Well, this is the day that I was supposed to be in British Columbia. And in fact, not only am I not there, but this isn't today :-)
I'm way late updating my journal again, so in fact I'm writing this entry on 7/26/00. But I need at least one entry in each half-month period, and today was when I'd promised a change of scenery, so this makes a good point.
In fact, we had a couple of catastrophic errors, and everyone has been working late. After how smooth everything was going it seems unfair, but I guess we couldn't beat the odds forever.
The problem is one that seems to take a strange combination of hardware and software. Under test, the hardware works flawlessly, and in simulation, the software seems perfect. But at some customers, a very small number, the card runs for three or four days, then dies. And when it dies, the data is completely scrambled, so much so we're not yet certain where in the firmware the error is happening. (Actually, at the time I'm writing this, we believe we're focusing in on the problem.)
Of course, it's happening at major customers, including the company in Vancouver. (They have one system under test there, although they want our people present when they do a full install.) So the install trip has been postponed indefinitely.
I've hardly seen Brian, and he's showing signs of resenting the time I'm spending at work. Since it isn't my fault, I've been pretty resentful of his attitude, and we've fought a lot. Too, I haven't had time to make arrangements for the wedding, and Brian seems either unable or unwilling to take care of them himself. It seems to be "my job". Which, to be frank, also makes me angry, since he was the one pushing so hard for the wedding.
I was reminded when I looked back at June's entries that I didn't follow up on the wedding we attended on June 24th. It was beautiful. Absolutely wonderful, even though we didn't understand a word. (I'm not even sure what language it was conducted in. An Indian language, obviously. The written form looked similar to Thai.)
It also reminded me that I'd made a comment about Halle Berry. Which reminded me that we did take the time to see the X-Men together. Brian's interest, not mine, but I surprised myself at how much I really enjoyed the movie.
And I'm not sure which was more fun... watching Halle Berry or watching Brian watching Halle Berry :-)
Getting back to the work stresses and delays, I was especially disappointed to miss the trip to BC because I'd planned to go Friday, rent a car and drive down to Seattle Saturday. After trading email with Keith, he was going to meet me downtown and show me around. I've been to Seattle before, and loved it, but he says it's very different now.
We waited until the last moment (about midweek before the trip) before cancelling, hoping that we'd have the problem fixed, and I had to wait to tell Keith. I hope he wasn't offended.