Using a Wacom tablet? bring advice!

[ghost of delete key]

Here goes:
I'm the proud owner of a Wacom CTE-440 that my Dad gave me, having found it useless for himself.

It's a fine device, does its job - but I've been trying to get used to using it for a while, and to be honest, I feel like throwing it through the window on most attempts.
Probably the hardest thing to un-train is my mousing habit; a mouse has a relative pointer, whereas the Wacom has an absolute screenmap correlation to the drawing surface.
I've been mouse hopping on my desk since the mouse was invented, and old habits die hard.
I've only halfheartedly tried to configure it all so far...

So does anybody have any useful tips on how to conquer this device (or my own mousy ways)?
How about your workflow... some tablet, some mouse, or strictly one or the other?

Seriously, I've seen what people do with this tablet, lots of amazing work, and it kinda irks me that I can't seem to embrace the tool - I'd SO love to have it work as fluidly for me as a stick of charcoal and stump, a pen or brush, or even a MOUSE!!
Not crowing, but I do very nice work in many styles on physical media. I get fairly close with a mouse just "scribbling" in an editing app, but it's so... un-ergonomic. When I use the tablet, I draw like a drunken 4-year-old.

It takes me quite a while (read far-too-long) to do a bit of vector work with just a mouse and keys; not sure if the tablet would make sense in vector art though, primitives are best dropped in and shaped for much of that work.
Sketching, line work, and coloring/shading - these are my main concerns.

I'd love to be able to command the strokes and such with the Wacom like Harry Potter waving a wand, so I invite all you Wacom users to come on in and drop some knowledge on me - need opinions and advices, and maybe I'll share my dreck work as you coach (troll?) me on your workflows and techniques.

I'd really love to hear the details of how you users do what you do with it.
Thanks