The last thing I pack before a trip is my makeup bag. I'm always running behind, so I inevitably throw things in a bag in a panic and forget something I need, and take at least three things I don't. I have a couple of trips planned, but there are always road trips and weekends away that come up last minute, so it's good to have a bag on reserve ready to grab at a moment's notice, or at least have the travel-friendly products hashed out so I know what to take in a rush.

They say only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun, but even mad (or sad, or glad) dogs should probably stay inside when the temperature climbs too high. Heat exhaustion and heat stroke can wreak utter havoc on your canine friend, but there are a few things you can do to keep your dog cool and safe this summer.

Summertime is, to me, synonymous with spicy peanut noodles, which I've been making every summer since I was allowed to cook pasta by myself. I love them so much that they almost make suffering through vicious, swampy heat and humidity feel worthwhile. Almost.

Mashable, a tech site, says you should buy a kiddie pool. Not for your kids, for yourself. As they point out, if you have a roof or backyard, fifteen bucks, and a garden hose or a big bucket, then baby, you've got a pool going.

(They claim you can also put a kiddie pool on your fire escape. I cannot endorse that particular variation.)

There are a lot of intense dangers in nature, but perhaps the scariest of all is a hot, silent killer. According to the CDC, high temperatures kill more people in the U.S. than hurricanes, lightning, tornadoes, earthquakes, and floods combined.

Here's how to survive a heat wave when you're going to be outside all day.

It's that magical time of year again, temperatures are once again climbing to levels most accurately described as "dangerous" and "oppressive". What a time to be alive.

Look, it's just hard to get work done in the summer. It's bright and sunny on the other side of that window, you've always got a friend or two posting beach pics on Instagram, and unless the A/C is blowing right on you, all you can think about is where your next ice-cold beverage is coming from.

It's hard to get a good night's rest when it's too hot to sleep - and since we've already know this summer will be hotter than the last, it's time to figure out our nighttime cool-down strategies.

One of summer's greatest pleasures is sipping an icy, refreshing beverage in the sunshine -- or the nearest patch of shade. Summery cocktails and punches aplenty are finally ready for their seasonal debut, and just about all of them could do with a bit of salt.

When you cook food at home, you know you have two hours — arguably four if you really want to push it — to get your food out of the room-temperature air and into your belly. Any longer, and that plate of chicken salad is a bacterial brouhaha. But if you're picnicking in 30C+ weather, food goes bad faster — a lot faster.

Sure, ice cold cocktails and frozen drinks can be great when the weather's hot, but what your summer really needs is an alcoholic frozen ice blocks.

Well, parents, it's almost the end of another school year. Here's a fun thing to do before your kids get home on their final day: Have a "finish line" at your doorway for them to run through. This could be in the form of streamers and balloons, a "Welcome to Summer" banner, or an army of family members with squirt guns.

Bonfires are pretty much a summer and beach trip tradition. You might think they're easy to throw together in a few minutes, but making a bit more effort will turn a mediocre bonfire gathering into one that you and your friends will fondly remember.

I don't know about you, dear reader, but I am still recovering from eating roughly five racks of ribs covered in delicious blueberry barbecue sauce after last week. But you can't just spend your summer eating meat, so this week I'm turning my focus to one of summer's most prominent vegetables: the ubiquitous, deliciously sweet ear of corn.

I disliked many things about living in Florida, but my main complaint was that I could never quite cool down. For three-quarters of the year, going outside rendered me absolutely useless (because I'm a pale and pasty nerd), and taking a "cooling" shower didn't help that much, simply because the water never got cold enough.

Eventually, I figured out a system for bypassing water temperature entirely.

Summer is truly the worst. I loathe sweating and chafing, and I find wearing sunscreen only slightly more bearable than wearing hats. Of course, I love wearing makeup - but my oily skin makes its own makeup remover all day long, and it works overtime in hot weather.

I'm so diligent about my sunscreen these days that my skin now, in November, is still the same light beige colour that it was all winter. But if you yearn for that sun-kissed glow, you're probably wondering what is the best way to get a tan - and whether any method is truly safe.

There's still one month till summer, and if you've been listening to your more sun-sensitive friends at the beach, or had to go out to buy aloe on one too many occasions, it might have occurred to you to invest in a beach umbrella.

Follow your intuition on this; a beach umbrella is a great investment in your skin's future. But you may have also noticed that at least once a weekend there's someone running down the beach, chasing an open umbrella that has caught a strong breeze and is suddenly on the lam.

Whether you just don't have air conditioning or want to save money on energy, there are lots of ways to keep cool as the mercury rises. Here are some good ones.