Where have I been????

I haven't been teaching this semester, and, like Angry Professor over at A Gentleman's C, this means less impetus for blogging here (but I have been reasonably active on the Craft Blog) . I had hoped to blog more research related stuff this semester, but that just hasn't happened.

Over the past week we've been giving our 17 year-old son a lesson in personal finance. He will graduate from high school in two weeks (we're in the southern hemisphere, the school year is synchronized with the calendar year). He's a computer geek (he was on the Australian team for the International Olympiad in Informatics), so he wants to build himself a computer to use once he's in uni studying software engineering. We were willing to contribute a modest sum in the form of gifts and an outright grant, but not enough to fund the entire project. He had a bit in savings (from vacation jobs, etc) plus a few US Savings Bonds received as gifts over the years. We'll loan him the balance (only about A$400) . He did all the research, and ordered the parts online. He just got his first debit/ATM card, so he'll use that to pay (the place he ordered from is local, so he can pay when he picks everything up). Now I just have to find out if I can redeem the US Savings Bonds here in Brisbane. It will be a real pain if I have to go to Sydney to do it.