[matt314159]

Called in this morning, got a very friendly American-sounding lady, explained my problem, she agreed that the hlr update was exactly what needed done, updated it, told me to soft-reset my phone, and that fixed the verizon authentication while attempting to roam. it still shows the roaming triangle with 1x next to it, so I guess the guy who said he got EVDO roaming must have been roaming on alltel or something, but this will be fine.

Thanks for the pointers and discussion everyone!