Shannon's Art for Sale

Shannon has her art for sale on E-bay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/JOHN-FORCE-ORIGINAL-DRAWING-SIGNED-NHRA-FUNNY-CAR-CHAMP_W0QQitemZ220473807310QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_SM_Fan_Shop?hash=item33554351ce&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

50th Anniversay of National Dragster

Yesterday, August 26, Carl and I were invited to the "Press and VIP" opening of the Wally Parks NHRA Museum's new exhibit, "50 Years of National Dragster". We weren't actually "Press" so we put ourselves into the "VIP" category. But to qualify myself as "Press", I'm writing a story on the event, and posting it right here on my blog.

We had heard about this upcoming event for weeks because my good friend, neighbor, and walking buddy, Teresa, has been working on it and hanging the pictures at the museum. She and Paula and with the help/aggravation of Wayne.




This is Teresa standing next the the "Leslie Lovett" display. Leslie was the Photo Editor and main photographer for National Dragster for so many years, but I'm not sure how many. Everyone loved Leslie. His shirt along with his photo stuff and some of his really cool photos are in a glass display case. It's worth the trip to the museum just to see this corner.




Leslie's photo of Shirley "Cha Cha" Muldowney.


Up close of his stuff....


This is Leslie Lovett.


The exhibit shows the old and the new. Here is a copy of the very first National Dragster beside the Wally Parks memorial edition.

An entire wall in the museum is covered by enlarged covers and inside stories from past National Dragsters.

Greg Sharp, the museum curator, welcomed everyone to the opening.

Phil Burgess (on the right) is the current editor of National Dragster and on the left is Dick Wells, the first editor. They talked about how hard it was back in the beginning to put a magazine together, and compared it to today's digital world, and how it is still lots of work to do the same thing.

Then Alex Xydias told a short story .

Ahhh, the food..... Had we known there was going to be a spread, we wouldn't have just eaten lunch at Gene's Grinder around the corner before going. There was room, however, for two cookies and a Coke.

This is a huge wall display, that's the top of a real race car at the bottom.

The lamp on the left, made of race car parts, was in the National Dragster office for many years.

Here is an example of the changes in look the magazine went through over the years.

Right beside the new exhibit you can see some awesome and historic race cars.

I love the little race car sticker on the walls, it was originally on the National Dragster banner.

Here is a little video of the event. All in good fun, I know that Teresa didn't do it all by herself, but she should be very proud of her contributions to this exhibit.

So - those of you who are reading my blog and live in the area, be sure to get over to the museum to see this fine exhibit. The LA County Fair starts on September 5th through October 4th, so unless you want to pay for the fair, go before then, or wait until it's over.

That's all for now, Reporting from La Verne, CA - Kathy

Monday

Yesterday was my "sidetracked" day. Today was my get all the little things done day. I went through my "In" basket on my desk and took care of lots of little things, and some big ones.

I booked our South Island flight today, so we can visit Garth and Andrea while we are in New Zealand in October. I updated the Deuce Frame Co. website, www.deuceframe.com, Shannon, Grant, Lacey and Brandon are the new T-shirt models. (look under Products, then under accessories.)

I gave Lili a bath yesterday so now she is all white and fluffy and she doesn't stink to high-heaven anymore. She hates having her picture taken because of the flash. If I even point a camera at her she looks away.


I turned the flash off and told her that I would give her a treat, so she looked at me for a second.


That was it - I was only allowed one picture of the Diva-Dog!


She tried to bury her face into the chair so I couldn't see her.


She will not look me in the eyes, what a BRAT!


I planted the front flowerbed with Petunias on Saturday. The gardners actually came and added some dirt around the flowers, maybe they will live this time.

If they do grow, I will post some pictures. Hopefully it will be solid colorful flowers, soon.

That's it for today, I had a really good Tuna Sandwich for dinner (now I sound like a foody, like Lacey). 2 pieces of toasted whole wheat bread. Tuna mix included; tuna, lite mayo, chopped onion, chopped celery, sweet pickle relish, chopped walnuts, lemon juice, pepper. Served open-face (this way I get 2 sandwiches) piled high with the tuna mix and topped with sliced tomatoes. Oh Yum, and healthy too. And... some sweet and crunchy red grapes on the side.

