No Applecare plan yet,. I understand I can get that at any time in the first year, so I'll see how that goes

mkay. You should be aware that if you do not get AppleCare, it will be $50 per support call, even if it's because the machine is broken and you need to get it fixed under warranty. This should be illegal in some way.

Read more here:
http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=512
Scroll down past the comic and read the left (grey) rant. The interesting stuff starts at paragraph 10.