I got a Father’s Day gift for your dad. But why am I buying stuff for your dad? It’s not what you think! We’re just good friends.
Actually, I’ve been meaning to make little surprises for you guys for years, but it’s kind of labor intensive, and expensive, and I suck at errands, and there’s a lot of reality TV between me and my grand ideas. You understand. I finally got my act together because Sandisk slotRadio offered to foot the bill for my theme-gifts project, as long as they got to pick the themes. Of course, they threw in some slotRadios too. Sweet.
They picked Father’s Day, so I made a Lazy Sunday Kit, which contains restful things. Would you like to know what’s in it? Yes:
The Aforementioned slotRadio
It’s like a walkman, but instead of CDs or tapes, you put in a little memory card that comes preloaded with music you didn’t have to download. This one comes with 1,000 Billboard songs, but you can buy other cards if you like. Also, there’s room for you to upload your own mixes if you want to hear something that’s not on the card.
A One-Year Subscription to The Week Magazine
I’ve told you about this epic magazine before on The Morning News. Here’s what I said:
The Week is a news digest for the impatient and globally curious. Say you had a genius friend who read three-dozen of the world’s best newspapers every day. Then say that friend agreed to write a summary for you featuring all the best stuff he found on every subject.
That’s The Week—excerpts from the top columns, news articles, business deals, real estate, gossip, and even TV listings. Best of all, it’s slim enough to fold in half and read during one good, long soak in the tub. You’ll emerge wrinkled, but utterly prepared for the most arduous cocktail party.
Warning! This will be shipped to whatever address the winner provides. So you’ll need to think really hard about how much your dad means to you.
Oxo No-Spill Travel Mug
A travel mug with an agreeable clicky button on the top that opens and closes the cup when you press it. You could practically throw the thing in a bag and it wouldn’t spill. Genius. Now dad can read his magazine anywhere he wants.
The Perfect Cube Silicone Ice Cube Trays
These make excellent, perfectly cubular ice cubes. I’m including these instead of a bottle of bourbon, because I technically have no idea who you are. You could be like sixteen, and Bam! You’re corrupted. Suddenly I’m a corruptor. Anyway, please use these perfect ice cubes in the tasty beverage of your choice — cocktail or otherwise. Kids, stay away from drugs.
Now, isn’t that a nice present? I think so too. I spent a lot of time agonizing at the mall today. Anyway, if you want it, or your dad does, here’s the deal. First you have to live in the continental U.S. or Canada. If you do, please leave a comment below about the ideal Father’s Day gift. Be sure to include your email address in the field provided (so I can reach you if you win) by June 12, 2009 at 12 a.m. EST. Just one comment, please. I have to delete duplicates for fairness. Random.org will decide who wins, and I’ll contact the lucky via email. I’ll also tell you who won here.
So, ready? Best Father’s Day Gift on record? Aaaand go!
Mighty Girl 
I was thinking of getting my Dad a gas card, he’s currently on a cross country road trip? Not sure if it’s perfect. Perfect would probably to see me “truly happy”.
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I love the concept of “The Week”. My dad has a hard time getting through all the magazines he subscribes to.
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My dad has two great loves: flashlights and travel coffee mugs. Do I understand it? No. He is a man of simple wants. I’d love to give him this mug and the rest!
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My dad loves any book you give him. Well, he’ll at least pretend to love any book you give him–that’s what makes him such a great dad!
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Right before my dad met my mom, he was dating this girl called Bernadette(!). She knit him a pair of argyle socks, which he apparently coveted, even after he soon met the real love of his life, got married and had nine kids with her. Apparently, my mom was none too happy that he’d held on to those darn socks. According to my dad, my mom one day shrunk them on purpose. According to my mom, she doesn’t recall anything of the sort.
I wish I had the time to knit my dad a pair of argyle socks to heal the wounds, tweak my mom a bit, and put the whole Bernadette thing to rest!
P.S. I named their GPS voice Bernadette since she’s kind of annoying and tells my dad where to go on a regular basis. My mom loves it.
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A tie. Boring, but true. My dad always appreciated a good tie.
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I often get my Dad cocktail fixings for Father’s Day, like drink mixers, glasses, trays that kind of thing, he says I’ve driven him to drink.
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What a perfect gift.
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I think my husband would love all of those gifts. My dad just wanted a wallet every year for Father’s Day. It’s been years since those days, but I think I’m going to surprise him with a new wallet this year. He’ll have just turned 70 and he needs a spot for the photos of all the grandkids!
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One year for father’s day, when I was six or seven, I picked all of the dandelions I could find and left them in the mailbox for my father to find. When he didn’t check the mail (it was Sunday, of course), I had to tip him that someone had mysteriously left a bouquet of flowers in the mailbox for him.
He told me some years later that he remembered this particular father’s day gift very well, because earlier in the day I’d carelessly shattered another pair of my glasses & he was on his way to punish me when I told him about the flowers.
