Tag: post a week 2013

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Toys

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toys

to each his own

Before Miss Z convinced us to add a canine member to our already rollicking family dynamic we used to wonder about many of the peculiarities of dog “owners”.  Many of the homes we visited had designated doggy areas, special bowls and watering devices, little beds that resembled something Louis XIV would be comfortable lounging on and any number of collars and leashes.  Across the Bored’s childhood had seen pets mainly of the feline or rodent variety with the occasional stray pup arriving unannounced for a brief overnighter or two before being reunited with its rightful owner. Our animal distractions had never seemed to need a huge amount of possessions – the cats, not ones to suffer being dressed up as dollies, were happy with the occasional bit of dangling string or outside mousing and the rodents were, well, rodents – pretty much content to chew things down to mulch or run friday night races through cardboard tubes lined up on the dining room table. The whole doggy thing, therefore, came across as a little “much”….

Miss Z’s adoption of one fuzzy puppy changed all that.  Our barbet came with his own blanket, a few necessary accessories and an odd grenade-shaped object that the previous owner would fill with peanut butter to keep him occupied during the hours when she could not be at home.  When he found out that he had a whole houseful of human entertainment, he never touched it again. We did acquire balls and throw things, went through a variety of leashes until we found ones that didn’t chafe him or us, tried out a series of collars that got chewed through, learned that there are some bowls that really aren’t dog-friendly and got educated about dog car safety-harnesses because, as the man in the store so patiently explained, a flying dog will break your neck if you slam on the brakes….

It was just a matter of time before we broke down and bought that plush roadkill with the 19 squeakers. The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge knows that everyone enjoys some form of amusement, so with that in mind we have done the once unthinkable and indulged our dog with – Toys.

“What form do toys take for you?” –  That fuzzy bear, a game of solitaire, pick-up sticks or camera clicks, beads and baubles, stereos sweet, nail polish for toes on pretty feet, shiny cars, long telescopes to see the stars or best of all – a cardboard box and simple ball…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Truly a New Era

9 Comments

NEM scifi

A huge thanks go out to OhmSweetOhm who not so very long ago directed Across the Bored to one of the newer (free) photosharing apps available for iPhone and Android. As an iphoneographer concerned with IP, and not having the desire or time to wade through the #selfies mire of some other sites around, this one in particular stood out –  EyeEm is a global community of photographers and artists posting their work in a wide variety of categories. Whether you download the app to your phone or cruise through the galleries online, it offers a glimpse into how and what the rest of the world is seeing.

That said, we uploaded the photo below.

NEM scifi thing

Photo notes: iPhone 5 native camera, no edits or filters – pure and untouched

It was selected to appear in the NEM scifi -selection 02 curated by Fabio D’Andrea – NEM, the New ERA Museum, “takes shape mainly to spread the concept of pristine Art, affordable and available to everyone by potentially forging new artists to new techniques of digital mobile processing.” We are truly honoured to be included amongst this group of talented and groundbreaking photographers.

If you would like to see more, click on the EyEm icon in the sidebar. It has finally stopped raining – things look just that little bit better today…

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Clean – Week 2

10 Comments

clean 2

not since and probably never again

Once upon a time, and it was a very, very long time ago, there was a young woman who had received a gift of more tomatoes than she could possibly ever eat in one sitting – or even four.  Being somewhat frugal and hoping to earn some brownie points in the domestic arena, the maiden (against her better judgement it must be said) consulted “she who is never wrong” for the best way to preserve the quickly-ripening fruit for the long, cold winter ahead. Complex instructions were dictated, interspersed with anecdotes of how “she of the bad temper’s” recipe was not up to snuff and why “she who never listens” methodology was questionable, amongst other digressions.

The process was supposed to be an easy one but like so many culinary endeavours that masquerade themselves as “a pleasant afternoon” spent in the quest for the authentic flavours of yesteryear, it wasn’t. It was tedious and messy, labour-intensive and messy, dangerous and messy. From knife blades sharp enough to slice a single hair lengthwise     to industrial-sized pots of boiling water threatening to erupt at a moment’s provocation, it was not fun. The young lady was not pleased but completed the task, placing the many precious jars in a very high, very dark cupboard.

