I'm sick. It kind of snuck up on me. Yesterday I was tired all day and it just got worse. By about 6 I had a full-bore sore throat and I felt ready for bed.

And it all went downhill from there. My girlfriend came over around 8, after her workday ended, and by then I was two tons of fun. Not that I was a jerk, or whiney, or anything. That was the problem: I wasn't saying anything.

I guess it's good that it hit on a weekend, since the first day or two is usually the worst. I can't really afford to miss much work, so I'm going to hit this thing hard.

Zinc lozenges. As soon as I can drag my sorry butt down to the store I'm going to get a couple of packages of these. Nobody knows why they work. I discovered them in college. They work.

Orange juice. My freezer is full of it right now. By the end of the week it won't be. Vitamin C is your friend.

Raw garlic. Steve DeLassus taught me about this one. Take a clove, cut it up into pill-size pieces, then swallow them like pills. Take with milk to cut down on the aftertaste, or eat a piece of bread afterward.

Chicken soup and anything else steamy. A classmate of my dad's told me why this works. (It's a shame it's next to impossible to find an osteopath in St. Louis.) Our bodies make us miserable because they feel dried out. The body absorbs steam readily, cutting down on its perceived need to handle the problem via other methods. So there really is something to the old adage about chicken soup. Besides the psychological effects.

Hot tea can benefit you as well. Something about tea soothes a sore throat. But caffeine's bad when you're trying to rest, so stick to decaf tea.

Rest. I slept 10 hours. I'm going to take another nap here in a bit.

Vitamins, minerals and herbals. Zinc. (The lozenges don't go through your whole system, so zinc lozenges and zinc tablets aren't redundant.) Vitamin C. Echinacea. Antioxidants like Vitamin E and Beta Carotene. It's all about strengthening the immune system and building resistance.

Gargling salt water. My girlfriend mentioned this one. I think my dad used to have me to this, way back when. The body absorbs water that's slightly saline a lot better than it absorbs plain old tap water. That's why you use saline solution on contact lenses rather than pure water.

I've gargled four times this morning. It seems to be starting to help.

So... Those are my tricks. What works for you?