Hi jtcf, thanks for the update!
I also get a little stressed about delivery these days, USPS seems like they caught up after the holidays but they are still running late sometimes. It is much better though, I've see about 1 week delays recently while it used to be much longer.
I am working on ways to fully burn-in cables before shipping them. It will involve a mechanical de-stressing procedure as well as electrical burn-in. My AudioDharma high-power cooker works, but shipping seems to set the cables back quite a bit. Over time demo cables seem to be less effected by shipping and they stay burned-in much better, so I think the mecahnical aspect of burn-in hasn't been recognized by many folks and needs to be accounted for.