Monica Kochelee

One of the things I enjoy doing for “cheap entertainment” is going to whatever trade show happens to be taking place in a nearby town or city.  It really doesn’t matter what the subject is for the most part because I enjoy getting out of the house and learning about different products that are available out in the market.  One the most enjoyable parts of going to a trade show is looking at all of the beautiful trade show and store displays that are set up throughout the buildings that the show is in.

I like to walk around from one booth to another, admiring the many different beautiful display setups that are there.  Since my own parents are involved in going to trade shows to promote their business, I like to strike up conversations with the vendors and ask them questions about their displays.  It seems that the ones that I always think are outstanding in terms of beauty and quality were bought by the vendors from a company called Gilbert displays, so I am going to have to let my parents know to check them out the next time they are considering revamping their own trade show display booth!

My son and I were watching the June 19 episode of The Colbert Report on the Internet earlier today because my son had seen the episode and saw Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster on the show.  Remembering how much I enjoyed watching Sesame Street with him some twenty-odd years ago, he looked it up on the Comedy Channel’s website so I could see it too.

I was shocked to see that Cookie Monster has learned to eat healthier foods in recent years - he now loves fruit too!  It was a cute very cut episode; if you would like to watch it click here.

While I was just browsing around the Internet, I saw an interesting website that talked about the history of Father’s Day.  It seems that it was the brainstorm of a woman who was raised by her father, along with her many brothers and sisters.  Her mother died her last childbirth, leaving the father to raise the kids all by themselves.  I thought it was a very interesting story, if you’d like to read it, click here.

I used to enjoy playing games as a child.  But when I got married (the first time) my hubby was so highly competitive that anytime we played a game, if I won the game we never played it again.  There came a time when I finally just stopped playing games, it wasn’t worth living through the trauma of his poor sportsmanship, and I was tired of spending money buying games that only got played a few times!  My new(er) hubby says he enjoys playing some games, but I don’t know if he’s ever tried backgammon.  I don’t even know if we have a backgammon board - I know we USED to have one, but I’m not sure if we still do.

Backgammon seems to be my next door neighbor’s passion.  Whenever I drop over to see her, she is in the middle of an online backgammon game.  My neighbor says she spends a lot of time playing her games at the website http://www.bgprime.com.

I never learned to play backgammon, but it does seem like it would be a lot of fun to play.  I think I’m going to have to look up the rules at a Backgammon Online site and see what I can find out about learning how to play the game, and then maybe I can challenge my neighbor to a friendly game!

My hubby told me that he was going to spend the weekend helping me get the house ready for expected company that is coming next weekend.  He was going to dust the ceiling fans, dust the top of the refrigerator, do a few minor repairs here and there, install some timer switches on the bathroom exhaust fans, and help pick up the clutter.

Well, he ended up getting a phone call from my brother yesterday morning saying “I’m riding to Richmond on my Harley, want to come join me on your Harley?”  Well, hubby was out of here like a shot and didn’t come back until about 9pm.  They got caught in a severe thunderstorm on the way home and had to wait it out under a bridge for about an hour, but they seemed to have a good time overall.

I thought it was funny because my hubby swears he will never ride in the rain, and will never ride if rain is forecast, but the forecast yesterday said only a 10% chance of rain, so he went.  Now he says he won’t ride if it is even a 10% chance of rain.  I told him that there is ALWAYS a chance of rain, so he ought to just buy himself a rain suit and some motorcycle bags and be prepared!