1. Do Time Machine backup of old laptop. Turn old laptop off.
2. Plug Time Machine volume into new laptop.
3. Mac OS X asks if I want to restore from the TM backup. I said yes.
4. Go get coffee.
5. Log into new laptop and continue my work from where I left off.

Did you boot from a CD or something? A new SSD is formatted for Windows and is completely blank.

The SSD came in my new laptop. I didn't buy it separately.

But you're right, booting from a CD and formatting it is a fine way of going about it.

For those who want to use this procedure, which has the advantage of not requiring a $30 Universal HDD Adapter but has the disadvantage of not allowing you to test your SSD before you install, the steps are:

1. Log in as a user who does *not* have FileVault enabled and do a Time Machine backup.

2. Open up the Mac (using instructions from iFixit.com) and swap the two drives.

3. Insert your system recovery/installation DVD in your optical drive. Restart your computer and press and hold the 'C' key as soon as you hear the chimes until the Apple appears.

4. When you get to the screen saying "Install Mac OS X," do not press the "Continue" button. Instead, go to the Utilites menu and select "Disk Utility..."

5. Format your SSD as HFS Extended (Journaled), 1 partition. Quit Disk Utility.

6. Go back to the Utilities menu and select "Restore System From Backup," choosing your Time Machine backup. The restore should take about three hours.

7. Restart. Go to System Preferenences, set the startup drive, and you're done.