Since I am somewhat new to C# and .net I decided to follow up on a
thread I had read on Joel On Software about the new Microsoft Visual
Studio Express product
line which is targeted at enthusiasts and hobbyists. So I went, and
sure enough, Visual C# Express Beta was a free download, and only 50mb.
Note that they require that you give them a valid email address, and
also, from what I've read, the evaulation expires next year.

While reading Joel On Software, I found a link to a website with a draft of a book called "Emergent Design" by the same authors who wrote "Design Patterns Explained". Some chapters are still to be added, but the existing material there is very interesting reading, especially chapter 3, which covers "Coding Principles".