Hey, thanks all. this is sweet.
In case anyone ever has my issues I'll post 'em here they can avoid my stumbling blocks
If you're running windows get
wamp5. Stop IIS. Run all wamp services (apache, mysql). Run phpmyadmin. Create wordpress. Put wordpress unzip under localhost physical directory (c:\wamp\www\wordpress). Copy wordpress/wp-config-sample.php to wordpress/wp-config.php. Change db_name to wordpress, db_user to root (YES CHANGE THIS LATER). Default password for fresh mysql is blank. If my sql acts up edit c:\windows\php.ini, uncomment extension=php_mysql.dll. Browse to localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php and run.
noob I was able to create a crude cms page from your advice.
The only thing is associating ID's with placeholders. I mean I can create blocks of placeholders and always say "get id 5 here," "get id 8 here," but if anyone ever needs to update those place holders they'd have to overwrite the existing story. New pages would always have to have wordpress id's associated with the content holders -- create a page, create placeholders on that page, create a story for each placeholder, note its ID, edit that ID to create and update content.
I'm just thinking outloud, dunno if this makes sense.