I just wanted to post a general note of thanks to my moderator, Shelley, who went out of her way (behind the scenes) to give me personalized attention and solve my problem. I've noticed that I'm not the only user who has problems due to random personal settings or (unfortunately) operator error, and I so, so appreciate your patience! The nice thing about apps and programs these days is that they can be very personalized by utilizing the many settings; the unfortunate aspect of this is that there are then so many more possibilities for conflict. I have had problems relating to my personal settings interacting weirdly with my programs in my iCal/MobileMe, too, so I'm getting used to this (and the Apple support staff were also very patient and generous with their time).
So, again, my sincere thanks and greatest appreciation go to Shelley for her constant stream of e-mails and one awesome, final phone call that fixed everything. You rock!