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.

I won this karaoke competition at my neighborhood festival last year and I will be a judge and also do a song to start off the competition this year. It's this Saturday and I can't think of what song to do AT ALL! I want a sort of upbeat rocker that the crowd will know but that's also unexpected. Any ideas????

"Jessie's Girl", "Hard To Handle" (Crowes version), "99 Luftballons" (but sing it Goldfinger-style), "Old-Time Rock 'n' Roll"

I'd suggest "Welcome To The Jungle", but I'm sure someone will want to sing that for their competition number.

"(I Can't) Breakaway" by Big Pig,

Awesome!

And juliana, Kristin, and I have done a mean version of "The Muppet Theme."

I won this karaoke competition at my neighborhood festival last year and I will be a judge and also do a song to start off the competition this year. It's this Saturday and I can't think of what song to do AT ALL! I want a sort of upbeat rocker that the crowd will know but that's also unexpected. Any ideas????

Kiss Me Deadly - Lita Ford. AHAHAHAHAHAHA! When we saw Sandra Bernhard a couple of years ago, she sang Christina Aguilera's Beautiful and segued into Kiss Me Deadly and it was effin brilliant! Love her!

I don't like the idea of opening a bunch of gifts in front of a crowd. There's a real expectation of performance-- oohing and aahing -- that is tiring and awkward, particularly for anyone who is just not that expressive. And you have to modulate your reaction to match the gift...it's awkward.

And juliana, Kristin, and I have done a mean version of "The Muppet Theme."

Is true. Much more unexpected than "Lady Marmalade".

At the last baby shower I went to, the hostess asked us to put our addresses on envelopes for the thank-you notes. At showers, frequently the only thing I find entertaining is the present opening, and it gives people who don't know each other something to talk about.