BTW... if anyone out there wants a laptop like mine...

...there's a 'returned unopened/cancelled CTO' new T61p available on the Lenovo website here that (aside from still being a T7700 versus a T9500 CPU) matches mine point for point, for $1500. Even if you tack on $600 for the warranty I got, it's $200 cheaper than I got it after weeks of sales-coupon combination-attempts and wrangling.