I'm Full of Puss

How's that for an attention grabbing headline? I'm sorry to have misled. The sad truth is, I am not full of puss, but it is a great medieval reference to the plague. I seem to get a lot of emails from friends who (I hope jokingly) ask me whether I've gotten avain flu yet. To be quite honest if I didn't have regular dosages of American fear-mongering it's quite likely that I would forget about the "vogelgrippe" altogether. I'll admit I do, from time to time, hear about it (someone in Egypt just died from it) but not to the extent it would apear my fellow Americans do back in the mother country. I guess nothing smacks of headlines quite like "Killer Bird Flu Ravages Europe!" but I hardly think of it.
Seriously though, the reason I started with this whole puss thing is that I actually am sick right now, but before we call the undertaker or sound the claxion to "bring out your dead" let me just say that it was a mild chest infection, the kind I seem to get once every fall, and again every spring. I can still feel the little buggers rattling away somewhere within my lungs but as of yet I still haven't noticed any buboles, "red rosies," or the like. Of course, just to be safe I have been stocking up on the live leaches. A guy can't be too careful you know.