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Dahlia DeWinters - Author

Quirky Heroines, Happy Endings

5 Things I Love about Winter

Winter (1)Winter is the time of year where it gets dark early, which means cocktail hour starts so much earlier than in the summer.  The children are in school, the weather is blustery turning to cold and there’s a lot of baking to be done.  The brisk wind wakes you up when you go outside, making you that much more grateful to hurry back into the house or to a warm car.

At least that’s the way it is here in New Jersey, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

The leaves did their final drop in the last week or so, and gray skies have presided for the last three days.  I have no complaints about this, because I love winter.  How much do I love winter?  Why, let me count the ways.

 

 

Love this Snuggie!!
Love this Snuggie!!

1.  My Leopard Snuggie – Depending on my mood, I wear it as a dragging, regal robe and my children call me the leopard queen.  I love it.  It’s warm, it’s fleecy and it’s an excellent emergency blanket for a child who needs a snuggle.

 

 

Coffee cup and beans on a white background. File contains the path to cut.

2.  Hot Coffee – I love coffee anytime, anywhere and will only drink it hot, no matter what the temperature outside.  But you’ve gotta admit, there’ something special about that first cup of coffee when I’ve dropped off the little ones and hurried into a warm house from the freezing temperatures outside.  The house is totally quiet.  After the gurgle of the Keurig, it’s just me and that Black Silk, with a little creamer to lighten the load.  Bonus points for those donuts from the 7-eleven.

 

Yes.  I am wearing these right now.
Yes. I am wearing these right now.

 

3.  Slippers – I’ve got slippers, heavy socks, fur lined leopard sequined slippers, you name it, I’ve got it.  Again, it’s about the warmth and the snuggles.

 

 

Christmas cookies

 

4.  Baking – I am not a cook.  Dinner is a task.  But baking?  Why I love baking!  Cookies, biscuits, cakes, loaves…it is on during the winter season. Plus, the heat doesn’t kick on as much and the house smells soooooo durn good. In addition, I get to play June Cleaver with the kids and feed them hot chocolate with homemade sugar cookies!

 

I'm the one on the right.
I’m the one on the right.

5.  Comforters – There’s nothing better after a long day of cooking, kids, dog and writing than to snuggle up with the hubs under our heavy comforter.  Sure, it’s as old as our marriage, has some holes and is a little ragged around the edges, but it is warm and reminds me of how much I love winter.  Plus, with the nights being so long, I don’t feel like an old person getting into bed at 8:30.

So, dear readers, what are some of your favorite things about winter?


Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged: black geek girls, black girl nerds, cold weather, dahlia dewinters, female geek bloggers, geek girls, hot coffee, interracial romance, romance, winter

Thankfulness Quotes – Quote Me Thursday

I am so pleased to be co-hosting Quote Me Thursday with Brenda from DailyMayo.com.  This week’s topic, Gratitude and Thankfulness is especially near and dear to me because I try to find the silver lining in any cloud that I come across.  I do not thrive on “being down in the dumps” so I try to greet each day with a smile and a celebration of my blessings.

Here are some of the quotes that I keep above my desk in my office to keep me focused on the good things in life.

 

Faulkner - Gratitude

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
French Proverb - Gratitude

 

Unknown - Anon

 

Beecher- Gratitude

 

 

And some others……

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”  ― John F. Kennedy

 

“The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.”    —William Blake

“Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours.”  ― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Cicero - Gratefulness

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”  ― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Quote Me Thursday Social Boost Link Up

quote me thursday 1000

This Week’s Post Features

I love to be scared.  I hate to be scared.  I have a love/hate relationship with being scared.  That being said, my post I want to feature is The Best Scary Books to Read in October. Out of the 50 scariest books of all time, I’ve had the dubious pleasure of reading nearly half of them.

I also was fortunate enough to run into this post from Writing Tips Wednesday:  Tips for Writing Horror from 5 Horror Masters.  I’m elbows deep in the second book in my zombie apocalypse (with a healthy dose of romance) series that this was right on the money for me.

An InLinkz Link-up



Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged: quote me thursday

5 Fandom Friday – My Super Fave Apps

Five Favorite AppsI am a recent convert from an Apple iPhone 4s to a Samsung Galaxy s5 and I’m not sorry.   I’ve found that my functionality has increased with the Android operating system.  Plus who can resist an OS named “Kit Kat”?

Shout out to The Nerdy Girlie and SuperSpaceChick for organizing this!

Here are the apps that I use and love:

Instagram:  I don’t post as often as I’d like, but I love looking at the snippets of what other people are up to.  Whether it be beautiful fall trees are cute pets, Instagram is so much fun.

FitBit:  As a stay at home mom, I don’t do as much walking around as I’d like unless I put my mind to it.  Luckily there’s the FitBit, a little device that clips onto your body that tracks your steps.  Everytime I look at my phone to see a cute pet pic on Instagram, the FitBit reminds me to keep moving.

 

Relax Melodies:  Sometimes you need to tune the world out and activate relaxation right away.  This app helps you do that.  This was one of the first apps I purchased for my new phone.

