Thanks my bro, and K to you. I did my CCIE in a year after completing CCNP, it was however a very intense year and Cisco granted me all the gear I needed. Also I was teaching in the Cisco Networking Academy at the time during the evenings so I would go in early and use my classroom as a lab from time to time, took no CCIE level classes at all. For the MCSE I took the 6 classes needed (4 mandatory and 2 electives) and completed the respective test after each class, so I did my MCSE in about 2 months, that really sucked, but Cisco wanted me to have it, and when someone GROSSLY over pays you by the amount they do, you'll find a way to do it