I've got most of my savings in a citibank e-savings account, which was getting a pretty good interest rate for a while, but that's dropped lately. It's still giving me around $13 a month on about $6,400, though, so that's something. (I am way too lazy right now to calculate what that actual rate would be.)

I just went to a seminar on finding math academic jobs. It was terrifying.

from the smacking sounds I think the boys are sparring in their room. I wonder if it would be weird if I went and stood in the doorway.

I wonder if it would be weird if I went and stood in the doorway.

um... have they paid rent yet? No? Ok then. You get to do what you want.

yes, the rent is paid! And the sparring is over anyway.

I'm annoyed because now when I type "bu" in my address bar it comes up "bulletins dot myspace dot com". I have to type buf to get here and I keep forgetting and going to myspace (ick) by mistake.

Judging my this job search seminar I went to today, I haven't published anywhere near enough. I've got a decent amount of teaching experience, actually I've got teaching experience beyond what most grad students are expected to have, but I'm behind on research stuff. Need to get something published, and soon. Which is not being helped by the fact that, each time I think that I have something workable, my advisor finds some other huge amount of work that'll add several months to writing it that he thinks would be a "really good addition."

I think that this weekend, I'm just going to put together what I have of this current paper that I know is ready to go and just explain to him that I need to get my name out there.

I've never taken any money OUT of it, and I'm not actually sure how.

If you've given ING the details of another account (for setting up auto deposits, frex) you can transfer money back the other way. If not, they'll send you a check.

Susan,

That's awesome financial news!

I think the advice to discuss all this with a financial planner is very sound. However, I would not give them any control over the money or ask for advice about the cost of the trip. In my experience, what one "needs" for a trip can vary wildly. My "need" is your "want" is another person's luxury.

Personally, I would figure out what the type of vacation you are looking at would cost now, and use that as a base figure to ask the planner how best to save for it.

I think the family part should be easy to price out. The research part is trickier. Will that mean lots of traveling around? England? France?

One thing I would suggest if you will be renting a car is learning to drive stick. It's been a long time since I rented a car in Paris, but I remember that renting an automatic was about double renting a stickshift.

It seems to take way too much effort to just get them to pay their bills.

Man, that pisses me off so much! I've been paying my bills all morning and, really, Disney should be able to manage that much if I can.

I finally watched the Engineer's Guide to Cats. that was good stuff. Now I must go buy tuna.

completely unrelated: what's your favorite meat loaf recipe?