Thanks all!
It's so much fun to learn something new with photography--I just need to branch out with my subject matter. Wifey's long ago tired of heving her picture takenn baby's getting wise now too, plus I'm sure people get tired of seeing 1,000 shots of my kid.
jbf: I wanted to stay relatively low tech and portable so I picked up the sekonic L-208 which is small easy to read and inexpensive--around $100 I think. The only thing about it is that I sometimes fiddle with it too much and end up missing the shot. Gotta get better at a general read and keep it in my hand rather than pulling it out for every shot.
And students aren't lowly, just monetarily challenged for the time being!