Hey all,
Today I found and fixed a vacuum leak that has been vexing me.  It seems
the leak was in the vacuum brake booster line, in the engine
compartment.  I wiggled it, and it promptly came loose from where it
plugs into the intake air distributor.  Hmmm, so that might explain the
varying degrees of brake boost I had been experiencing :) .  Anyway, got
hose clamps at the FLAPS and clamped that part down good and no more
hisssssssssssss :) .  Yeah!  

In other EGR news, I got under the car to look to see if my removed EGR
had been plugged or if it was still open.  Well, turns out (thankfully)
that it is plugged.  It is plugged at the point where the feed pipe goes
through the engine tin.  A big piece of rubber has been put over the
hole and then the pipe bolted down on top of it.  So that's resolved.

That's all for now.

Sean