I am facing a yearbook deadline at the end of next week. So today is another Saturday at the school, proofing student page submissions. I packed tuna, English peas, and parsnips for lunch; and while I eat I thought I'd blog.

In our family my daughter seems to have the best immune system. She is rarely sick and when she is, she usually fights it off quickly. My husband has the worst immune system. When he catches a cold it goes on and on, turns into a secondary infection, and he winds up on antibiotics. My son and I are in the middle. We occasionally pick up a bug, and it takes us several days to fight it off.

I have long been concerned about my husband so frequently being on antibiotics. I have convinced him to try lots of vitamins, herbs, and potions over the years. Nothing has kept him from being on antibiotics 2 or 3 times each winter.

He went to the doctor for a shoulder spasm last week, and that caused us to review our health. We suddenly realized that he hadn't been on antibiotics a single time all winter. We also realized that our daughter had had one brief cold, I had one brief cold, and our son had called from college once seeking advice about a scratchy throat that quickly disappeared. My husband had two colds, but he got over both within a week.

I speculated that his Type A Diet, particularly less milk and meat but more legumes and soy, might be the cause. As I said in my biography, my husband is skeptical, but he can't come up with anything else that was different about this winter.