the pain and pleasure of self repairs...

OK, little info behind my questions over in the equipment section... my Apache is a little over a year old now and during the last few months I've not been able to ride much do to knee surgery. so I have a park local that I get my 5 or 6 miles for Physical therapy and have been spending time on fixing things up. First thing I went after was a really bad metal squeak/groan that every shop kept telling me it was the seat post.... but why then is it doing it when I stand and power up a hill...?

Ok investigation time. Pulled the cranks and checked out the bearings on the bottom bracket... GOD!! one of them was almost frozen and what movement it did do felt like the bearings were carve from stone by a cave man!!OK new bracket installed... squeak got quieter but far from gone... trying to ride with my head down there got a little crazy but after a few sets of playing in the garage I began to think it was the main link bearing/bushings to the rear suspension so with a twist of a few alan wrenches and... WOW another jammed up, dried out bearing.. which I can't find a safe way to get out.. went to local shop who sells services K2 bikes and after a few moments of chatting with the service guy I decided that I'd be better off finding a way of doing it myself.. if you get my point. So now I'm looking for some kind of bearing puller..? any ideas?

Oh and while taking the rear tire off I noticed it was slightly out of true, so went around and "plucked" a few spokes and found some so loose it wasn't funny, but snugging them up actually threw the rim out of true more... great!! home mech truing stand on it's way... used my fingers while spinning the rim for now and got it back a lot better than it was at first!

Oh and there is more.. but I have to go so I'll vent more at you all later :)