Thanks for the input - guess I should have known better than to ask a bike forum to talk me out of buying bikes. I'm still kicking around with the LBS. They had to order the NRS in my size for test ride purposes so I'm waiting to go ride it. I'm still really torn between sticking with hardtail and getting the XTC or switching to fully squishy. At 33 I'm inclined to go on and get the suspension, but I've never felt like I was being "beat up" by my hardtail. I'll report how it ends up.
Thanks
C.