I decided to bite the bullet and spend the money.

I'm going to the MASTERs Conference (and Pre-Conference) sponsored by Microchip, August 5-11--five and a half days, 44 in-class hours!

At $2090, it's by no means inexpensive but . . . the room and three meals a day are all included in the price (at the Marriott Desert Ridge). I don't expect to learn anything about PICBasic, of course, but certainly a lot about PICs and some specific applications I'll be dealing with.