Went to one of the final ballgames of the summer the other night. Thanks to my spouse’s generous boss, we were treated to free parking, great seats and all the tri-tip, potato salad and peanuts we could consume. Life was good. But as we were entering the stadium, I noticed a few tailgating parties going on. With football season upon us, the parties will only expand.

That’s why I love this idea: trailer hitch hanging chairs.

What better way to take advantage of the amazing strength of your trailer hitch than to run a sturdy metal pipe up from it to suspend a couple of hammock chairs?

The stand itself weighs about 45 pounds and can hold up to 350 pounds. So even your beefy brother-in-law can try it out, as long as he leaves the beer keg on the camp table and doesn’t insist on his goofy best friend trying it out at the same time.

The chair itself includes a footrest, armrests and a carrying case. When tailgating time is over, you can haul this along for camping. Or, you can just hang the chair itself by the pool, from your office ceiling, or in your dorm room — any place you have a brawny beam and a sturdy chain.

Apparently, there’s been a wave of buying activity for hands-free headsets in California to ensure that we can continue talking while driving but without facing the wrath of the California Highway Patrol.

Recently, I wrote about the Aliph Jawbone, but I realized that not everybody has a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone. An article in the Sacramento Bee listed a favorite, inexpensive headset for people who need it to be wired, as recommended by Elliot Darvick, the editor of MyRide.com. He likes the Jabra C250.

This one sells for under $15 from a number of vendors and sits behind the ear. It includes a microphone boom to optimize voice pick-up.

Reviewer bluepigs26 from CA reports that the headset is designed in such a way that it “doesn’t fall out easily at all, which is a problem I had with some other hands-free headsets.” That said, after a couple of hours, bluepigs’ ear begin to feel a bit uncomfortable.

A slew of reviewers love the sound quality, both for listening and speaking. kkelli2u does report having a bit of a problem with the cord hanging up on doorknobs and drawer pulls, but that’s because kk is using it primarily in an office environment. (That said, watch that stick shift when you get out of your car!) Also, kihiu says that there’s no mute or volume control on the unit, but considers this  a “great headset for a reasonable price.” Several people report buying replacements for it when it wore out and was lost, because they loved it so much.

So there you have it. A great, cheap headset that won’t put you on the side of the road when your kid calls from the nurse’s office or your spouse needs you to pick up a carton of something on the way home from work. 

Summer has officially arrived, and so has the big debate: Should we or shouldn’t we get a portable DVD player for those extended car trips we’ll be making this summer? Our son, the five-year-old, knows nothing of these discussions; if he did, the decision would already be made. Instead of choosing books and trucks from his ample collection for the trip, he’d be selecting from among his DVD compilation.

And here’s the model we’d probably get: The Sony DVP-FX820. This eight-inch portable player comes in black, blue, white, red and pink. (Our son would opt for the blue; my spouse would choose pink; and I rather tend toward red.)

But it’s not the color choices that would drive the decision; it’s the fact that it’ll play for six hours non-stop, and he can use headphones to hear the sound. That’s six hours of relatively blissful quiet from the backseat, leaving his mother and me up front to discuss such compelling topics as whether to stop at the Dairy Queen in Fernley or try to make it all the way to Fallon.

When he gets sick of hearing the theme song from GeoKids, we can play our audio CDs on the Sony player.

The screen rotates to make for comfortable viewing from a booster seat and includes two jacks for headphones so a cousin can sidle up next to him and tune in when we arrive at our destination.

Plus, the player offers some video features my son doesn’t get on our player at home: motion zoom, repeat mode, slow-motion and title/chapter search. That makes this an educational device! Once he and I have convinced our other household member that a big screen is really a necessity, he’ll be able to show me how to work the controls.

Summer’s here, and the living is easy. In fact, it’s downright besotted, what with baseball games, neighborhood potlucks, riverside picnics and work-time happy hours come a Friday evening. But how do you know if you’ve quaffed too much alcohol to get behind the steering wheel? Face it, somebody who’s had a few isn’t the best judge of whether or not he or she is sober enough to drive.

That’s why a little gadget like the AlcoHawk Elite Digital Alcohol Detector might be a smart gift for the designated non-drinker in your life. This is a device that person can make you breath into to find out your blood alcohol concentration, thereby preventing arguments.

There’s one button on the unit, which presumably makes it easy to use. And it comes with a carrying pouch and five mouthpieces. So, here’s a clue: If the person to be tested can’t see the single button, it’s probably best not to waste a mouthpiece. Just hide the car keys before you begin.

According to the vendor, Q3 Innovations, the Elite has an electronic airflow sensor to ensure the user continues to blow through the unit. This is a “vital new function,” says the company, “because only samples of air from the deep lung are proportionate to blood alcohol content. This new innovative sensor ensures the user exhales through the mouthpiece over the 4-5 second exhale.” No quick breathing to get a favorable reading.

The detector also includes a temperature sensor that displays the temperature at the time of testing. If it’s too hot or cold, apparently, the readings may not be accurate.

How does it work? You put in a new mouthpiece, prime the sensor by having the subject blow into it for a few seconds, then turn the unit on. A beep will sound and the temperature will display. Then a countdown occurs and another beep sounds. RDY will show up in the little display. From there, the user takes a deep breath and blows steadily into the unit until another beep sounds to signal that the test is over.

If the number showing is greater than .02, the vendor advises against driving. This is, of course, way below the .08 that most states consider you intoxicated. But as the saying goes, never drink and drive.