Thank you AppleCare
So pegasussf's Windows box died yet again (third time in a year), so he'd had enough. We drove over to the Stonestown Apple Store and picked up a shiny new Mac Pro (with my education discount). I had a version of MS Office, but I rarely use it. Being a (hopefully future) CS nerd, I turn in most assignments as text files. So I gave him my copy. I got iWork for cheap because they had a discount special going on. I rarely use the optical drive in my notebook (discs are so last century), but I put the disc in, the drive spun up and then it spit it out. It did this with other discs as well. I put the disc in the new Mac and it worked. D'oh!
So the next day - the day before my extended warranty expired - I took my laptop down to the Union Square Apple Store. The Genius took a brief look at it and confirmed that the optical drive was indeed toast. They had the part in stock and he told me it wouldn't take too long. I got a call later that evening from the Apple Store and I was expecting to be able to pick it up again. Unfortunately they'd found a couple more issues as they worked on it. So I now have a new keyboard, new cooling fans and a new optical drive. Yay! I'm glad they were thorough and did a complete diagnostic instead of just replacing the drive. When I replace this laptop with a new one, I'll probably get AppleCare again. We probably won't for the desktop, but laptops tend to be more expensive to repair. In any case, I'm glad to have it back.