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You rock Maggie! My husband would LOVE these gifts!
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My mister is a fan of biscuits and gravy. I think I’ll shoot for a homemade version in the morning and maybe the kids will gift him with a bottle of rum so we can have a utilize some of the mint in our yard for cocktail hour. I’ll dress the kids in pirate stripes and eye patches too and have them sing their pop a sea chantey.
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Me. I was the best father’s day gift ever…firstborn even!
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This is my husband’s first father’s day & unfortunately, he doesn’t get to spend it with us. So our ideal father’s day will be NEXT year when he’s home from Afghanistan. 🙂
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I think the slotRadio would be a GREAT Father’s Day gift for my husband (and father of 2 little ones!) as it might give him a clue that there is music out there besides The Grateful Dead and The Doors.
Please….save me…
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My dad is one of those classic dads who don’t seem to want much and also has very finicky tastes. I think the ideal gift for him would be transferring all his photo slides to digital so he doesn’t have to labor over it anymore. It’s quite a project, so perhaps I could find a teenager who needs an easy summer job.
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My father lost all of is tools in Hurricane Ike last year. So his perfect Father’s Day gift is a gift card to Sears so he can replenish his 50 year collection.
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I am fairly sure my husband would love a day of no responsibilities. Doing whatever he wants with no guilt attached or worry about what he “should” be doing. Unfortunately he works on Father’s Day… have to celebrate with a sleep in day during the week!
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My Papa is one of the most special people to me ever. I love when I drive his truck and I smell the faint scent of cigars — makes me feel like I’m being hugged.
Having said that – I always try to do something for him that makes sense. I ALWAYS make him a music CD – we communicate a lot through music and it’s invariable that I know modern stuff, whether it’s jazz, rock, whatever, that he’s not aware of because he’s 70 and he just listens to his library. So every year for every occasion, I expand his library, and he always loves it.
I also cook for him every winter – big batches of his favs like Scotch Broth soup that you can’t find in the USA anymore — only in Canada. I cook huge batches and freeze them so he has them all winter.
I also buy him super cool books – whether they are historical on a topic I know he’ll love or on woodworking, because the man is a carpentry genius, because I know he’s always looking for new ideas. I have to qualify this with the fact that he just makes up woodworking designs out of his head. I have a coffee table that he made me, plus a twin one for him, out of trees he felled on the property I grew up on. That’s my Papa. I love him so much it makes my heart hurt.
We also have a “family” truck that we share – he lives in Nevada and I live in California. He wants the truck to be with me except for when he wants it in the summer so I keep it at my place. My friend Russ and I do “truck swap” every year with him. Russ meets me there, actually, he spends the day and night with Pop before I get there because they’ve now become friends, and I drive the truck up the next day and Russ drives me back, via the scenic route. We have tons of fun. Then when my Dad wants to bring the truck back, he drives the 2.5 hours to my house in the truck, and I drive him back in my car. And during that time, he tells me many, many stories that I just LOVE hearing. He has a photographic memory and I’m always fascinated and riveted. He just wrote his memoir recounting everything he could think of from his life that’s important to pass on, which I’m about to edit, and I can’t wait.
I just love my Papa more than words can describe. I would jump in front of a bullet to save that man’s life because he’s amazing, and he needs to stay on this earth as long as possible to spread his goodness.
Kay — I realize I went off on a tangent, but my Papa is worth it. He rocks.
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my father just gave me his 6 month old car because mine didn’t pass inspection, and then helped me drive it across the country for 4 days (and then took a red eye home that night so he could be at work the next morning).
the best father’s present he’d like to have (other than a son-in-law + grandchildren) is probably a day at home free of paperwork and a good movie to watch.
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My father is always happy just getting a phone call from his kids. But the ultimate father’s day gift for my baseball loving father would be a weekend trip to catch some ball games at a stadium he had never been to before. Maybe we’ll come to SF – then we could hit up the Giants and the A’s in one glorious weekend.
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I love to pick out books by my dad’s favorite authors or get him tickets to movies he’s been looking forward to, but I think one of the best presents I’ve gotten him is an Ebay gift certificate. He is a complete Ebay junkie, one of those who loves the thrill of bidding, checking back, etc. and my mom teases him about all the random packages that show up at the house.
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any book about the civil war. and shaving soap.
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I went to visit Dad and bought him the ice cream maker he’s been wanting for ages. Then I used it to make him mango lime sorbet– it was a success.
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My dad’s ideal father’s day present: a fishing trip to the lake where he would proceed to catch the largest bass on record, followed by 18 holes of golf in the company of Tiger Woods (dad would beat him by a stroke, natch) and then the day would be capped off by a backyard bbq with all six of his girls (one mom, three daughters and two granddaughters) giving him a hard time for burning the hot dog buns. (Only one of these things will actually happen on the 21st.)
