CSS position property and margin issues…

Hi all-

I’m at the end of my rope as someone who’s got a good amount of HTML/CSS knowledge that’s short of a professional level…

I’m finishing up the prep work on my blog and caught tonight- in all major browsers (FF, IE, Safari) on both operating platforms- that the body elements on all of my blog’s pages shift relative to the background, depending on the user’s size of any or each of the browser windows. I’m sure it’s a position issue here, but I’m not sure quite how to resolve it without pulling out all hairs before I’m done. 😉

Also- I’m having some trouble properly setting the margins/padding as I’d like… I’m looking to expand my main column to larger than the 488px (I’ve already tried to change the width under maincol in relation to both margin and sidebar) to better be able to write longer-than-blurb posts, some of which will be paragraphs long. I like the date box where it is (I went negative –> – on the left margin to give it more breathing room), but need that to be spaced a little further (obviously) to the left of the main column than where it sits right now, mid-change. And, ideally, the increased-px main column’s text would have an increased width in which to write, that doesn’t seem to want to cooperate in this moment. Ahhh! Help! Anyone? Bueller? Is this confusing enough? 🙂 Sowwy.

Thanks,
Amy