Well, mine is definitely doing better. Yesterday it had 20% at 15 hours after unplugging. And I surfed the web, checked email, played games, downloaded dolphin browser, son downloaded a book to aldiko app, and used cardiotrainer for a walk. AND even talked and texted. Used exactly how I hoped I could(at home with bad signal, in town with fair/good signal). So I'm putting off ordering the 1750 battery for now. Not completely sure what I did different(I had completed 4 days of complete battery drain/charging), we'll see how it is today. Has been off charger for 4 hours now, only checked email for about 5 minutes during breakfast, at 95%.
I did see a lady who I had seen at the verizon store last week who had gotten the eris the week before I did and changed to the moto when I got the eris. She is having trouble with her moto(can't get email set up, my son and I both tried to do it, she gets errors), and they can't seem to help her. I showed her some things on mine, and she said "I should have kept that one". BUT mine was at 60% at that time(around 4 pm, off charger app. 8 hours), she had her moto at school all day(teacher), had only used for phone, and she had a full battery. So I went to my verizon store again to ask a few ?s about signal. They said the motos for some reason are keeping the 3G signal all the time, and they think that is why the battery is better on them. They also said our area is scheduled to be full 3G by end of 2nd quarter. They are working on getting all towers 3G now, and think that is why the phones are bouncing back and forth so much.
SO, I feel much better. Really appreciate all the help and comments here. This forum has helped me so much. I want to encourage all the new eris owners who might be having the battery issues to read all the tips and keep tweaking. I'm convinced it is a better phone than the moto droid, despite that phone's hype!
In closing I have one question/clarification---at what percentage do I charge my phone. At 11pm last night I was playing teeter, turning on the flashlight in quick settings, and calling it repeatedly and letting it ring, etc. etc. to get it below 10% to charge. I wasted my time, right? Should I have just put on charger at 20%?
) on my side of the bed, creating a small amount of interference with the baby monitor signal, now when she picks up her phone on the other side of the bed to say check a txt or lol play solitare, that interference is way way way louder and present. telling me that the antenna or signal to that phone is way stronger. 
