Julia Rachel Barrett's Blog, page 23

Damn Halloween Candy!

Why oh why do I buy the stuff I like???

I should buy the sucky stuff like Skittles (hate ‘em), Laughy Taffy (hate it), Bit ‘O’ Honey (double hate it).

Instead I buy Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Peanut M&Ms, Twix, Kit Kat and Nestle’s Crunch Bars. What was I thinking? Now I’ll eat the leftovers. No, I won’t. Just two more baby Twixes and the rest is going into the freezer, by god!

Last year it rained. We had like five kids.

This year we had hordes. Ravening hordes. Had to send the old ball and chai...

OMG! It’s a mountain lion! Call in the troops! Evacuate the town!

He looks like this.

I tol’ you an’ I tol’ you– there’a a mountain lion in them thar hills. Except when I called the city, what, four… six months ago, nobody listened. If you recall it’s not that I wanted the lion hunted down, I called because my daughter convinced me that a little kid might get ‘et. And she said I would feel awful if a little kid got ‘et.

But the city said, “Uh-huh. That’s nice. Thanks.”

And I said, “Aren’t you even going to put up a notice?”

And the city said, “Thanks for callin...

Perceived Value.

Perceived value is getting a lot of play these days, especially when it refers to free books.

The simplest definition of perceived value:

From Business Dictionary–A customer’s opinionof a product’s valueto him or her. It may have little or nothing to do with the product’s market price, and depends on the product’s abilityto satisfy his or her needs or requirements.

Some writers, agents and publishers claim that a reader perceives zero value in a free book, thus giveaways, contests, and enrolling...

Heading to Los Angeles for a wedding.

Ya’ll be good now, ya hear?

By the way, I dreamed I was a high fashion designer — which is one of the things I wanted to be when I was a little girl — and the dresses I designed in the dream were fabulous.

Now I want to sew them. Maybe when I get home and finish the WIP?

I designed and sewed almost all my clothes back in the day. When hubs and I first met he loved my shorts. Ask him about them, he’ll be happy to tell you. When we get back from the wedding, that is.

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Freaky Friday Fas...

Victor Felipe Pellot Pove.

He was one of the greatest baseball players from Puerto Rico. In the States he went by the name of Vic Power because he played for some time in Canada under the name of Victor Pellot and apparently in French-Canadian Pellot is slang for vagina so he changed his name.

Anyway, he was one of the players who helped break the color barrier in American baseball. He played for the Cleveland Indians, the Minnesota Twins, the Philadelphia Phillies and the California Angels. He won seven consecutive Gol...

Not Guilty.

So I don’t know how or why the Amazon Algorithms work the way they do, but once again I’ve been victimized by the dreaded review removal. Notice how Amazon never removes the 1-star drive-by poorly written barely punctuated half-sentence reviews (even tho the review guidelines state that a minimum number of words/sentences must be used in a review).

You know the reviews I mean- the reviews that read -

thes buk sukked

and nothing else.

So, for the second time a detailed, articulate, insightful five...

Because my gut said so.

Never underestimate your gut. It knows stuff before your brain’s cognitive processing is even awake.

See here– Gut Instincts: The secrets of your second brain.

For instance– Jake and I were hiking recently. On the backside of the wilderness park of course, where we are almost always alone aside from squirrels, bunnies, deer and that pesky mountain lion.

I had a funny feeling, or rather my gut had a funny feeling. Didn’t hear anything unusual, but still I stepped off the trail and took a look bac...

Quit yer damn bitchin’! Melissa McCarthy and Elle Magazine knock one out of the park!

What is with our damn post-modern feminists??? I so hate this politically correct shit. And I burned my bra when I was thirteen years old– my training bra anyway.

When Miley Cyrus shows too much skin, the pundits bitch. (By the way, aside from the hammer tongue scene I like Wrecking Ball a lot. Great song and she can really sing it.)

So now Melissa McCarthy is on the cover of the newest Elle and the pundits are bitching because she’s covered up.

Some women are saying it’s disrespectful, that Ell...

Recipe- Soft Ginger Cookies.

Ginger Cookies.

I love a good ginger cookie with my tea. However I don’t much care for super hard ginger snaps. I discovered a ginger cookie at one of the local bakeries that was almost perfect, but I didn’t feel like paying for ginger cookies when I should be able to make them myself. Took me four attempts, but I finally got ‘em right. Here’s the recipe:

Soft Ginger Cookies

1 ½ sticks unsalted butter (room temperature)

½ cup cannola oil

½ cup applesauce

½ cup dark unsulfered molasses

1 ¼ cup superf...

Hairy Legs.

I’m no longer accustomed to seeing hairy legs on men. I’m sure you’ve noticed that over the past couple decades men have gone on a de-hairing binge. Men no longer have body hair.

Once upon a time body hair was considered manly. Every boy waited impatiently for his chest hair to grow and fill in. You know, the Tom Selleck look–

Magnum P.I.

Now men are into manscaping.

No body hair.

Dylan Bruce, Orphan Black.

Why? Well, I suppose if a man removes his body hair his muscles are more apparent, as in mor...