Well, re-installed Safari and MobileMe, which I had deferred. Not a good idea.
Before, after the uninstall of Apple products and reinstall of iTunes 10.4 and things were OK. Had sync'd iPod and iPad several times with no issues.
As soon as I used the Updater and installed Safari and Mobile Me, AppleMobileDeviceService.exe began grinding away. Did not even try to start Safari. Uninstalled Safari and Mobile Me. AMDS still grinding, so terminated it. Started iTunes. And it looks like iTunes is now grinding away. Ugh. No access to Apple Store - that part of screen is blank.
Will see if a reboot is sufficient or if I need to make another pass at uninstalling Apple products.