Raven's 53

Today I face another Raven's Challenge.
Ten Word Challenge will be: chopping block, reading list, bangles, oracle, plan, fandango, spelling bee, calendar, utilitarian, flower pot

Mini Challenge: Siberia, citrus fruit, roofer, shamrock, twinkle twinkle little star

It was Flower Pot's wildest dream. She read it in the Chopping Block, Big River's daily news paper. The Bangles were coming to town to do a concert. Flower began to make a plan to be able to attend. The first thing she did was put the date on the calendar, which was on the refrigerator next to the school reading list with words to study for the spelling bee.
Next began the campaign to win the support of her parents. The Pots were utilitarian about their family and would like everyone to be content. Flower thought that it would be possible to convince them, although she was not an oracle.
"The Bangles, I haven't heard about them for awhile. The problem dear child is the cost. Things are a bit tight right now. I would not want you to go alone, so there would be more than one ticket," said Mr. Pot.
" If I can raise the money, can I go?"
"yes, if you can raise the money."
Flower had the idea to raise the money by having a garage sale of her old toys. She cleaned out the garage. Found the best of her old toys, and priced them while putting them on card tables. She made up posters and posted them.
The sale went well except for the rain. She was not sure if she had raised enough so she called the Fandango Ticket Company. Much to her dismay she didn't have enough.
The day of the concert came and she felt the sadness creep into her. It was so disappointing to not be able to go.
She heard a horn honking. Flower looked out and saw her aunt sitting out front in the car. She was curious why her aunt did not come in, so she went out to the car. Her aunt Mary said, "get in."
Her aunt Mary did not say much, but Flower did when they drove into the parking lot of the theater that the Dangles were at. The concert was good , but the best was the time with her aunt Mary.



Mini challenge:

Lister Mort the Siberian, found himself, after following the penguin humming Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, in a small room of Sandy Shore. There were people, not a large crowd but enough to make him very uncomfortable. Uncomfortable, there are not words to describe how he felt about being kidnapped by a humming penguin. He had his zither, but he was not going to play for these people. They stared at him and he stared at them, a very awkward silence. He was actually glaring not starring. Sandy broke the silence.
"This is Lister Mort he will entertain us with his zither. I do not have the names of your selections. Will you introduce each number before you play?"
Lister wished he had not eaten the gift of citrus fruit, but could throw them at Sandy. He chose apanthropinization for a way of life in Siberia. Now he was being forced in The USA to play for people. Sandy was smiling, and waiting. The humming began again from the penguin. He felt compelled to play and he introduced his first tune"The Rough Roofer Who Found the Lucky Shamrock."
He played and the crowed was smiling and gave him applause as he finished. He introduced his next selection " A Lonely Lonely Siberian Home."
Applause again rang out. This may not be so bad he thought. Playing his zither for people may be what he was meant to do. Then he remembered why he went into isolation. He bowed and turned to Sandy and said, "take me home."

Quilly's Word Challenge#4

The Week Four words will be: apanthropinization; paucity & zither
Quilly

Combined Quilly& Raven Story:
Apanthropinization was Lister Morts life choice. He lived in Siberia with a paucity of world goods except a zither which he played for entertainment. His shelter a small hut was in need of a roofer.
Lister was playing his zither, when his hut began to shake. The door blew open and and a penguin stood facing him. He shook his head and looked again and sure enough there was a penguin at his door. A penguin holding a piece of paper in it's beak .Lister thought the penguin hopping up and down indicated the penguin wanted him to take the paper. He grabbed the paper.
There was a small shamrock printed in the corner,and a message.
Dear Mr Lister,
Would you honor me with your presence at my home to present a concert for my friends. Your zither playing is known all over the world. There is a hot air balloon outside your residence to start your journey. In the basket on the balloon are some citrus fruits lacking from your diet I am sure. Follow the humming penguin.
Sincerely Sandy Shore
The penguin began humming "Twinkle twinkle little star." Lister Mort life took a new direction as he found he could not say no and followed the penguin.

Weekend News

Pat and his boys and Curtis came down for the weekend. We for the most part stayed at the house. The boys played on the computer, and we watched snake movies all day on Saturday. We went out to eat at Culvers. By the way my daughter doesn't like snakes but the boys do.
Sunday we made a breakfast of baked french toast, which the boys and Dr. John did not like. I liked it. We went to church. After church they served a meal, with a large variety of foods. Eggs , muffins, veggie pizza, fruit pizza, pancakes and waffles. The bible camp young people were trying to raise money for camp.
We played Canasta where I finally won a game.

Raven's Challenge 52

Today I face another Raven's Challenge.

This Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: Netflix, mortgage, skunk, flagrant, the New York Times, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, perpendicular, geometry, crabby, shoveling snow
Mini Challenge: pragmatic, crystal ball, laundry, safflower oil, Gregorian chants
I face another Raven's Challenge.

The Ten Word Challenge

The snow was coming down hard, and Matt Cain was becoming crabby, as he thought about shoveling snow again. His day had not gone well. His evening might also prove to be unkind. He was on call. His immediate concern was staying on the road.
There are advantages to having a nine to five job, such as sitting down and reading The New York Times, or watching a DVD from Netflix, or even reading the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.
But he did not have a nine to five job. Sometimes he would work from 7:00AM to 6:00AM. He had a well paying job, but he did have a mortgage, student loans, and car payments. Tonight he was on call, he could be called out to talk to someone thinking of ending their life.
What the job paid was not the important factor but the fact that you could help people. He enjoyed helping people, giving them back their lives. The work was slow and difficult. Some people did not want to get help. They thought they were OK. The court said that they needed help. In geometry a perpendicular line remained a perpendicular line. this is not so in mental health therapy.
Blocking his success was sometimes the agency itself. The flagrant reconstruction of the operating procedures proved harmful to both the clients and the clinicians. One day things were done one way, the next day it was done differently.
As Matt drove into his the snow covered driveway, he smelled the pungent odor of skunk. he hoped that the animal was now gone, for that driveway needed to be shoveled, and he didn't want any kind of smelly confrontation.
As he was clearing the driveway the pager went off, and it was back out into the storm to evaluate someone for possible hospitalization. Not even snow shoveling came before that.

