I gave up on the touch screen, and ordered another one.  It got here last Saturday, and I spent a couple days getting it into shape.
Last night I revealed the Project to the GF, and she really loved it.   I didn't have any of the wiring done, and had the three cords coming out the back door and the back panel was not glued in, and the rear T Molding was not one, and the system still has the old hard drive (with 2000 on it), and the Marquee was still a test print on paper...  and this and that and etc... 
But it was 
truly a huge hit.  Many thanks to Mountain for the original, and everyone else who is working on one or helped out.  
I'll still update it as I finish it, but here it was as I pulled the sheet off of it.  Using Freebox as the front end at the moment, but we will check out a few other ones and see what she likes best.
