>If you haven't already done so, check out the pricing of an MSDN subscription from a third-party (someone other than Microsoft)...you can save quite a bit of money this way.
>
>Also, if you're diving into .NET, I highly recommend looking at C#...it is a *very* nice language, AND it was designed specifically for working with the .NET Framework. Other languages such as VB.NET and C++ carry a bit of syntax "baggage" as compared to C#.

Thanks for the recommendations