Alright, I have the new lcd all wired up, and it's functioning just fine. To try and verify it was working I tried running the hacked up version of futz's code I had, with the LAT's in place, and other initializations, and I'm still not getting _anything_ to display.
I realized why I fried teh last one, and that is because I was forcing a positive voltage/current into Vee, and since the guy from blue room electronics pointed out that it's a negative voltage generator, I can see this being a problem--or an escape for the special smoke.
Anyway, like I said in a previous post our group has everything else done for this circuit and programmed a simpler lcd in case we can't get this going. Thanks for the help!