Disney Jamberry Battle Royale - Round Three!

I'm rating some of the new Disney Jamberry wraps as a way to decide which ones to wear to Disney World for my upcoming trip. Click the links to read about Round One and Round Two!

The defending champ is still Aurora's Castle. Its combination of sparkly castles and long lasting wear has kept it on top since the beginning. I really wish this wrap was still available but Jamberry does keep coming out with new Disney (and Marvel!) wraps that I want to try.

The challenger today is Majestic Ice, one of the Frozen-themed wraps. The Elsa's on these wraps are very subtle and you might not notice them if I was walking by. Application of them was easy and so far they are holding up pretty well.

I think the only think that really detracts from these wraps is that they doesn't scream Disney. If I'm going to wear wraps to Disney World, I want them to be easily recognizable as Disney.

In the end, Aurora's Castle is the winner again as it screams Disney with it's beautiful pastel castles. I'm not sure if there will be a round four as my trip is fast approaching. But we'll see!

Anger, Disney and the Tower of Terror

Image: https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog

Despite being full of happiness and pixie dust, Disney can bring out a lot of anger in people. Any sort of change seems to bring out angry, from price increases to any changes in the parks. I personally still love Disney and I realize that the parks need to change and evolve to stay relevant.

It's been a rumor for a while now that the Tower of Terror in Disney California Adventure was going to be changed to a Guardians of the Galaxy ride. But at SDCC this past weekend, it was officially announced that the rumors were true.

This caused the biggest uproar that I've ever seen. People were extremely upset, despite the fact that the Tower of Terror was remaining the same at Walt Disney World. I think part of it is that Disneyland and DCA has more local people who go. I saw a lot of posts from people saying that they couldn't afford to go to Florida to ride their Tower.

In the end though, it's just a ride. Lots of rides have closed or changed over the years at the Disney Parks. My husband is still sad that Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is no longer at Disney World. I miss Body Wars and the original Journey into Imagination from Epcot, but it doesn't stop me from enjoying the new rides that have come out since then.

A lot of the anger seemed to be directed at the fact that it was going to be a Marvel ride. Lots of people ranted that Disney should stick with only Disney properties in their parks. Which is so silly if you think about it. The basis of the Tower of Terror is the Twilight Zone, which is not even something Disney owns. I think a lot of people are upset that Disneyland is getting changed in order to put Star Wars land in.

At the end of the day, Walt Disney said that the parks weren't ever going to be finished. Besides, the whole 'Walt wouldn't be happy' argument that people use when something happens they don't like is a moot point. Walt has been, sadly, gone for decades. And Disney is a business that needs to stay fresh and new.

Personally I think the new ride looks awesome. Of course, I'm a chicken and don't like drop rides, so I have never ridden the Tower of Terror anywhere. But it's one ride at one park. Not the end of the world.

The Importance of Ghostbusters

Image:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostbusters_(2016_film)

There has been a lot of talk about new Ghostbusters pretty much since they announced it. Lots of anguish over the fact that the Ghostbusters were now going to be females. Many people shouted loudly that their childhoods were going to be ruined over this.

I love the original movie, it is one of my favorites from my childhood. But I adopted a "wait and see" attitude with the new one because I thought it had the chance to be good. I didn't see it opening weekend but as soon as reviews started pouring in and friends posted on social media how good it was, I knew I had to see it.

Finally last week, Emily and I headed to the theater to see it. It was wonderful! It was funny and a bit scary. But it also had these amazing characters who were just doing their thing - which was busting ghosts!

Even though I'm a girl, I've never been a fan of romcom's. Honestly, my husband likes them more than I do so I've see my fair share. But I was very pleased when there was no romance at all in Ghostbusters. Yeah, Erin kind of drools over Kevin, but he doesn't seem to notice her. And her appreciation of him isn't really noticed by him. He seems to like himself more than anyone else.

Holtzman is a big flirt, but flirting with her fellow Ghostbusters is as far as that goes. In the end, they are just four awesome women trying to save their city from destruction. It was empowering to see and I was very glad that my seven year old daughter was able to see this movie because it showed her that girls can be anything and save the day.

