerprints.com’>StickyFingerprints</a>.

Pam and I met for lunch with her three youngest children plus her sister Stacy. Then everyone except me went off shopping for a bit (I lucked out there). I wandered home, and went outside to fix up the plastic covering over the garden area, since the weather dweebs are predicting lows of about 30 tonight. Colder today — some very minor snow flurries in the area, which is normal for this time of year around here.

Other than that, I stayed inside and worked on the Stealth Project’s web pages, along with the two ecommerce sites I am working on.

The next few days will be busy. Tomorrow, I am volunteering some time at the local Deseret Industries (thrift-shop), and then Saturday will be helping out a a fellow church member’s funeral, getting the chair and tables set up.  There will be a large crowd for his services, since he’s lived in this area for his whole life and has a large family.