Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 105?

This is week 105 (I think it's 105... since some of you posted during my absence... ??) of the Saturday Wordzzle Challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works. I have to admit that I had intended to post catch up wordzzles for the weeks I missed but haven't had the gumption to do it, so I may post them later or with this post or... I feel very out of the loop, out of synch our of inspiration. Hopefully it will all come back to me once I get started with this week's words. It's almost 6:30 and I just barely got this week's offerings (all of which I hate) done, so I will try to add the back entries either later this evening or tomorow. Boy, this week's words seemed really difficult to me.... maybe I'm just out of practice, but I had a rough time. Hope everyone else did better. I'm sure you did.

This week's 10-word challenge was: oh, my aching bones, Spring has sprung, solitude, spearmint, platitudes, cardboard box, chimney, yogurt, shattered, flagrant and for the mini: dragons are forever, jelly beans, practice makes perfect, asparagus, spelling bee

My 10-word:

Spring has sprung, but oh, my aching bones are still feeling very wintery and achy and shattered. They are showing a flagrant disregard for my happiness and I must say that I rather resent it. But such is life. I have to say that some days my solitude wears on me more than others. I wish I was able to do some gardening... I'd plant spearmint and roses and maybe some tulips too.... and another flowering quince. I love my flowering quince. I look forward to seeing it burst into color every Spring. Well, I have moaned enough for one paragraph, I guess. Maybe I'll go have a yogurt, pack up some of my cardboard box collection for recycling next week. I was hoping that google would offer up some nice platitude about clean chimneys so I could finish this off in a tidy way, but alas, no such luck, so I'm forced to fit it in like this. Happy Spring, everyone.

The mini:

I had so much fun at the State Spelling Bee finals. Didn't hurt that I won. Practice makes perfect, my mother said over and over, and I guess she was right because considering the pressure, I was pretty relaxed on the whole. I met lots of nice kids and the whole thing was just interesting. I think my favorite part was the lady who made up the sentences (can you put that into a sentence?) . She had a wonderful sense of humor and came up with some really silly things that made us all laugh and helped us feel less anxious. Asked to put the word medieval into a sentence, she came up with "Medieval writings tell us that dragons are forever." For asparagus, she offered, "the vegetable asparagus is better for you than jelly beans." I can't wait for nationals.

And the mega:

"Oh, my aching bones," Jelly Beans, the world's oldest dragon moaned, "I'm so glad that Spring has Sprung at last. These old bones ain't what they used to be." He had burned the last of his cardboard boxes a few weeks earlier, finished his annual house keeping spree, and even cleaned the cave's chimney in preparation for the annual birthday gathering of his family. He had several children, all named in the family tradition of food names passed down both sides of his family tree. His father Spearmint and his mother Asparagus had been devoted parents and had raised their children and grand children to be flagrantly and outspokenly proud of their dragon heritage. "Dragons are forever" was part of the family crest and his daughters (Ice Cream and Sherbet) as well as his youngest child and only son Yogurt all served on the dragon high council, Ice Cream as chair person. He was very proud of them, though for himself, particularly given his extreme old age, he preferred solitude over politics and only allowed for his isolation to be shattered for very special events like his 1,111 the birthday. Popcorn, his first grand child, knowing his love of platitudes, had made a fire-breath wooden plaque onto which he had burnt the words "Practice makes perfect," which was one of his grandfather's favorite sayings. His grand daughter, Spaghetti, who was the world's youngest (and history would sadly record the last of their kind), shyly gave him a video of herself winning the International Dragon-kind Spelling Bee. In accordance with Dragon tradition on such an auspicious occasion, Jelly Beans gave each of his children one eight of his accumulated treasure and in keeping with his own personal tradition, each of his grand children 11 of his finest gems with which to seed their own future treasures along with a personalized family crest wrought in silver and gold with diamond highlights. They were quite stunning. All in all, it was a grand party and everyone, even Jelly Beans, had a wonderful time.

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Some catch-up... In my computerless/flu burdened absense, Argent offered some words: For the 10-worder: Minute, shave, orange, cardboard, scissors, speaker, calligraphy, wooden, picture and jute... and for the mini: hope, milk, freshness, earring, blinds.

I'm just going to do a mega for this one, if nobody minds.

Jute Blinds was an expert in calligraphy, among other things. He was well known for his decorative wooden plaques, which were generally made up of an etched picture (he was also a gifted artist) and some wise saying or quote in exquisitely minute gold, green or orange lettering. There was a freshness and creativity to his creations that kept them from being just the ordinary kitch. He was a great fan of recycling and had done some amazing things with old milk cartons and cardboard boxes that made the critics rave and customers flock to his shop. Give him a pair of scissors, some old plastic bottle caps or pretty much anything and he'd whip up a pair of earrings that would make Cartier envious. His talent and inventiveness were an inspiration that gave hope to the live green movement and eventually one of them persuaded him to shave his beard and go on the road as an inspirational speaker. He agreed to this mostly because he had fallen madly in love with her (she got his vision for saving the earth and she also happened to be quite beautiful). As with everything else, he took to speaking - perhaps because he so believed in his own words - that the tour was a great success and moved many artists and customers alike to begin thinking more "green."

and the challenge from a month ago when my computer crashed.... The ten word was comprised of eight words a friend had given me 10 years ago and 2 additional ones... Here's what I'm doing with them today. Once I'm done, I'll write to Vivian for what I wrote before and post both as promised... I guess I'll post what I've done and add the old one when Vivian emails me.

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

The 10-word:

Since early childhood, Fred Gregory had sought out ways to be mentally challenged. He had an exceptional and creative mind along with a deep thirst for knowledge. He was fascinated by the dynamics of different peoples and loved to immerse himself in those cultures he was interested in. He had early developed a special fascination with Greece and the evolution of Orthodox church there. He had moved to Athens at age 20, learned the language and served as an acolyte for a number of years in order to "understand viscerally" as he put it. But he also loved learning about the desert cultures and had once spent a year sheep herding with Bedouins in order to understand their ways more completely. His passion and his love of experiencing many different ways of living made the books he wrote best selling page-turners which caused jealousy in some circles. Anthropologists, sociologists all wanted either to claim him as their own or disown him as a diletantte. He was generally among the most open minded and genial souls on earth but he did have a thin skin when these people tried to put him and his interests into a proverbial "box." Several people who had tried to do so had seen his dark side and would not make that mistake again. It was rare that he lost his temper, though. He had too much else to do. Tomorrow he would head for the American desert and spend some time living among the Hopis. How could his life get any better?

mini:

Carlos Sanderson, the swimming pool czar, watched the cargo plane land with focussed anticipation. This job installing pools at a chain of the finest hotels in Greece was going to make him richer than he had ever dreamed. He had come up with some amazing designs and was looking forward not just to the money (which he loved) but to creating several of the most magnificent swimming pools ever seen. Life was good.

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Words for next week's 10-word challenge are: salamander, lawyer, prank, flaccid, spurious, angst, flowers, once upon a time, genesis, spark


For the mini: largesse, salad dressing, flying purple people eater, priest, Spanish

Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.

Enjoy! See you next week!

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