Lessons from Disney

These are the various things I have learned over the years from the Disney movies I

watched as a kid and even now.

Toy Story: Cowboys and Spacemen can be friends.

Toy Story 2: Never trust toy collectors who own toy miners.

Toy Story 3: Never trust Purple Bears.

Toy Story 4: You can always make your friends.

Sleeping Beauty: Invite everyone to your parties or nobody at all.

There is no in-between.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves: Never eat food strangers give you 

unless you have a death wish.

Beauty and the Beast (1991): Maybe there is a nice person in there,

also libraries will always make you happy.

Alice in Wonderland (1951): Never follow a rabbit down a hole.

Pinocchio: Always listen to the cricket.

Cinderella (1950): Mice make good friends.

Peter Pan: Your Dad isn't so bad.

The Aristocats: The butler did it.

The Jungle Book (1967): You can trust wolves, bears, elephants and Panthers but

never tigers, also always carry fire with you.

Oliver and Company: Being alone and Homeless in NYC is no fun.

The Little Mermaid (1989): Life gets complicated when you can't talk.

Aladdin (1992): Never walk into a magical sand cave.

The Lion King (1994): Hakuna Matata.

Pocahontas: Sometimes you need to save your boyfriend from getting killed.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Sometimes a movie is nothing like the actual book,

also find a great hideout from crazy obsessed men.

Mulan (1998): With a little (a lot) of hard work and determination,

you too can fight like a warrior.

The Emperor's New Groove: Be careful what you drink.

Lilo & Stitch: Aliens make great pets.

Treasure Planet: Space Pirates Exist.

Meet the Robinsons: You don't need to be related to be a family.

Bolt: How to get your head unstuck.

Tangled: Frying Pans make wonderful weapons.

Wreck-It-Ralph: Villains have feelings too.

Zootopia: Not all Foxes are bad, also sloths really do run the DMV.

Ralph Breaks the Internet: Long distance friendships can work.

Frozen: Let your family in.

Frozen 2: If you don't want someone to follow you into fire, don't run into fire.

Also, sisters are forever.

A Bug's Life: Grasshopper Gangs are scary.

Finding Nemo: A Dad would go to any length for his child.

Cars: Never get a big head.

Cars 2: Just 'cause you talk slow, don't mean you are slow.

Cars 3: Sometimes you need to go back to your roots.

WALL-E: Robots can have love stories too.

Inside Out: It's okay to talk about your feelings.

Big Hero 6: Animated movies really can rip your heart out.

The Incredibles: It can be hard being a secret superhero.

The Incredibles 2: It's even harder when you have an extremely powered baby.

Movies about Trains

As I am stuck inside my house, I thought it would be cool to watch movies that involved traveling (you know, live through and all that). So below are my absolute Faves!

Unstoppable starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, and Rosario Dawson is a movie where the only villian is incompetence and a runaway train. Frank Barnes has been working for 28 years for AVVR as an Engineer about to lose his job and half his pension . Will Colson is a probationary conductor who is having some trouble at home. The two try to stop a runaway train. The scene with the Stanton curve is nerve-racking and totally awesome all at the same time. Soooo earned their paycheck that day. Based on a true story.

Murder on the Orient Express starring Kenneth Branagh, Leslie Odom, Jr., Johnny Depp, Penelope Crúz, Michelle Pfeiffer, and more. If  you love Agatha Christie and stunning cinematography, then this is for you. In 1934, Hercule Poirot (Branagh) is on his way to Cadíz from Constantinople, when a friend helps him get the last free spot on the Orient Express. Shortly after they leave, the rails get blocked by snow in an avalanche. While checking on the status of the passengers the next morning, they find one (Depp) dead. Poirot wants nothing to do with solving the case (he's on vacation, sooo.....) But his bff convinces him to look into it. All in all, a great whodunnit that made me want to ride on the Orient Express. Just with people who don't want to kill me.

