As I thought, my battery has been taking a full charge, but the OS wasn't recognizing it immediately...taking between an hour and two, in glacially slow increments, to register it when I switched to battery power after fully charging it.
That seems to have corrected itself after a few shut downs, but I still see it when I put my screen to sleep and walk away from my MBP for a coupl'a hours after the battery's been discharging for a (n indeterminate) few hours. (In other words, as I use the battery and its projected life should remain more or less the same, it's increasing.)
Ball's in Apple's court.
