I studied music in college. I was fortunate to be one of those 'artist types' whose artistic talents translated into machine awareness. I was self-taught for a long time, but worked for a while at a place that paid for education - hence I went for a Masters in Software Engineering. Although much of the training doesn't apply to what I do on a daily basis, much of it does. The sheepskin helps in interviews, too.

Concerning SQL Server, thanks for the suggestions on further training. I am shocked at the number of people I've run into over the years who sell themselves as DBAs or SQL Server Developers who don't know squat about how to really get the best out of SQL Server. Heck, I'm just a developer (.NET) who interacts with SQL Server and I have often known much more about it than the DBA. I will pass along the suggestions to managers and tactfully pass it along to some DBAs I know who could REALLY use it.