recommendation to learn verilog
I've recently embarked on a simmilar journey my self and so far I've found the following useful:

This youtube video blog by Tbird761 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsTpLtEEobE

and this book by Pong P. Chu (FPGA Prototyping By Verilog Examples: Xilinx Spartan-3 Version [Hardcover])