1. When I started brewing in the garage, I used to direct the outlet hose into a drain in the stairwell of the walkout basement door - sometimes water the lawn and/or plants with some collected. I always hated wasting so much water. So now, I place a pump in a cooler with a 20 lb bag of ice and fill the cooler halfway with water from the hose. I hook the immersion chiller inlet hose to the pump and stick the i.c. outlet hose into the cooler. When it's time to chill, the pump gets plugged in and the water in the cooler is circulated from cooler, through chiller, and back to cooler. Adding a second 20 lb bag of ice when the first has melted, it takes me about 20 - 30 minutes to get the wort to near pitching temp.
2. Like Denny, I make the starters a day or two ahead and so the small amount of wort is still boiled on the stove in the kitchen.