annie blog

The Perfect Moviegoing Experience — With Children
We’re back from visiting Alabama. While there we drank way too much coke, ate loads of watermelon and ribs and other wonderful foods, visited with dear friends and family, hiked a gorgeous canyon and visited this gem of Americana…

This is the drive-in movie theater in my hometown. I took two of my boys there on Sunday night to see Kung Fu Panda.

Every time I take my children there for a movie it just makes me wish SO MUCH that we had something like this in St. Louis. My children love movies and I would like to take them much more often if this was the way….why? Because it cost us 10 bucks, total, to get in. Because you can bring your own food and drinks — no more $4 cokes. Because the children are enclosed in a vehicle and their talking will not bother anyone but you — and, let’s face it, they are going to bother you anyway, so you can’t really count that one.

But do you know my favorite thing? It is the Southern/small town nature of the whole experience. The way the colored lights around the concession stand come on when the credits roll, the way you can swing on the swings while watching a movie if you wish, the way the good-ole-boy announcer comes on between features and says something like this:

Hey, y’all, thanks so much for coming out to see our shows tonight. Now, we’re going to have us few trailers after the first feature and then we’ll get that Indiana Jones all spooled up for y’all. Now, I don’t know what features we’re goin’ to have next week, but we’re goin’ to get some real good ones for y’all. Like I said, it’s goin’ to take us a few minutes to get the Indiana Jones all spooled up so y’all just be patient and thanks for coming to the drive-in tonight.

In Order to Move the Photo Down a Bit
That isn’t my sole purpose, of course, but it does play a part.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m currently reading the essays of E.B. White. They are great. It is a volume of essays that he chose and edited himself. He really was a wonderful writer.

One essay of the book deals with his remembrances of his professor and friend Will Strunk. He was asked, after the essay originally appeared in 1957, to revise and amplify the Elements of Style so that it might be reissued. White said that this task, which he thought would take him a month’s time, took over a year to complete. White said of Strunk’s little book, “Its vigor is unimpaired, and for sheer pith I think it probably sets a record that is not likely to be broken.”

I wonder what Strunk would think of all of the writing on the internet when I read a quotation from him like this:

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

What do you think?

In Order to Move the Photo Down a Bit
That isn’t my sole purpose, of course, but it does play a part.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m currently reading the essays of E.B. White. They are great. It is a volume of essays that he chose and edited himself. He really was a wonderful writer.

One essay of the book deals with his remembrances of his professor and friend Will Strunk. He was asked, after the essay originally appeared in 1957, to revise and amplify the Elements of Style so that it might be reissued. White said that this task, which he thought would take him a month’s time, took over a year to complete. White said of Strunk’s little book, “Its vigor is unimpaired, and for sheer pith I think it probably sets a record that is not likely to be broken.”

I wonder what Strunk would think of all of the writing on the internet when I read a quotation from him like this:

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

What do you think?

In Order to Move the Photo Down a Bit
That isn’t my sole purpose, of course, but it does play a part.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m currently reading the essays of E.B. White. They are great. It is a volume of essays that he chose and edited himself. He really was a wonderful writer.

One essay of the book deals with his remembrances of his professor and friend Will Strunk. He was asked, after the essay originally appeared in 1957, to revise and amplify the Elements of Style so that it might be reissued. White said that this task, which he thought would take him a month’s time, took over a year to complete. White said of Strunk’s little book, “Its vigor is unimpaired, and for sheer pith I think it probably sets a record that is not likely to be broken.”

I wonder what Strunk would think of all of the writing on the internet when I read a quotation from him like this:

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

What do you think?

For Harry Potter Fans…
here is a link to a prequel story about James and Sirius that J.K. Rowling wrote in a collection of short stories (along with like 13 other authors) for auction.

I can’t wait for the anthology to come out. I’m sure that it’ll be years, though.

For Harry Potter Fans…
here is a link to a prequel story about James and Sirius that J.K. Rowling wrote in a collection of short stories (along with like 13 other authors) for auction.

I can’t wait for the anthology to come out. I’m sure that it’ll be years, though.

