Seeking Redecorating and/or Hosting Advice

I have a confession to make: I really hate this navy colour for this blog. I picked this canned design because it is a variation of the one I use for my main blog but I find it difficult to read the white on navy. I expect others do as well, since few people are visiting this linkblog besides me.

I spent about an hour the other day trying to change the background navy colour, but couldn't figure out which HTML code needs changing. I have a very basic understanding of HTML and mostly have to experiment with the colour codes until I get it right (Blogger allows me to work on it and preview changes without making changes to the actual website).

If anyone can look at the sourcecode and give me an idea which part would need changing (say, to a white or light gray background), please do let me know.

The other confession I should make is that I really really want to "graduate" to the Movable Type software, but need a web host for that. Blogger, which I am currently using, provides its own free host, Blog*Spot. If anyone has a favourite reliable, inexpensive ($10 a month) host, let me know.

Of course, then my dilemma won't be which little code to change for the background colour, but what to use for the entire design! Hmmm...could be interesting.