I am using VS2008 and .NET 3.5

This code does not seem to be getting any data. Yet, there are no errors.
Code:
        private void frmLog_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            SqlDataReader rdr = null;

            SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection("Data Source=PRIMERO;Initial Catalog=Techni;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=sa;Password=pacjo");

            SqlCommand sqlEmp = conn.CreateCommand();

            sqlEmp.CommandText = "SELECT empnum FROM Empfile ORDER BY Empnum";

            // open the connection
            conn.Open();

          // get an instance of the SqlDataReader
            rdr = sqlEmp.ExecuteReader();
            //if rdr.HasRows then {
                while (rdr.Read())
                {
                    int idxID = rdr.GetOrdinal("empnum");
                    string idx2 = Convert.ToString(idxID);
                    MessageBox.Show(idx2); //got a 0 here

                    string employee = (string)rdr["empnum"];

                    TS1.Text = (employee);
                    
                }
            //}
            // close the reader and connection
            rdr.Close();
            conn.Close();
        }
Any thoughts? All of the example code seems to be VS2005

TS1 is a status strip on the form.