Thanks for the site suggestions--I'll check 'em out.
I made my decisions about the table borders, and discovered a whole new way of thinking about them, which gives me a lot more control, and some interesting design options.
I'm pretty pleased with the results.
Although the pages load a bit on the slow side, and I wonder if folks wouldn't just rather read most of the stuff here on the boards in plain old burlywood and charcoal.
N'import -- the site is for my own convenience, so I can get the stuff into chronological order, and have it searchable, and display all the extras. If no one ever reads it there, it'll still have been worth doing. I'm learning a lot by fooling around with soemthign I love.
Now to get that content added in . . .