Well, now, there's something a little odd happening -- I see the "2." smiley in my original reply but not in the copy where you quoted it. The image URL in the original was:

http://pcf2.psychcentral.com/images/smilies/hug.gif

In the quoted copy (where no image shows up for me), the URL has turned into:

http://forums.psychcentral.com/images/styles/desert_sand/smilies/hug.gif

I'd like to see what DocJohn makes of this. I'm not sure if it has any bearing on your original problem or if it's a separate one. By the way, is the Desert Sand "skin" the one you're currently using? Do your results change at all when you switch to the Psych Central skin (which I used for the above test)?