You surely deserve a gold medal for persistence in doing something like casting those blocks! With so much little troubles, one doesn't know whether one big or many small ones are worse!
All I can say, dont worry about people not reading this thread, I surely didn't post much here, but read every new post that appeared. I'm sure that I'm not the only one.
Keep it up! (oh, and you know what people like, some pics !!!)
Cheers!