Would I have to somehow constrain the entire site and not just having a fixed content area? I am confused, as the narrow skin is constrained, but that menu area extends to the edges...not even sure if this is possible, but trying to understand how a skin set to a fixed, narrow setting would still have a portion of it extend to the edges. ;)

Once my site is finally finished, I think I need to tackle skinning and play with the default skin and containers to understand how all this works.

Exactly like Leupold's site - http://www.deutschnetnuke.de/

...just around the content in the margins. Given that the navigational bar extends through the margins, though, it seems like I would have to contain the entire content area somehow?  ...not sure what's going on here. :)