Well, I got the bar ends today -- couldn't wait for the LBS to open on Monday and Oshmans was selling Profile Boxers for $9.00 for the pair (no WAY!) and I got 'em on the bike this evening. I enjoyed putting 'em on since this is the first wrenching I've done on the new bike, however minor it might be, and got to use the air compressor in the house and irritate the wife -- how good is that?!
Compressed air is absolutely the way to go when you have to scoot your grips over on the bar -- it only took about 10 minutes to move the Shimano stuff inboard a little bit, cut the ends off of the grips and blast 'em inward with the air hose, and then mount the bar ends and align them the way I want. Sweet!
Gotta look into those Specialized gloves -- sounds like they work well at fixing the numb hand problem.