Wow, thanks for the warm welcome
This really is a very friendly place to be and the source of a wealth of knowledge about cycling, bike maintenance, riding and good old fashioned sharing of experience and experiences. I read of a lot of hopes and dreams and stories of success.
To answer Zen I am riding a Schwinn Gateway. It's one of the lower end Schwinns and came from Target I believe, I picked it up from craigslist second hand but it was only 3 months old when I got it and in excellent shape. It will do the job for me until my riding skills reach another level and then I'm sure I'll be looking for something else.
It's got fenders, a big wicker basket that I added to it, a bell (another add on) and comfort galore, the bike has 7 speeds and I l-o-v-e it!
I'd post a picture of it but I am unsure of how to do that, it seems that you can post a link to a photo on the web but not off of your hard drive. Maybe I need to upload photos to photobucket or something like that.
:D