As Promised - JP's Racing Days

Hi there everyone.....well finally a post!!! It seems I have only been doing one post a week lately....sorry about that. Not much to talk about, I guess. Well, actually there is, but I have been lazy.....lol!

So as promised....Today's post is about JP and his racing days back in 1972 and 1973. The car above was a 69 Camaro. In the above picture he got to go around the track with the American Flag....while they played the National Anthem......no knee bending here.

In this above picture, he won the Trophy Dash on August 13, 1972. As you can see most of these pictures are part of the scrap book I have put together for JP.....it's still unfinished.....one of these days I will finish it.

In this picture above JP won the Waukegan Short Track 50 lapper. I think that night he collected $400 in winnings.....gosh we thought we were rich!!!!! And it all went back into the car.

The car 169 was recycled into the above car.....#7....pretty snazzy huh??? Yep, it was a good thing we had pictures taken of the car before we went out racing that night. Because it seems everyone was out  after JP Gatti and car #7, cause it got pretty beat up that night. As a matter of fact, one of the Drivers did not like JP and punched him in the eye one night. AND to top that off....his wife wanted to beat me up too......though, she never touched me. Good thing.....I had too much spunk back then.

Another Race Won on July 7.....how apropos.....#7 wins on 7/7/73!!!!!

Here we are....JP Gatti battling with #64 George Dukas the "EYE Puncher" I think this was the night JP got punched and was taken to the hospital. Dukas thought JP had deliberately spun him out....tempers flare on the track and in the pits!!!!

Here we are, JP and Louise. JP just won the Track Championship for 1973......weren't we a cute couple???? Yep, those were the days. JP ended his racing days that year....he saw one friend killed and another friend ended up in the hospital when a tire flew in the air from a racing car on the track, hitting him in the head.

So there you have it....a trip down memory lane. I do have lots more pictures that I could show you.....but these are the only ones for now that I have scanned into my computer.

I shall close here for now....you all have a great week and keep looking up....better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

A Few New Birthday Cards and Shopping

Just added this card to my Etsy store the other day. The black and white tape is called "Washi Tape" which is fast becoming my favorite thing to play with. The card is priced at $3.00 + postage. As will all the cards be in this post tonight.

Again I was playing with my "Washi Tape."  Made one like this in Pink.

Here is my "bumble bee" card. I bought a honey comb embossing folder at the Milwaukee Expo. The bees are colored with copic markers, but the bee stamp was borrowed. I did stamp enough bees to make more though.

Another "Washi Tape" Birthday card. I finally picked up a balloon punch so I am now able to  coordinate my balloons with the tape I use........such fun!!

Today I went to Archievers, using my coupon to copy a free page from JP's racing scrapbook. A friend wants a page from the scrapbook.......soooo instead of sending the page, I was able to get a duplication of the page for FREE!!! My favorite kind of shopping. I also bought some more Washi Tape..........Yay for Washi!!

Silver, blue and red plus red and green chevron. I have an idea for July 4th cards, using the red and blue. When I figure it out, I certainly will post it here.

Here is that amazing copy of the page from JP's racing scrapbook. I was very impressed. I hope Mark likes it, he wanted the news clipping of "Gatti does it all." It is from August 1972, so I was not too thrilled to let it go, even though he was willing to pay $100 for it. Hopefully we can get it sent, without it getting crushed or bent!

Well, time to close here, it is getting late and I need to get dinner ready for JP, he'll be home in a couple of hours. So you all take care and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh.........someday I will do a post on that phrase I so often use.  Cheers ~ Louise

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day



Christmas Eve dinner was steak, shrimp and red pepper grilled on the George Foreman grill. The steak was to perfection and was still pink on the inside. No special seasoning except for my "no salt Greek seasoning" also on the plate was fried mushrooms. I tried to plate it to look tantalizing, not sure 'Gordon Ramsey' would be impressed. Also, on the menu was "Crispy Mashed Potato's" (you will find the recipe in the previous blog) salad and celery with dip and onion rye toast. JP had a bowl of fruit and yogurt for dessert. We enjoyed our dinner very much.



Christmas Morning ~ this is JP looking at his new scrape book I put together for him. The original scrape books were falling apart after 40 years!! I thought I would just get a couple of pages done, but managed to get 23 pages done from 1972 and into the start of 1973. Over the years, pictures and newspaper clippings were taken out and misplaced. So I had to really work hard at piecing it all back together again. (just like humpty~dumpty)

I really enjoyed doing this scrape book, so now maybe I won't be so fearful to try another one. I do have plenty of pictures that can be scrape booked using many themes.....my next book, (which I started about 4 years ago) are all my dogs. Now that Hyko has left us, I guess it is time to get that started again.



Here is a page from the scrapbook, I took a picture cause I wanted to see how it would turn out. So maybe during the course of the next couple of months I will take pictures of the scrape book, so you can see the lay-outs and what the book looks like. I know, I know, "you say.....I have seen plenty of scrapbooks" Ah....BUT, you've not seen this one!! Anyways, this is a picture of JP winning a feature race in his old car "169" in 1972.

 As I said, I really enjoyed putting this together as it brought back lots of memories. I was really looking forward to giving it to him......now I can finish it without being rushed. Christmas eve I received some racing paper and stickers that I had ordered last week. So I was able to organize the book a little bit more before giving it to JP for Christmas.



Christmas Day we spent a few hours at Jim and Arlene's house. Ham, dressing, peas and carrots, baked potato, pear salad, berry pie and tea. Then we opened some gifts....Arlene likes to go "thrift shopping" so I got a cook book full of cookies, JP got a doggie calendar and a picture frame with a picture of a cut-out doggie that looked like Hyko. The didn't know Hyko had died, and so the dog looked like Hyko. (sniff-sniff and sigh)

It was a nice visit, as we sat around talking about the Lord and reading and speaking scripture. JP and Jim can really banter back and forth pretty good and JP usually knows what address that scripture comes from. They both know the Word really good.

We left about 3:30pm and came home.......I guess I was tired, cause about 5:00pm I closed my eyes and did not wake up till 7:30pm...........whew, where did that time go?? So about 8:00pm I made a lasagna in my new little casserole dish from Kylie....can you imagine she paid $3.99 for it. Guess that is another picture for another time. (smile)

You are going to like this........so I made the lasagna and put it in the oven about 8:20, set the temperature for 400 degrees and FORGOT to turn the "ON" knob, soooooo needless to say the lasagna sat in the oven for 1 hour without being baked...........GOOD GRIEF where were my brains!!! So when I realized the lasagna was not baking, it was about 9:20pm. So about 10 minutes after 10pm we were eating lasagna............it sure was good, and well worth the wait or should I say weight....I think it was the new casserole dish that made it taste good.

Well, I guess this blog is getting a bit to long and no doubt you are getting bored with all my rambling. So I shall close for now. Hopefully I will get another blog in before the New Year. So you all take care and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh.
Cheers ~ Louise