First, thank you again to all of you who took the time to help.
Here's my story. I learned, analyzed and agonized. I shopped. I repeated the process ad infinitum. I consulted with and exasperated my wife. She ultimately said some version of "just buy the damn thing". Astutely, she pointed out that if she was not fully aware of my innate obsession on details, she might conclude that my behaviour constituted a strategy to that end. I honestly had never thought about it that way before. An epiphany in conjunction with an electronics purchase process.
Anyway, Canon started a rebate program on 4/1 - $100 on the Rebel XT plus $10-50 on some lenses. That was enough to get me. So, I ordered up (from B&H) the 350D, 50mm f/1.8, and the Canon 75-300 f/4.0-5.6 with a hood. I know that zoom is NOT going to get me the performance I need indoors, but long course (outdoor) season is approaching, and using it will be a good learning experience to help me figure out which prime(s) to get. And it will still be a fine lens for outdoor stuff, or until I can justify the expense of 70-200mm f/2.8. I concluded that this package with the extra pixels and future purchase of fast primes was probably the best approach for me. Smaller bites.
Unfortunately, I think that the next thing will be to look for a new camera for the missus. I'd be surprised if she became enthused about this level of complexity and form factor. Our current Canon is only 2MP, and hideously thicker than a deck of cards. She's enamored of some Casio 7MP tiny thing at the moment. Form over function for her.
It's been an excellent learning experience. I'll let you know about my future exploits. Again, particularly to Adam, Mark, Frank, Ken and other friends - thank you very much for your gracious tutelage.
