probably my best game to date

You missed the forced mate at the end.

20. Nxh6+! Kh8

21. Qg8+ Nxg8

22. Nf7#

You can win a pawn on move 5 with 5. dxe5 dxe5 6. Qxd8 and then either 6. ... Nxd8 7. Nxe5 or 6. ... Kxd8 7. Bxf7.

"6. Qd3 Hoping he'll threaten my queen with Nb4". You should expect your opponent to play the best possible move, not hope they make mistakes. In this case, black can just play 6. ... Bxf3 followed by Nxd4.

At move 11, how about 11. exd5 opening the e-file for your rook?

20. Nxd8+ Winning the queen is nice, but you can just checkmate directly. 20. Nxh6+ Kh8 21. Qg8+ Nxg8 22. Nf7#

#2

Right you are - of course I could move my Knight back to f7 after taking his queen and still accomplish that.  It would have been nifty though to sacrifice my queen and then mate him with just the knight.

#3 - I guess you have to be awfully pragmatic to be keeping an eye open for queen trades where you can pick up a pawn but point taken.  Also, he picked up that pawn for free later on, so I do see your point. Also that pawn is blocking my rook as you noted, so your observations had a theme there.