Randomness

My daughter is being discharged Friday and is absolutely ecstatic. The medication she takes for depression was increased and I think that along with group therapy has really helped her. Of course that still doesn't stop my worries about her going to her dad's wedding on Sunday.
My son's bus hit a pedestrian this morning. The school called to notify me and all they said was "pedestrian". All morning and afternoon I was googling to find out more information. I eventually found out it was a fellow student from his school who was on a bike. When I found out the location of the accident, I suddenly had a bad feeling and hoped it wasn't his bff from down the street. Later I was on my son's fb and my worst fears were confirmed. It was his bff and my son saw the accident happen. My son was on the school bus that hit him. The school bus had him pinned under the axle and it took 2 tow trucks to lift the front of the bus off him and then the fire department inflated air bags underneath the bus while they worked to extricate him. As soon as I found out it was him I called the school and told them I'd be picking up my son. After school we went to the hospital to visit him. For someone who was pinned under a bus he doesn't look too bad. About 7 staples to close a gash in his head and his knee was all bandaged up, and a few scrapes. My son was his first non-family visitor. His parents came by our house later to discuss what my son saw and thank him for coming to visit. All the kid was worried about was where his "lucky" baseball cap was. And his sister who was there asked why would he want it because it obviously wasn't "lucky" anymore. I say it was. Damn lucky he didn't get killed or more seriously injured. My son had me drive by the accident scene to see if the hat was still there, but it wasn't. I think taking him to visit was exactly the right thing to do. Especially since his sister was in the hospital and he wasn't allowed to visit her because they don't allow anyone under 18 to visit. I think it really calmed his nerves to actually see his friend really was ok.

Tomorrow and the weekend is crazy busy. I have to pick up my son from school, go to pick up my daughter from the hospital, take them to Anastasia's house, then to a friend's house, then to Chicago for a concert in celebration of her birthday earlier this week. Then back to pick up the kids and take them to the wedding venue. Then possibly to a haunted house with a group we belong to. Crazy lot of driving. Glad I managed to sneak in my tire rotation after the hospital visit.

If you haven't been over to my other blog, Fire Crotch Rocket please stop by. I've got new posts up.

Lola's Diner ©2008-2010

Realm Of Empires Rocks

My girlfriend got me involved in Realm Of Empires on Facebook back in April. This is not like many of the other games on Facebook. It requires planning and strategy to build your village and attack other villages. A big part of the game is interaction with other players. You can plot coordinated attacks, or you can go it solo. You can also build alliances.

To start out, you join a clan and begin building your village. This is what a village looks like after it's been built up.

From Realm Of Empires on Facebook page:

"Realm Of Empires is a medieval-themed Massively Multiplayer Online Real-Time Strategy Game - MMORTG.

You start with a small village which you grow into a mighty fortress as you struggle for dominance of the realm playing with, and against real people. It’s a game of diplomacy, strategy and war.

The game is intended to be played as little as just a few minutes per day, over many days, weeks and months as you make friends in a medieval world."

This is not your typical Facebook game. It's not time consuming (though it can be a bit time consuming if your clan is involved in a war and you've got to dodge attacks and defend your villages), it requires strategy, diplomacy and thinking and as I mentioned before, there is interaction with other players and opportunities to make new friends and build alliances within the game.

Two new realms were recently created, 9 and 10. My girlfriend and I play in Realm 10. Periodically they create new realms for the short term, tournament-like realms open for a weekend where you build at a much more rapid pace than the regular realms. You build, then begin attacking and acquiring Rebel Villages to build your empire. After acquiring as many Rebel Villages as you can, you can begin attacking live players and taking their villages. My girlfriend and I played recently when they had Realm X open for a weekend. My girlfriend is an avid player. (Read "crazy", but in a good way.) She enjoys the plotting and strategy involved and she's playing in several realms that have closed to new players, as well as playing in the new realms. As experienced a player as she is, I lasted out longer in Realm X than she did. As vices go, Realm Of Empires isn't a bad one. We both bring our laptops to each other's houses on the weekends and spend some time either pillaging (attacking and taking new villages), or defending our villages from attacks. It's a really fun game.

So what are you waiting for? You're on Facebook, aren't you? Come join in the fun!

Lola's Diner ©2008-2010

Bloggin' For Money - Are you making any?

To date I've not gotten a payout from Google for Adsense, and I've been doing Adsense for almost two years. (My blogaversary is coming up on October 16th!)

Although I've not gotten payouts on any of the other ad sites I've signed up for, I have used my earnings to advertise on them, so in a sense, I am getting some benefit from them.

Imagine my surprise when I got a deposit from Amazon.com! I actually got a payout of $10.62 from people subscribing to my blogs in Kindle. Woo hoo! Lola is rockin' the Kindle blogs!

Do you have a Kindle? Have you subscribed to my blogs yet on Kindle?

Lola's Diner Is Now Available On Kindle!

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Lola's Diner ©2008-2010

Random Tuesday Thoughts

I may find out today approximately when my daughter will be released from the hospital. We had a family meeting yesterday. It seems the stress from the Girl's Golf Team debacle and her dad's upcoming wedding brought on her symptoms. She really, really wants to attend the wedding, the staff know this and hopefully they can get all the evaluations done in time to allow her to be discharged late this week. I'm kinda torn here. I know the wedding is causing her stress and we have removed as many stressors as possible (no longer participating at all in the wedding, going only as a guest and having a guest that she's known since she was in grade school act as her chaperon), but I also know she would be very upset if she couldn't attend the wedding.

My son's hair finally made it's debut in front of his dad and his dad's fiance. Apparently the fiance was so teed off that if anyone brought up the subject at the weekend dinner party she squelched all comments, even the positive ones. I say that's what you get when you force a kid to wear a yarmulke for the wedding ceremony when he doesn't want to. He's going to rebel, and find a way to show his individuality and just be thankful he didn't have his eyebrows pierced, get a Mohawk, or do a self tattoo.

Had a great weekend...even though da Bears sucked baaaad. Did Cutler fake a concussion due to the embarrassment of getting sacked a record 9 times in a game? Ok, I'm joking...maybe half joking. I made some serious chili, my friend made guacamole and my son made hush puppies.

Lola's Diner ©2008-2010