The kittens are enjoying the free tote bag

When I was a kid, my mom went to lots of Tupperware parties. And then she began hosting them. When I was in high school, Mom was such good friends with the local Tupperpeople, I went to my Junior Prom with the Tupperware Lady’s cute son. I don’t recall Michael being listed as a hostess gift. I think most everyone else got dishwasher-safe burping canisters.

As a rite of passage, I have yet to host a product party myself but I have certainly gone to a few. I’ve got some Mary Kay restorative eye cream and some PartyLite juniper candles that are all still in their boxes. I’ve managed to avoid Pampered Chef since, well, I try to stay out of the kitchen.

So it was with great curiosity a few weeks ago when a friend posted an invitation on Facebook to a “Windows 7 House Party.” I had no idea what that meant so I naturally cleared my calendar and posted on his page “count me in!”

Perhaps I’m the last to know, but this generation has an entirely new way to rope their friends into relinquishing an evening in an effort to get free stuff. There is actually a website where you can apply to host a party for a huge range of products. Right now, you can host a Betty Crocker Cookie Party, a Kodak Gallery Photo Fantastic Party, and even a Mattel Barbie AfterParty. After what, I don’t know. Perhaps a big night out with Ken.

Apparently everything is free with these House Parties. The sponsoring company provides you free party materials and lively hosting ideas and then you do a shtick in your living room in exchange for more free stuff for you and you alone. No dummy he, my friend Peter applied early to host a Microsoft Windows 7 House Party. For his troubles, he got a special Signature Edition of the new software in fancy black and gold packaging signed by some big hoo-ha at Microsoft that isn’t Bill Gates. The software is retailing for $120 so, yeah, Peter ain't no dummy.

Peter is also a self-described geek in his early 20s so he was wise to enlist the help of his wife and mom to put the “unique Party Pack” of Windows goodies to effective use. When Rob and I walked into Peter’s living room, we found it decorated with the provided streamers and balloons in the four Windows colors. Windows-branded napkins were set out among the truly inspired theme food provided by Mom and Wife. We had gumdrops in the same four Windows colors, cheese slices cut in the shape of 7s, a Chex Party Mix featuring crunchy whole grain squares that looked like the Windows logo, a 7-layer dip, a cake with a computer on it (copyright concerns at the bakery nixed hopes of having a Windows Cake), and homemade Window cookies incorporating melted translucent hard candies that Mr. Gates’ Marketing Department really should take a serious look at for future events.

The party -- lasting just long enough to get home in time to watch “The Office” -- was attended by 13 adults, two small children, two Chihuahuas, and a cat listening intently from underneath a bed (insert mousing joke here). After the first food break, four of the six attending women stayed in the kitchen and discussed holiday plans, no doubt figuring their son/husband/in-law now had his free software so they were free to go back to their regularly scheduled non-computer programming.

Using two large monitors, Peter took us on a tour of the new Windows 7 taskbar and showed us some improvements in the use of folders. He noted with some annoyance that the iTunes window now has square corners instead of the nice “pixely rounded corners” of XP (Peter is a professional graphics web designer so these things matter to him). He also demonstrated the Voice Recognition system that worked only slightly better than the one in our car. Although, I have to admit that the painfully slow pace of Peter’s voice commanded demonstration of Warcraft made the futuristic battley game almost watchable. One of the funniest albeit geeky comments I overheard was a suggestion to tell the computer “format c colon.” As this would basically erase the computer’s hard drive, it was a hysterical comment made very quietly.

So did it work? Did the Windows 7 House Party convince me to buy the new paraded-about operating system? Eh. Probably not. If I were still on XP I would probably consider it, but it doesn’t look different enough from Vista to make me want to upgrade, especially since all my peripherals are finally compatible. But I’m no longer afraid of having to buy a new computer and getting stuck with The Evil Operating System that is Vista. So, perhaps, the house party was a success after all. And the cake was delicious.

Oh, and the website is http://www.houseparty.com/. Sadly, I get nothing free for telling you that.