echoing what I sent via text, congrats, I'm having a Sam Adams The Vixen in your honor tonight
I just got back from having dinner with a good friend from high school's little sister. When I used to hang around their house, I was 19 and she was 13, and we barely talked. Tonight we talked for about 3 hrs, and it was like we've been friends forever.
Are you going to be shooting specific things, or environments? The more specific you're gonna get, the more length matters.
24-70 is more traditional, 70-200 is better for sports, wildlife, etc. My PERSONAL preference is a wide prime, then a long zoom.
gentoo was important when you needed to maximize performance for your particular hardware. These days, I can't imagine anyone needing that on a desktop.