Gift Help
 

Sorry - although I live in No. VA - have no idea as to spa in Richmond area and no idea anywhere to get a doogie gift basket - But I will go with your party suggestions.

Gift Help
 

http://www.allnaturaldogtreats.com/s...iftbasket.html
(Spree: Dog Treats)

Gift Help
 

Honey, you ARE a pet, and presumably all your friends are animals as well. None of you should have children. Bitch.

Jesus Kills but SUVs Crush Better
 

I have an alibi.

I couldn't have been running down a crowd in New Jersey when I was busy running down my boyfriend in San Antonio.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/825...e_runover.html

Jesus Kills but SUVs Crush Better
 

So if the culprit was the girlfriend, could the woman the victim was seen with earlier in the evening have been his wife?

Anne
Those family trees are so confusing in Texas.

Wait a minute. Am I the only person on the face of the earth who believes that guests should not bring anything? I must be the only one who goes out and stocks the bar, gets beer, makes all of the appetizers and cooks all of the food when I have a party. Even for a silly little Super Bowl party. I even gave away hockey tickets as a door prize for one party that I hosted. Have I been wrong all of these years? Is my husband right about this one?:eek:
Maybe this is why I don't like having parties...

Jesus Kills but SUVs Crush Better
 

Ahh, the SUV is the weapon of choice for running down boyfriends. That's what he gets for dating someone so young (and obviously unstable).

You should do what everyone else does. I nearly always see people bring wine to a dinner (unless it's obviously not really a dinner, but a recruiting event or something) but don't see hard liquor brought as often. However, I bring hard liquor to friends who have me over a lot but who don't come to my house much (their house is more fun, damn rich bastards) because I drink a lot of theirs.

If your guests don't show up with liquor, you have to supply it yourself, you poor thing.

If so, then I am wrong too. I haven't given away hockey tickets, but I do purchase and prepare plenty of food and drink for my guests. Still, people bring stuff and I end up with all this extra alcohol. The extra food is my fault.

Anne
I like having parties. Especially when all the groups mix and mingle. I wonder how my real friends would take to the FB crowd. Maybe I'll leave the laptop running during the next gathering.

No, it is my fault. For whatever reason (probably my bitch mother) I always thought that it was wrong for people to bring food or beverage to your house when you throw a party (although she also told me to never go to the home of another empty handed -- what the fuck do I about this obvious conflict?). My husband makes it clear to his friends not to bring anything so they don't -- no wink wink we will just bring something. My hubby thinks that by being this way I am unfair to my guests who may want to contribute to the party. Now I don't know what to do because the FBers seem to be on his side with this one.

I think it's meant more as a gift than a "I brought this for all of us to drink right now" thing. Although the booze usually gets consumed immediately. I frequently have enough booze/wine to go around no matter what. Even when I insist on people not bringing anything, people still show up with something. Doesn't bother me at all.

Edited to add that you're not wrong: you should be prepared; and you should never attend a party empty-handed. Quite the paradox, eh?

No. Entirely reasonable. I've just come to realize that guests these days insist on bringing alcohol. I think its pennance for all the free liquor mooching they did up through law school. Realizing my friends are going to bring a bunch of beer, I now adjust the amount I get to be enough to get things started.

That is my philosophy too. I don't think a party is syonymous with byo stuff. That is why I don't host too many parties, unless I am co-hosting with many roommates and they do all the hostessy type work.

I would very much like to go to one of your parties though.

Bringing a perishable food item to someone else's party is absolutely insulting, unless you are asked to do so, in which case the party is pot-luck (i.e., appropriate for church suppers, but you can't really claim to have "hosted" the party or expect hospitality in return). If someone other than an immediate family member showed up on my doorstep holding so much as a bag of chips, I'd be mortified. Mortified!

However, your guests are not supposed to arrive empty-handed. They're supposed to bring a hostess gift. Often, this takes the form of a bottle of wine or liquor. Unfortunately, some have taken this tradition to mean that the host is supposed to pour that bottle during the course of the evening --- not so.

To avoid the whole "shall we open their nice bottle of red when halibut is on the menu?" discussion, the Grinch family's preferred hostess gift is a bouquet of flowers. It's both traditional and slightly out-of-the-ordinary (for California, at least). It smacks of thoughtfulness, which is what a gift is supposed to do. The trick is not to make any comments about where it should be placed --- you can't expect your hosts to change their centerpiece just because you blew $14 at Safeway's floral section.

Atticus and DS will break in on this one soon and side with you. To me it seems kind of like a formality thing -- the more informal the gathering, the more likely/acceptable it is for people to bring stuff. Generally if people are having a fairly formal dinner party, I don't bring anything (unless of course they need to borrow dishes or something ;)). If it's a somewhat last-minute get-together I will ask what I can bring but generally take what people say at face value.

Edited to say: See! There's Atticus just as predicted.