>I'll definitely look at Typed Datasets. Thanks!

If you lose the battle to use EF and your boss insists that you use standard ADO.NET, here are some relevant posts on my blog that may interest you:

First, my 3-part DataAccess series:

http://geek-goddess-bonnie.blogspot.com/2009/09/dataaccess-part-i.html
http://geek-goddess-bonnie.blogspot.com/2009/10/dataaccess-part-ii.html
http://geek-goddess-bonnie.blogspot.com/2009/10/dataaccess-part-iii.html

Each post adds extra complexity to the Data Access classes, but more flexiblity.

Here's my rant against TableAdapters:
http://geek-goddess-bonnie.blogspot.com/2009/09/tableadapters-are-crap.html

Here's how to go about creating an .xsd and generating the Typed DataSet without all the TableAdapter junk getting put into it:
http://geek-goddess-bonnie.blogspot.com/2010/04/create-xsd.html

~~Bonnie