I would use GoDaddy.com's hosting ($4-7/month) and then set up the blog through Blogger.com or Wordpress (Both free); either allows you to put blogs on the root domain and can work with ftp.

[GoDaddy hosting is even cheaper if you use a promo code]

Hey Gabe,

Thanks. I have never installed Blogger.com or Wordpress on a server, but have installed a lot of other apps. Is it easy? Does it have to be a linux box?

Both should be fairly easy installs.  Blogger can be setup in a few minutes and really just involves signing up for a Blogger account and then going through the setup.  If you are using a custom domain - rather than a yoursite.blogger.com domain - use the advanced setup.  Blogger will work with your ftp and upload templates and posts directly.  Our WTM Blog is through Blogger and I'd like to think that since Blogger is a Google product there is some benefit to our posts being indexed quickly but that's just me.

Wordpress also has a straightforward install that requires setting up a MySQL database.  There are a few sites and posts dedicated to how to setup Wordpress.  

Both blog platforms should work with either linux or windows but given the option I would go with linux.

Gabe - thx again...very good stuff.