When catalog grid is turned off the errors in #1 go away
however the catalog path is still messed up when i click a nav item to jump to a sub product list i.e.
catalog/beads_and_pendants/swarovski
It instead displays the first catalog page of categories in the middle pane. (the dispaly i would expect from /catalog/ )
so the taxonomy paths are a bit messed... I just looked to confirm
instead of catalog/beads_and_pendants/swarovski
now the functioning url is catalog/234/swarovski
and it turns out the swarovski taxonomy url is /term/234
so that should lead to some conclusions to fix #2
with number 1) maybe the catalog grid is dependant on #2 or maybe the module needs updating?