I always feel like a moron after posting, mainly because people point out all the things I should have thought of including in original post.
My search turned up a program named multicd. Here it is on freshmeat.
http://freshmeat.net/projects/multicd/
Seeing that made me think that someone had written what I want, they just named it something different. Hence my post looking for ideas. I was looking for feedback on my thought process, it always seems easier in my head.
I appreciate the pointers and the feedback.