Best AA's and CF Card for Canon A95?

[FAUguy]

I'm going this week to buy the Canon A95 so I'll have to for my trip next week.
BestBuy has it for $314 and the 4-year warrantee for $60.
I know I can get the camera on-line for around $290, but I want to buy it
somewhere local, just in case.

I'd like to know what are the better rechargeable AA batteries to buy.
I'm thinking about buying the IC-3, since they recharge in 15 minutes, but they
are rated at 2000 capacity, when other manufactures are rated at 2400 capacity.

Also, I know that the A95 doesn't need to have the fastest CF card for writing the
data to the card, but I want a fast 1GB card to use with a USB 2 reader.
I have been thinking about the Sandisk Ultra-II or Extreme, and the Lexar 80x.
The Sandisk Extreme-III is rated at 133X, but no one has it for sale yet.

Thanks for any help and advice.

[Newbie]

Here is my suggestion for batteries/charger.
Since the charger is so important, I recommend a charger such as the Maha C204W or C401F.
As for the batteries, I am hearing a dealer telling me that judging by what is going on with Powerex/Maha, there are pretty good chances that some new batteries are on the way, so if you can wait for them, then I suggest you do so. It does make sens with more and more brands at 2500mAh, the Powerex 2300mAh are not far behind, but generally speaking they are pretty much the best brand.

As for CF cards, buying an Extreme III card would just be stupid. As for buying a Lexar 80x card or Ultra II card, well, if you want to buy them to speed up your camera, then it is stupid because it won't give u any noticeable increase in speed. If you buy those cards because you want to speed up your transfer when using a CF card reader, then that is acceptable.
Now for the camera speed, the camera probably can't take advantage of any faster than 8x, but if you want to be sure you got everything covered, you can get a 12x card.

[FAUguy]

there are pretty good chances that some new batteries are on the way, so if you can wait for them, then I suggest you do so.
I got to have everything by the 10th.
I saw tonight that the Lexar 80X cards now have Mail-in-Rebates on them.
The 512MX 80X has $15 rebate, 1GB has $20 rebate, and 2GB has $30 rebate.
I that means I can get a 1GB 80X Lexar for around the same price as the Ultra-II.