• 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

And Then Twitter Told Me That I Was A Big, Huge LOSER And That No One Really Likes Me.

Posted on August 30th, 2009 by Karen

So there I am, innocently following people on Twitter — literary agents, specifically, because I’m looking for a new one who is more suited for the kinds of books I’m writing right now than my former agent (and honestly I think that following people on Twitter gives you excellent insight into the person or at [...]

Filed under: Me, Myself and I | 5 Comments »

Five Thing Friday is Eating My Brain or Maybe I Have a Brain Wasting Disease such as Mad Cow or Maybe My Brain Is Actually Just Fine, Did You Ever Think Of That?

Posted on August 29th, 2009 by Karen

Oh, time.   What HAPPENS to you?   I go from five thing friday to… Five Thing Friday with nothing in-between.   Depressing!  The truth is that I’m finishing a book and so my next couple of weeks will be filled with putting every last precious word into the wee novel and less here, but you won’t mind [...]

Filed under: Five Thing Friday | No Comments »

Dear Mole, thanks I guess.

Posted on August 25th, 2009 by Karen

Dear Mole That I Had Removed Last Friday, Look, I’m sorry I had you cut out of my body in a disgusting way.    Believe me, it was grosser for me than it was for you.   I had to a) SEE it (er, you) and b) four stitches.   The place where you once were is still [...]

Filed under: Health, Me, Myself and I | No Comments »

Well, looky here, it’s Five Thing Friday or Sunday or Whatever. PLUS A Giveaway!

Posted on August 23rd, 2009 by Karen

You know, I’m really starting to wonder why I call this post Five Thing Friday.   Last night I was reading Petite Anglaise, which is a book inspired by the blog Petite Anglaise, which made me read the blog Petite Anglaise and I realized that I very much doubt that I Spuddle is ever going to [...]

Filed under: Five Thing Friday, Giveaway | 6 Comments »

The Birdy is two. That’s right, I missed her birthday post because I was away. This does not make me a bad mother. I WAS BUSY. I love you, Birdy. Sorry.

Posted on August 20th, 2009 by Karen

Dear Birdy, And now you are two. How did that happen? No, seriously, how? I can’t get my head around it, I swear you were just born except that was August 14, 2007 and somehow it now happens to be August 14, 2009 (I KNOW IT’S NOT, BUT CLOSE ENOUGH)(We were on holiday, remember?  At [...]

Filed under: Birthday Letter | 1 Comment »

Silent Sunday. Yes, I KNOW it’s Tuesday. My bad.

Posted on August 11th, 2009 by Karen

So we went camping on Galiano.   I have a million pictures and I have uploaded these four because everything takes me forever and I was really busy this morning choosing products to give away on this site.   Stay tuned for more on that.   There’s been a lot of talk about giveaways on blogs lately and [...]

Filed under: Photography, Silent Sunday | No Comments »

Warning: This Post Contains Vomit. Do not read this post if you are eating, if you’ve just eaten and/or if puke stories make you puke.

Posted on August 8th, 2009 by Karen

So I was going to type out this whole story and then I thought, no, why would I?  I’ve told this story already, I’ll just post the ACTUAL TRANSCRIPT because I know how you like them and besides, it’s probably only slightly funny when it’s fresh.   The story, I mean.   Not the puke.   Enjoy!   Don’t [...]

Filed under: Actual Transcript, Health, Kids, Laundry | No Comments »

Five Things + Friday = Five Thing Friday. Surprised? Because it’s actually Thursday? Well, no one is perfect.

Posted on August 6th, 2009 by Karen

I realize that if you read this blog regularly, it’s starting to look like I do nothing but watch/obsess about crap reality shows and shop and I want you to know that that’s really not the case. I swear that now that The Bachelorette is over*, the only show I watch is House Hunters and [...]

Filed under: Five Thing Friday, Shopping | No Comments »

Christ on a moped, how can I expect you to know every detail of my life if I don’t share these little treasures?

Posted on August 5th, 2009 by Karen

So there we are at a shop and I’m loading The Birdy and The Bun out of the car so I can shout at them in a store filled with breakable items and lo and behold but The Bun won’t come out of the car. Me:   Get out of the car! The Bun:  No, I [...]

Filed under: Actual Transcript | No Comments »

On J.Crew.

Posted on August 4th, 2009 by Karen

So as you probably know, I buy a lot of my clothes at J.Crew. (FINAL SALE!) (Seriously, this is the most astounding sale ever, and if you have coupons, you can get that $200 sweater you’ve coveted all season for something like $23.99.) The funny thing is that when I hear OTHER people say they [...]

Filed under: Shopping | 3 Comments »