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Perfect Father’s Day gift. Hmmm… That’s a tricky one. My dad is somewhat difficult to buy for, although I do think I hit the nail on the head when I got him an iPod Shuffle last year. He loves his bluegrass and something small to play it on!
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My dad is ridiculous to buy for mainly because he craves technology, but the moment he gets confused with a new device he decides that this particular form of awesome technology is not for him. I’ve been teaming up with my boyfriends mom to make him cards and cookies lately. He likes.
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I’m struggling with what to get my dad. I’m guessing my husband would enjoy a chicken dinner.
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This year, I have been trying to get my son to say Papaw. He is 17 months old, but his vocab is very limited – probably because he is surrounded by 2-3 languages all the time. I just know that if I can get him to say Papaw on Skype to my Dad on father’s day that it would be the best present ever!
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Tools. My husband would like tools… and of course… time to use them.
And breakfast in bed…
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My dad has been working on building his own house for the past 15 years. A hammock so that he can enjoy all his hard work would be amazing!
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My dad is totally simple, but in a good way. Is there a hot sauce of the month club? He and his scrambled eggs would really enjoy that.
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We’re talking *ideal*, right? I would love to get my father a trip to India, complete with visiting my mother’s old stomping ground — the foothills of the Himalayas — and good hiking trek. Of course, the slotRadio would be nice, too.
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My dad is in his 70s, loves to walk but with recent health problems has had trouble maintaining his balance. For Father’s Day I am giving him a hiking pole hoping that he’ll actually use it.
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My dad died a year ago and my husband’s father died 30 years ago, and somehow both our memories are equally dim about what they would enjoy as a gift. Depression-era men who used to wear hats all the time were hard to figure out.
That said, perfectly cubed ice sounds fabulous.
Thank you.
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i don’t think my dad minds that his father’s day gifts usually consist of cheap-o stuff like hugs and cupcakes, but if money were no object, i’d take my dad on a surprise trip somewhere. we’ve always talked about a cross-country driving trip – i think that would be the ideal gift for my dad!
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This would be great for my dad – I am teaching in Russia right now and he is working in Iraq, but he will get the chance to visit me over Father’s day. I am not sure he wants more than that, but this would be a great surprise when he got home! (and probably more enjoyable than the circus, which is how I will treat him for a Russian Father’s day).
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Actually, for the husband, The Week would be the perfect father’s day gift – our subscription ran out, and you would think he was cut off from all current events… pitiful. For my dad, if we could arrange for perfect going to the lake weather, he’d be happy.
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Hanging out with my daddo and doing a project would be the best Father’s day I could think of. If you’d ask him, he’d probably say golfing. It’s a cliche for a reson, people!
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My husbands idea of a perfect gift is probably something that can’t be done around his child. lol
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Ideal gift for my dad would be the 1920’s 20″ sterling silver lighthouse cocktail shaker. I managed to find a 14″ one on ebay last year and he loves it, but if I could get my hands on one of those rare big ones for him it’d knock his socks off. And make a serious dent in my son’s tuition fund…
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I think my best Father’s Day gift is going to be this year – we are giving him a puppy. He’s an animal lover and lost his dog of 17-years earlier this year. A new puppy will be a great companion for him.
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All that stuff is nice, but dang, perfectly cubular cubes? Awesome.
Ideal gift? This year, it’s a photobook for my husband. We have kazillions of digital photos, but who wants to sit in front of the computer to look at them? Having a book will be really nice for him. My dad? All he ever really wants is a card.
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My dad is in Iraq, so this year we’re Skyping on Father’s Day and taking him on a ziplining tour when he gets home in July. I was hoping I could say, “Happy Father’s Day… you’re going to be a grandpa for the first time!” but alas, my ladyparts didn’t cooperate this month.
I’ll probably enjoy ziplining more than the first months of pregnancy, though there’s a good chance that both will make me vomit in nearby foliage.
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My dad’s ideal gift would be an authenticated autographed picture of the goalie of the 1984 USA Olympic Hockey Team. Or free landscaping for a year. Or a Realtor to sell the damn house already.
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My husband asked for a weed picker, but I think he would like this better!
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Last year I got my dad a tiny UConn t-shirt (where I went to school) as a clue that I was pregnant with his 5th grandchild. When he unwrapped the gift, he got it right away and couldn’t have been more excited. I should have gotten two t-shirts though, cause we ended up having twins!
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Best Fathers Day gift is going skydiving for the first time. Gave it to my husband a couple years ago – went and waited and never got to go because of wind, we’re going again this year and WILL jump. so excited.
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The best one was a book of pictures of my son and husband with captions: “My daddy dresses me.” “My daddy plays games with me. . . . ” and then ends with “I love my daddy” Someday when my son is a little older he can read it to his dad, too.
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The best gift for my dad would be if I could find a way to make him stop worrying and be happy.
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