I am completely done with TypePad. In addition to having to pay every month, I also hated the fact that I had to pay even more if I wanted to really personalize my blog instead of using their pre-canned themes.
I love some of the themes the usrers come up with. I decided to modify my own theme and started with a great design from Paul Giacherio.
The result is what you see here, there is a bunch of extras in the code but decided to keep most of it just in case Iwant to do a multiple column blog. I am a bit rusty so it took a while but I am ready to play with sidebars etc. and get much more sophisticated next week.