John.. got your messages a few minutes ago.  Not really having any more problems per se.  Was just being too impatient.  I'm more of a "throw away the manual and dive in" kind of software user and old-school beta tester.  I knew about gary miller's tutes a while ago but things are usually too hectic in my house to pay much attention to stuff like that.  Had a rare few hours this morning of total silence and started watching the tutes.  I'm going over the 3-part tute on modeling, uv mapping and texturing a tree stump now. 

On another note.. been turning skydomes into lights for a week weeks now.  At least with my dinosaur computer.. it's the closest I can come to fast rendering.  Otherwise I'm calculating passes per hour instead of minute.