I'm prety sure it is a 29er mountain bike. But if you put drop bars on it, the line gets rather smudged. It'l be a relaxed geometry cross bike, basicaly.

I don't know how monkey fork would work on a normal cross bike. I think it's suspension corected, so a disc capable cross-check fork might be a better option. In fact, you oculd even get a cross check complete and put on avid BB7s, and sell the tektros or whatever it comes with. That might even keep you under 1000 bucks, or at leats right around there.

A cross check with discs wil be heavy though, if you care. I'm pretty sure it's over 24 pounds as is. Discs I bet it'l be at least 26.