Ha!  Some of these guys stay in annual forever.  My joke is that "annual" doesn't mean it's supposed to take a year :-)

As for your starting problem.  Since you do have a goo problem, I'm wondering if it might take a little starting fluid to help burn off the oil.  Maybe start with new plugs, spray a little fluid, and run it.  If it quits, stop cranking so you don't fill the plugs up with goo again, and shoot a little more fluid.  If shouldn't take too many cycles of that to burn off any excess oil, then you can put new plugs in, and run normally (with any luck).  

Good luck.

Rusty (going on 4 months of silence)