Since the government announced the economic stimulus package, I've had this date circled. By May 9, my wife and I were expecting our $1,500 rebate to be directly deposited into our bank account. On May 10, we planned to do our part to help stimulate the economy.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the electronics store -- the Department of Treasury forgot to give us our money.

We do our taxes online and had them completed and accepted by the Internal Revenue Service in early April, nearly 10 days before the April 15 deadline. The tax program we use even asked if we wanted our rebate directly deposited into our bank account.

But apparently we didn't read the fine print about the stimulus package. You know the part -- the one that says if you paid in, your check would come in the mail.

We owed the IRS a few dollars from 2007, but I still thought we'd receive our stimulus check by the target date of May 9. Heck, those that paid in should be the ones who get the rebate first -- not those who are already getting money back from the government.

So if the release dates are correct, our rebate check won't come in the mail until the middle of June. By then, I might be stimulated to just keep the $1,500 in my savings account.

Kristen, my youngest stepdaughter, isn't into current events. What's news to her is school gossip or whatever shows up on her myspace page.

So my wife and I were quite startled last week when Kristen started quizzing us about President Bush's economic stimulus package.

Since discussing news with her is such a rare occurrence, I asked Kristen, "How did you know about that?"

She said the subject was brought up by the teacher in her Early American Cultures class. According to Kristen, her teacher told the kids how much their parents would be getting back -- including a $300 rebate for each child.

Which explains why Kristen was so interested in the stimulus package. She wanted to know what her "cut" of the $300 would be.

Thank you very much, Mr. Exeter teacher!!