My Rpi works! Ok, the initial display on my old tv was rather poor, but these settings via:

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

specifically adding:

hdmi_group=1
hdmi_mode=4

...ensures I am displaying hdmi in 720p (my old tv only displays 1024i = super blurry!)

For more information on forcing video modes, see the elinux RPi Config (video section)

I no longer need a keyboard and mouse attached to my RPi! I found this blog on how to setup RDP and now I can access my RPi from the comfort of my Windows 7 machine. <sigh of contentment>

Basically, to setup RDP, rum this command:

sudo apt-get install xrdp

(xwindows rdp, how cool is that!?)

For reference, I used this SD formatter to initialize my new SD card to install Raspian via the NOOBS installer (a simple copy to CD). Much more information on setup options can be found on the elinux "Easy CD Card Setup"

The RPi is ridiculously cool.  I've been out of the hardware world for way too long.