Adios for now, Kathy

Sorting it out...

Today is Sunday.

We had our breakfast, then I decided to wash the dog, but first I had to water the yard, but before that I decided to put some clothes in the washer, then back to the yard and watering, then Carl yelled for help to push the midget race car back into the garage, meanwhile the water is still on in the yard, but while I'm in the garage we decide that the crap in boxes which is in the way all the time needs to be gone through, so I empty the stuff out and the large pads of art paper goes up on the new rack overhead that Grant put up while he was here, then the other framed art fit nicely into Shannon's empty closet, but I saw more art that I wanted to hang in my office, so I did that, gave Carl 3 of the empty plastic bins that are not being used, took down 2 boxes of depression glass to give away, went back to the yard, picked up dog crap from my flowerbed, then planted some petunia's there I bought yesterday, turned the hose back on and cleaned up the mess and continued watering my plants, put in the second load of laundry, now I'm writing on this blog, because there is a special message to this blog.

But the dog has not been bathed and it is 11:00 am.

Message is: as I was looking through the art in the garage and found a painting Shannon had done in high school. I've always liked it but she always wanted to throw it in the trash. I actually pulled it out of the trash and kept it. It has been hanging in my office until we painted my office recently. Now it is back where I can see it.

As I was staring at it a huge message popped out at me. This was Shannon's future. The taxi symbolizes her traveling overseas, the floating smile is her happiness, the green flowers are sort of tropical and very green like New Zealand, BUT the tree she created is very similiar to the very first painting she painted in New Zealand last year. ewweeeeeewwwww.

This is her first painting after she went there in 2008. I really liked that painting for some reason too, but I think she probably threw it away by now. The trees are very similiar.

So the bottom line is that I have too much time on my hands and need to get a life.

And I need to go bathe the dog right now.....

Kathy

Back to Reality

Hi All. Shannon has arrived safely in Auckland NZ, yesterday. She's glad to be with Grant again and they are trying to fit 10 lbs. of her stuff into a 5 lb bag, AKA his room.

Here is a picture of us right before we left for the airport on Monday.

Shannon - ready to leave.

At the airport.

Going through security.

My last shot of her until I see her in October.

Yesterday was my day to have the house to myself, Carl was fishing. I stripped beds and did laundry and even had time to put up the 777 Race blog. http://fullbore777.blogspot.com/

which took about 4 hours to upload pictures. I find that Facebook is much easier to put photos up than Google Blog, but you have to be on the friends list to be able to view the Facebook pictures, anyone can see the blog.

Here's my other daughter, Lili. She's getting old - 13 years in June - and she does not get off of the couch for anything, not even food. I have to put my hand under her pillow to push her off, then she tries to bite me because she does not want to move. She's been under the weather lately. I woke up at 3:30 this morning to a surprise package on the landing of the stairs. Took care of it with the Bissell Green Machine. Oh the Fun!

Tonight I'll be going with some girlfriends to a concerts in the park in Diamond Bar.

That's all for now. Kathy

Loading Day and Girl's Dinner

Today is loading day, the day before the team leaves for Bonneville. Shannon and I timed it just right, by the time we arrived, all the work was done.

Here is Shannon (Vanna White) posing in her color coordinated dress.


The trailer is all loaded up.

Dennis, Roy, Kenny and Donnie in the back.

Julian Alvarez's '32 Sedan Delivery.

This is Squeak White's shop.


In the early evening, Shannon and I met up with the Fjastad girls; Amanda, Lacey, Kristen and Kathleen, plus Dean and Ryder for dinner at Mimi's Cafe. This was Shannon's good-bye event with her cousins. Dean and Ryder kept us entertained.

Kathy

Dean's First Birthday

Lacey and Brandon's baby boy, Dean, turned one year old on Saturday, so they threw him a big party at their house. There were tables and chairs covered by tents, 3 humongus sandwiches, chips, watermelon, pasta salad, drinks and cupcakes.

He is such a cute little guy, and got so many great gifts for his birthday. He didn't know what to make of the huge cupcake, but he figured it out.

Here is a video clip I created in Windows Movie Maker.