Blackout and bad-ass virus...

Yep, that makes sense. The W32.Blaster worm could definitely be part of the reason for the downtime. To fix it properly, you should Download the Symantec cleanup tool and also get the Microsoft hotfix, since just removing the worm will not stop it from coming back. Running both before reconnecting to the internet and doing a careful manual cleanup, like you described, is the safest way to make sure everything is fully cleared. It is annoying, but necessary to prevent reinfection. Thanks for sharing the links and advice. Anyone dealing with this should definitely follow those steps before going online again.