mattdrayer/rebase-20140916: Initial test fixes

@antoviaque -- some updates to address various failing unit tests in the rebase branch.  I'm still observing two test failures on my local machine, but I'm not sure how to address them at the moment or if they are even a problem outside of my workstation -- so maybe we can discuss those and submit a follow-on PR if necessary.
Ok, I've gotten to the bottom of the issue I was having and ended up not needing the newly-introduced code block after all.  Hooray.