not resolvedScratch this ... I didn't see the "write new page" explanation until just now.
When I did the "enable archives page" thing (the checkbox/update options) I went back to the Manage/Pages and there was no new page listed there with Archives in the title.
Possible cause: When I installed the theme, I already had a page named "archives" or something, I think ... I since deleted it because it wasn't displaying the way I wanted it to, and wanted to start over. I tried unchecking, saving and rechecking/saving the 'enable archives page' function, and still no archives page there.
I know there's an archive template in the theme someplace... just don't know how to enable it here. (the pages/templates stuff in wordpress has always confused me to no end...)