• I write books.

    I do! It's true. I have written for all sorts of different audiences. My first book was literary adult fiction and I've written many many books that have fallen into the category "juvenile fiction" and "YA fiction". I talk about my books and writing in general on my other site, which is at www.karenrivers.com. (I don't know how to make that a live link, so you may have to copy and paste.) (Sorry.) THIS site is about me, my hair, my kids, my appliances, and that time that I rode my bike down a cliff and then got stung by a bee. It may not all be appropriately awesome (or even slightly interesting) to kids, so if you are young, LOOK AWAY. That said, there is nothing harmful here, except the occasional swear, which I ask you to edit out with your eyes. Blink blink.
  • I take pictures.

    Parksville, Day 3

    Thetis Lake, Thursday

    Thetis Lake, Thursday

    More Photos
  • Is it safe to eat raw bacon?

    No. You shouldn't eat any raw pork products. You could get trichinosis and no doubt a number of other food-borne illnesses. With the recent change in food safety standards, I'd frankly cook the crap out of any meat product I purchased before eating it. Even if it's already cooked. Seriously. Keep in mind that I am not a raw bacon expert, I just play one on the web.

  • I Flock
  • Categories

Five Thing Friday. On Friday. Is it a miracle or just a fluke? And why does the date on this say July 3 when I’m sure it’s the 30th? At least?

The beauty of owning your own blog and whatnot is that no one really minds if you do Five Thing Friday on Friday or not (or at all) (or only sometimes) and that’s just the kind of girl I am, an “only sometimes” and a “when I remember” type.    And lo, it IS Friday and [...]

In which I sort of recap The Bachelorette: THE FINAL ROSE. OMG, seriously? It’s over? What will I blog about from now on? And how is it possible that I was wrong AGAIN?

OK, pretty peeps, here we are at the fork in the road, or actually the end of the road that is the loooooong (somewhat painful) journey of Jillian Harris on her quest for love, during which (according to her), she had to “slay a lot of dragons”.    Really?   She did?   Hey, didn’t she steal that [...]

OK, I didn’t really watch The Bachelorette: The Men Tell All, but I started to, and that counts, right?

Because I was camping, (See: Today’s Other Post), I missed this episode of The Bachelorette.   I know!   Sacre bleu!   How can I go on living without witnessing this life-changing event?   I don’t know either but as tonight is the gripping finale of what amounts to the Most Appalling Season Ever (See: Wes), you know [...]

On Camping. Plus! Bonus! Pictures from Parksville. And Bears! Except Not Actually!

This is a quick post because I have a babysitter and I should be working, as in writing the actual book, but I need to write something that is not the book first because my writing muscle is rusty and sore and weak from taking a week off, if by a “week”, I mean “two [...]

Five Thing Friday + Silent Sunday + Grace in Small Things = This Post.

What? What happened? One minute, I was watching The Bachelorette (so it must have been Monday) and next I looked up and, BAM, it was Saturday. It must have been a busy week. Or not. I do not recall any of it. It’s possible I have amnesia or just didn’t do anything. Actually, I did [...]

In which I sort of recap The Bachelorette, Episode 9. Or, SOMEONE HAS ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION or ED! Hey, wait, ED has ED. Or does he?

Yes, folks, it’s the big episode that we’ve been building to all season, the one with the scene that the producers have been battering us with since Day 1, when we still innocently believed that Jillian Harris was a fun, cute girl and that she might get the happy ending that Jason Mesnick robbed her [...]

A little post I like to call, “Where I live, your driveway is not your own.” Or “Holy hell, that hurts”. It’s really two posts in one! So it’s sort of your lucky day! If that can be considered lucky! And I doubt that it could!

You know what sucks? I will tell you: Pain. Pain sucks. It does! I know, who’d have thunk it? I’m just here to help spread the news. Here’s my story: I woke up yesterday morning with that funny little chest pain that you get when you inhale. You know the one, where you breathe more [...]

In which I sort of Recap The Bachelorette, Episode 8. Or, Wes Proves that Old Chestnut “Any Publicity is Good Publicity” is actually Not Correct.

It’s hard to know where to begin with this week’s exciting episode of “Why Is Wes Still Here?” But let’s start with… a boring montage about the remaining four men: Kiptyn, Reid, Ed, and the douchebag Wes himself. And Spain. Oh, Spain. I must tell you that Spain looks really lovely. I’d like to go [...]

I call this post, “Dear Samsung”, because that is how it starts and I’m clever that way.

Dear Samsung, I hate you. Let me backtrack a bit. I know you’ll be interested in how this day began, and who wouldn’t be? Well, let me tell you. It started off fine. Just. Fine. We got up at 7. Watched some TV. (Yes, I let my kids watch TV in the morning.) (Would you [...]

Silent Sunday, except it’s Thursday. Am I late or early? Does it matter? Because look how cute.