parties

There never seems to be enough ice. Whether it is a party atmosphere, and somebody has to go on an ice run, or if it is simple everyday use that continually depletes the ice trays, ice is a commodity worth more than its weight in gold water. The perfect solution for cooling down drinks on a hot day, ice is always in demand. Either on the rocks or in the rocks, the transient nature of ice makes it a party favor that is difficult to keep in stock. Luckily, there is a back up plan for easily making more.

Placating … Read more

Hosting a gathering is never easy. There's the menu to be considered, eating preferences to be anticipated, and last but certainly not least, the drink selection to be determined. After all the preparation is over and it's time to greet the guests, it's not uncommon for hosts to run through a mental checklist: hors d'oeuvres? Check. Music? Check. Appropriate lighting? Check. Cold drinks? Che--uh-oh.

Faced with the unpleasant proposition of facing off with a thirsty crowd, party hosts in need of rapidly chilled beverages have little recourse. They can toss drinks in the freezer for a … Read more

Everybody appreciates a home-cooked meal. Oddly enough, often that home-cooked meal is had away from home. At parties, the standout on the spread is always, without exception, the homemade food. People gather around the food, tasting it, asking questions about what's in it, or simply saying how delicious it is--hopefully. Naturally, some food will travel better than others, but no matter if you are making chili or dip, you are going to need a way to get it to the party.

Doubling as a serving dish and a cooker, Proctor Silex's Citrus Colors 1.5 Quart Slow Cookers … Read more

Hosting a party is never easy, and anyone who has ever done so would agree that the details can certainly pile up. One minor detail that has the potential to blow up into a major catastrophe if left unchecked is a seemingly simple one. Food of course, is something to consider but perhaps even more important are the drinks. However, no matter what type of wine or how many bottles are procured, they aren't going to do anybody any good if there isn't an opener hanging around.

The Metrokane Rabbit Electric Corkscrew makes it easy to uncork a … Read more

There's nothing that quite compares to the experience of sharing a meal. Perhaps it is some ancient human characteristic of safety in numbers that is triggered by communal eating. Or, maybe it's that we simply get hungry around the same time of the day. Whether it's due to our caveman ancestry or to our modern idiosyncrasies, we as humans like to eat together. Also, it's a great excuse for a party.

A variety of foods can be cooked at one time with the Eware 3K076 Electric Indoor Raclette Barbeque Grill with Fondue Pot, opening up the … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Disco lights. Bubble machines. Big-name DJs. Ashton Kutcher.

Those are just a smattering of the things you would have seen on Monday night in downtown Austin, Texas, where two of the most talked-about parties of the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSWi) were happening simultaneously. These would be, of course, the respective parties thrown by Foursquare and Gowalla, two start-ups offering very similar "geolocation" services. And at SXSWi, where everyone wants to know where everyone else is in instant real-time, this kind of social-networking app is going to be big.

Most people expected that SXSWi would see … Read more

"We're going to be giving away, literally, hundreds of tacos," Josh Williams, founder of mobile networking start-up Gowalla, said to CNET in an interview last week about his company's plans for the annual South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSWi), which runs March 12-16 in Austin, Texas.

"We're bringing, like, playground-style balls and chalk," said Dennis Crowley, the co-founder of Gowalla rival Foursquare. "You'll be able to win prizes at ad-hoc foursquare games that you see around the convention center."

Eighteen months ago, neither Gowalla nor Foursquare existed. But their similar &… Read more

Molly, Jason, and I are headed to Austin, Texas, for South by Southwest festival again this year and, of course, we wouldn't miss the chance to have another meetup. This year, the folks at Squarespace were nice enough to offer to set it all up for us.

Meet us at Malverde at 5 p.m. Central Time for drinks, food, pictures, BOL stickers, and more. You can get all the details like directions and things at the official Eventbrite meeting invite.

SAN FRANCISCO--The "gospel according to Goldberg." Turns out it can't be found in a local synagogue, Jewish deli, or Rube Goldberg device, though a couple of us puzzling through treasure hunt clues Saturday night were stubbornly stuck on those ideas.

If you're thinking more along the lines of churches and singing nuns, we want you on our team next year.

The Goldberg gospel was just one hint in the Tech Search Party, a semi-geeky scavenger hunt set in San Francisco's Noe Valley and organized to benefit the neighborhood's Alvarado Elementary School, which needs a technology boost. One-third of the classrooms there don't have working computers; many that do work are held together with duct tape, according to Tim Smith, the event's creator.

About 250 people descended on the normally quiet little Noe with flashlights (or flashlight apps) to solve as many clues as possible in two hours and score prizes like Geeknet gift certificates, Electronic Arts games, a date with Kara Swisher of AllThingsD (PR teams only), and, of course, bragging rights.

Smartphones were essential to the endeavor, as Web searches were needed to decipher clues like "cost $45,499 in year of Beverly Cleary's birth" (answer: the San Francisco Library in Noe, which was built in 1916), or 1:3.226 (answer: the grade of the steepest street in San Francisco: 22nd between Church Street and Vicksburg).

My team, the "Noe-it-Alls" (a runner-up for best team name, I might brag), joined 50 other teams with names like "Several Sassy Sleuths," "Is Our Children Learning?" and "Indominable Immersion Mamas" (Alvarado offers language immersion programs).

On hand were family and friends of Alvarado students; random geeks who learned of the event via Twitter or were recruited from lines for the Google and Apple commuter buses that swing through Noe Valley to take employees to work; candidates for San Francisco supervisor; and even Tyler Hinman, winner of the 2009 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. The "Scribble Monkeys" team included CNET's Rafe Needleman of Webware fame and former CNET.com Editor in Chief Steve Fox.

My team consisted of Tom and Rayna, parents of Alvarado students and owners of a Palm Treo and Motorola Q, respectively; Jonathan, who brought along his semi-functional Motorola Razr from 1913; and me, with my little ol' Samsung Alias 2. Needless to say, Rayna and Tom did the Web searching. … Read more