This is why Ghostbusters is so important. You have your Black Widows and Wonder Womans in the  super hero movies, but they are just part of a team that is vastly comprised of men. Hopefully from this point forward, we are able to see more women lead action movies.

If you haven't seen Ghostbusters, I highly recommend it. Beyond the whole girl power thing, it's a solid movie that doesn't disappoint!

Disney Jamberry Battle Royale - Round Two!

It's been a while since the last Disney Jamberry Battle Royale but finally I've had a chance to try a new set of Disney wraps! You can read about Round One here!

Our defending champ is Aurora's Castle which sadly is no longer available. I love this wraps and thankfully I have about a half sheet left of them in case they stay on top in these battles. The castle on these wraps just scream "Disney" to me and they are very shiny. They also lasted a really long time, just over two weeks. This gives them an extra plus because I want my nails to look good for the entire time we are at Disney World.

The challenger is The Fairest! 

These wraps are from the new Snow White collection. I'm not a huge fan of animated Snow White
but as a Disney mega fan, I'm fond of it as the first full length animated film. Snow White is also my favorite character in Once Upon A Time, but that Snow and this Snow are very different.

The pictures don't really do these wraps justice. The apples are shiny and catch the light great. I'm also, in general, a big fan of dark colors for my nails and these are lovely. They were pretty easy to put on too. We'll see how these wraps hold up especially since I'll be going camping tomorrow. Camping is never easy on one's nails.

But for now, Aurora's Castle is still the winner! The Fairest is lovely but not as much as Aurora's Castle. Round Three will be coming shortly as I have sheet of Frozen wraps I need to try as well!

Pokemon Go!

If you've been on social media at all in the last few days, you've probably seen pictures and articles all about Pokemon Go. I was too old when Pokemon because a big thing to get into the cartoon but I did play several of the DS games. Pokemon Sapphire for the Gameboy Advance was my favorite and I still have that game.

Not long ago, Emily discovered the Pokemon cartoons on Netflix and got hooked. The Easter bunny brought her a Pikachu stuffed animal and she has a small collection of Pokemon cards. When this app came out, she was really excited to play.

With me armed with my phone and Emily with her tablet, we walked around our neighborhood a-hunting Pokemon. It took some getting used to but we started to catch them all. On Sunday, we went to three different parks because I was out of pokeballs and needed a pokestop.

Fletcher Park had a ton of pokestops and we caught quite a lot of pokemon. Kate's Park and Jake Rusher Park had a few pokestops and some pokemon too.

We didn't see anyone else playing the game but Emily and I had a lot of fun. I hate to admit it but Emily is much better at the game than I am. She's actually passed me by as she's on level 6 and I'm still on level 5.

I know some people are sick of hearing about Pokemon Go but I think it's refreshing to see my friends having fun with this game. This year has been terrible in a lot of ways, so it's nice to see something happy get some attention.

For now, both Emily and I will continue to try to catch them all!

Holding Hands and Growing Up

Image: www.acclaimclipart.com

Tomorrow is the 4th of July and I have a lot of memories of spending this holiday with family. Growing up my uncle was the head of the FOP in my parent's hometown and he was in charge of the fireworks show every year.

Quite a few years, we'd get to sit in the special "police and families only" area which was the best seat in the house. The fireworks were very popular so downtown was always extremely crowded. And even though we had a place to watch the fireworks, finding parking was always hard to do.

One 4th of July we had a long walk back to our car. It was very crowded and I happened to be holding my mom's hand. I was probably at least 14 years old, maybe a little older. And the sight of two females holding hands caused some drunken guys to start catcalling and making fun of us.

My mom shut them down pretty quickly - she didn't take crap from anyway. But I was very embarrassed and I refused to hold her hand again. I don't think I ever held her hand while walking for the rest of her life which is something that now that I'm older makes me profoundly sad.

Kids hold hands all the time. They hold hands with each other, with their teachers and their parents. There is nothing wrong with it. But as we age, seemingly holding hands becomes something more. Something only to do with your boyfriend / girlfriend. Something sort of sexual which thinking about in a logical way seems a bit crazy.

