Yeah, the weakness is in my game, no doubt.  But here among the novices I keep running into a problem, and I'm hoping someone could help me deal with it effectively.   Some people start their game by moving their pawns out to b6 and g6 and their bishops to b7 and g7.  How can I avoid getting stuck in the cross fire, and exploit whatever weakness is in this opening?

It's general name is the Double Fianchetto, I believe.

Just play d5 e5 and develop while defending the pawns. with Nc6,Nf6 and so on. This opening is not forcing at all and you can deal with it in various ways. As you said, if you score badly against this the problem is elsewhere.

Yeah simply develop your pieces (perhaps fianchetto your kingside bishop), build a pawn center (c5 d5, perhaps?) and try to protect it for your life and don't exchange central pawns unless you specifically think it's a good idea.