GOT EVERYTHING SORTED OUT... I am not a proud MightyFIED member of the TP2 gang!
I ended up having to connect my 2 laptops with an Ethernet cable, turn ICS on, use the first cell phone as the modem on the primary laptop... and then run hard-spl with my TP2 hooked up to the 2nd laptop using the shared internet connection while it was active-synced! THANKS SO MUCH TO
smopoim86 for all the great help, and everyone else who helped out - you guys are awesome! 
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August 12th... Droid-2! Still undecided; but leaning toward purchasing, as a phone to "tide" me over (according to great advice from ckeegan) until truly remarkable devices are released from Verizon fully operation on 4G networks in 2012!