Bill, The way I do it is host them at a site. I use photobucket.com. When you get them hosted they give you a code that you place in your signature box in your profile. Then they will pop up every time you post.
To shrink a pic, rt click it, open in paint, go to image, click stretch skew, downsize to 25% in both. That'll take a 1 meg pic to less than 100K usually.
If you want to save the original do a save as and change the name after you open it.
Wanting a Custom fit in an off the rack world.
I don't have time for a job, I just need the money.
I'm having the same problem with getting a picture to appear (posted the question on "How to Login, Change Profile, or Find Lost Password"). I'll give this a try when I get home.
Never had the "too big how do you shrink it" problem. Up here the cold weather takes care of shrinkage!