The Mini Challenge

Sandy Shore put on a CD of Gregorian Chants, as she did her laundry. She was struggling to sort through the business of a penguin that would suddenly appear and change her life. She thought of it as bad, but this was not always the case. The fact is in most cases it was for the good. She was sure that even with a crystal ball she would not know when it would appear. Random appearances made it hard for her to be pragmatic. Would the penguin show up to disrupt her trying to eat healthy by using safflower oil in cooking?
It came time to leave the laundry and start her meal. She put in two tablespoons of safflower oil in a skillet and added chicken breasts. Her fear became realized for the penguin appeared adding brown sugar ,cinnamon apple slices and apple cider. As the chicken cooked the penguin basted it in the sauce that was forming. The penguin then vanished.
. It was a great meal but she ate alone.

Just News

I finished therapy today. I have been going for a very sore shoulder. I had difficulty dressing and doing cleaning. Putting on a seat belt was difficult for me.
Therapy has worked this time. Because of my posture I will always have trouble but with what I learned it should help strenghtening the muscles. I must keep doing it. If I feel that I can't take the pain I could get an injection.
I liked my therapist and we exchanged recipes. I got tee-shirt as a gift.
We had a storm tonight. Many in the mid-west had it. Lost the TV but not phone or internet.
Everyone in our family trying to lose weight is doing well except me. I am eating healthier, but not losing.

Quilly's Word Challenge#3

Quilly words: opprobrious abusive, offensive conduct.
quondam belonging to prior time
casuistry method of case reasoning


Matt Cain listened and waited patiently as Cori List continued her opprobrious behavior. This was no different than a quondam session. She would use casuistry to explain her choices. His job was to aid her in re framing her thinking to let her rejoin the community.

The room became silent, she leaned back in her chair, tilted her head up staring at the ceiling. Matt tried to engage her conversation to no avail. He was not sure if this was better than her quondam behavior. Her time was up, but she did not move. He was about to call for assistance in removing her, when she stood and walked calmly out the door.

He wrote up his report, and left for a meeting feeling confused. His job many times left him feeling confused.

Matt's supervisor began the meeting with a list of changes to be made. The list was long and complicated. He used his best casuistry trying to bring his employees into line. The supervisor became opprobrious toward the employees as his reasoning failed.
Matt left work hoping that tomorrow would be a better day.

Raven's Challenge 51

Today I face another Raven's Challenge.

This Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: spring fever, coyote, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, birds of a feather, broken camera, artificial flavoring, cane, garage, ask and it is given, gay

Mini Challenge: glorious, sugar and spice, premature baldness, gargoyles, campaign trail

Mark, the shape-shifting alien, looked at the diverse group before him. In the very back of the group were children with spring fever. Playing games with little curiosity for what was going on. Next were reporters jostling for position, the results were for one reporter a broken camera. Then there were the armed forces with ready firepower. Last were his father and Dr Peterson. He felt like a coyote in a trap. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid were often in this position and managed to become free. Could he do the same?
What were his options? He could with his firepower kill them all, but that for him was not an option. He could he thought, as he watched the flying red horse and flying pigs go by, transform himself into some kind of flying creature, after all ,birds of a feather flock together. Then that brought up the question could he fly fast enough to avoid the sharp shooters in the armed forces?
He again surveyed the scene before him knowing he had to make a decision soon. In the back of the crowd was a small lad coming out of a garage caring a tray of drinks containing artificial flavoring, and cane sugar, and water. The lad was happy and gay as he past out the drinks,
saying "Ask and it is given." He now he saw the solution. His being a shape-shifter was of more value than his power to destroy. Everything had to have perfect timing. He transformed himself into the liquid in one of the drinks. To those waiting to capture him he was just gone in a blink of an eye. He then caused ,by rocking ,the glass to spill. He then transformed into a fly and flew away. His final transformation was into his true self, a blue glowing crystal, after he was far away from the planet to be seen.


Mini Challenge:


Alfred Flink was a politician He was handsome young man with a winning smile. He did have some premature baldness but that was a plus for it gave an allusion of maturity. Sandy Shore became one of the many workers in his campaign. She enjoyed working and it seemed a glorious time.
On the campaign trail Alfred was all sugar and spice. He wooed the people, with his
smile and seemingly concern for their problems.
Sandy had a shock, when she saw her hero not campaigning. He was rude and mean to those that were working for him. He degraded the people he was trying to win behind their backs.
She was then not sure of her course of action. She no longer wanted this man in office.
The walk leading up to the entrance of the latest hall where Alfred was to speak was lined with gargoyles. Sandy thought that with all her experience with the penguin , one of these gargoyles had come to life and it was Alfred. She really disliked that man, and she was not alone from the rumblings of other workers. They even talked about Alfred doing illegal activities.
The hall was packed. She was very busy escorting dignitaries to their seats. She did not see any one tampering with the sound system, but someone did. Alfred was introduced and he walked to the podium and began his speech. He would make a statement, and following each statement came another voice seeming to interpret his statement with his true thoughts. He tried to talk faster to over ride the other voice. He failed and soon he was booed. The friendly crowd became hostile. Looking at the podium Sandy saw the penguin dancing on the microphone.
The next day Alfred pulled out of the race, and Sandy was happy but she had to look for another candidate.