Hi all. Thanks for the warm welcome!
Unfortunately I didn't have as much time to play this weekend as I'd have liked, but I did manage to sneak in a few practice lines and curves. And some wacky trees. The combination of the extra practice and a new, sharp blade made for some significant improvement. I was able to follow my markings much better, up to the point where I got cocky and started moving faster than I ought to have!
The bad news was that I have only a few pin end blades and many plain end blades. The saw needs adapters to accept the plain end blades, but there was only one in the bag - I'm not sure if I'll be better off attaching just the top or just the bottom

(the good news is that I found a quick-change adapter cheap on the net).
--Rob