I recieved a pleasant phone call today. The man on the other end told me that my preordered retail copy of L4D2 would be available for pickup tomorrow morning, first thing. Apparently, the shipment arrived 2 days ahead of schedule and as it actually has no 'street release date,' they can sell it right now. Which means it coincides with the Steam release date so i'll be out there with the rest of them tomorrow.
See you there!
I don't know about anyone else, but I prefered the L4D2 demo (and was better at it) than L4D. Good stuff.