Three months down the road and well before the first snow, the hint of an odd odour in the kitchen began to tease the maiden’s nostrils. She was told it was all in her head, that she had an over-active olfactory system, that it was the age of the building, the damp weather or, heaven forbid, the possibility that something had reached an unforeseen demise between the walls. The last option was not to be tolerated and so “she who always persevered” crawled up to the top rung of a very tall ladder, gingerly opened the cupboard door and discovered the unthinkable – no rotting gypsum, no black and creeping fungus, not even a nightmarish rodent corpse – worse. 42 jars of fermenting tomatoes oozing a slick and noxious liquid out from under once-tight metal caps and down their sides to corrode eighty years of paint off the shelf in perfect circles. A crucial step had obviously been omitted – or not transmitted…

Conserving a summer’s harvest is much like this fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme – it doesn’t hurt to make sure that everything is really – Clean. 

Last week, Across the Bored put forward an age-old question –  “How does clean appear to you?” –  The lines of a Countach or curve of her back, fresh laundry on the line or graphics of a sign, raindrops, old-fashioned string mops, even spinning tops, is it sudsy or soapy, stringent or strange, glossy and glassy, fancy or plain… We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Just what the Doctor ordered

11 Comments

super-sweet-blogging-awardhow can one forget something this sweet?

Across the Bored tends to get easily waylaid – doggy daily constitutionals, Miss Z’s litany of wardrobe woes, the Ghost’s ongoing forays into the depths of academia and the editorial reviews they engender, the supposed approach of spring/summer and the garden that is not (yet), laundry, laundry, the lure of the iPhone, never mind work – the basic stuff of life – so inevitably we sometimes lose bits.  Luckily, there are outside prompts to remind us of those things that we meant to get to but didn’t and so now we are.

Heyjude from Travel Words was kind enough to pass along the Super Sweet Blogging award to us ( a fave ‘cuz it has cupcakes)! She has a lovely blog filled with tons of lush pictures from her travels, tidbits of history, neighbourhood trivia and fun facts about places that we might not get to otherwise – well worth settling yourself in for a little armchair afternoon’s journey.

As with most, if not all, awards there are some Rules…

The Rules for accepting your nomination:

  • Thank the Super Sweet Blogger who awarded
  • Answer five Super Sweet questions.
  • Include the Super Sweet Blogging Award image in your blog post.
  • Nominate a baker’s dozen (13) other bloggers, or half a baker’s dozen (7) if 13 seems like a lot.
  • Notify your nominees on their blog.

The Five Super Sweet Questions:

  1. Cookies or Cake?
  2. Chocolate or Vanilla?
  3. Favourite Sweet Treat?
  4. When do you crave sweet things the most?
  5. Sweet nickname?
  1. How about a torte…
  2. Is there anything else besides Chocolate?
  3. LaDurée Macarons
  4. 4 pm melt-down or after dinner
  5. The ones I have for family members are more savoury!

Now for the nominees – half a baker’s dozen because we are on a diet!

Gracie Binoya Photography
Talker Huge
A is for Amuseless
3rdculturechildren
PragueByKaty
PhotographyArtPlus
VisualRiver’s Blog

Pass by and have a look, there’s something for everyone!  Thank you once again to Heyjude for taking time out of her travels to pop by – we appreciate it.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Clean

19 Comments

cleansometimes a little help is a good thing

Cause and effect. These are two words that usually spur Across the Bored into taking action on matters long-procrastinated upon. Not that we don’t usually have a plan, but this one hinged upon ideal climactic conditions, a reasonable amount of free time and the motivation to hurl ourselves into the infernal chasm of (belated) spring-cleaning and material divestiture. All while tidying up, doing laundry and checking emails…

Effect: suspicious cracking grout and lifting floor tile near the bathtub and shower.

Cause: clear (to us anyways) evidence of a leak, a drip, moisture finding its way somewhere that was not down the drain.  The handyman did not concur – he put the blame on our rather heavy tub not having a supporting frame – it rests atop the plywood sub-floor – something akin to an elephant sitting in the middle of a trampoline. Sooner or later, something is going to give.

