I was really seriously looking at the Powershot G2 or the Coolpix5000... but I found something better, for less.
I ended up with the
Minolta Dimage 5.
3.3 MP, 7x Optical zoom and tons more. And the HUGE selling point, you can add standard 49mm lenses so I got a set of close up lenses and now I have an insane macro function.
Oh, and outside the camera shop was parked the FUNNIEST thing... dig this:
ftp://www.jayratkowski.com/shiznit/pics/cars/eclipse/