Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 24

Raven's Ten Word Challenge is a weekly challenge to test your creative writing chops. It's just a fun little exercise designed to make you be inventive. Take the words, write little stories using them on your blog. Don't forget to go to Raven's blog and let her know you're participating - Mr. Linky is there.

This week's ten-words are lovely: ghastly, excrement, bill of sale, vague, thicket, precarious, life long ambition, gunnery sergeant, posthumous, bellowed

Gunnery Sargeant John Doe was red in the face from screaming at his charges. "You ghastly pile of excrement. How many times have I told you that blowing up the enemy is not some vague romp in the park?" He threw his helmut on the ground and pulled at the thicket of hair on his head, and bellowed again. "You are all idiots. I can just see you pinned down, in a precarious position, inviting that bill of sale from your enemies in the form of a hand grenade tossed into your fox hole. I do not want to bring your mamas some kind of posthumous medal that belies your bravery. You WILL shape up."

Sargeant Doe turned away from his men, walked to where his helmut landed and picked it up. He was normally a quiet man, not prone to these kinds of outbursts, but he'd just gotten fed up. Besides, he'd had his life long ambition squelched that very morning, when he received the rejection notice from the New York Metropolitan Opera Company. He thought about the letter: thank you for taking the time to audition with us, however, you sound more like a cat in heat than a tenor, and therefore we must decline to include you in our company. No wonder he took it out on the men.

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And for the Mini Challenge: lap of luxury, yellow-bellied sapsucker, quinine, generalization, abnormality

Hans was an exceptional guide. His birding trips were highly sought-after, allowing him to live in the lap of luxury. He was not going to let a little abnormality like a second head on his shoulder prevent him from finding the elusive yellow-bellied sapsucker. He stared at the room of potential travelers - it was not a gross generalization to say his trips attacted the most well-heeled birders and he could pick and choose who would travel with him. Two heads or not, he was considered to be something of a god. He sipped at his gin and tonic, savoring the tart taste of the quinine-rich tonic. He thought "another day without malaria," before addressing his audience.