REQ: Blog Optimization and Content Advice

Hello!

I am looking for opinions/insight how I might make the following blog a little leaner/faster. I have a number of plugins loaded (which I will list below). However, performance is the same regardless if they are active. My biggest concern is the fact that nothing is available immediately after accessing the page. In other words, the body of the page (@ T1+) takes about 4 seconds to appear and the sidebar takes another 4 seconds.

The admin page also seems a bit slow so my (uneducated) guess places database access at fault. Performance is about the same regardless if caching is used.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

http://www.ceressecrets.com
Host: 1and1 (business shared)

Plugins:
AJAX Comments
FireStats
Google Analytics
Google Sitemaps
Lightbox 2.02
Livejournal Crosspost
Sociable (social bookmarks)
wp-cache

Sidebar Widgets:
About Me
Subscribe Me (syndication)