Yea I did that one morning on my dually non turbo and that weekend I was lookin for a new 7.3... I'll just stick to the cranking till she starts I only have a couple more days till I'm off and can change them out

Yeah, if you disable the glow plugs, ether is fine.

but only the faintest whiff. a little bit goes a long long long way

Napa sells replacement block heater cords in a million configurations (length, angle of the plug and whether or not there is heat shielding seem to be the difference). If fixing the plug doesn't work, thats an option. Also if you buy a new block heater, you could use that cord and shelf the block heater itself unless you find you need it.

Do you have a heat gun? It would work even better than a hair dryer and the wife wouldn't bitch about it. They're great for heat shrink tubing and a million other things and harborfreight frequently has them for under $15. Actually at that price, you might be able to mount one under the hood firing into the intake and use that for a few minutes instead of a block heater. You wouldn't get the faster warm up time from the block heater, but it would save on the electric bill.