Funny Bones delivered; Mike promptly tossed me one of the little prewrapped packages, proclaiming it a 'kickback'. :)
I'm going to build something else to learn db in MySQL with, probably just a Magic Card Name Finder or somesuch. I can't think of anything too terribly useful that would be at the right level for me to do as an exercise.
Whatever it is, I'd really like to knock Mike's socks off with the final project, so the simple learning example won't suffice. Here's hoping I figure out a good idea between now and three weeks from now...