142/365

Woohoo!!! I met my August goal! I'd still like to lose another stone (14 lbs for you not in the know on that). It's going to be a much tougher battle from here on out! I think I'll set my September goal at 5 lbs and go from there.

141/365

I bought some new everyday earrings today!

140/365

I think this is my favorite pub sign of all time. It's 3D!

139/365

A maypole and a CCTV camera on a pole. Ahhh....England!

138/365

Isn't the idea of the lampshade that it shades the light bulb??

137/365

My view as I waited for the bus after the gym. I was feeling pretty uninspired today. What you can't tell is how dark it was getting at only 8pm! :-(

136/365

Every time I pulled my camera out, Isla gave me one of these. Even if I wasn't taking her picture! Well then I had to take it because she was so funny!

135/365

We've had a pretty busy day. Not pictured is me in my pajamas.

134/365

Little Kitty likes my new kicks!

133/365

Hard at work at the divisional picnic. How many of you have seen your manager on the monkey bars??

132/365

These people have a lovely garden! This is just one little bit of it. It's really difficult to photograph because it actually wraps around the house.

131/365

Lace curtains are very popular in England. This particular look is REALLY popular. I'd say about 80% of houses I pass on the way to work have lace curtains. I'm not a huge fan.

btw - I was on a hill when I took the picture, hence the weird angle!

130/365

My coworkers and I were discussing one of our contacts and apparently I was going on and on about how he is such a nice guy, blah blah. Well, they started accusing me of having a secret crush on him and one of them actually made this picture. For the record, he is a nice guy and no, I don't have a crush on him!

129/365

This is how close the bus gets to the hedge on the way home from work.

128/365

The sun on the hills behind my house. I am forever taking pictures of these, but the pictures never do it justice.

127/365

Wes on one of King Bladud's pigs in Bath.

126/365

We went to see Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale in Bristol on Friday with some work friends. I forgot to take a picture of our picnic spread before we dove in, so this is about halfway through!

125/365

It was my turn to bring the cakes to the team meeting!

124/365

This is my other coworker, Jo. Clearly she's not shy at all! She likes to hear my American stories...about sitting on the back deck, grilling out, my days at band camp, talking about my mom (as opposed to mum). She told me the other day that I'm probably some kind of impostor because there's no way that one person can possess all my American stereotypes. Ha!

123/365

This is my coworker, Kelly. She's not as shy as this picture is making her out to be!

122/365

My friend Kennedy made me this necklace. She's cool like that.

121/365

I decided to take the canal path to the grocery store. It just started to rain when I took my picture, hence the blurry spot.

120/365

No surprise he's mastered this ball which produces bits of food for him. Little Kitty has no interest in it, unless you're dumping some of the food out for her. She's such a diva!

119/365

The pathetic excuse for a playground near my house. I think the only people who use it are the hospital employees who come here to smoke.

118/365

The equivalent of the guy who never puts the toilet seat down. So annoying....

117/365

I'm an NPR podcast freak. My favorite is This American Life but I just discovered the one for Radio Diaries which is fun too.

116/365

This is a puddle, in honor of the constant rain we had today. Sorry about the crap picture, but the batteries died in my camera before I could take another one.

115/365

Walking home from the bus stop and singing along to my iPod is nothing like driving the Civic home from the gym and singing along to the stereo. Boo!

114/365

I have committed to losing this much weight during the month of August. I know I can do it, I just have to stay focused! I'll be doing a cross between the low GI diet and Weight Watchers. Both were successful for me in the past (especially WW). I'll also be changing up my gym routine and trying to make it more like the routine I had in the US. Wish me luck!

113/365

At the advice of Carrie and Gavin I bought this ridiculously expensive comb to help with Obie's matting issue. It cost me $38 and this is the small cat sized one! As you can see it works. This is the hair I got from just around Obie's neck! Hopefully there will be no more shaving appointments!

112/365

I know you love bus pictures. Sorry for the long post, but today was THE most bizarre commute ever. The picture is of the first thing that happened. The bus is driving along and we come across this truck with its back end still on the narrow road. The bus driver stops and is honking the horn. He finally has to get out and go have a word with the driver. Apparently the truck tried to pull into a business, but there's a gate, so he can't move forward. The picture is the driver coming back to the bus, but stopping to direct some traffic in the meantime (this is futile because people just go whenever they want). Eventually he gets back in, pulls the side mirror in and literally drives through the hedge to get around the truck. There were about 3 inches between us and him. He stops to put the mirror back. Then about 2 stops later he pulls up and hits the mirror on the bus shelter and the mirror breaks off. Visibly annoyed he gets out and throws the mirror into the bus. We continue on. We're coming up on another stop and there is a man laying on ground*, his head is on the road and feet are on the curb. The other people at the stop are frantically attending to him. The bus driver stops and gets out. Comes back on and asks if there are any first aiders on the bus. Nope. He goes out. He comes back and says, 'What's next!?' Seriously! I felt really bad for the guy. We then had to get out of the bus and wait for a replacement bus because of the broken mirror. It was a crazy commute for sure!

*Apparently the guy had an epileptic seizure. He was standing up within a few minutes. And fortunately a doctor from the local surgery pulled up in his Porsche.