and everything went great up to the section titled "Re-visiting an old friend" down the page.
i plug in the resistor and the led, and upload the program, but only the pin13 LED of the arduino board blinks. the actual red LED connected to the breadboard, doesnt blink at all.
Check that the LED on your breadboard is oriented correctly (longer LED towards aruino pin 13, shorter LED towards ground.) And, of course, that your resistor is in series with it. Doesn't matter if the resistor is "before" or "after" the LED with respect to pin 13 and ground.
If the LED is in correctly, test that it works at all. With the resistor and LED on the mini breadboard (but your arduino not connected!) apply 3 - 5 v to the LED and resistor and see if it lights up. An easy way to do this is a pair of standard AA batteries.