I was able to resolve the first 2 issues. The first one was a simple change to the file style.css in the appropriate template folder. The second one required me to create an index.tpl file in that folder with the banner stuff removed. The last issue (3) still has me stumped though. I would ...

So I've been hacking away trying to figure out how to make this work the way I want. I'm getting real close to what I want. You can view my blog here:

http://piazzatraining.com/blog.php

Here is the code I am using:

<?php
chdir('serendipity'); // Switch to Serendipity patch
include 'index.php ...

I am in the process of embedding Serendipity in static site. I have put my standard html into a PHP file and included the following snippet to generate the content of the blog:

<?php
chdir('serendipity');
include 'serendipity_config.inc.php';
serendipity_smarty_init(); // Start Smarty templating ...