For Harry Potter Fans…
here is a link to a prequel story about James and Sirius that J.K. Rowling wrote in a collection of short stories (along with like 13 other authors) for auction.

I can’t wait for the anthology to come out. I’m sure that it’ll be years, though.

Curly Girl
I don’t know why I’m thinking about hair today, but I am. Maybe it’s because Jon cut 3 inches off of my hair last night? He did a really good job. Curly hair is so easy.

The funny thing about my hair is this — I didn’t even know that I had curly hair until I was like 13. All I knew before that was that whenever I had my hair in braids or a pony tail, I would start out the morning looking smooth and sleek and end the day with a halo of frizz.

See? Halo of frizz, check.

And then one day I went swimming, didn’t comb my hair and looked in the mirror several hours later and discovered ringlets. On my head. What a revelation.

Now, when one has curly hair, you have to give up a few things. Looking sleek and smooth — it’s not going to happen without a lot of effort and time, hair products and electrical gadgets. We all know how lazy I am with those types of things so I just let the urge to have sleek hair pass.

With curly hair, you also give up your brush and comb. What? That’s right, curly girls should never brush their hair. No. That is how you get the old halo frizz effect going. It does nothing for your curls.

Finally, with curly hair, it is important to always use conditioner the lower half of your hair and finger comb it through before rinsing. That, and using a product like this one to style. Seriously, this is my favorite hair product — the best thing for curly hair.

So, like I said, I don’t know why I was inspired to do the curly hair tutorial here — and it’s not like I know everything about it, of course I don’t — but well there it is, anyway.

Curly Girl
I don’t know why I’m thinking about hair today, but I am. Maybe it’s because Jon cut 3 inches off of my hair last night? He did a really good job. Curly hair is so easy.

The funny thing about my hair is this — I didn’t even know that I had curly hair until I was like 13. All I knew before that was that whenever I had my hair in braids or a pony tail, I would start out the morning looking smooth and sleek and end the day with a halo of frizz.

See? Halo of frizz, check.

And then one day I went swimming, didn’t comb my hair and looked in the mirror several hours later and discovered ringlets. On my head. What a revelation.

Now, when one has curly hair, you have to give up a few things. Looking sleek and smooth — it’s not going to happen without a lot of effort and time, hair products and electrical gadgets. We all know how lazy I am with those types of things so I just let the urge to have sleek hair pass.

With curly hair, you also give up your brush and comb. What? That’s right, curly girls should never brush their hair. No. That is how you get the old halo frizz effect going. It does nothing for your curls.

Finally, with curly hair, it is important to always use conditioner the lower half of your hair and finger comb it through before rinsing. That, and using a product like this one to style. Seriously, this is my favorite hair product — the best thing for curly hair.

So, like I said, I don’t know why I was inspired to do the curly hair tutorial here — and it’s not like I know everything about it, of course I don’t — but well there it is, anyway.

Curly Girl
I don’t know why I’m thinking about hair today, but I am. Maybe it’s because Jon cut 3 inches off of my hair last night? He did a really good job. Curly hair is so easy.

The funny thing about my hair is this — I didn’t even know that I had curly hair until I was like 13. All I knew before that was that whenever I had my hair in braids or a pony tail, I would start out the morning looking smooth and sleek and end the day with a halo of frizz.

See? Halo of frizz, check.

And then one day I went swimming, didn’t comb my hair and looked in the mirror several hours later and discovered ringlets. On my head. What a revelation.

Now, when one has curly hair, you have to give up a few things. Looking sleek and smooth — it’s not going to happen without a lot of effort and time, hair products and electrical gadgets. We all know how lazy I am with those types of things so I just let the urge to have sleek hair pass.

With curly hair, you also give up your brush and comb. What? That’s right, curly girls should never brush their hair. No. That is how you get the old halo frizz effect going. It does nothing for your curls.

Finally, with curly hair, it is important to always use conditioner the lower half of your hair and finger comb it through before rinsing. That, and using a product like this one to style. Seriously, this is my favorite hair product — the best thing for curly hair.

So, like I said, I don’t know why I was inspired to do the curly hair tutorial here — and it’s not like I know everything about it, of course I don’t — but well there it is, anyway.