few issues with the cycle plugin

few issues with the cycle plugin

I got 2 slide-shows running with fade effect using the min cycle plugin. They both cycle between divs containing an image and a link both generated from a database with an asp code.
> Link < (page is in Hebrew)

I'm having a couple of issues with setting the plugin:

1) In FF when first loading the page (or hard refreshing) the divs turn out squashed with the images spilling out. The solution I found on the web is to assign the img's proportions to the div - something that can't be done in my case since the images are all different sizes and are being randomly generated from a database. I also want the div to fit each slide...
Is there any other way to fix this?

2) The page load rather slow, is it possible to load some of the images after the layout and the rest of the content are in place? how?

3) In FF the transitions in both slide-shows occur simultaneously (even when hover-pausing one of them) is it possible to achieve the same effect in IE?   

the code looks something like this:
  1. <head>
  2. <style type="text/css">
  3. .slideshow>div {text-align:center; width:225px; padding:15px 15px 0 15px; border:1px solid #ccc; background-color: #F0F0F0;}
  4. .slideshow img {width:225px;}
  5. </style>
  6. <script type="text/javascript">
  7. $(document).ready(function(){
  8. $('.slideshow').cycle({
  9. timeout:2000,
  10. pause:true,
  11. random:true
  12. });
  13. });
  14. </script></head>
  15. <body>
  16. <div class="slideshow" id="images"><div>
  17. <ASP code getting an image and a link from database>
  18. </div></div>
  19. <-- 2nd cycle -->
  20. <div class="slideshow" id="images"><div>
  21. <ASP code getting an image and a link from database>
  22. </div></div>
  23. </body>

help would be much appreciated =]