Hey Maven....yeah it is distracting. What I would do is try cropping out from the right.....this will make sort of a portrait pano and still get your idea across. Then, next time you might try a different aperture setting to change the DOF on your shot.....or else back up a tad....or get a wider angle lens.
I use PhotoBucket too. They can mess up your sizes. Try posting a particular size that is less than 250K....then it won't automatically resize. I can usually upload most of mine at 800 X 600 at less than 250K with my compression options. That fills a good part of the screen. Also, try not to resize on their site....that's when I get some pretty wild swings in sizing.