Thank you all again very much for all the info.

The most challenging element of this is the vocabulary - it'll take some time and research to get through it all (e.g. "blow by" was a quick google search, never knew what that was until now), all of which is exhausting because of the sheer amount of info, but fun. It helps that your explanations not only include what the parts are, but what they do.. very appreciated!

Some follow up questions:

What's a "sub frame bushing" for?

While tightening the oil pan bolt after draining, I saw one more place with a fresh drop appearing on the base (actually looked like oil) - in the third picture above, there's a piece in the far right center that's cut off (it's the silver thing).. can anyone tell what that is, or should I take another photo?

The "hose" that connects the air filter tube over to the valve cover is attached to the valve cover via a squeeze clamp. This clamp is.. loose (I couldn't tighten it, but it freely rotated around the hose), I'll replace that just for laughs. However, there is no clamp on the hose->airfilter spout, the hose just sort of gets pushed over the "bulb" on the spout. That might be why there's quite some gunk on the top of the air filter housing cover? (not pictured).

I was surprised how easy the oil change was The biggest "d'oh" occured when I lifted the oil receptable by the handle (one of those that you can take to recycling center, dump, and reuse), gleefully walked across the driveway, only to look back and see the darn thing left a trail of oil - it leaked from the spout which faced down I'll be spending tomorrow scrubbing, phoeey.