Dang, you said that in your post too sorry!!! So the bad news is I don't think there's a way for the dialer to prepend your area code. The good news is, doesn't look like you need to update your contacts
Sorry, I've got nothing. I tried it on my own, and it doesn't prepend the area code either. You said you'd been through all of the phone options too, so I'm sure you saw the option to prepend a 1 i.e. +1 for long distance, but I think that's about it.