Thanks, Absurdoldbird, tor taking the time to respond to my query. You mentioned that "search" widget was part of the theme I'm using. However, it used to work. Now, of late, it doesn't. I can pull up another "search," and it does work, but then I have two on my blog--one that works and one that doesn't work. The one that doesn't work overlays another word on my header. Not cool.
I checked out the CSS customization upgrade you suggested and read the tutorial. I'm afraid I just didn't understand it at all. I have no qualms about purchasing it. It just seems that I'm not ready for html.
By the way, your blog is beautiful. I would love to be able to do all those clever things. Kudos!