help with query_posts from portfolio

hello everyone!

I am having some issues customizing a wordpress theme, and have spent countless ours reading and trying everything to no avail!

problem:

i have a theme that uses a portfolio setup. it pulls each portfolio post and displays them in a grid like fasion ( thumbnails ) it then uses filters to sort them and has links above to sort apples & oranges etc. By default it displays ALL posts, unfiltered.

I am trying to set it to pull specific filters by default.

the template code as follows:

<!-- PORTFOLIO -->
<div class="portfolio2">

        <!-- Filters -->
        <ul class="filter_list">
            <li><a href="#all" title="all" class="current">ALL</a></li>
            <?php 
            rewind_posts();
            $catz =  get_terms('portfolio2', 'orderby=count&hide_empty=0');
                foreach($catz as $cat1){ 
                    echo '<li><a href="#'.$cat1->slug.'" title="'.$cat1->slug.'"><span>'.$cat1->name.'</span></a></li>';
                }
            ?>
        </ul>
        <!-- /Filters -->

        <br class="clear" />
        
<div id="portfolio">
<?php
rewind_posts();
// Counter...
$slider_count = get_option('dcb_portfolio_counter');
// Query
query_posts("showposts=".$slider_count."&post_type=portfolio");
while(have_posts()):the_post();
// Thumbnail
$thumbnailer=get_the_post_thumbnail($post->ID,"slider");
preg_match ('/src="(.*)" class/',$thumbnailer,$link); 
// Custom fields
$custom_link = get_post_meta($post->ID, "link", true);
$custom_lightbox = get_post_meta($post->ID, "lightbox", true);
$custom_caption = get_post_meta($post->ID, "caption", true);
$excerpt = get_the_excerpt();
$catz = wp_get_object_terms($post->ID,'portfolio2');
foreach($catz as $cat1) { 
$currcat = $cat1->slug;
$catname = $cat1->name;
break;
}
?>
<!-- Grid Item -->
<div class="portfolio_item grid_item <?php echo $currcat; ?>">
    <div class="grid_infos">
        <div class="grid_infos_container">
        <h5><?php the_title(); ?></h5>
        <p><?php echo limit(150, $excerpt); ?></p>
        <?php
        	if($custom_lightbox !== "") {
			echo '<a href="'.$custom_lightbox.'" rel="prettyPhoto['.$catname.']" class="zoom">zoom</a>'; 
		} else {
			echo '<a href="'.$link[1].'" rel="prettyPhoto['.$catname.']" class="zoom">zoom</a>';
		}
	?>
        <?php
        	if($custom_link !== "") {
			echo '<a href="'.$custom_link.'" class="continue">view</a>'; 
		} else {
			echo '<a href="';
			the_permalink();
			echo '" class="continue">view</a>'; 
		}
	?>
        </div>
    </div>
    <?php $attr = array('class' => "", 'title' => $custom_caption);
		the_post_thumbnail('square_size',$attr); ?>
</div>
<!-- /Grid Item -->
<?php endwhile;?>
</div>
<br>


</div>
<!-- /PORTFOLIO -->

And the functions.php taxonomy:

// PORTFOLIO
add_action('init', 'portfolio_register');
add_action('init', 'add_default_boxez2');

function add_default_boxez2() {
register_taxonomy("portfolio2", array("portfolio"), array("hierarchical" => true, "label" => "Portfolio filters", "singular_label" => "Category", "rewrite" => true,"query_var"=>true));
}
function portfolio_register() {

$labels = array(
	'name' => _x('Portfolio', 'post type general name'),
	'singular_name' => _x('portfolio Item', 'post type singular name'),
	'add_new' => _x('Add New', 'portfolio item'),
	'add_new_item' => __('Add New portfolio Item'),
	'edit_item' => __('Edit portfolio Item'),
	'new_item' => __('New portfolio Item'),
	'view_item' => __('View portfolio Item'),
	'search_items' => __('Search portfolio'),
	'not_found' =>  __('Nothing found'),
	'not_found_in_trash' => __('Nothing found in Trash'),
	'parent_item_colon' => ''
);

$args = array(
	'labels' => $labels,
	'public' => true,
	'publicly_queryable' => true,
	'show_ui' => true,
	'query_var' => true,
	'menu_icon' => get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/images/portfolio.png',
	'rewrite' => true,
	'capability_type' => 'post',
	'hierarchical' => false,
	'menu_position' => null,
	'supports' => array('title','editor','excerpt','thumbnail','categories','custom-fields'),
  ); 

register_post_type( 'portfolio' , $args );
}

I have spent hours trying to configure the "query_posts("showposts=".$slider_count."&post_type=portfolio");" to pull the filters or id's with no luck.

is there something im missing?

i am willing to pay or donate to the site if anyone can help out.

thanks for your time!

Chris