It sounds like you've really got the ball rolling. I'll be interested to see what you've done that I missed. It seems I took the same route--got the latest ACS version of the AOLserver, had to get more up to date versions of the software, etc. Once you're ready, I'll be terribly interested in getting my systems working correctly.
Unfortunately, I also spent a lot of time working on nextval stuff. I had read about the sysdate fixes in the openACS, but I spent a whole evening getting those nextvals 'ported'. Oh well. It sounds like we're both anxious to jump in with both feet, but we're not quite fully initiated yet.