Break out the tent! Saturday, June 27, welcomes the Great American Backyard Campout. This National Wildlife Federation-sponsored event invites people throughout the country to pitch a tent (or even just a couple of sleeping bags) in the yard and get into the spirit of songs, s’mores and star watching. Incidentally, the website is chock-full of both tip sheets and Flickr-hosted discussion areas on everything from games to play to recipes to camping with little ones.

With camping comes critters
, and in Dallas that means mosquitoes or, as we call them around here, vampire bugs. It’s probably inevitable that you’re going to come away with a bite or two, no matter how much repellant you slather on. Which is why this New York Times article on post-bite remedies — five new products plus one 30-year-old homeopathic remedy — will be helpful. It separates the products that take flight from those that have no bite. Ahem.

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On the other end of the spectrum — from camping that is — are these: techzug.com’s list of the top 10 high-tech luxury beds. There’s a magnetic floating bed, and three with flat-screen TVs that retract into the headboards. Another folds into a “fire-resistant, coffin-like box” to keep you safe from “various hostile environments.” Well, we were getting sleepy thinking about all those cool beds. Now we’re just scared.

Grab your corkscrew for good health. Or so says this ABC News report on a new study from Texas doctors who say certain varietals of wine — port and shiraz — contain a chemical that helps prevent the introduction of colon and breast cancer cells. Good news for us Texans … apparently, in 2007 we bellied up for more than 13 million cases of wine. Still, says the doctor interviewed for the story: “This is not an invitation to drink yourself under the table every night.” Buzzkill.