Learning Photoshop

I've been relying on Norine to do all the image processing in Photoshop.  She does such a great job that I didn't have a lot of incentive to take the time to learn the program.  It was much easier to just let her do it all!  ;)  Seriously though, I've been wanting to learn Photoshop for a long time.  I was always looking for the perfect learning method but never succeeded with finding it.  We have tons of books and videos, but I needed something that started with the basics so I'd understand the functionality of Photoshop.

I think I just found the perfect solution for the price of a book.  We just bought Richard Harrington's "Understanding Adobe Photoshop CS4".  The book combines podcasts, lesson material, CD examples, and quizzes.  Norine and I are doing it together and now that we're in chapter two, I have a real good feeling that this is just what I've been looking for.  We both like Richard's teaching style.  We start each chapter by viewing a podcast via Apple TV while we follow along on our laptops.  Then we read the materials using the sample materials provided on the CD.  At the end of the chapter we take a test.  

Hopefully I'll learn enough to take some of the pressure off Norine!