John,

That's fantastic you're learning .net.  I hope you get a chance to visit with the group and meet people.  We've had study groups in the past and I'm sure people would love to join you, but you'll get the best response at the user group meetings.

My personal opinion is to stick with 2.0 for starters.  Version 3.5 is just an expansion on top of 2.0.  A majority of companies are using 2.0 and haven't been able to fully utilize 3.5 yet, however that is changing slowly but surely.