Not-so-Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 103

Hi everyone,

My apologies for the sudden vanishing act. I am still only semi back, I think. My friend Nate came and spent several hours yesterday evening and got the computer so at least I could get the Explorer browser running. Things are still kind of messed up, though, so I'm not sure how long this will last or if I'll be able to do more than pretty basic functions. Having trouble with visual stuff and not able to get things to download. It's all frustrating and aggravating. I was lucky that SKYPE and AIM kept working so I was able to get my niece to post the notice that I wasn't able to post... so at least I didn't just vanish.

Anyway, I'll be around this morning to check out people's contributions and will see if I can catch up and write my own. Meanwhile, so it doesn't get forgotten, here are some words for next week. The first eight words in the 10-word list have a history. Ten years ago a friend of mine who lives in Greece (Hi Viviane!) sent me a list of words. She has been having computer problems too and during her crisis started sorting through papers - she has printed out a lot of stuff - and came across the words and what I'd written. She challenged me to use them again and then she'd compare what I wrote now 10 years later to what I wrote then. So I thought I'd use them for our Saturday challenge and add a few more. So...

Next week's 10-word challenge: culture, sheep, skin, mentally, box, desert, several people, church, Greece, thirst,

Next week's mini challenge: swimming pool, cargo, czar, focus, fine

Here's a quick stab at a mega for this week...

Pluto, the labrador, was champing at the bit to explore all the wonders of the beach. There was that cool slimy seaweed and the starfish and that soggy thing full of matches that smelled really interesting. His human had no sense of adventure these days. She was always worrying about him doing something called "upsetting the apple cart" (he had done that once quite literally at the farmer's market and it was apparently a chapter in his life that he would never be allowed to live down. Even though his person had helped to get it upright again and had given the person some paper stuff, someone had nicknamed him Pesticide Pluto - a farmer joke, they said - and eventually, the human had stopped taking him along when she went there. But the beach... it was a puppy's paradise and he couldn't understand his human's reluctance to let him loose to explore. These days she seemed more uptight than usual. She was struggling with something called depression and her moods were unpredictable. Plus she seemed sometimes more unsteady than she used to be when she walked and he had heard her talking to a friend about something called liver spots. They had sounded very upset. It worried him. These days she mostly sat on the sofa in her plaid robe and slippers with a channel changer in her hand, so he was grateful that they were at least out together on an adventure. He looked back at her sitting in the sand and saw something in her demeanor that made him pause. Exploring could wait. And despite the wonders around him, he curled up quietly beside her and nuzzled against her, licking a tear from her cheek. At that she smiled and her face looked peaceful for the first time in days. Thanks, Plu. You keep me going, you know. I love you, you silly overgrown rascal. You give me joy as well as love. Thanks.


I HOPE... hope, hope hope,... that I'll see you all next week. I'll try to get around to read the posts from those of you who posted even without me.

Sort of late for this, but I'll put Mr. Linky up in case anyone wants to use him:

DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR
NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!