I finally figured out the problem with the headers (which was why I had those brightly colored borders around everything); if you’re using Dan Cederholm’s simple tabs for navigation, and you want something to sit immediately below it, replace this in #minitabs a:link, #minitabs a:visited:
margin: 0 10px 4px 10px;
with
margin: 0 10px; border-bottom: 4px solid transparent;
a friendly public service announcement from your neighborhood CSS geek.
now to spice it up a little with images and more color….