If my dad were still around, here’s what I’d try to pick up for him for Sunday: a gas-powered party blender. This in spite of the fact that he was a Budweiser guy. Face it, this gadget is cool! He’d have found a use for it!

Picture this. It’s Father’s Day. Hot afternoon out on the deck. Your dad grabs the ingredients for the Hussong’s Cantina margarita recipe: tequila, Mexican Controy or Cointreau, fresh-squeezed lime juice and ice. He dumps in equal amounts of tequila, Controy and lime juice, tops up the container with ice, and cranks the engine. Hold onto those handlebars to rev up the action. Then pour into frosty, salted glasses and pass around. He’ll be the most popular guy on the block — invited to untold numbers of outdoor BBQs!

The most powerful edition has a 4-stroke engine. But if your dad is new to drinking, you might want a 2-stroke starter edition.

And gas prices be damned! The guy gets recognition only one day a year!

The kitten has gotten into our closet again. Normally, that might be an innocuous statement that means he’s playing hide-and-peek with an older cat. Not in our household. In our household that probably means he’s tracing patterns with his claws on the clothes he can reach from the floor. And I’m not talking about my blue jeans. I stuff those in a drawer.

I’m talking about my Significant Other’s new suits — the ones she has been purchasing at untold expense over the last three months in an effort to prepare for her first office job in 10 years, which begins next month. (It’s hardly ever a good omen for the family budget when your spouse knows her favorite department store saleswomen by first name.)

No matter how creative they might be, patterns drawn in new suits with kitty claws could spell out a bad ending. Our kitten could end up having to wear infant mittens duct-taped to her paws.

Or my sweetheart could simply do a bit of springtime organization and get some garment bags for her good clothes. In fact, here’s a window closet that would allow her to put those clothes that are out of season into a different room altogether — say, upstairs in the guest room. Until the kitten learns how to work a zipper, SO’s garments would be safe!