Yay Thanee!
Alright, now that that is out of the way. I've been itching for new games since a bunch have gone on hold or dropped off the map lately, and this one looks excellent.
My opinions on the two options: I like them both personally, although going gestalt without multiclassing and PrC's could be a tiny bit frustrating for some class combinations. One way Karl Green dealt with this was allowed characters to pick up some PrC abilities with feats, but only at the minimum level a non-gestalt character would normally be able to achieve them.
For a character... that would depend on whether the gestalt option is chosen or not... although if gestalt is picked up, I think an elf Monk-Druid, or a gnome illusionist-rogue.
If gestalt wasn't chosen, that'd be a bit more thought to the whole thing... probably a gnomish illusionist.
I'm going to be incredibly busy this weekend, however, following this I'll be more available to get up a decent character background. Let me know on the gestalt/non-gestalt thing and you'll get a character background. Good to see you running a game.