On Thursday night we released the tax filing program. I say "we", and though I was around for the final tagging, gong-beating, and general rejoicing, I still had to go home at the ordinary time. Otherwise, SEPTA would have stranded me. Many of my comrades left to paint the town red, and several brave souls stayed behind to tweak the deployment. They stayed until the small hours, and ordered in beer and pizza, as any reasonable person would.

On Friday an email went around saying there would be a meeting for all staff at 3:45, and attendance was not optional, which is pretty strong language for where I work. The rumour went around that the CEO was unhappy because he had found the beer bottles in the recycling. Sure enough, 3:45 came, and the boss stood up and said, "I know you've all been working really hard to release this program, and you've all done a fine job, and I know releases are always stressful, but I want to remind you that it is never appropriate to introduce alcohol into an office environment...", and all the managers appeared behind him pouring champagne for us all. Such is my workplace.

I know many of you are waiting for a link to the program. It's all working fine, but it's not publicly released yet: the UI of the public version still needs some polishing. I promise to post the link on Thursday, or possibly Wednesday, as am I am itching to do. Meanwhile, here's some news coverage from Florida, and from Ohio, and from Pennsylvania.

The person whom someone whom someone knew knew who knew how to fix washing machines did not turn up at the appointed time. Therefore, we spent $50 in quarters on washing and drying our clothes at a laundrette. Tomorrow, we shall go and buy a new washing machine. Ho hum.

Someone mentioned teaching languages to kids this afternoon, and it made me think about how to teach Rio. I think it's important that she learns other languages early on, and I suppose there are two possible approaches, which are complementary: either we can have a rule that (as much as possible) all conversation is in such-and-such a language at particular times, or we can have more formal lessons. I can probably manage to do either of those to some basic level in French or Welsh, but not anything else. For the second, dyddgu (penblwydd hapus, btw) has sent us some Welsh language textbooks, and I'm expecting to be able to use those when Rio's got beyond dw i'n hoffi coffi level. Do any of you have ideas or experiences you could share?