-- that helps... thanks a million... i had renamed the templates_c dir to delete_me and created a new dir called templates_c which i chmod'd to 777 -- BUT the template engine had to still create all the subdirectories which is where i was having the problem... didn't know if i had to go in and create all the sub folders too? i asked my webhost to go in and change the permissions of all the sub directories and that seemed to solve the problem.... thanks again, dss...
p.s. - x-cart said the problem stems from the difference in https and http users.. i need to research exactly what they are talking about.. it makes a little sense but not total sense to me yet.... cheers...