Thanks for checking Kurt. I'm sorry I didn't post this as a moot point. I spent so much time on it that I finally gave up and redid the whole shot on rapunzl.com.
On a side note, I didn't start totally clean. I just reinstalled J!1.5.3, uninstalled the four CB component/modules and reinstalled. When I reinstalled the 3 modules, I got another 500 on the homepage. I had to reorder modules to get it to work. By that time, I was so tired I decided to sleep on it and do an entirely clean install today.
My conclusion today is that the CB login module was moved in ordering when I installed the Messaging component, but since there were no database errors and no frontend debug errors I can't say for sure. At one point, both before and after the reinstall of CB, all that showed on the home page was the login module.
Jamie