I know I would not mind if I were the dad in your situation to be taken to the store and told to pick out the trimmer I wanted. I would ask how much is set aside and go from there. If that is not possible than a certificate saying pick a trimmer of your choice and let's buy it today. Some possibilities to avoid the dreaded "that is not the one I wanted" scenario" :). All good questions above. Price will determine alot. I think the best all around trimmer/brushcutters are in the $3-400 range with $400 being high. You can get a really nice trimmer in the $200 range though. It is really a question of what exactly is needed and how much you want to spend. Your dad may have a preference for makers. I personally like the Stihl and Echo for ease of availability. The Kawasaki's I know nothing about and I stay away from currentl Homelite products although the older Homelite equipment was really good from what I have read. How old or how to spot them I don't know. I prefer straight shaft and a good harness. Cutting heads can be a personal preference. I like the bump and go, some like the quick insert and some like the fixed plastic blades. At the 3-400 price level, I am not concerned about the 2 vs 4-mix debate. The 4-mix's are young but have good reviews so far. Your dad could probably do okay with a good consumer grade trimmer with a flexible shaft. A solid shaft will be more expensive but will better handle brushcutting. I don't have much need for attachments but they make the units more expensive. I did the "cost analysis" of those models and it seemed that they did not pay for themselves until you bought 3 useful attachments. I could see the mini-tiller but an edger was really not necessary for me. A pole saw, maybe. Just little things that I could not really get alot of use from. All really good questions. Alot of the answers will be personal preference. Best of luck with getting your dad to smile on his bday.

There were 8 adults and 3 kids here for a bbq. I made homemade pizza, shrimp and crab on crackers, a cheese platter and grilled brats, kielbassa, etc. cut up. Then we had baby back ribs, homemade cole slaw and potato salad, spinach salad with grilled chicken, baked beans, hamb and hot dogs. Homemade strawberry shortcake and banana cake with whipped cream. I am exhausted! DS son and family arrived Fri night, I didn't think they were coming till Sun morn. So needless to say it was very active here. I didn't get a chance to fuss with the table, we ate outside and it was very warm here today. I used a blue and yellow floral table cloth, stems with blue and yellow, blue naps, a yellow watering can with fresh daisies, and 2 yellowish shell candles. The kids went donwn to the bay for a while. Tomorrow everything will have to get cleaned again, and all the towels and linens to wash! But, it was nice...tiring but nice.

well we all made it through another special day. matthew stayed over on sat. night and on sunday he and i went to the cemetary. matthew's girlfriends mom made a beautiful artifical arrangement to go on top of the stone (rule of the cemerary real flowers after may 20), he and i planted 4 red geraniums (one for me, one for him, one for our dd, and one for gracie joy divine), 2 white allisiums plants, 4 kind of orange daisies and purple pansies. we also put up a blue and white sphere on a stand (kindof like a gazing ball, blue and white for the yankees baseball and the toronto maple leafs hockey team, Al was a sports nut!) i think he would have really liked it, also we put 4 different glass birds, bluejays and robins, one for each of us on the base, however i had to glue this down this morning and i brought gracie joy divine with me, she usually stays in her basket but today of all days she decided it would be fun for me to run around the grounds (thankfully Al is in the new part and there is alot of just grass, i would have felt terrible if the plots were there, but again i could feel Al laaughing at us). matthew spent alot of time crying again and was so quiet till we took him back home (none of our kids drive). Susan, we did have a scholarship in his name, and we also sponsored a hockey team and a baseball team (Al was really children orientated and was a certified coach, where no matter how you played you got equally time to play, it doesn't go well with alot of parents. and our son gives sporting equipment to the younger age sport players at cost or free. our daughter volunteers her time helping children to read better, and also helps at parks and recreation. i also volunteer my time at one of hockey associations that matthew played for when he was younger and he hasn't played there for 14 years! we also work bingos which help keep costs down for childrens sports. Al taught us all this, he has always been one to volunteer and never want or expect payment. i do hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday. tomorrow will be another day and we'll see what that will bring. it's so foggy here it looks like a snow storm! debbie

We got together with some of my brothers and sisters and our families and spent about 2 hours at the zoo in Bismarck. We used to that quite a bit with our dad on Father's day. There were about 25 of us. Then we went to Texas Road House at 4:00. It was very crowded. My DH and I ordered a combo special. He ordered a steak and I had prime rib. We also got a huge onion blossom for an appetizer, each had a salad, I had broccoli and he had a baked potato. Then we also had a half rack of bbq ribs on the side. Well because we had to wait so long we had eaten peanuts and then the onion blossom and the rolls, we brought all of the meat home after we had each eaten one bite. We still had to drive 3 hours and we didn't want to be uncomfortable coming home. So we have 3 meals left. I could have ordered shrimp instead of the ribs but I thought the ribs would be easier to warm up. It was all very good.