YAY, I figured it out. The nandroid backup for some reason didn't save with the correct date. It saved with a date from 1970. I had 4 of those in my nandroid backup folder but I picked the correct one on the first try. Got very lucky but I have my phone back!
ive seen that before - battery pulls tehn going straight into recovery can do this. just use astro or similar to name them something you can remember