Malsup cycle plugin: pager disappears in IE7/bold text does odd things

Malsup cycle plugin: pager disappears in IE7/bold text does odd things

I have the cycle plugin running, works fine on all but IE7 (not catering to IE6).  The pager elements on the right do not appear in IE7.  I have tried adjusting the z-index, etc., but can't figure it out.

Also, the caption text transitions in with bolded elements properly appearing, and then they flip to regular text (the whole line of text transitions a bit strangely). 

Any ideas?  the first is more important to me.

thanks,
Maria