For resizing pictures, if I cann't be bothered to fire-up Photoshop, there's a really handy utility from Microsoft.
Google for Windows Powertools Download and you should find it. It's a whole set of useful little utilities that integrate into Windows and one of which is an image resizer.
You go into My Computer, find the picture you want to resize, and right-click it. Lots of options for size, etc.
Gary