Tweaking Reflection Photoblog Template

I just started using the Reflection template for my photoblog at http://www.caryncaldwell.com/photos/. I like it pretty well except for two things: The reflection on all pages and the slow loading on the main page.

I’d like to lose the reflection because it is distracting and, even worse, it often doesn’t line up with the bottom of many pictures. Sometimes it actually reflects the photo that came before it! I could only find it listed on the main index page. When I tried deleting the reflection div, I could no longer click on previous or next posts. Any suggestions for other ways to get rid of it?

My other difficulty is with the loading on the main page. I think it uses Ajax, supposedly to speed things up. Unfortunately, pages load much more slowly if I try to navigate from the main page back than if I click the random button, or even if I click random and navigate back and forth from there. The difference? Other than speed, the only difference I see is that navigating back and forth directly from the main page gives me a big white box with a loading circle.

I like my photoblogs pretty basic, especially when the fancy stuff just interferes. Any suggestions for getting rid of said fancy stuff?

Thanks!