I've decided to call the blog software "whateverblog", since the first blog it will be used for is this one... and because I am not very creative.
Of the three major parts (GUI frontend for editing content; generate website by merging content with templates; checksum-based sync files with web server via FTP), the first part is done and the second part is about half done. That is, the eRuby part of the templating system is written and the C# front-end is set up to interop with it, but I don't currently have a way to manage or choose between different sets of templates.
Still, I'm really excited that the eRuby stuff was so easy to integrate. I simply wrote a standalone Ruby script that reads in the data file, turns it into a nice array of articles, reads the template into memory, then runs the eRuby processor on the template (making the array of articles available to the template). It's great; I can combine the power and expressiveness of eRuby templates with the easy wysiwyg editing of CityDesk (and Contribute and whatnot).
I have a feeling the template management problem could end up being surprisingly difficult. I don't have a clear picture at all about how it should work. Need to let that one stew a little...