1 Which reminds me, I need to pick up the Ivan book...

2 ... a freak shopping accident?

3 Well, if you don't mind spoilers, go to the TVTropes page and search for "shopping".

4 Forgot one (I think, I've never been clear if it was just a name collision):
Arde - survives, despite a hazardous boss

5 Oh yeah, I completely forgot about that.  He only shows up for a moment, but my guess is that it's the same character.

6 Who, Mayhew?  Yes, it's the same character.  The two books were written within eight months of each other, and LMB isn't the sort to miss the chance for that sort of re-weave.  One generation incidentally destroys his career, the second generation redeems the family's honor and the victim, unknowing.

His later career isn't detailed, I have to think that he got put into the future-plot-stubs box of odds-and-ends and she never found any way to weave Arde into a complete theme in some later book.  She doesn't really write Dendarii Mercenary books anymore.  Her most successful books since the "Borders of Infinity" novella have stuck pretty close to the Imperium, look at how weak Cryoburn was, for instance.  It turned into a homily to socialized medicine.   Well, sort of.  A rant against evil space HMOs, more like.

7 Cordelia accidentally wrecked Arde's career while fleeing Beta Colony's excessively universal health care.  I think it's a wash.

Also, I rather like Cryoburn.  The plot makes perfect sense given what's already been established about the technology and political systems involved, and we see Miles defusing a crisis so smoothly that hardly anyone gets their head blown off.  Which has got to be harder to write than the chaotic military action of some of the earlier books.