Gogolf, Tatiana, & others, I just wanted to report back in that I was able to get it working. My problem was that everything seemed fine except that the data was not getting posted to the db. The only thing I did to get it to work is to start over from scratch and repaste the code from the mod into my files.

At one point, I had made the same mistake you are discussing that I had a create_account.php in includes\modules\custom\ but I had pasted the mod code into includes\modules\. After I fixed that mistake, it still wasn't working (I think). Then I did my "do-over" and it worked. Sooo... my original mistake MAY have been a reason it wasn't working, but I really can't pinpoint why it was not working before and now is. I'm just thanking my lucky stars it's working. I'm pulling for you guys too... I know how frustrating it is.