the short story (though long in getting there) is that there has been very simple resolution for all my symptoms. Took it to my Volvo dealer, who went thru 2 techs to troubleshoot the varying symptoms. they decided that the battery voltage was just slightly low, and it was throwing off all the other ...

Thanks for the checklist based on your experience. Here's where I'm at:
- Battery ok
- Connections to throttle body check out
- no noise or issues with fuel pump
- new fuel filter

.. but have not conquered the problem yet. Based on reading of other threads, i'm wondering about the fuel pressure ...

Once or twice a week, vehicle will appear to have a hard start. Has happened on both cold and warm starts, but much more frequently with warm starting. Sometimes it seems slow to turn over, sometimes a short pause as it turns over (this will usually reset/clear my clock), but as so far it has not ...