The Commuter starring Liam Neeson, Vera Farmiga, and Patrick Wilson. What would you do  for $25,000? Michael MacCauley (Neeson) is having a sucky day. He just lost his job, he needs an extension on his mortgage and he's trying to find a way to tell his wife. On the Commuter train home, a woman named Joanna (Farmiga) asks him a "hypothetical" question. Do this one thing and you get a reward. Find a person named Prinn. You don't get to know what happens next. Your reward is 25 grand hidden in the bathroom. Michael finds the money and soon realizes that he is stuck in a very deadly game.

I hope you enjoyed this list. As always, leave everything below.  That sounded weird.

Melanie Cellier

I love a good fairy tale just as much as the next girl I suppose. Melanie Cellier's The Four Kingdoms series and Beyond The Four Kingdoms series has had me trapped for the past two weeks. She has given the old classics a fresh and delightful spin.

Below is a list of books (in the proper order for reading!) in The Four Kingdoms series:

1: The Princess Companion: A retelling of The Princess and The Pea

2: The Princess Fugitive: A reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood

2.5: Happily Ever Afters: A reimagining of Snow White and Rose Red

3: The Princess Pact: A Twist on Rumpelstiltskin

3.5: A Midwinter's Wedding: A retelling of The Frog Prince

4: The Princess Game: A reimagining of Sleeping Beauty

5: The Princess Search: A retelling of The Ugly Duckling

Below is a list of books (in the proper order for reading!) in Beyond The Four Kingdoms series:

1: A Dance of Silver and Shadow: A retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses

2: A Tale of Beauty and Beast: A retelling of Beauty and the Beast

3: A Crown of Snow and Ice: A retelling of The Snow Queen

4: A Dream of Ebony And White: A retelling of Snow White

5: A Captive of Wing and Feather: A retelling of Swan Lake

6: A Princess of Wind and Wave: A retelling of The Little Mermaid

I do hope you all get a chance tho curl up and read one of the awesome books.
As always, feel free to leave comments, questions, suggestions, deep philosophical ponderings and Emojis below.

A Ready-Made Family Readslist

I have mentioned once before on how much I love a good romance where the hero/heroine is all for jumping into a ready-made family.  There is something so beautiful and powerful about that. I know that there are countless tales about step-parents gone wrong but that is why these stories are so precious. And to those naysayers who scoff at the tales and say that real life is never like fiction, I agree in part. Life is rarely ever similar to fiction but the loving of a child is not always limited to DNA. I have proof of that in my own family. So, to honor that invisible yet unbreakable tie, I have compiled a list of my favorites.

Love to love you baby by Kasey Michaels
Assassin Next Door by Eve Langlais
Baby Love by Catherine Anderson
Acting Married by Victorine E Lieske
The Roommate "Dis"agreement by Leddy Harper
One Week to Win her Boss by Barbara White Daille
Dream a Little Dream by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
The Winter Wedding Plan by Olivia Miles
Trusting Jake by Lauren Giordano
With This Ring by Debra Clopton
A Country Escape by KM Lowe
Aloha, Baby! By Ann Omasta
The Fix by Sylvie Stewart
The Cowboy is a Daddy by Mindy Neff

A Hummingbird Christmas by Karen Foley
Banking on Love by Anna James
Deadly Hearts by Priscilla Santa Rosa
Doors Without End Richard Bamberg
Heartsent by Kay Springsteen
Heartsight by Kay Springsteen
My Perfect Life at Cornish Cottage by SJ Crabb
Paris Ever After K.S.R. Burns
Texas Desire by Holly Castillo
The Viscount of Maisons-Laffitte by Jennie Goutet
The Sheriff's Christmas Angel by Debra Holt

I hope you all get a chance to read some(or all) of these books. It's not like we don't got the time, right? As always leave thoughts, comments, and/or emojis below.

How's Quarentine treating you?

We are doing quite well, thank you. It hasn't really been bothering us to much.
In other news, my RP is flaring up with the changing weather and my thoughtless eating. I probably shouldn't have eaten that frozen fruit in a hot kitchen with Reversible Pulpitist. Not my brightest move. Smiling is a hassle and all I want is a steaming mug of NUMI aged Earl Gray ang banana pudding. Maybe not together though.

That is it for to day. Fell free to leave a comment below. Or not. Just sayin'. Stay safe.

