Seeing that it's been a while, I figure I can let you know what I'm up to. I've been programming for clients; some VoiceXML, some web apps, some legacy IVRs.
In my spare time I've been building out an Asterisk adapter for our Arca applications. It's pretty easy to install, etc. Basically, our IVR applications can be written once and run on VoiceXML, MSS, proprietary IVR platforms, and "non-standard" IVRs like Asterisk.
If you're curious about Asterisk but know nothing about Linux, I can have you running an Asterisk switch on your workstation in two hours.
If you're curious about Arca, let me know. We have videos of how it all works.
If you have any general IVR questions - any platform, any topic - drop me a line!