Congrats Chris, going with Canon is a wise move, they are pretty much the leader in photography, although they'll suck your wallet dry
Now all you need to do is to buy my lens...lol
Are you just buying the body or you going with the kit lens? If you don't go with the kit lens and aren't interested in my lens I can recommend you some other good lenses. I'm looking to pick up the 50mm f/1.8 prime that everyone raves about for $80 on B&H soon, you might want to consider that since it's the cheapest you'll ever see a Canon lens. Other basics you might want to consider is a decent bag, a 1 gig CF card (get a fast one), UV filter, circular polarizer filter and maybe a simple lens cleaning kit. Your also going to want to get a sensor cleaner, I plan on getting the Giottos Rocket Air blower which I've read really good things about too. The rest of the stuff; flashes, tripod, more lenses additional batteries and CF cards are nice to have but not necessary and can be purchased at a later time.
I've been studying and reviewing lots of lenses and other equipment (mainly Canon) for my Rebel XT so if you have any questions let me know, I'll try to answer them. I actually plan on ordering this week from B&H my 50mm prime as well as my first "L" glass, the 70-200mm f/4L
along with a couple other "toys".
Once you start looking at the prices of good glass, especially "L" glass you'll see how photography is way more expensive than detailing
One more thing, I've been reading Canon is really bad with rebates (i.e. they don't send them out) so keep track of when you send yours out and make sure you have all the required info. I'm probably going to call them next week to see the status of my rebate.
. But in all seriousness, congratulations!! I've been trying to convince my wife I NEED one for my business. She seems to think that it's not a need... What does she know. The one piece of advice I can give is get the best glass your wallet will allow, good glass makes all the difference (my 35mm slr body was like $150 but one lens was well over $500). Good luck and post lots of pictures when you get it. 
The first time I mentioned it she laughed like I hadn't never spent a buck on her.
I know what you mean about the "glass" as my Minolta SLR has some nice glass but it's a rather large zoom (70-210) and I have to be a good distance from the kids just to get a head shot. I plan to get a "normal" lens for that as well as a nice zoomer for the XT.
Linear Mode