This week’s sudden cold snap finally spurred us to begin the long-overdue task of garage triage. One must understand that this “room”, which is directly under the master bath and surely the reason for the cold floors in same, has never actually been used as a place for parking a car in minus 40 degree weather. Rather it had been converted into our “studio” with a nifty raised floor and held all the stuff that we didn’t use on a daily basis or didn’t fit neatly into the rest of the house. It worked well for a while, but like most things we got busy with projects that didn’t require being cloistered in a room with no view and our little studio quickly became the repository for that “which shall not be seen” and “that which multiplies tenfold when left unattended”.  Until yesterday, that is, when good intentions forced us to start somewhere – somewhere being to the stuff which shouldn’t have been lying precariously atop boxes already stacked six high not according to manufacturer’s explicit instructions.

Effect: That somewhere was damp.

Not full out rainstorm wet or someone spilled something wet but oddly just enough that something was amiss wet. Directly under the bathtub wet.

Cause: a small, water damaged crack in the conduit built around the drainage pipes that run along the ceiling of the garage (don’t ask, I didn’t build this one…). Although dry now, it must have leaked recently and begged the question when would the disaster of elephantine proportions occur?

Someone will, of course, have to come and fix it (hopefully sooner rather than later) and for that to happen efficiently all that stuff would have to go somewhere. Like a horrible game of domestic dominoes, everything that had gone in in a careless fashion was now coming out under a more critical eye – out to a new home, out to a charity, out to that garage sale the foundation is having, out of the garage studio abyss. But sadly, for the moment, out into the common room. And the dining room. And the computer room…

Now, the The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge has no choice but to wrestle cause and effect into a manageable stranglehold and make it  – Clean.

“How does clean appear to you?” –  The lines of a Countach or curve of her back, fresh laundry on the line or graphics of a sign, raindrops, old-fashioned string mops, even spinning tops, is it sudsy or soapy, stringent or strange, glossy and glassy, fancy or plain…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Bold – Week 2

7 Comments

bold 2

to boldly go where no man has gone before

We have been watching Star Trek in its many incarnations for longer than we care to admit. From the cardboard sets and shaver-communicators of the original television series to NextGen, Deep Space Nine and the many movie spin-offs and fill-ins, it has been a long sometimes upsetting loyalty to the Roddenberry’s idea of beyond, what it held and how to get there in the most exciting way possible. Not always thrilled by casting choices or certain plot progressions of the sci-fi classic’s metamorphosis, there was always some technological innovation, some snazzy new way of presenting deep space and its denizens that kept us hooked and hungering for more.

Armchair astronauts of the best kind, we fondly said goodbye to to those we had come to know and love (or hate) and learned to embrace the unknown and unexpected. Small screen or big, each director’s artistic vision gave us the characters, conflicts and very world of Star Trek much like this fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme, larger than life, bursting with energy – Bold. 

Last week, Across the Bored pondered “What shape does bold take for you?” –  A flash of chrome, the walls of home, an umbrella bright or neon light, a favourite font, fishing cat or fearless brat, challenging or conspicuous, brave or brassy … We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Bold

41 Comments

bold

a glorious gift of colour

A meal at our house where we all manage to sit down together can range from the awe-inspiring to the downright incredible – it is not the quantity or quality of food but rather the tone and variety of conversation that bursts forth as if it has been bottled under pressure and kept hidden in a cool, dark cellar until it was worth savouring.  On a good night our witty banter is a fine champagne, measured and inspiring with just the right amount of kick to keep things titillating yet civilized but on others…. discussion erupts with all the force of a can of soda pop shaken and sprayed over an unsuspecting audience by some guffawing, miscreant five-year old.

Not to say that we don’t act appropriately when the occasion calls for it but the personalities that make up this particular family unit are large, they take up copious amounts of space and if one can get a word in edgewise then the game is truly afoot. The range of subject matter and the rapid-fire pace of exchange can bewilder unassuming guests who thought they were in for a nice quiet meal. Miss Z and the Professor know instinctively that anyone they choose to break bread with better be able to hold their own and with flair, no less….

The best of shared times are like the flowers that grace our table – vividly dynamic, impressively coloured and delightfully engaging so The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge lays out it out that we are  – Bold.

“What shape does bold take for you?” –  A flash of chrome, the walls of home, an umbrella bright or neon light, a favourite font, fishing cat or fearless brat, challenging or conspicuous, brave or brassy …

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.