Weekly Wordzzle Challenge # 235

OK.... Someone else is thinking of joining in this week, so I have no more excuse to not do my own exercises.... Just as I started to work on these, I got company, so I'm running later than I had planned to. Sigh. Will post the first two and add the 10-word later.  LATER turned out to be 300 am. But I did it!


Words for this week's 10-word challenge were:  perplexed, imagination, chandelier, ball of yarn, carpenter, crocodile tears, shape, drop, pouring, the last straw   And for the mini: gambol, scarf, red peppers, puzzle, praise


My mega:

Miranda Carpenter didn't know whether to laugh or cry as she watched the her 16-year-old cat - aptly named Red Pepper for her not so mild temperament - gambol happily around the room turning her favorite scarf back into a ball of yarn. It was a perplexing puzzle to her why Red had not only not mellowed with age, but seemed to have grown in imagination and destructive creativity.  She had tried yelling, she had tried pouring on  praise for good behavior, she had tried spray bottles. Red Pepper seemed impervious to any and all kinds of discipline. She also seemed impervious to aging. She was in magnificent shape.  Miranda was pretty sure that her late husband Fred had secretly encouraged the old cat in her antics, though the last straw for him had been the morning he walked in to the dining room as she dropped gracelessly from the chandelier bringing it down with her in a shattered heap. He loved to tell the story, though, replete with crocodile tears, since he had quite hated the gaudy baubles which he found ostentatious, so even at her worst, the old cat had served his happiness. Because of that Miranda herself was prone to forgive the old monster almost anything... even her favorite scarf. "Come here you old scamp," she said, grabbing the big cat and hugging her close. "You are a scoundrel, but you always made Fred happy and for that I love you and forgive you anything. I can hear him laughing when I watch you play and that makes me feel less sad that he's gone. Thanks for that, my old friend. I love you."



My mini:

Standing at the altar in her wedding gown, Gambol Grace Johnson felt joy sweep over her. She had spent her life trying to live up to the silly name her parents had given her, but knew she had failed. They were, good, kindhearted people who had hoped to inspire in her the sense of adventure and self-confidence that they craved but did not themselves have. They lavished her with praise and rejoiced in her eccentricities and it puzzled them that she had not become a traveler or adventurer, but instead a banker whose most eccentric act was to wear a scarf decorated with red peppers. But then she had met her husband George - the adventurer her parents had always dreamed of. George had somehow managed to flick the switch on the daughter they had always dreamed of and having sowed her tame oats during her younger years, she was not free to fly. Best of all, George had helped her parents take their own baby steps into a more daring life. She knew she was blessed. He was her Angel and she knew that with him the future was going to be a joyful journey from now on.



And the 10-word:

When carpenter and handy man, Frank Wilson had hung Miranda Weathersmith's chandelier 3 years earlier, marriage had been the furthest thing from his mind and in his wildest imagination Miranda would not have been on the short list of eligible women. She would not have been on any list. He had detested her since they were children. She was one of the smart kids, the kind who had made him feel insecure and foolish and out of shape. When his mother had insisted that he drop by and help her out with some home repairs, he had been furious at her meddling. He knew what she was up to and trying to fix him up with Miranda had felt like the last straw. Then, when he arrived at her house and she opened the door, she had seemed very different that the girl he had resented all those years. She had a ball of yarn in her hands and a young kitten and she seemed surprisingly beautiful to him. It perplexed him that he had not noticed how pretty she was until now.  But when he had cut his hand and she had tended to it ever so gently, shedding tears at his injury - and not crocodile tears, very real ones - everything had changed. He had been consumed with love. Two years later they married and now they were about to have their first child. His mother - in a rare burst of good grace - never reminded him about how lucky that last straw had been for him.

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Words for next week's 10-word challenge:  ennui, stars, salivate, charisma, perpetual, stupid, measurement, triangle, obsession, bother

And for the mini: gross, glorious, red ribbon, keys, sharp

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.