How to…

Stop a brain freeze
Master the grass
Fight mosquitoes
Look hot, not a hot mess
Hide your sweat
Keep sand off your drink
Perfect your cannonball
Entertain kids when it rains
Send the kids to your parents
Lower your electric bill
Love your skin

Do you have a great summer tip? Share it with us in the comments section below.

“Sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia!” Try shouting that at a pool party, and they’ll either say, “Why, you’ve won the Pulitzer Prize!” or you’ll be shown the door. Either way, slowing down on that ice cream, margarita or snoball is the best cure for the piercing headache known colloquially as “brain freeze.” Stopping the nosh long enough to say sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia—or, better yet, placing your tongue against the soft palate roof of your mouth for that amount of time—will end it.

What’s the cause?

When a cold drink touches the roof of your mouth, your nerves react by telling the blood vessels in your noggin to open up, swell and just prevent hypothermia already. This kicks the pain receptors in your forehead into full gear. It’s called referred pain. And there’s nothing about it worth recommending.

Now that you know how to prevent it, you’ll be chuckling, “Sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia, huh?” while all the hotties think you must be pre-med or even MENSA. Go with it. 225 says it’s okay.

Ease up on your fertilizer and weed killer a month before temperatures spike—so now, basically. Water the lawn for longer periods rather than a little each day. Think two hours of irrigation every week, early in the morning or at night. If you have to bag up the cuttings, get off the couch; you’re waiting too long. Don’t forget to raise the height of your mower blade as the mercury rises to keep your grass green.

As with your kids, your spouse and your boss, when dealing with mosquitoes, you have to pick your battles. This is southern Louisiana. There’s no getting rid of them completely. Zappers are inefficient—though entertaining when mixed with beer; DEET repellents smell like chemicals—because they are—and can damage skin. But if you’re having an outdoor party and actually like your guests, remove all standing water from the yard and use a fogger (a popular Burgess 40-ounce model runs about $60) an hour beforehand. Here’s the hitch: To be most effective, surrounding yards should be fogged, too. Yep, you’ll have to start talking to your neighbors.

When she’s not working at Sephora or on a 225 fashion shoot, Christina Landry gives excellent makeup advice. Here are three of her cosmetic tips for summer:

• Choose lighter-textured skincare creams like BB cream or CC cream, tinted lip balms and cheek stains.

• Keep your makeup setting spray in the fridge, and when outdoors, throw it in the ice chest next to the drinks to keep it cold for a longer hold.

• Use a cream eye shadow base with shadow set on top. Also, set your eyeliner with eye shadow and an angle brush for a smudge-proof wear.

• Use humidity-resistant and anti-frizz products in everything from your shampoo to your hairspray.

• Always wear a moisturizer that is right for your skin type. It helps to balance your skin and oil production in our Louisiana weather.

• To protect your skin from aging, wear lip products and lip conditioners with SPF, and wear sunglasses.

• Use a deep conditioner weekly and throughout the day when swimming to coat and protect your hair.

• Use a UV Protector on your hair to protect your color and the integrity of your hair from chlorine and salt water.

• Use Blotting Sheets throughout the day instead of powder to avoid a cakey look. They are cheap and easy, just press and go.

• Less is best! You can always add makeup, but it is harder to erase.

Even in the summer, a lot of guys are expected to be in shirts, ties and pants for work. And getting from the parking lot to the office in Louisiana’s summer heat is enough to change the armpits of that button-up shirt from light blue to navy. How to deal? First, push those paper-thin silky cotton shirts to the back of the closet. Go for a breathable fabric like a linen blend. Second, loud solid colors and even some pale shades will only attract more attention to where sweat’s hanging out, so go with white, black or a really dark blue. Plaid and gingham can camouflage sweat as well; just make sure the pattern isn’t too drab for summer. Third, wear a sturdy pant that isn’t going to cling to your legs. Fourth, go sockless for a change, if only to trick yourself into feeling less restricted. And if all that fails, cover up with a lightweight blazer or unlined suit jacket—think khaki or a linen blend. Full-on linen or seersucker suits are a no, unless you are at the Kentucky Derby.

