OK - drained the Nexus last night until it shut off by itself. Charged it from about 10p to 7a. I left it completely turned off during the whole charging duration. Unplugged at 7a... Will use like I normally do. WiFi will be on while at my office. Brightness set to 25% (second "position" on power widget).
Will be using a mix of email, web, pandora, sms, voice. Yesterday I was at ~50% by 1pm, and about 15% by 5p. I'm HOPING for much better results today after having done the whole drain down and full charge cycle.
Stay tuned...