About a month and a half ago, while I was out in Wisconsin, I was surprised to find that smoking is still allowed in restaurants. Being a native New Englander who has also lived in California -- where smoking in restaurants and bars has been banned for quite some time -- my personal knowledge of smoking bans caused me to be somewhat presumptive in thinking this was a nationwide trend. No offense to Wisconsin (or any other states that don't have a restaurant/bar smoking ban) ... but shouldn't it be?

If you take a recent Women's Health article on the topic of secondhand smoke into consideration, it's hard to argue against such a suggestion. According to said article, it takes thirty minutes or less for secondhand smoke to damage blood vessels and increase your risk of cardiovascular disease. Even such brief exposure disrupts normal expansion and contraction of blood vessels -- and it destroys EPCs, cells that help repair the arterial lining.

Look, I'm all in favor of people having the right to live their life without too much government interference. But, people eating at a restaurant also have the right to not have secondhand smoke destroy their blood vessels. While it's true that these folks could always eat somewhere else if the smoke bothers them, frankly, shouldn't it be the smokers who should go somewhere else?

Your thoughts?

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I'm an outdoor girl with granola in her pockets. I get excited over a good pair of Merrell hiking boots, not a pair of Enzo flats. A camping vacation is truly a vacation to me. My husband and I spent nearly a month camping and backpacking on our honeymoon. Yes, we're a tad odd.

But what I've realized over the years is not everyone loves camping. Some people hate it. I know people who will intestinally blow-up before pooping in the woods. Yet this does not mean they don't love the stars, fresh air, a crackling campfire and even the chilling call of a coyote in the middle of the night. They'd be willing to camp if their Home Sweet Home porcelain perch was nearby.

Voila -- a solution to this intestinal barrier! Join the festivities this Saturday in the National Wildlife Federation's 4th annual Great American Backyard Campout. You can set-up the tent right in your backyard or hook-up with other close-to-home camping enthusiasts via their campout finder. Over 22,000 are gathering their gear for backyard fun this weekend. I'll be camping, too. We're heading up to Devil's Lake, Wisconsin to camp and rock climb sans kids with the Chicago Mountaineering Club -- our virgin outing with this influential group. See you under the Big Dipper.

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