bordered entries and dates trouble.., help. please? :) Options

[wonderful_hatred]

alright you guys, here's my problem.. this is my xanga..

my entries are bordered with the purple, and have a black background, right? that's how i want them to be, BUT.. i want them to have like a set width (like not determined how big it is by the size of pictures in the post and what not). and i want to have the box centered (dunno how?).. i used this code..

<!-- begin code provided by createblog.com --><br /><style type="text/css"><br />table.blogbody {<br />background-color:000000;<br />family-font: veranda;<br />BORDER: #660099 1px solid;<br />width:400;}<br /></style><br /><!-- end code provided by createblog.com -->

and when i try to change the width, it doesn't change anything at all!

also, i would like a border around the date, cuz it's kinda hard to see without it.. i tried to use this code..

<!-- begin code provided by createblog.com --><br /><style type="text/css"><br />/*<br />Bordered Weblogs - xanga.com/add_ons<br />*/<br /><br />.blogheader {<br />/* This sets your date's border color */<br /> border: 1px SOLID #000000;<br />}<br /><br />.blogbody {<br />/* This sets your weblog content border color */<br /> border-right: 1px SOLID #000000;<br /> border-bottom: 1px SOLID #000000;<br /> border-left: 1px SOLID #000000;<br />}<br /></style><br /><!-- end code provided by createblog.com -->

but for some reason, i couldn't get the background to change to black!! i put the p
{ background-color: #000000 } code in, but it would only change the background DIRECTLY UNDER the text black, and i wanted the whole box to be black..

i don't know, i may just be html stupid.. but -sigh- can someone pleaaaaaaaaaase help me!?? anything would be greatly appreciated!

-*-EDIT-*- i've been trying to figure this out for at least THREE hours.. come on??