Green medulla, blue medulla, old medulla, new medulla

Given the big life changes that have occurred, and an overwhelming compulsion to simplify, I'm considering re-designing the template for ye olde medulla noodle. I don't hate the current template, but it's safe to say that I've fallen out of love with it. It's too busy for my current tastes, and I'd like it to be have some cleaner lines and less going on in the sidebar (good-bye to most of those tacky buttons!).

But before I got monkeying around with things, I have a few questions for you, dear readers. First and foremost, how attached are you to the current template? God forbid I've actually branded the noodle with this look, but I'd hate to upset anyone by completely scrapping something that you like. So what do you think should go, what should stay, like/hate the current color, etc. etc.?

(Those of you who are less than technically proficient about the ins and outs of blogging platforms can tune out here) I'm planning on upgrading the Blogger template designer, per their insistence, to customize the look. I've not done this yet because I haven't wanted to redo everything on the site. FYI, I plan on saving a copy of the code for the current template, so I'll be able to reintegrate the things I want to keep and toss the rest, but I want to know how much of a hassle I'm going to put myself through. My questions - how nicely does the new template designer play with Haloscan, Site Meter, Technorati, Creative Commons, etc.? Is it easy to drop code into the new designer, or will I be dealing strictly with Web 2.0 interfaces? Will fucking with the current comments set-up mess with my Haloscan archives? Anything else I should know about?