Blogger problems - anyone else struggling? Any suggestions?

I've been having quite a few problems with blogger in the last few weeks - perhaps it is the increase of traffic to my blog? Posting is a real problem since each time I post via the web it has to upload almost 17MB of data to my website (I know that it is much easier if one simply posts to a standard blogger account, but I want the security of knowing that my posts are safely housed on my own domain).

Has anyone else been having problems with blogger in the last few days?

What are some of the problems I've had?

- Images that won't upload.

- Blog posts timing out.

- Updating the blog and then suddenly discovering that the whole page is blank!

- Formatting problems with my template (and the inability to change my template header graphic to something unique).

So, what are other people using? I can see that Stephen and Barry seem to be using wordpress, oh and so is Sivin (see links on the left), is that the best alternative for a more ardent blogger?

What I need is:

- Blogging facilities that will allow me to post from a web browser, or simply post to my blog via an email (like this post).

- Something that looks good, is customizable, and can handle fairly high volumes.

- Something that is not too expensive.

All help and insight would be appreciated! Thanks, Dion