Intake gasket tips?

Just got my wife's 2000 Impala back from having tires rotated and oil changed and they noticed a coolant leak to the outside of the engine. They want $450.00 to replace it(in 2 weeks), Chevy wants over $900.00(they can do it tommorrow!), so I bought the Hayes Manual and I am considering doing the job myself. I am very mechincally inclined, ( I teach small engines, tractor repair,etc.) I just usually don't have time to mess with the car all the time. Any suggestions or tips before I dive in would be appreciated. It is the 3.4L with 100,000 miles. How do I disconnect the battery without sitting off the anti thief radio device?

Thanks for any help.

I did the intake gasket job on my 2002 impala last year. I disconnected the radio without doing anything special. The procedure in Hayes Manual doesn't apply to Impala radio. Other than that just remove everything from the top. becareful on the fuel injectors. it's pain in the ass to get them out. I actually broke the clips on one of them. but it works fine without clips after I put everything back. It tooks us about 1 day to finish it.
Let me know if you have any questions.

Check these posts for some info on this: (and be sure to mark each push rod to install in exact same location)

http://www.chevytalk.org/threads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=UBB29&Number=1023839&Searchpage=7&Main=1016236&Words=intake+push&topic=&Search=true#Post1023839

http://www.chevytalk.org/threads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/795792/an/0/page/0#795792

http://www.grandamgt.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16900

Thanks for the info. I'm trying to make room in my garage so I have enough room to work in there. I bought that Hayes Manual and looked it over and took it back, everything was too vaque.