Stayin' Safe

So, I am dearly hoping that everyone who is reading this is staying safe. I have been staying in like the CDC, WHO, the President, and our Governor has been telling us to do. It is actually really easy for me because I already lived that pandemic lifestyle. Go to the store, go home. Hang out in back yard all by yourself, go back in. It's the shopping part that gets me.

Shopping at Walmart and Aldi is like a dystopian movie minus really handsome leading men.That could be really cool but knowing my luck they would get into a fight over toilet paper and not even notice me. (Sigh) Then there is that aura of paranoia that is floating in the air. I believe that the paranoia is worse because it never really goes away. It sticks to you once you come home.

Stay Safe, Folks.

So, no Eurovision?!?!?

Yeah, so thanks to the COVID-19 outbreak there will be no Eurovision 2020. Which is really sucky because there are sooooo many wonderful singers this year. For instance, Austria's Vincent Bueno has a epic mega jam with his song "Alive". Sweden's The Mamas gave a riveting performance of their song "Move".  Greece's Stefania's song "Supergirl" was totally awesome. And these are Just Three of this year's contestants. Sadly, we will never know who is this year's favorite.  Below is what Wikipedia told me about sad nonhappening:

Impacts of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic and cancellation

In 2020, the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) from China to other countries around the world raised concerns and the potential impact over staging the Eurovision Song Contest. On 6 March NPO, the Dutch broadcaster, stated "Eurovision organisers would follow the advice of health authorities in deciding what form the event, due to be held on 12–16 May, would take." In March, authorities in Denmark urged the cancellation of events with more than 1,000 spectators to limit the spread of the virus. This resulted in the Danish national final being held with no live audience. Representatives from Sweden, Finland, Israel, Switzerland, Italy and Greece pulled out of the Heads of Delegation meeting on 9 March. Jon Ola Sand attended the meeting remotely after a travel restriction was placed on EBU staff until 13 March after an employee contracted the virus. Eden Alene, the Israeli representative, revealed that she would not travel to the Netherlands to film her postcard as a precaution to COVID-19. The broadcaster noted they would try to find another way to film her postcard. The Lithuanian representatives The Roop also cancelled both the travel plans to film their postcard and their participation in pre-contest parties in London and Amsterdam. The Bulgarian representative Victoria also cancelled her participation in pre-contest parties in London and Amsterdam.
On 13 March Eurovision-Spain, organisers of the pre-party planned for 10–11 April in Madrid, announced that it would be postponed due to threats of the virus until further notice. On the same day, the organisers of Israel Calling, a pre-party planned in Tel Aviv, announced that it would be cancelled.On 16 March, the organisers of Eurovision in Concert, a pre-party planned in Amsterdam, announced that it would be cancelled. On the same day, the organisers of the pre-party London Eurovision Party announced that it would be postponed due to threats of the virus until further notice.
It was ultimately decided that the contest itself would be cancelled as a result of the pandemic, which was announced on 18 March 2020. The reference group for the contest explored the option of letting the acts selected for the 2020 contest instead take part in the following year. It decided on 20 March 2020 that, in accordance with the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest, the 2020 songs would not be eligible to compete in the 2021 contest and would instead be honoured in a non-competitive manner. The BBC has planned to broadcast a replacement for the contest. Eurovision: Come Together will feature the planned Eurovision 2020 entries and interviews with would-be participants, as well as highlights of the show's 65-year history. Host broadcaster AVROTROS is likely to fill the empty broadcasting blocks resulting from the cancellation with past editions of the Eurovision Song Contest, already existing Eurovision specials of programmes, and a documentary on how the Netherlands overcame their four-decade win gap at the contest. The EBU and the host broadcasters are working on a Europe-wide replacement show called Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light, which is scheduled to be broadcast live on 16 May 2020, the date the contest's final was planned to take place.
The Ahoy Arena itself, with all major gatherings in the Netherlands being prohibited, now serves as a temporary care facility, due to a nationwide shortage of hospital beds.

At least the arena is being put to a good use. As much as I want to gripe and complain about this year's cancellation, I can't. Stay safe people.