Of course I didn't actually have anything to play them in 
Fortunately I was able to put the following together for <$100:
Lite-On IHES108-29 internal 8x BD combo drive
Coolmax CD-350-Combo powered SATA to USB2 adapter
Its a little ghetto, but seems to work ok. My actual sustained read rates are mostly running in the 2-4x range. I have had issues with getting the volumes to mount every time I plug it in for the first time. I got lucky the first time and got it working within about 5 minutes of fiddling with things. Next time I tried to hook it up I spent 30 minutes plugging and unplugging things with no luck. Somewhere I tripped across the suggestion to run the "USB Prober" utility in /Devloper/Applications/Utilities (need to install xcode). As soon as I ran that it popped right up. Once its working, I can insert and eject disks no problem, its just an issue the first time. Eventually I'd like to get a 5.25" SATA to FW800 case, but everything I've found so far has been about as much as I spent on the drive!
So far pretty much everything I've tried has worked great. I'm running a C2D MBP 17" 2.33GHz 2GB with Snow Leopard, output via DVI to HDMI cable to a 1080p display. MKV file playback is pretty stuttery with VLC, but fortunately Plex looks great and doesn't seem to drop any frames. I just ran into my first failure due to not having the SVQ file, so I'll have to grab that. I also noticed the primary audio track on Ratatouille came out garbled. Second track sounds fine in VLC, still have to figure out how to change audio tracks in Plex. FInding the keyboard based inteface a bit clunky for use as a player. Looks nice for using as a full blown media center though.
Anyway, I have lots of reading to do to catch up but I am very psyched to be watching Blu-Rays on my Mac! Thanks, and keep up the great work.
Rob