there was a layout problem w forms wherein the "footnote" appeared to the right of the form itself instead of under it. the fix was to use the 'content' block instead of the 'main' block.
asked someone with a clue on IRC (freenode) to have a look at my site. they made some suggestions. I made various style changes related to gradients and text shadows. I asked my contact to have a look, and I was complimented with "glorious consistency" and "shazam".