 

 

Netflix:  I love The Office.  Can’t watch enough of it.  This app keeps The Office in my pocket.

 

Picture Life:  Every single picture I take is upload to a cloud service right away.  And it’s only pictures.  I don’t have to sort through documents, music etc.  And as an added bonus, they send you pictures from dates past.

 

So don’t keep us in suspense!  What are some of your favorite apps?

 

D

 

 

 

 

 

 


Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged: android, black geek girls, black girl nerds, dahlia dewinters, female geek bloggers, five fandom Friday

Gotham Recap – The Mask

Fish, to her Friends
Fish, to her Friends

 

Note:  This is a quick slapdash, done on the fly.  It most definitely contains errors, which will be fixed in the future.  Thanks, though, for reading!

The episode opens with some men in Wall Street clothes, fighting in an office where the lights are flickering. It’s pretty brutal and they are beating the crap out of each other using office supplies. The w

inner hacks the loser with the blade from a paper cutter, the likes of which I haven’t seen in ages.

Body on the docks. Nygma has all the answers and pulls a thumb out of the dead man’s mouth. Eck.

Penguin stops some rich broad on the street and says she has a very nice brooch, and asks for it. Yeah. Next scene he’s giving the brooch to Fish and they seem to be playing nice with each other, but we know that’s a sham.

Fish uses the pin from the brooch to stab Penguin in the hand and licks the blood off the end. Go, FISH! She also tells Penguin that he’d

Penguin blood is sweeeeeet
Penguin blood is sweeeeeet

better hope that Falcone keeps in good health.

Finally, Bruce going to school. He couldn’t stay in that house forever. I can’t see Alfred being a huge advocate of hiding away and homeschooling.

At a loss to do with the brooch, Penguin gives it to his mother. She opens her arms and pushes her chest out, saying “Pin in on!” We are saved from another creepy moment when she exclaims over his injury. After hearing the story, she says she, too was bullied by a girl in school and ended up reporting her and her family to the Secret Police. Mama Penguin is gangsta!

Gordon and Bullock at a black market doctor who has apparently treated these Gordon Gekko Fight Club folks. Gordon arrests him because of the link between the doctor and the dead body. Cops don’t like that, but Gordon is playing hardball.

Sigh. Gordon goes home. Drunk Barbara waiting for him with gun drawn. She’s still scared of Zsasz, blah blah. Guess she’s not scared of a little vodka tho. Eh, I have tried with Barbara. I don’t like her character.

At least we have cheese with her whine....
At least we have cheese with her whine….

character. She’s wishy washy and kinda dull. “Go, stay, go, stay….” I know it’s all plot device, but give the character something to do, please.

So Ed Nygma is also the Medical Examiner, like Quincy, and he also likes cranberry muffins. And he tells himself jokes. This is the most ill-lit forensic examining lab that I’ve ever seen. Dr. G would be so put out. Whoops NOPE! He gets chased away by the real medical examiner. Pretty funny.

Back to Bruce at school. Two boys sit down with him. As a teacher, I smell a bullying scene coming up. Yep. And the main bully’s haircut is terrible.

Fish and that girl who is dating Falcone is reporting to Fish in a confessional. This girl, who’s name I can’t even remember, is rather boring. Oh, thanks Fish, it’s Liza. Liza is supposed to copy something from Falcone’s journal. Liza asks what would happen if one of his men catches her, and Fish is like…well, then you’re dead. Ha!

Bullock and Gordon show up at a busy office where the employees are looking kinda beat up. The man who is the head of the firm seems to be familiar to me, I recognize the voice. Gordon and Bullock go into the good cop/bad cop act (with Gordon as the bad cop, lol)

and main dude is acting pretty shady. They talk about mask. “A mask speaks truth.” And he is become weirder and weirder by the second.

Nygma gets a clue
Nygma gets a clue

They leave the office and there is blood on the floor leading to the restroom. Oh, look, it’s a man with a bloody nose. Whoops. But wait! A dude comes out of the restroom with a bloody bandage on a hand. He hits Gordon and leaves. Bullock comes in and tells him “You should have waited for me.”

Back at Bruce’s school. Here it comes, the bullying escalates. Bruce isn’t intimidated, but when it’s three against one, those are tough odds. Bully starts to talk about his mother and Bruce bats him across the face. Good for him.

Back to Penguin. Uh oh, he’s eating an apple and a knife. This isn’t looking good. Timothy, one of Fish Mooney’s men, is brought in and Penguin has him beat up.

Gordon and Bullock interrogate no-thumb guy. Bullock reports out that the three top candidates for some job had to fight it out, but not to the death. Blah Blah. Here comes Nygma, thank god, to offer some color to the scene. Apparently, it wasn’t black in, it was printer toner. Turns out four bodies were found having been killed with office supplies. What? No thumb dude has lawyered up before he could sign a confession.

They briefly discuss how the death of the Waynes sparked the evil that is coming up from the bowels of Gotham.

