Ok, so I’ve determined you can’t use the css template method to skin ExpressionEngine. Actually if anyone has any ideas how it’s done, please let me know. I figure the reason is because the EE variables are parsed before PHP routines are. Which makes sense.

My solution is of course to use an external CSS file. It seems this way is pretty well. I haven’t started on the PHP yet to set the skins themselves, but I foresee no issues or problems since the templates within EE do a good job of everything so far. I’m Really impressed.