So, you’re lounging in a beach chair, reach for the drink nestled below, and caked bits of wet sand fall onto your bathing suit. To solve this problem, LSU alum Laura Gilder brought this drink holder (pictured) on a recent Florida vacation, and they were a hit. She used pineapple cans decorated in colorful duct tape, drilled a hole in the bottom and inserted threaded rods found at a hardware store. Washers and bolts are essential for holding the rods and cans in place. And to make sure your drink rests easily inside—the rods will protrude into the cans—Gilder suggests a circular piece of cardboard or crumpled aluminum foil. Online how-to versions call for mixing resin and pouring it into the can to create a level bottom. But that involves chemistry, and summertime chemistry shouldn’t advance past mixing cocktails.

How can we put this in a politically correct way? Density and mass contribute, um, heavily, to your success. The larger you are, the more water you are going to displace, no matter what you do. It’s science. Regardless, you want to assume as tight of a ball position as possible. Now, we take cannonballs seriously, so we consulted LSU Diving coach Doug Shaffer. He tells us that flexibility is key. Any stretching you can get away with in public beforehand will help. You need to be able to get your knees to your chest, grab your legs at the shins and pull your heels into your buttocks. If done right, this works better than a belly-flop for maximum splash.

Put away those video screens and try these five ideas:

• Go on a plastic or stuffed animal safari, complete with journals and cameras.

• Create a science lab in the kitchen. Place 1/4″ Mt Dew in bottle, add tiny bit of baking soda and 3 capfuls of hydrogen peroxide. Shake, and it glows. Fill a plastic Zip-loc baggie with water. Press sharpened pencils all the way through to the other side of the bag. The water does not leak. Baking soda plus vinegar equals volcano anywhere you put it. Bonus: It cleans the sink.

• Make cloud dough. Eight parts flour plus one part baby oil. The texture is addictive.

• Put cool water in the bathtub and create a “river.” Add glow sticks and turn off the lights for maximum impact.

• Make spider webs out of sticks and woven yarn. Add plastic spider. Read Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White.

Forget email or text. You’ll have better success doing this by phone—preferably when the little ones aren’t screaming in the background, so walk outside or down the block to call. Tell your mom how much “the grands” miss her and that they drew pictures of her she just has to see. Slip in a reference to how well they’re “napping” these days. If it’s easier, motion in air-quotes that she’ll never see. And, of course, offer to pick them up bright and early on the last day of their stay. Promise fancy coffee and scones, too. Not muffins. Scones.

If you invest a little now, you’ll save a lot later with these two anti-heat weapons: aluminum foil and a continuous ridge vent. Staple the foil shiny side down under the attic rafters (not on the floors, MacGyver) as a simple radiant barrier. This will keep a sunny day from turning your home’s attic into an oven and your room ceilings into hotplates. Once that heat is trapped, it needs a place to go. A continuous ridge vent allows the hottest air to escape happily through the peak of your roof—especially when tag-teaming with a few well-placed soffit vents.

The best advice is the simplest: Use sunscreen, for goodness sake, and use it often. Reach for a sunscreen with SPF 30, higher if you have a fairer complexion. Keep in mind that anything higher than SPF 30 will only increase your protection by about 2% at the most. Shelling out for SPF 75 is laughably pointless. Also, SPF only indicates UVB protection because the FDA hasn’t gotten around to a rating system for UVA (the other skin cancer-causing ultraviolet rays), so look for sunscreens that offer “broad-spectrum protection.” But really, your best defense against the sun is always going to be shade, protective clothing and limiting your time baking in the rays. Skincancer.org offers some good tips, and ewg.org publishes helpful consumer guides that let you know what ingredients to look for and those to avoid.