I didn't think 6.5 lbs was too much since a buddy of mine who's been
brewing for a few years typically uses 5 lbs of malt and a pound of
honey when he's making his honey brown ale. That's a lot of sugar and
his OG comes out very high. Anyway, I definitely made a point of
checking the OG after filling the fermenter up with additional water to
bring it to 5 gallons. I am more and more inclined to believe that the
wort didn't get stirred all the way which is why the OG was so high.
In fact, here's my recipe that I posted over on rec.crafts.brewing when
I was asking for their help. Hopefully this will help you figure out
(maybe) what some of the problems might be.

1. Brought to boil 2 gals of water.
2. Once at a boil turned off heat and added all malt (3.5 lb can of
Bulldog amber syrup and 3 lb bag Haaglander light DME). Mixed
thoroughly.
3. Return to boil for 5 minutes to make sure everything was nice and
mixed.
4. Add 1 oz. of Hallertau hops, 4.6% alpha acid.
5. Boil for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. At 45 minute mark, added 1/2 oz of Willamette hops, 4.0% alpha
acid.
7. Boiled for another 10 mins and then added last 1/2 oz of Willamette
hops.
8. Cooled the mix in an ice water bath in kitchen sink for about an
hour. It took a lot longer b/c I kept running out of ice. Discovered
blocks of frozen chicken thighs work just as well. :)
9. Moved the cooled wort to primary fermenter. I should point out
that the siphon wasn't used since my fermenter is a six gallon plastic
bucket. I just poured it in but tried to minimize splashing so as not
to froth it up.
10. Moved the bucket to a bathtub and topped it up to about 5.5
gallons.
11. Recorded OG and temp. I assume there wasn't proper mixing to get a
1.122 reading at 72 degrees.
12. Added White Labs English ale yeast (WLP002).
13. Checked the airlock's activity twice a day and after six days
thought it had slowed enough to bottle. I honestly forgot all about
racking it first.
14. Recorded the 1.024 FG at 73 degrees and freaked out. No way I'm
going to bottle this.
15. Moved the brew into 5 gallon glass carboy and put it back in the
bathtub. Wrapped a towel around it to keep light out. No skunky beer
please.
16. Started searching for help on the great big Internet and wound up
here. Thanks for all your help folks.

I did check the accuracy of my hydrometer and it was pretty close to
1.000 with just tap water. Hopefully it was just a particularly thick
wort sample that I used.