I was looking at the gary fisher tassajara... and only because the guy at the LBS reccommended it. I am always rather aprehensive about listening to a guy at a store like that b/c they prob see me coming a mile away as a new guy they can make money on. But I hear on this board that this bike is a good choice for under $1000.
Im 25, havent ridden since I was 14. 6'1 195Lbs trying to get down to 175 ish. I will prob do a lot of XC and prob push myself to do things I prob shouldn't at this level, but thats just how I am.
Im going to test ride the bike on sat. for a few hours and see if I like it. I read on the board to just test ride as many as possible and get the one that feels good... but I think I may have trouble with that. See I've always been the guy who will try the one right out of my price range (whatever item i am testing) and think that it "feels" better... but realistically im just thinking along the lines of "more expensive must be better". I've done that with all my previous hobbies and trying to not let that happen here as it usually gets out of hand and my budget gets blown.

Any advice on what to ride or what to look at would be greatly appreciated.
BTW I tried the search function but couldn't find anything specific to my situation.

Thanks for the help!!