Rails - Feb 2006 - in_place_editor_field with blank value

I have an in-place editor for my customer.notes attribute. Here''s the
view:

      <% @customer.notes = ''No notes'' if !@customer.notes
||
@customer.notes.strip == '''' -%>
      <%= in_place_editor_field :customer, :notes, {}, { :rows => 2 }
%>