problem fixed (at least for now) All I had to do was take out the idle screw and pretty much screw it all the way back in. It now idles at like 1700 rpm but it doesn't die... It's kind of funny- it in neutral while driving will be around 3K and then when I park it drops to like 1100...
but you know what? That's fine with me.

All along it was the damn idle screw.. WTF... I was under hte impression that counter clockwise was what we wanted- nope- clockwise raises the idle.
I fixed a lot of other things along the way that also may have had a hand in this, but ultimately it was the small little screw under the TB.
Figures...