[thelist] New site - Critique for look/feel/user experience

[Hugh Blair]

Well, after a short week of building, I'm getting ready to put
up a new site. Its temporary location is:
http://www.hughblair.com/

Yes, it's commercial
Yes, it's built mostly with DW, but also a lot of typing in
     Notepad, cuteHTML, a little HotDog, a little NotePro...
Yes, it started with a Project VII template

'Real' functionality isn't rolled in yet, style sheets need
tweaking, lots of other stuff is still a work-in-progress,
<b> needs to be changed etc., but...

What I'd like comments on is:
-- The user experience - easy? hard? intuitive?
-- Site functionality - Style sheet changes? Colors?
-- Browser problems - 'nuff said, blast away
-- Site size - load time OK? Transitions fast enough?

Of course I'll take all other comments/flames. Please go
after anything you see. But my biggest concern right now
is the IA/GUI etc. I'd really like comments from the
IA/user-interface folks around here. With luck, I'm
going to move it 'live' in a week or so.

And thanks in advance,

-Hugh
hblair at hotfootmail.com