I'm currently working a contract for a company which will be moving an access database to MS SQL server in the future, and I'd like to hone my skills before the company makes the switch.

I'm also looking forward to possibly developing a rudimentary website which would have a simple HTML/CSS/JS front end, and those skills could also use a sharpening. I'd like to develop my skills through some SQL work locally on my home computer. Researching how to do that has only yielded the suggestion of installing an Apache web server with PHP and MySQL on my local machine. While I'm not opposed to doing that, the last time I worked with an Apache install, it was over-complicated and bloated. 

Is there a more streamlined option? It doesn't seem necessary to load an entire web server for the specific use I'm going for.

I'd prefer to simply install a program that allows me to host the [My]SQL database locally, and perhaps later some way to test HTML and Javascript interacting with the database. I'm already somewhat familiar with [Sequel Pro](http://www.sequelpro.com). As an added bonus, my Python skills are rusty and I'd like to get used to scripting Python. At this point Xcode (4.2) seems the likely solution here, but I'm open to other options.

I would be installing on a 11" MacBook Air running Lion and Xcode 4.2.