Weekend Camera Shopping

The weekend, as usual, passed by in a blur. I'm happy to say, though, that work did not infiltrate this one. Crunch time is over for now and things are back to a normal schedule. We spent our weekend with friends, including some lake time, discovered a new (to us) restaurant downtown, and attended a friend's birthday party at a bar downtown.
Brian did his husbandly duty on Sunday and changed the oil in both our cars while I went for a great run on town lake with the girls. Later on we went shopping for a new SLR camera. I've discovered that things that look like a good deal online at first glance, are not when you look a little closer. For example, the camera I'm looking at is selling at one retailer for about $500, which seems like an awesome price for this particular camera and lens, however, on closer inspection, it turns out they're holding the battery and charger ransome for $129 and $179, respectively. Which makes it actually more expensive than if I just ent to Ritz or Best Buy.
I've lost a couple of Ebay auctions for a camera and 2 lenses, which on closer inspection was a good thing because it turns out to be a factory floor model, and the warranty is only for 90 days, as opposed to the 1 year warranty on the new one.
Another thing I've learned is that Nikinions.org and Photo.net forums are full of friendly and helpful people who know a lot about photography. I'm so excited to get back into the art of photography. I mean, my trusty Canon digital is a perfectly good camera, and takes awesome pictures, but nothing beats the feeling of a nice Nikon SLR in your hand.