Not yet. I ought to, though.
The most useful part is that the timer script gets run through completely each time, without any unnecessary looping inside the script itself.
That's a good idea, I'll have to try that too. That's the strategy I used to make the Archie work.
[edit] Awesome, it's working now! 
I broke it up into different stages and used variables to force it to go through each stage, pretty much as AquaShee described. Little larva hums and haws for a while but always does his stuff like he's supposed to.
Thank you both for your help! Now if nothing else goes seriously wrong maybe I can have this finished by Christmas after all...