Newbie: pronunciation, "and", and intro

[Bob1016]

Hello,
I am very new to languages, homeric being my first true attempt, though I have loved etymology, linguistics, and ancient writing systems for a while (just generic research). I read through the first book of the iliad schleiman style (hope I spelled his name right?), looking up each word as I went just to get an overall feel for the language, but now I'm starting Pharr (already got through the first 3 lessons using textkits copy and am awaiting my own copy from amazon), and just thought I'd avail my self of this amazing resource (the forum).
I have recorded the alphabet and the first 2 lines of the iliad using (I hope) new restored pronunciation and would love some criticism (not sure if I can upload them, but if you PM an email address I can send them to you).
I was also wondering about de vs te vs kai (sorry it's not in greek, I'll figure it out)? As I understand it, te links ideas (words, clauses, and sentences) with forward progression, leading towards something; while kai links words, clauses and sentences preceding the idea itself and possibly comparing (sort of an if _ than _, or _ but/and _); and de links larger syntactical structures (independent clauses and sentences) in comparison or showing temporal relation (whereas kai would be logical relation). Is this, at all, correct?

Thanks for the help,
Bob
P.S. If anyone is in south florida, I'd love to love to meat up for tutoring or just symposium (I do have lots of mead!).

A little more about me:
I'm a homebrewer
An avid home mead maker
Jazz guitar major
I have an 8mo daughter, Ariadne (she's the main reason I'm trying to learn greek, hopefully she'll grow up using it: speaking or at least reading)
I grow rare fruits (mangos, annonas, lychee and the likes) with my grandfather
That's about it, not terribly interesting.