The weather has been warming up; happens each year about this time, I am told. So off to the local home improvement big-box (“L” word) to grab some peat moss, vermiculiate, and compost. Brought it home, mixed up the three ingredients in equal proportions, and put it in the new garden boxes. That’s the start of this year’s experiment in “Square Foot Gardening”.

Theoretically, the process will allow for dense gardening with minimal weeds and maximum output. Plans are for tomatos, peppers, beans, and strawberries. The ‘secondary water’ (used for irrigation out here) hasn’t been turned on yet (they turn it off during winter), although it is supposed to be on in the next couple of days. Since planting time is usually around the middle of May, I have a bit of time before I need to plant. Although I have read that beans can be planted a bit before then. We’ll see what happens with the water — could be that planting may start next week.

The “FoodieFeeds” site (www.foodiefeeds.com) had a database issue yesterday morning. Luckily, I had a recent backup, so just had to restore the data and make some minor changes. I have been doing manual backups, but needed an automatic data backup process. The WordPress sites I do (this one included) have a manual process that can be automated, but I needed one for all the databases here.

So, a bit of Google-fu brought me to a site that had a quick and easy PHP program that can be run on the host server. It will backup all databases on a site, compress the file, then email it. A download, a couple of minor changes, upload and run, and the backups were emailed. Worked quite well. I’ve set it as a CRON job to automatically run once a day. If any of my three regular readers need a link to it, send a comment and I’ll let you know.

Today’s plan? Some changes to a client’s (yes, I have a client) web site, and perhaps a bit of cleaning up in the garage. And some work on the new ‘stealth’ site: I am rearranging some code to make it more efficient, which of course breaks a few functions, so minor code changes to make it all work again. I think I am on the last 10% of the coding for that site — but, like all projects, the last 10% of the project takes the most time for some reason.

Had a nice Easter weekend. Good dinner at my daughter Christine’s house (she of the Sticky Fingerprints site). Spoiled the grandkids with Easter baskets, and got my favorite green jello salad (green jello mixed with whipping cream, chopped walnuts, and lots of cherry halves).

Still job hunting, perhaps another prospect this week. Added a new feature to FoodieFeeds that will send out a tweet from @Foodie_Feeds whenever there’s a new food blog post. And still working on the latest ‘stealth project’, which has some interesting techniques to combine multiple web page functions into one (all server-side PHP, with a bit of client-side Javascript thrown in). It’s an interesting project that helps keep me busy while I wait for spring to arrive in Utah.

…for this semi-regular blog. Same link as before, it’s just now a WordPress-based system rather than Blogger. Blogger is removing FTP support, so I decided, since I’ve been doing a lot of WordPress sites, to convert this place to WordPress. That took a few hours yesterday, and there’s still some more visual tweaking to be done, but all the content (I think) has been moved.

Just another step in the evolution of this site.

The job situation continues to be in ‘search’ mode. Some potential employers seem to disappear into a black hole, never to be heard from again. But others keep cropping up; some are quite interesting, but can’t be discussed. In the meantime, a bit of consulting work for an actual client has been completed, and there are new things in store for existing sites like “FoodieFeeds” FoodieFeeds, plus some other projects that help keep me busy.

The weather here has been, I am told, typical for Utah this time of year. Some nice days (last week in the 60’s), then a few snowy/cold days (that was the last couple of days), followed by clearing weather (today is 40’s and clear), followed by more storms (due to hit over the next few days). The weeds in the vacant lots are greening up nicely; my lawn still seems a bit dormant. Probably time for a bit of fertilizer pick-me-up. Still not time for garden planting, but I need to get the garden boxes ready.

So, life goes on. Good plan, in my mind.

I’ve been working on a couple of programming projects the past few weeks. One is the FoodieFeeds site (http://www.foodiefeeds.com), which shows the latest food blog posts from member sites. It’s in partnership with my friend Larry Gaian, AKA “the BBQ Grail”, for whom I have worked on several other web sites the BBQ Grail and others.

Another site I am working on is what will eventually be an open-source product. Not quite ready to announce that one, but I do have the new domain name all set up. More on that when it’s closer to being ready for prime time.

I am also helping out a local business update their web site. This one is actually a paid consulting gig. With all these projects, I am spending a lot of time in the basement office here at home. It’s a nice place, quiet, with some music via SkyFM.com. playing in the background.

There is also a possibility of a full-time position. Initial interviews have gone well, so am waiting for the results on that. It’s a pretty good fit for my experience, and looks to be an interesting position.

And keeping busy with other things. Spring is getting closer here in Utah, so I’ve been planning for the garden area. This is a new project for me. I am trying out the ‘square foot gardening’ technique, so have the lumber ready for building the garden boxes. The weather has been a bit cool to work outside, though. And planting time around here is not until the middle of next month, so I am basically on schedule on that project.

Pam and I went to the Utah DMV yesterday to get our Utah drivers licenses. We had all the required identification (old drivers license, social security card, a bill with our new address, and a DNA sample) that is needed due to the new federal “Real-ID” requirements. Since those new rules do not allow mail-in renewals, there’s more people than usual at the DMV.

Our wait was only about 2 hours. We both had to take an open-book written test. I missed 2 questions, Pam missed a couple more than that. But we both passed, paid the fee, got our picture taken, and left with a temporary Utah drivers license.

This morning started out with a bit of snow, but my clever and diabolical plan of procrastination worked, as the 1″+ of snow all melted off the driveway by about lunchtime.

Still working on the ‘sub-stealth’ project for the FoodieFeeds site. Making some good progress. Some of the new FoodieFeed sites have interesting tips about food (in particular, BBQ), so am also enjoying visits to those sites.

The ‘stealth’ project has gone public. Actually, the site went live last weekend.

The site is a Food Blog aggregator, called “FoodieFeeds” (http://www.foodiefeeds.com ). It’s a joint project between me (the web programmer) and Larry Gaian, an old friend who runs several BBQ-related web sites (the main one is ‘The BBQ Grail’ at http://thebbqgrail.com . We’ve worked together on several BBQ-related web sites.

The site is a way to a centralized site of the latest entries from participating Food Blogs. It uses a customized process and databases to build the page. It works pretty well, although sites with Atom RSS feeds are sometimes harder to get the information from. Still working on that problem.

Also working on another stealth project related to FoodieFeeds.

In the meantime, the job search is in progress, but not much action lately. So I keep busy in the basement by working on web site programming. My PHP and MySQL skills are getting better each day.

I’ve been working on the new web site. Almost ready for prime time; perhaps by Monday. It’s been keeping me busy; I am much less of a TV couch potato now.

No significant progress on the job front on my end. Pam did accept a position as the bookkeeper/accountant for a firm in Midvale. It’s about the same commute as we had in CA. She will start next Monday.

That means that I’ll be doing a bit more of the cleanup around the house. Perhaps even cooking dinners. I’ve had some practice, though. It was a year ago that Pam broke her wrist and elbow (different arms), so she was pretty much chair-bound for several weeks. I did all the laundry, cleaning (most of it), and soda-fetching. I figure I can handle it again.

And it will get me up earlier so I can take the grandkids to school each morning. The web projects will keep my day filled. And I’ve got to re-design this blog, since Blogger is taking away FTP transfer. Looks like another WordPress site will be happening soon.