For the programming side (T-SQL), just about any book by Itzik Ben-Gan is a very worthwhile investment. Grant Fritchey's books on Execution Plans are an absolute must have when it comes to query performance tuning. Gail Shaw's "SQL in the Wild" blogs are great. And Kimberly Tripps "MCM Video Series" are awesome, as well.

On the administrative side, I don't have many recommendations there other than Books Online, which is the "help" system for SQL Server. EDIT... I take that back. Paul Randal's blogs are also awesome. Brent Ozar also has a great website if you ignore the stuff he says about not doing index maintenance. 😀

No matter the case, though, you can get a special copy of the "Enterprise Edition" of SQL Server known as the "Developers Edition". It works on a laptop and does NOT require a Windows Server to operate. It costs about as much as a really good technical book on the subject (~$60USD or so).