In case anyone else has this problem, use CHILD THEMES when you are basing a theme on an existing one that will likely be updated.
Creating a TwentyTen Child Theme
http://aaron.jorb.in/blog/2010/04/introducing-thirty-ten/
@sexydawnt: Are you using Network Solutions by any chance? Having same problem with a client’s site that is using NS as their host. None of the solutions recommending changing timeout values have worked.
