So, I have the grains in the mash tun, the hops on deck (and laid out with a timer ready to count the minutes backwards to each addition).

1. Columbus at 0 minutes
2. Cascade +30
3. Cascade +15
4. Mt Hood +15
5. Cascade +15
6. Cascade & immersion chiller +15
7. Irish moss +5

After the eternity in the mash tun, I start draining off the wort and rinsing the grains with 170 degree water. I prepped 2.5 gallons which seems far to little. I forget to run the initial output back into the grains (while the grain bed sets) so I start it back through (disturbing the bed). So I do it a bit more to be safe. Now the flow slows to a crawl. I should point out here that Ive been at this, on my feet, for more than 4 hours and I'm absolutely exhausted... I use the time to sit a while, and think that I have no idea how I'll be able to finish it. Once I have all the wort in the pot and add my DME, I take a measure of the volume (marked on my spoon) and add a filtered water to, and well above the 5 gallon mark. (it was a SWAG and it fell very short)