Downloading Debian CD: "stable" or "testing"?

["Benjamin Sher" <sher07@mindspring.com>]

Dear friends:

I would like to download and install the latest Debian 3.1, 
but even after a careful reading of all the info on the Debian 
site, I am quite confused.

"Sarge" is now the STABLE release and "etch" is now the 
TESTING release. 

I would like to download the testing release so I would get 
the latest possible versions of Debian packages. I imagine 
that if I installed the stable release, that I would have to wait 
till the current "sarge" stable release made them available. 
On the other other hand, if I installed the current "etch" 
testing release, I would get new releases as they become 
available. For example, what happens when the new 
OpenOffice 2.0 is out of Beta and released officialy? How 
long would you have to wait to see it in the stable 
distribution and how long in the testing distribution?

So, my question remains: which distribution iso image 
should I do download? Is an iso for the testing even 
available yet. 

Very confused, as you can see.
 
I want to make sure I know what I am doing before I 
download the iso image.

Thank you all.

Benjamin