And furthermore, when the car is off and I put my foot on the pedal it is a pretty solid pedal. And, if I pump the pedal I'm really not getting any more pressure. Which, over all, would tell me I don't have any air in the lines....

 

The extra push from the vacuum booster can explain the hard pedal when the engine isn't running. Pedal isn't really as solid as it "should be" WITHOUT vacuum boost.

You can bench-bleed the MC again by simply disconnecting the tubing from the MC. First, make up some kind of tubing that screws into the MC fittings, and simply curves up & dumps into the reservoir. No need to take the MC out of the car. The trick will be reconnecting the car's tubing very quickly to avoid getting more air into the lines.