Divs wont float with out messing up page

I have a little problem . after 2 years i finaly steped up and decided to design a new site for my self. all is going well untill i get to the content part. it would seem that my divs dont want to play nice with each other. when i tell the 2 inside divs to float left they do but by doing so it shrinks the div they sit in , makes it look like nothing is there. works fine in IE but not in safari or ff3

here is a link
http://www.anthonydevito.net/webtest/index.htm

here is a link of what it should look like

http://www.anthonydevito.net/webtest/anthony1.jpg

any help apreciated greatly!

ps anyone know why my cursor doesn’t show up when i make a new post or Go Advanced in FF3?