I went straight to the Management Studio... BUT, the Server name below was from a previously tried (and not quite as successful) install of one of the other SQL 2008 attempts. Note the instance name was SQL2008, but that was not very successful due to my messing up with the services stage of the installation. So, the familiar SQL Server 'connect to server' window below should show up with the recently created instance.:

For me to get the proper instance to show (DAVESQL, as seen below): I went through the SQL Server 2008 menu to locate the SQL Server Installation Center (64-bit) (as seen in 2 pictures above) to basically do a another installation of a named instance. Actually multiple instances can be installed, so this is not uncommon nor is it a problem. After I did this correctly I was able to connect to a Server name - but I had to enter it manually, as it did not show in the drop down: server name\instance:

Moral of the story: pay VERY special attention to the service account details mentioned in part 3:

After typing it in correctly, I connected!

Now I just need a database!! So, I went to the CodePlex web site mentioned below and downloaded the AdventureWorks database.

This went pretty smoothly and I was later able to attach this database to my Databases menu as seen above.

Sample DB downloaded, paying attention to which version is needed (x64 in my case):

Microsoft SQL Server CodePlex Samples

Happy SQL Trails!