yeah it was my alternator. the guage is NOT supposed to stay on with the car off, but as for it showing lean or rich, i'm not sure what to tell you other than they aren't very accurate---

the ebrake/batt thing will continue to get worse, but for right now your alternator is probably still fine...

I could probably be still driving on my bad alternator up until this summer---

edit: which wires are you taking power from for the guage?