Plugin Problems and Glitches

I have spent hours trying to get the “Subscribe to Comments” plugin to work with this theme with no luck.

I can get the text to show, but no check box will appear making it impossible to allow someone to subscribe to that comment.

Also, there seems to be no way to get the most recent posts on the sidebar. You can only have your posts by category which is OK, but not ideal.

It sure would be great to get that comments plugin to work, but I have posted on the programmers site with no answer on his forums or via email, and wonder if I will ever get an answer.