Monica Kochelee

My brother sent me an email, telling me how excited he is that his office is holding a party at the Wrigley Field Rooftop Club.  They have bought each employee a Cubs rooftop ticket for the employee and one guest each.  I had never heard of the Rooftop Club, and thought it might be some thing along the line of some tall building near the sports stadium selling tickets to people that can’t actually get tickets to the sold out games or something like that.  Boy was I wrong! 

The Wrigley Field Rooftop Club is located inside the stadium, down the right field line, only 454 feet from home plate.  The Rooftop Club is a new building that just opened this past spring.  The Rooftop Club facility has three levels with over 9,000 square feet of space, sectioned off into suites, so companies can rent out different areas for private parties that they want to hold.  

It is set up with a lot of amenities including comfortable tables and chairs, wide screen televisions, and restrooms.  Food and beverages are included in the price of the ticket, and the guests get to eat and drink to their hearts content (up to the middle of the seventh inning, then the alcohol is cut off.)  Sounds like a great place to hold a corporate party!

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!

When personal computers first came out everyone seemed mesmerized by playing solitaire on their PC when they had a few minutes to spare. 

As the Internet came into our lives, there popped up gaming websites that offered a large variety of games.  Some were free sites created just for fun; others were gambling sites that cost money to play and offered cash prizes.  Some examples of the gambling games are blackjack, poker, backgammon, and spades.  I’ve never learned how to play backgammon myself; I don’t even know what the rules are!  But I do know that it is a very popular game.  Maybe I SHOULD learn how to play it! 

I’ve heard that there were some MIT students who formed teams of card counters who beat the odds in the Las Vegas Casinos.  There was a book written about that titled “Bringing Down the House” by Ben Mezrich.  And then there was a movie called “21″ starring Kevin Spacey that was based on the book. 

These students developed a software program to help beat the odds, and Backgammon Masters Online has decided to put the program to the test and see how well it works for their customers who play their online backgammon games.

We’ve lived in this area for almost two years now, and we are still learning our way around.  We have a jet ski, but I don’t know where there are public boat landings to launch it for us to use it.  I have looked at maps and see lakes, but don’t know if any of the lakes are better for jet ski use than other lakes are, or if any of the lakes restrict the usage of jet skis!  So, I want to learn some of that information so we can have some jet ski fun this summer!

I’m all for family vacations, and as I said, I enjoy nature and being outdoors.  When I was younger I even went spelunking with a friend in a very muddy nasty narrow cave.  That was an adventure in and of itself!

Anyway, I have always been a physically active person, and I do enjoy being with my family, and I do love the outdoors.  So, my kids have approached me about going whitewater rafting with them on a family vacation this summer.  They have done some research and found a company in Pennsylvania within easy driving distance from us that offers a beginner level of whitewater rafting, they say that the minimum age of the rafter should be five years old, so that should be a mild rafting experience.

The company, Whitewater Challengers, has 30 years of experience in white water rafting vacations, and has five different whitewater rafting locations that vary from very easy to extremely challenging.  I think I’ll check them out!