so my editor told my my first check was in the mail...
as a result, any sembalance of self control vanished, and i went out and bought a canon eos 10d and a canon 28-105mm 3.5-4.5 usm lense.
they are just the coolest things ever, and i'm quite pleased.
it basically came down to the canon and the nikon d100, and i went with the canon because it's slightly newer tech, so i can feel better about it not becoming horribly obsolete in the next few days, it's cheaper, especially when you account for the fact that it comes with photoshop elements, which i would have bought anyway, and most importantly it just felt more solid and well built to me.
i'll have to get some pictures up on the web somewhere soon, once i've managed to take some that don't totally suck ;-)