This is getting aggravating, both the error and posting to my self <s>
For this go around I decided that I would not create the project where I wanted it ( down a few levels of folders ) but ‘hang’ it right off the C: Drive ( C:\SA )
I still did not get the expected User Preferences Dialog, and I did get the error as originally posted. Again why this error? This is not giving me a good first impression. ( I wonder if this is the reason I shelved it 3 years ago )