REGISTER YOUR INAUGURAL DRESS

Ladies, picture this: You search for weeks before finding the perfect gown for an inaugural ball. You're thrilled; it's exactly what you had imagined.

Then, on the night of the fete, you spot another woman wearing the same dress. Oh, the horror!

A new website, www.dressregistry.com, hopes to limit these social nightmares by allowing you to "register" the gown you're wearing to a specific inaugural ball. You can even upload a photo.

The genius behind it? A man.

Andrew Jones, 42, got the idea after his wife went from their home in West Palm Beach, Fla., to New York City to buy a gown for a charity ball in their hometown to avoid seeing the same dress at the event. "I said, 'I think there's a way technology can help us here,'" said Jones, an automotive industry consultant.

The dress duplication problem has long caused anxiety among women. Hollywood's A-list stars know their garb may end up on a magazine page -- with a side-by-side comparison to someone who wore it better. Jones cited First Lady Laura Bush's "Oh, no!" moment at the 2006 Kennedy Center Honors, when she was one of four women wearing the same red Oscar de la Renta gown. Bush quickly changed.

So far, inaugural partygoers have registered about 100 gowns for more than two dozen official and unofficial events.

EVENT TO HONOR THE TROOPS

President-elect Barack Obama will have a Commander -in-Chief's Ball during his inauguration with military personnel, their spouses and those wounded fighting in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as guests.

Officials said that tickets for the Jan. 20 military-only ball will be free to guests. The formal event will be at the National Building Museum in Washington.

"It is a privilege to honor our men and women in uniform during our inaugural festivities by continuing the tradition of the Commander-in-Chief's Ball. Our troops represent the best America has to offer, and without their dedication and sacrifice we would not be able to enjoy the freedoms that we are coming together to celebrate on January 20," Obama said.

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