I’ve been working on a new web site project. It is still in “stealth mode”, so can’t give too many details. But it’s heavy in PHP and MySQL, and will include page view tracking and ad placement/tracking.

The ad tracking part will be built from scratch. I’ve looked at a couple of open-source ad management systems, but didn’t find any I liked. So, I’m making my own.

The project helps keep me busy during the day (and sometimes in the evening). The job hunt still progresses; had a good interview today with a big-time recruiting company. That went well; we shall see.

As for this place: it’s run by Blogger software, with data transferred via FTP to my domain host. Got a notice from the Blogger folks yesterday that they will not be supporting FTP posting of posts. So now I need to figure out what to do.

I am leaning towards a WordPress-based site, since I’ve been working with that for the last 4-5 months, and have gotten fairly good at it, if I do say so myself. It’s another project, though, and I hadn’t planned on it. I need to get that other project finished and running first.

So, we’ll see what happens. Finish the ‘stealth project’, move this blog to a new front end, and still look for a job. That should keep me out of trouble.

Staying low this week. Our family is sharing a mild cold virus. This one is persistent: just when you think you are getting better, you get congested. But it’s not too bad. And it was a good excuse for some Baskin-Robins Rocky Road ice cream to soothe a scratchy throat.

Some web work the past few days. Been helping a friend with various BBQ-related sites. They are all WordPress-based, and he wanted a common look-feel to all of them. So I used my favorite WordPress theme, customized everything (which is quite easy with that theme), with a minor color change for each of the three sites. I added the necessary widgets, some customized PHP code for a few areas, and they are done.

The sites are:

• The BBQ Grail (http://thebbqgrail.com )
• MOINK Balls (http://moinkballs.com )
• Snouts to Tails (http://snoutstotails.com )

And then there’s the WikQUEpedia site (http://wikquepedia.com )

If you have any interest in BBQ (or are looking for some good tips), I’d suggest that you take a peek at those sites. The MOINK Balls look really good. (You’ll have to visit the site to figure out what a MOINK Ball is.)

Woke up this morning to about 2 inches of snow on the ground. The snow was a bit soggy, since temps have been warmer overnight – there was a mix of rain and snow overnight.

So, I grabbed a granola bar (oatmeal-raisin), put on my boots and coat, and went outside to shovel off the driveway. My technique is ‘push and shove’, with a bit of ‘lift and throw’ at the edge of the driveway. Then walk back to the center of the driveway to repeat. Since the driveway is so wide, there’s too much snow to do a push-and-shove all the way across the driveway. So I have a small pile of snow – currently about a foot high – down the center of the driveway.

I got the driveway all cleared off (except for the center pile), did the front sidewalk, and called it ‘done’. Went into the house for breakfast and to read the papers.

About mid-morning, it started to clear up outside. The sun came out a bit in partly cloudy skies. At about noon, I looked outside. The snow had mostly melted from the streets, and the neighbor’s driveway and sidewalk were clear of snow.

The neighbor hadn’t shovelled his driveway today. He let the sunshine and warmer temps do the job for him.

The rest of the day was low-key. Cleaned up the kitchen a bit, worked on my CellarWeb web site (http://www.cellarweb.com ). And that’s about it for today.

We welcome Justin McEwan as the latest member of our family. Stacy and Justin were married on Friday (1/15/10). It was a great day for the families. A nice luncheon after the morning ceremony in the Bountiful (UT) LDS temple, and an excellent reception later that evening.

Justin has Scottish heritage, so he and his groomsmen wore authentic Scottish kilts regalia for the reception. They looked really classy. Fortunately, I was only required to wear a tux (the story is that my legs were too ugly for a kilt). The reception had soup and yummy desserts, the decorations were excellent.

At the end of the reception, a bagpiper played while they walked out to their car to leave on their honeymoon. The whole day was excellent, although a bit long.

The New Year started off with a mild case of a 24-hour flu bug. It was shared from the grandkids. Their whole family got it, I just got a mild case. So I spent New Year’s Day in front of the TV, with some quick trips to our ‘library’ (the small room with a personal fan). Better today, though I am still in front of the TV. Today, the laptop is in use; didn’t touch it yesterday.

Christine launched her new blog site “StickyFingerprints” (http://www.stickyfingerprints.com). Some good “mommy blogging” there, including giveaways and cute grandkid stories. Since she has five children under 10 yrs old, there is much opportunity for sticky fingerprints at her house.

Stacy stopped by this morning to get ready for some pre-wedding pictures. She tells me there are 13 more days. She could be somewhat excited. Her husband has Scottish ancestry, so he’s planning on wearing a kilt at the wedding reception. Fortunately, I am just wearing a tux.

We survived the holidays, and had lots of fun doing that. It’s fun to watch others – especially grandchildren – open their presents. And it’s almost fun extracting their toys from the boxes, with twisty (twisted?) ties galore. No Kevlar-reinforced plastic-wrapped toys this year, and no toys that required excessive sticker placement (the Barbie Bus of years past must have had 100 stickers that needed to be applied in just the right spot).

And the weather cooperated. Some snow before Christmas day (just a couple of inches) to make things look nice. It has been cold, under freezing most days and nights. There’s been a bit of fog, so all the moisture in the air freezing on the trees and bushes (and weeds in the surrounding empty lots) did make things quite picturesque.

On the ‘looking-for-a-job’ front: things have slowed down a bit during the holidays, but had a promising interview last week. Waiting for results of that one; I should know by the end of the week. And there’s a possibility of a website development job to keep me busy.

In the meantime, some geeky stuff is being done. I’ve modified a WordPress site (http://www.thebbqgrail.com ) to include a custom-written hunk of PHP code that displays “Tweets”. (A great place, by the way, if you are into real BBQ’ing, as opposed to just ‘grilling’ on the outdoor cooking appliance.) I’ve also finished a new blogging site for the oldest daughter. It will go live next week, I think.

A little bit of snow flurrying today. Just enough that I needed to clear off the driveways, but not too much at the moment. More snow predicted for later today and tomorrow. But the snow is new enough (and not very much) for this ex-California native to still think that it’s nice to look at, and not too bad to shovel. We’ll see if my opinion will change by March.

Another 4 inches last night here, although much more south of us. The result is that I got to use my almost-brand-new snow shovel on the front driveway again. Most of it is now cleared off, except for a patch down the middle between the two doors of the garage. I figured that patch can stay there, since all I need is a clear path in and out of the garage for the two cars.

The snow wasn’t really wet, so it was fairly easy to push across the driveway into piles along the edge. I am starting to give consideration for the purchase of a snow blower. Leaning towards a Toro two-stage blower. But I may defer the purchase until I get employment. I have lots of time now for the manual method, but if I start working, the snow blower would be more efficient and more useful before/after work.

The sky is clearing tonight, which means it will be colder than before. Forecasts for a low of 9F. That’s pretty cold to this once-California guy.

I mentioned on Facebook that after today’s shoveling, I was considering a snow blower purchase. A cousin (who lives in Sacramento CA) said that I should consider moving back to CA. I countered that that was not an option: it would be too far away from the grandkids. And that CA was too dysfunctional. I’d rather deal with a bit of snow.