So I screwed up the two 5M strips I bought. Totally my fault. I put my power supply in series mode to get more from it but didn't adjust the voltage prior to pushing the button. I fried the strip and my arduino!
The second strip was after adjusting my voltage down to 5v but not realizing (nor was it well documented) that the display showed only 1/2 of the voltage in each so in actuality I was feeding 10v to the strip. GRRRRRRRR. Another strip fried but the arduino survived. I didn't realize what was going on until I put a meter to the output of the power supply.
So now I have 10M of the LPD8806 strip that doesn't work. Another project for myself is to fix these at some point. I already have plenty of ICs and plenty of 5050 RGB LEDs but have to figure out how to isolate the bad chips and replace just those. Fun, fun.
In the meantime, I ordered and received another 25M of these strips (5 - 5M spools). I got these all tested out and they are working great. I also hooked up two in series (both strips powered from both ends but data lines fed from one to the other) and the arduino controlled all 320 lights with no problem in any of my lighting routines.
I also bought a 20A, 5V power supply from eBay that is powering both strips very well.

Anyhow, I was thinking of selling some of the latest order if anyone is interested. It would be the exact same as what is bought off Adafruit but cost much less. Not sure if I'll just throw them on eBay by the spool or by the meter yet.