Read books -> learn stuff. Wow!

It feels kinda nice when I make it through a book on a piece of software cover to cover.  Oddly enough, if you read things and practice what's in the book, you learn stuff.  Amazing!  Check the Lightroom book off my list.  Next up - Photoshop for photographers.  This might take a little longer considering I have next to zero Photoshop knowledge currently.

Here are a couple basic contact sheets that I now realize you can throw together in about three minutes in Lightroom...

Photogeekery

So I finally upgraded to Lightroom 3.  Every time I get into a new program or upgrade I feel the need to go back and rework everything I've ever done.  Just looking through the items in the develop module shows me that we're getting greater and greater ability to control ever more nuanced bits of our images.  Maybe it's about time I actually learned how to use some of these features.  As much as it pains me to sit fiddling with slidebars in these programs, having a graphic designer / Photoshop sorceress of a wife makes me feel very inferior at times.

Anybody know of any good (and free) tutorials out there?