Hate to keep replying to myself here, but I've found that probably the best approach to get the accuracy I want (+/- 0.1F or better) is to get a 12 or 16bit ADC and hook up the thermistor to that, and then the ADC to the arduino. Unfortunately this process seems a bit much for someone who has no microcontroller experience, unless I'm missing an easy plug n play ADC for arduino shield out there.