I asked my own daughter what she would do if someone made fun of the two of us holding hands. She looked at me like I had two heads and said she'd yell at them and still hold my hand. I think she has more than a little of my mother in her.

Since my mom is no longer here, I'd encourage everyone to hold hands with those they love before they are gone. I shouldn't have been embarrassed that day long ago. She was my mom! And even if she hadn't been, there is nothing wrong with two girls holding hands for comfort, for love and for safety.

Be Considerate With Fireworks!

My fellow Americans love to celebrate our nation's birth by blowing stuff up. I don't mind fireworks at all. I love watching them, especially the ones at Disney World. But most firework displays only last an hour so even if you don't like the bangs it's only a limited time.

At least it is if you don't have neighbors who are dicks. Sad to say, I have some neighbors who were real dicks last year. 

As long time readers of my blog know, I suffer from chronic migraines. Logically big bangs and migraines don't really mix. Some firework noises don't bother me too much, but I have my limits.

Last year, my neighbors shot off fireworks that I'm sure were illegal. It sounded like bombs were going off outside my bedroom window for hours at a time. And they did it on both July 3rd and July 4th. I was in so much pain and really twitchy for probably close to a week afterwards.

My poor Willow cat was really upset too. She hates loud noises a lot so she spent the holiday cowering in fear in our bathroom. It was very unpleasant for us. While I was in pain, I thought about any veterans who might live in our neighborhood. PTSD is a real concern for a lot of people.

I was a little afraid that my neighbors would be shooting off fireworks last night but I'm super thankful that they didn't since I'm working today. I have tomorrow and Monday off so I can hibernate with earbuds if need be.

But if you, kind person, decide to shoot off some fireworks remember that the noise might not be welcome by your neighbors. So try to keep it short and use legal fireworks. I, for one, will be not shooting off fireworks but we are going to do sparklers in our back yard.

Visit From Dad

Most of our family lives in Michigan. Usually Todd's mom will come down once or twice a year, sometimes with his dad too. But it's been a couple of years since my dad has been down to visit.

He drove down the middle of last month after Emily got out of school. Emily was very excited to see her Pop-Pop, especially since he brought her a bunch of fun rocks. Emily has been into rocks a lot lately.

The first full day he was here happened to be my day off so the three of us went off to find rocks. We started off in West Asheville at the Asheville-Biltmore Gem Mine. Emily had a great time mining through a bucket of dirt and rocks to find treasures. She was especially excited that she got fool's gold! My dad was able to identity most of what was in her bucket and she got a whole bunch of rocks to take home with us.

From there, we went to downtown Hendersonville. Our first stop was the Mineral Museum. The museum was small but it was also free. There was a lot of rocks and even an exhibit on glowing rocks

The coolest thing was Emily getting to crack a geode to take home. They made a big deal about it and called everyone around in the museum to watch. But Emily was the one to help pull the lever down to get it cracked and of course, since my dad paid for it she got to keep it.

From there, we walked down the street to the Team ECCO Aquarium. It was a very cool little aquarium with lots of different kinds of fish and sea life. There was even turtles you could touch but Emily wanted no part of that. I touched them though, they were very cute!

We called it a day after that because we were all pooped. It was a lot of walking especially in downtown Hendersonville.

plus a dinosaur head!

The next day, we just hung around the house mostly. I ended up in bed with a bad migraine. We all went out to dinner but I ended up getting even more sick when we got home so I pretty much was out of it.

My dad's brother lives in GA so we had thought about all going down there for a day trip. But in the end, it was my dad and Emily who went for the whole day. I was still feeling sick so I slept a lot but Todd and I did get a chance to go to the movies. It was nice to just spend the day with my husband. That happens only a couple of times a year.

Dad and Emily got back late that night and my dad was starting to suffer from a pretty bad cold. He had planned on leaving on Monday and drive straight through but because he wasn't feeling good he decided to leave on Sunday, which was Father's Day. It was nice to spend a little time with my dad because I have't seen him on Father's Day in many year.

All in all, it was a pretty good visit. I wish I hadn't been so sick but it is what it is. Emily got to spend quality time with her Pop-Pop, which was mostly the point of the visit!