So because I'm not satisfied not understanding why I got this to work.. I started digging.
It would seem to me that my signal is Manchester encoded. (maye not, but I suspect it is.)
I'm still learning, but a couple of good sites have helped me so far:
I started reading this...
http://www.airspayce.com/mikem/arduino/VirtualWire/
which led to this...
and then I got to this... (which REALLY turned on the light for me - would recommend anyone looking into RF communication read this)
http://www.rfm.com/products/apnotes/tr_swg05.pdf