well I hope the knight stays on sale, because I just broke my stupid macbook pro and I'm waiting for a new LCD panel to come in the mail... if I can install it properly and it works then I can go ahead with the bike, gotta make sure this laptop situation is taken care of.

I like the looks of that diamondback. Totally a viable option if one were opposed to bikes direct.

I went and felt up a bunch of bikes at a local shop, the 105 and ultegra are very very similar but the ultegra seemed to shift with shorter motions and less effort. I bought some rock and roll chain lube, so at least I bought something.
They had a bike with the new Sora 3500, and it looks exactly like the new tiagra, just black and 9spd. And it has plastic levers instead of aluminum. They aren't blowing out old bikes with 3400 yet, (like say, a trek or cannondale) but even if they were, they'd still cost over $700...