Well, a finale to this thread.
Ften and I managed to get together one evening last week for him to look at the Wii. He brought every tool known to man and couldn't unbrick the thing. So, off it went to Nintendo, and per what he told me, they didn't even bother with it past 24 hours....I'm getting a new one within just a few days, at a cost of $75.00 (well $85 if you count the 10 for shipping). So screwed up was it that they couldn't even get in to tell what happened.
Has it deterred me from messing around with homebrew? Do pigs fly?
It wasn't the homebrew programs that caused my problem folks, as I said, it was totally my fault. Now that I KNOW what I need to ensure no more bricks, I'll probably be back at it within a few days.
Once again, to summarize:
1) Make sure you use preloader or bootmii installed as boot2 - install those first
2) Make sure you are using the RIGHT / COMPATIBLE SD card for boot mii
3) Make sure you back up your NAND file first before doing anything else.
4) Above all else, DO NOT DELETE ANY IOS Files!
I think that's everything!

(Dreamily)....sigh....soon I will be whacking balls with Tiger Woods again....