gem install heroku
heroku clone stuffies
cd stuffies
[..local edits..]
git add .
git commit -m "local changes"
git push
So I ran off and installed the heroku gem. But had trouble with step 2. Fortunately a couple of google searches had me back up and running. One to deal with "Permission denied (publickey)" upon heroku clone. And another to figure out how to create the RSA key. Now I have a local Git clone of my project that I can work on in NetBeans and then I can quickly publish the changes to Heroku with a commit and a push. Sweeeet!!!