I think there's a notion out there that is boring for guests to have to watch gifts being opened.

This is why I want more people to do something like what some friends of mine did at their baby shower -- they had play-doh on the tables, and while they were opening, we were supposed to be sculpting their baby. It was the perfect thing -- enough distraction so it wasn't boring, but you could still see the things and hear the ooh/aah.

My shower is on Sunday. I think my mom is planning on having me open gifts with the individual who gave it before they leave, but I don't think we're going to do a big open all the gifts all at once thing. There are way too many people coming to the shower, imo, but I really didn't have anything to do with it. All of them are either friends that I see or talk to often, Mom's friends, and family.

Some gift opening is boring, but I enjoy seeing baby gifts. My cousin's shower on Saturday had no games (not that I'm complaining) and no gift opening. It was just a regular party, which would have been nice had I known anyone there other than my cousin and my aunt. And that's why I think you should open gifts - give people something to do as most of us don't know each other. Also, no one had any idea of when it was appropriate to leave. It got a little excruciating.

That Ensure was nummy.

I can see rationale behind dropping mass gift opening. It can be a big chunk of time. I like the idea Jesse talks about. Being expected to be engaged with great auntie's idea of a wonderful baby gift may be a bit much the third time round.

My top lip is twice its normal size. That's a big lip.

Resume question: how do you properly indicate different positions/levels at the same company? Write them out like separate jobs? I do that on my resume itself, but on the web forms it feels tight. So I end up putting the aggregate start-end dates and stringing the titles together. I hope it doesn't look crazy.

I think my mom is planning on having me open gifts with the individual who gave it before they leave

dooo eeet. Cooing over the gift and saying thank-you to the gifter means not having to write a thank you note!

I want a sort of upbeat rocker that the crowd will know but that's also unexpected. Any ideas????

Back in the early '90s, I did karaoke occasionally, and my most favorably received one was "Leader of the Pack," which was an end-of-the-evening number, and included several people pulled from the bar who were rather toasted, but willing shout "leader of the PACK!" in the background and make "vrrooom vrooom" noises.

I also once did "(I Can't) Breakaway" by Big Pig, which got me a "what the hell was that?" response by the DJ and a shout of recognition from one person in the audience.

dooo eeet. Cooing over the gift and saying thank-you to the gifter means not having to write a thank you note!

NSM. I am truly awful at remembering to do thank you notes, so my mother has already bought the thank you notes as a gentle reminder that it is expected of me this time.

I want a sort of upbeat rocker that the crowd will know but that's also unexpected.

I always seem to wind up doing Dusty whenever I do karaoke.

Well, keeping with the early MTV theme, there's always Pat Benatar.

I have no spoon, so I am eating cous cous with two wooden coffee stirrers. Not very successfully. And yogurt is next.

Today is not that good, really.

I was gonna say- from my experience in TX and NY public thank yous do not get one out of writing the notes, it is still expected from many.

At some kids b'day parties parents are against opening the gifts because they feel people try to outdo one another and it makes people who bring smaller gifts feel bad.