Alrighty then, it only took me just about all day, but thanks to the instructions from you fine folks, it seems I have fixed my boat for the time being.
New riser gaskets (BOTH on the port side had gaping holes), new plugs, fresh oil change.

There IS some milky oil in the heads, and a tiny bit came out with the suction tube oil change.
What to do about this now? I planned on running it a little more, doing another change and see what I come up with.

Would it be wise to have the heads pulled and redone this winter? We only have about 2 or so more good weekends here in Maryland, season is about over.

Let me know what you think, motor sounds fine, idle smooth (again!), fires right over with no hesitation at this point.

Any other tips would be greatly appreciated, and again, thank you all very much for the help.

From my experience I would say call it a season and have the heads looked at !! You may get it done in time to enjoy a few more nice fall days.

You need to change the oil several times. Get some cheap oil and run it on the hose. Getting it up to temp may be hard to do on the hose thought. Big thing is that some types of filter media in the oil filter tend to plug up with water. Use a Napa filter and you should be ok. If you have the means to change the oil while out on the water run it a 20 minutes or so and change with cheap oil (filter too) then to good oil and one more change with good oil. Make sure you fog it down REALLY good this winter.

The leakdown test will tell you if you need to do the heads or not.