actually, looks like i figured it out. i went through the index for the theme and just started commenting pieces out until i saw files in the cache. after commenting out the sidebar I saw that the cache dir starting populating.
so i started commenting parts of the side bar out that had any php/wp functionality.
in my sidebar i had:
<? virtual (“/includes/80×80.html”); ?>
when i commented that out, my site started caching again even with the rest of the sidebar.php code in tact.
I changed that line to
<? include “includes/80×80.html”; ?>
and now caching works in its entirety. I just thought I’d share the solution, maybe it will help someone else who is banging their head on the wall ;).
