What are your thoughts on using the following for save

    def save
      @custom_attributes.merge! 'Name' => name,
                                'CreatedAt' => Time.now.utc.to_s

      current_attributes = attributes

      current_attributes.select! do |key,value|
        if value != 'nil'
          true
        else
          @logger.info "Removing attribute set to nil '#{key}'."
          sdb_connect.delete_items 'stacks', name, key => nil
          false
        end
      end

      current_attributes.each_pair {|k,v| @logger.debug "Setting attribute #{k}=#{v}"}

      sdb_connect.put_attributes 'stacks',
                                  name,
                                  current_attributes,
                                 :replace => current_attributes.keys

      @logger.debug "Save to SimpleDB successful."
    end

/cc @thbishop