This is the source i found on my posts page:

div.post-headline h1 a:hover {
color: #000000;
background-color: #f8fbbd
text-decoration: none; }

Apparently I've not done something correct because it will work on the PAGE links (which is handy to find in the theme options), but I can't seem to get it to function on the actual posts headline.

I'm basically trying to get that yellow color to show up in the background in the hover state.

http://cbredpath.com/blog/

try this in the CSS Inserts

div.post-headline h1,
div.post-headline h2 {
    background: #yellow;
}

OK... your solution worked perfectly. I just need to only change it in the hover state though.

added this and it worked!!

div.post-headline h1 a:hover,
div.post-headline h2 a:hover{
background: #F8FBBD;
}

thank you again for the "fishing" lesson!