You people are awesome!!

Thanks for all the ideas, I have a lot more of a grip on the situation now; it's amazing what you can learn from a few sentences from people who know a lot. Ross, first thing I'm going to do is get an iMic and experiment with input to Audacity and Blaze through that. And lots of apple shopping to consider. Perhaps some right-brained young relatives would be interested in unloading an outgrown apple book at some point, I'll look into that.

Which is not to cut off any further pearls of wisdom from joining the thread, I just wanted to check in and say thanks for the thoughtful and helpful input.