And Bruce comes out all beat up and Alfred is like what’s going on. Bruce says “Don’t tell the school.” Alfred is like “Not bloody likely.” Which means those bullies better watch out!

Bullock and Gordon have a bit of a falling out and guess who’s on the phone. Barbara, wanting to check it. Gordon is like “I’m busy” and hangs up.

Liza, spills some of the knock out syrup she is supposed to pour in Falcone’s tea.

Gordon, along in the crazy office place from the opening, finds men in cages, but he’s tasered from behind by Crazy Head Office guy.

A peek at Cat-tween, coming out of the basement of some shop that she stole from.

Alfred gives Bruce his father’s watch. Bruce goes to the home of the bully and punches him in the face right on the sidewalk. Ha! Alfred says “Point well made”. Then Alfred does the clean up.

Back to where Gordon is knocked out. Wake up Gordon, it’s time to fight to the death. It’s like Wall Street meets Fight Club with a well-heeled audience.

Bullock is asking for help in the police station, no one wants to help. Bullock is like “eff this, Gordon is a cop, you better help him, he might be in trouble.” Cops start to step up.

Back to the fight. Gordon kicks the people’s butts, of course. Mask guy taunts Gordon “Where are your policeman friends? Did they abandon you?” Gordon says “I don’t need them.” Mask guy fights Gordon with his sword, but Gordon gets the better of him. Long pause with Gordon holding the sword over Crazy Office Guy. We all know he’s not gonna stab him. Just then the DA comes in and wraps up.

Fierceness Squared
Fierceness Squared

Fish listening to another singer, an old woman. Liza wants out. She asks Fish Mooney if it’s worth it, what’s she’s doing. Fish gives her a little back story. She grew up in poverty and her mother was a prostitute. She used to sleep behind a curtain when her mother entertained men. One of Falcone’s men killed her mother because he “didin’t like th eservise” and she was there. It’s not about revenge, it’s about power. Fish promises Liza that she won’t let anything happen to her.

Poor Timothy. Hung upside down. He finally gives up that Fish has someone close to Falcone to Oswald.

Bullock and Gordon make up. Gordon gives another rally the troops speech about how he’s not going to give up until the city is clean.

Say what? Fish’s mother isn’t dead? Ha! Gotta love Fish.

Oh, look Barbara has left again. Honestly? Who cares.

Cat-tween asks to see Gordon. I hope this goes somewhere.

Bruce admits he enjoyed punching the crap out of the bully. He also admits that he’s angry all the time. Is this teen Hulk? He asks Alfred to teach him how to fight.

And


Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged: black geek girls, black girl geeks, black girl nerd, black girl nerds, blerd, dahlia dewinters, erotic romance, fish mooney, gotham, gotham recaps, multicultural romance, oswald cobblepot, quirky romance

What's in your Bug-Out Bag?

bugoutbaggraphicEver since The Walking Dead premiered on AMC, zombies have become a part of the general culture. Not that they weren’t there before, what with George Romero’s classic Night of the Living Dead and the many other films before and after it, but now, zombies are at the forefront.

In the event of a zombie outbreak, or any type of outbreak, it’s important to be prepared. You don’t have to break the bank in order to have your emergency bag well-stocked and ready to go! Read on to find out about the 12 items for your Bug Out Bag that you can get from the dollar store.

Bug-Out Bag: A bug-out bag[ is a portable kit that contains the items one would require to survive for seventy-two hours[3][4] when evacuating from a disaster. (Wikipedia)

First Aid Items – With all the running you’re bound to be doing, someone is going to fall and scrape their knee. You’ve seen it a dozen times in any given move. Have these items in your bag for just these times.

1. Triple Antibiotic Ointment

2. Antibacterial wipes

3. Bandages of different sizes/shapes OR Gauze pads

4. First Aid Tape

5. Rubbing Alcohol

Personal Care Items – No need to be smelly on the road. Skip the rolls of toilet paper. They take up too much room and aren’t really multi-purpose. The point of this bag is to get items that can be used for more than one thing.

6. Baby Wipes – So many uses for these – washing, wiping, refreshing, cleaning.

7. Toothbrush/Toothpaste/Mouthwash Travel Kit – Not only to keep away smelly breath, but preventing tooth decay is very important!

Miscellaneous

Comes in PINK!

8. Flashlight with batteries (usually sold in kits)

9. Work gloves

10. Duct Tape

11. Lighters

Food/Drink

Okay, so the dollar store isn’t exactly a gourmet’s idea of a feast, but when you’re hungry and the 7-11 is overrun with zombies…you’ll thank me.

12. Potted meat – Tuna, corned beef, Beef Jerky, Sardines etc. (make sure it’s made in USA if at all possible)

Hot Sauce makes everything better

You can also do with some cup o noodles and ramen, but remember, you need something that will give you PROTEIN. Salmon, sardines, tuna – yes they’re smelly and a little heavy, but it’ll keep you going.

I’m sure there are other items you can think of, but this is just to give a starter list.  Any additional ideas?  Leave them in the comments!


Filed Under: Uncategorized

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