library is on internal drive. This seems to be working so far: Deleted old library, uninstalled iPhoto (again), reinstalled it, drilled down to the backup library on Time Machine drive (manually--cannot do a normal "restore"), and am now importing the old library from the TM drive to the new library. We'll see.
But I have pretty much had it with iPhoto at this point. I don't really need any advanced editing features, but library management is a key. Is that better with Aperture? I want an all-in solution, not a plug in for iPhoto, if one exists. Photos are at 40k +. Mainly because I don't delete anything.