1. Burn 4 chicken pot pies in the oven, filling your house with smoke. Breathe deeply.

2. Rototill your garden, stirring up a cloud of dust and organic material. Breathe deeply.

3. Wear shorts and a t-shirt to daughter's soccer game, then watch the temperature drop 20 degrees in 20 minutes. Shiver vigorously for an hour.

4. Listen to children bicker all afternoon, thus increasing your blood pressure and lowering your immune system.

Perform these steps in any order over the course of one day, then let sit over night, and by morning you will have one nasty little head cold. Spend the next two weeks trying to get over it.

Family Phil

DFO: OK, the winter's over (even though it hasn't warmed up that much), and it's time to compare notes re: how we did healthwise this winter. I escape the winter without any lost workdays due to sickness. In fact, I felt poorly a day or two, as though I was coming down with something, but got over it. The difference? I had a flu shot at the beginning of November. Usually, I get sick once or twice a winter, a sickness that takes weeks to get totally over. So, you can bet I'll be getting flu shots from now on.

Question: Did you get sick this winter?

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