So it seems like Solr 1.4 should be targeted for release as soon as possible after the Lucene 2.9 release - perhaps one week after. Lucene looks like it may release in late August, so I think there is enough time to get all of the issues out of the way (of course new ones having to do with all of the changes in Lucene keep coming up...)
side note: I'll be out of touch (in VT) this Sat-Tues. -Yonik http://www.lucidimagination.com