Interesting--I had not really looked at or considered that option. I'll have to dig around for some more extensive information and howtos on doing this. The link you gave seems to indicate the mirrored DB wouldn't be usable because of being set to norecovery, but it just looks like I have to find the right setup with snapshots to get what I need.

Thanks--this gives me a new rabbit trail to go down.

EDIT: It looks like this option is out. Snapshots aren't a feature of SQL 2005 Standard edition. We won't be dropping the money on Enterprise--that I know.