auto date: cond. format Question

[nastech]

have code for auto date entered to cells, but need to tweak conditional
format to change color for new item today, tried "=" sign, <now(), but can't
get. using:

=IF(AF9="","",(AF9+AF$7)<TODAY()) to get x day old change color

1. trying to flip to get to change color if new today
2. is there a way to exclude weekends (sat/sun) in x days old, for
conditional format, so don't have to use absolute cell, to switch from 1 to 3
days?.

thanks in advance.