photography buffs, help me buy a DSLR camera

[DING-DONG YO]

My wife and I have had the Canon S3IS for about 1 year.



S3IS

It takes pretty good pictures and my wife has been getting a lot better with it. I'm thinking of upgrading to a digital SLR camera (xmas gift for wife) and figured some of you might have some suggestions.

Right now I'm torn between the Canon Rebel XTi



and the Nikon D40X



and I have the following questions:

1) Lenses - How concerned should I be about the stock lenses? Should I go ahead and buy a better lens right out of the gate or learn with the stock lense first?

2) zoom - My current point and shoot has 10X optical zoom. What is the equivalent zoom on an SLR lens? I've tried googling this but haven't found a good answer.

3) in general, what should I be looking out for? I'm going to have this camera for a long time, so what should I be concerned with? Any tips on good books or DVDs for using an SLR? This camera will be for my wife but I would like to learn how to get the most out of it too.

Thanks OOT!