sabih.. thx dude.. i ended up buying a tamrac expedition backpack. its pretty good.. fits everything i need plus additional two future lenses that i plan to buy.. speaking of which, i think i'm gonna get a 10-20mm and a macro lens..

Tanveer.. which macro lens do you have? i saw a 50 and a 100mm cannon.. of course 100mm i a nicer lens but is it worth the price? 50m is pretty cheap.. around $275.

your macro shots does make me think twice about the macro lens now.. i'm more into travel photography but your shots are amazing. so as one of the expansions, i might think about a macro lens. so whats the big advantage? getting close to the subject? but its the depth of your shots that is amazing.

by the way, what kinna bag are you using. i'm looking for something that will not only hold my camera plus couple of accessories but also is portabl enough. i dont need an additional suitcase when i travel.

tanveer,
thanks for the info. its very helpful especially the stuff about what not to do.. i'm very surprised that it froze on you in winter. below freezing is a very normal temp in winter where i live (chicago) and i'm afraid hows it gonna perform.. we'll see.

i didnt get the standard 18-55 lens. instead i ordered the 28-135 IS uSM. I think it works pretty good. extremely fast zoom. but i have this desire to get wider and 28 (converted to 42 for dSLR) is a bit too narrow for my liking. I might invest into a 10-20mm efs lens but first i have to get over my initial sticker shock of 20d plus that 28-135 lens :) the only hesitation (besides the hefty $600) I have about 10-20 efs is that it wil only work on this camera and if I ever wanna get a different canon, this lens wont work.. but again, i dont see myself buying an additional lcamera anytime soon.

I'm not too convined about the IS yet. does it really work? most of my non-tripod slow shutter speed shots have been somewhat blurry, even with IS.