SUCCESS!

3 weeks, 5 lbs  of flour, 1 1/2 gallons of water and finally, it LIVES!!!  The tipping point seemed to come when I stuck it on a heating mat I use for starting seeds.  Maybe our house wasn't quite warm enough to encourage those little yeast suckers to grow.  At any rate, this morning I took the starter and carefully (not wanting to blow it at this point, after all this time) mixed up my ingredients for sourdough pancakes. Pretty cool.  Pretty tasty.  We couldn't decide which was better -the sourdough or the buttermilk.  So I might have to do buttermilk tomorrow for comparison.  It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it. : )