The "workaround" if you are having trouble getting the wallet to startup: restart it. Seriously, it worked fine after a restart.
If that doesnt work for you, you can copy the blockchain files from the download link for the win wallet into your data dir. The win wallet download includes a blockchain folder.
Win wallet and blockchain are here (copy and paste, the link wont work)
https://mega.nz/#!JeJ21a6Y!hDHJr5V6-BLKl0YS08te-OX2A5Ko4so0KcsHffmBvs8
also, "getmininginfo" :
13:35:05

getmininginfo
13:35:05

{
"blocks" : 1656,
"currentblocksize" : 3022,
"currentblocktx" : 1,
"difficulty" : {
"proof-of-work" : 481.65365181,
"proof-of-stake" : 0.00024414,
"search-interval" : 1
},
"blockvalue" : 1500000000,
"netmhashps" : 68956.22275140,
"netstakeweight" : 278.45943868,
"errors" : "",
"pooledtx" : 1,
"stakeweight" : {
"minimum" : 0,
"maximum" : 0,
"combined" : 0
},
"stakeinterest" : 1000000000,
"testnet" : false
}
.... just wow that is a big number for a sunday launch. I guess the miners aren't as hungover as I thought they would be.