So I bought a heart rate monitor today. It's 104 out, so I haven't tried it out on the bike yet, just wearing it around the house. Some questions:

1. When you're just wearing it, should your heart rate stay steady or does it go up and down. I have a pretty high resting heart rate (around 80) but if I'm just sitting there, the monitor jumps between 71 and 88 or so. Is this normal, my body, or a bad monitor?

2. Where do you put the strap in relation to your bra?

I got a Timex Marathon Compact on sale at Performance. I'm not expecting all that much for $40 (regular $80) but I want to make sure I get a reasonably close estimate of my heart rate. How do I know if it's working correctly?