Andrew,
For some reason I feel compelled to answer your question about re-raising myself, perhaps to get critiqued. I believe whether you get re-raised depends primarily on your image at the table, and also on the opposing player's level of aggression. If you have an image as a very loose player he may re-raise you to get more chips out of you, or to slow you down. Similarly if you've been playing tight, he may want to make you think about folding. I know sometimes I get bored playing just one table so I started playing around with "table image." Every time I made the nuts or a solid hand I would minbet and re-raise my raiser on every street. Before long, I was actually buying the occasional pot with just a minbet. No one would raise me for fear I had it because I was always showing up monsters.