6 August 2002

Well, I got further with the printer than I thought I would, yesterday. It took a bit of a pep-talk, including reminding myself that the reason I have this job is that I'm not afraid to screw around with things even when I'm not entirely certain how they work.

But I got the printer's little 2x16 screen to print text I wanted it to say, and I got it to count seconds and show me each passing second on the display, and do a little beep with each one. And I also got it to send the counted seconds back to the PC, which is really a step in the direction I want it to go.

Today: Sending data from the PC to the printer, and the hard one: getting data from the RFID tags. (I don't expect any of that to make much sense to anyone but me. If you're actually curious, I'm working with this printer.)

If I can do both of those today, or at least make significant progress in that direction, then tomorrow and Thursday I'll build an API for the PC end of the interaction, and then Friday I'll lay out the actual label we're printing, and then I'll have most of next week relatively work-free.

Of course, that's assuming a lot. We'll see how it goes.

One of the things it assumes it that I'll be able to stay awake all day. I wasn't thinking last night, and finished off a Diet Dr. Pepper during the Daily Show. I haven't been drinking much caffeine lately - especially in the evenings - so when I when I went to bed at 11:30, I spent a lot of time tossing and turning. I don't think I actually got to sleep until nearly one.

Oops.

But I didn't bring my laptop to work with me today - I deliberately left it at home. I bought my iPod so I wouldn't have to lug the laptop around with me just for tunes. When I've got work to do at work, that's all I use the laptop for. Maybe next week, if I don't have any work again, I'll bring the laptop in so I can write. But this week, I'm going to rely on the iPod.

(And a big pad of paper, if the writing bug gets too overwhelming. You didn't think I'd go without a backup plan, did you?)

Abby had her first birthday party last night. Very cute. I brought in Tarri, of course, since Zoya really isn't much of a baby/kids person, and Kevil is in Alanis until the end of the month. (We need to fix that soon. Three months at a clip without my favorite character is just No.)

But it was nice. Something simple and sweet. Tarri is starting to come to grips with Sanriel's disappearance; it's been a month since she got the letter from his mother. She'll be in mourning for a good while, of course, but she's starting to be able to function socially again, even if weird things set her off from time to time.

And Glossaria with a baby was just a hoot. :-)

--Liz