I haven't been following closely, but I remember you mentioned something about floating the reset line - I assumed the datasheet had said this was OK. This would definitely not be recommended unless the datasheet says the device has an internal pullup or internal reset circuitry of it's own. At the very least you should have a resistor pulling up or down dependant on whether reset is active low or high respectively. Even then a simple RC network should probably work OK.

From a fair bit of embedded EMC work, reset lines are also some of the worst culprits when it comes resets induced by external EMC. I would never ever leave one floating.

How different is the design from the eval board? In most cases (definitely not all though) eval boards are fairly well designed and if you copy them you almost always get at least something working.

6 inches isn't real short and I wouldn't want that in practice but for mucking around with a first go board, it should work.

Edit: If you don't mind send me the schematic and I'll have a look for you. Do you have a DSO?