Weekly Wordzzle Challenge # 153

I'm having a compulsive craving to check the back door for birds, so I'll post Mr. Linky and my first two wordzzles awhile and finish up later or in the morning with a mega. 

Words for this week's 10-word challenge were:  harpsichord, salt and pepper, wallowing, argument, ghost, parking lot, chocolate bunny, frying pan, frosted glass, mermaid   And for the mini: treaty, platitude, puddle jumper, graft, cork

My 10-word:  


Looking at the chocolate bunny sitting on the harpsichord, Fred was grateful for a small touch of what could pass for normalcy here in this bloody ghost-ridden castle. It had looked so beautiful and peaceful in the brochure with the stained glass mermaids in the windows, the elegant furniture and the portraits on the wall. Even the salt and pepper shakers, the elegant frosted glasses and the frying pans in the ancient stone kitchen had looked elegant and romantic. It had seemed like a perfect place for a honeymoon. He and Elizabeth had had their first real argument on the subject. She had wanted to honeymoon in the Bahamas but he had eventually persuaded her that this would be more memorable. He had been right about it being memorable, he guessed, but unfortunately it did not appear they would be good memories. The place was and damp and the rooms were the size of small parking lots. But it was the ghosts that were the real problem. They were real and they were obnoxious. He sat wallowing in misery, disappointment and unfulfilled desire. How could you consummate your wedding with a crowd of raunchy ghosts staring at you? It was humiliating. He was grateful that Elizabeth was being a good sport about the whole debacle, all things considered. Turns out (the ghosts had told them) she was a long-lost relative and were eager to catch up on news. Next time they planned a trip, he was going to let her plan it. 


My mini:


The Puddle Jumper Treaty as he and Griff liked to call it would be ratified at midnight with the uncorking of a bottle of champagne and a marathon viewing of every episode of both the Stargate and Battleship Gallactica series.  Each series was to be judged by a team of 10 friends on originality, repeated themes, use/over use of platitudes and how often they grafted "space" material onto old and over-used themes from other genres. Alas, their hope of putting their 20-year argument to rest was unsuccessful due to the oversight of having created an even numbered panel of judges. The result was a tie and a debate which continued over the next ten years with 10 additional combatants. It was all in good fun, though and they drank the champagne anyway.

My mega:

Albert Graft and Connie Cork were married at the Puddle Jumper chapel in the town of Mermaid, New Earth on the Planet Mars. Mars had been colonized by earth beings after the signing of the Harpsichord Treaty of 2595. Nobody could remember any more why it was called the Harpsichord Treaty or even what a harpsichord was. Most assumed it was some kind of extra-terrestial being. They had met at the job where after a heated argument about who should get what space in the parking lot, they discovered that they were going to be working together wallowing in the sludge and muck of the Old Frying Pan mine. (Early settlers of Mars had had a fetish about naming things after ancient Earth utensils. It was very strange and to current residents of the planet the names might as well have been Venusian for all that the understood the references.)  It might be something of a platitude, but for Albert it had been love at first sight. He loved her spunk. He loved her salt and pepper hair. He loved her jade green eyes. He loved the pitch of her voice (even when she was yelling) and he loved her passionate conviction about everything she said and did.  Before meeting her, he had felt like a ghost of his former self exiled on this planet he had not wanted to move to and had never accepted as home.  So great had been his attraction that despite being somewhat shy and diffident by nature he had caught up to her in the same parking lot after work on that very first day and been happily stunned when she smiled and said "sure."  He had splurged pulled together every cent he had and taken her to "the" place to go - The Chocolate Bunny Lounge - where drinks made with real Earth alcohol were served in frosted glasses and they grew real vegetables in an on-site greenhouse with bottled solar light.  It was a night neither would never forget as they woke up the next morning as husband and wife. Happily it was a union decreed by the fates and despite their instant wedding, they remained happily married for the next 50 years. Even a planet as bleak and desolate as Mars, was not entirely devoid of magic, it seemed.

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Words for next week's 10-word challenge: frequent, dawn, robin's egg blue, glacial, operation, implications, parking meter, remote control, cadaver, courteous

And for the mini: talented, chatter box, championship, mustard, blank slate

Thanks you for playing.  Newcomers can check here for some guidelines to make the game more fun. There are no rules, just some general guidelines and tricks.