Ok, a bit more information gleamed...under IIS Console, the ASP.NET tab, Edit Configuration:
There were 2 entries, one called LocalSqlServer, and one called SiteSqlServer. LocalSqlServer hand the setup string for ISQLEXPRESS in the connection string manager, and the correct string I entered to access the DB in the SiteSqlServer parameters.
However, in the application settings, it had the ISQLEXPRESS settings instead of my SiteSqlServer settings...I changed the string and no longer get the error messages, but the tables are empty so the modules show no entries.
Odd, but I'm going to delete the site/db and reinstall to see if that will pre-fill in the tables correctly.
***edit ***
Reinstalling after correcting the application string fixed the install problem...not sure how that got incorrectly set.