Update on bootstrap:
I moved the file to the Halloween directory, loaded the program, and (as expected) the file was changed to bootstrap.dat.old - yet I'm still just as far behind as I was before (and still have coins hanging in limbo, made a withdraw few days ago).

Any other clues?
Should I just try re-installing from scratch (save wallet.dat)?
OK, here is what I did. I shut down the wallet, went to the Halloween folder, and deleted everything except the wallet.dat, Halloween.conf, and the bootstrap.dat files.
I restarted the wallet and it began to load the bootstrap.dat file.
It finished loading the file about 3 hours later and began the final sync to catch up to the blockchain which took another 45 minutes to an hour.
After that, it was fully synced.
Of course the final sync will take a bit longer as time goes on because the blockchain is always moving, but not too much though.
Let me know if you have any more problems.

Thank you very much for the assistance - attempting this method now. Will report back later with results