So we went up to Cleveland for the extended Thanksgiving weekend. Everything was fine... until Thursday night. I went downstairs - such an innocent thing to do, really, but yet it was a bad idea. You see, after descending the stairs and playing a few rounds of "Worms Armageddon" on the old Playstation with my nieces and nephews, I began to sneeze uncontrollably. I took some pseudoephedrine with chlorpheniramine... and about 1 hour later I took a second dose. I went through an entire box of tissues blowing my nose and sneezing. It sucked.

Later that night, I took one of those portable Honeywell HEPA filters down to try to suck the evil from the air. I can only assume its the carpet down there, as the entire upstairs is hardwood flooring (the only exception are the bedrooms, but they are well travelled).

Of course, when the nieces and nephews came over again on Friday, I got good and super-gittery taking lots and lots of sudafed/antihistamine so I could withstand another go-around in the dreaded basement. However, if one good thing came of this, it is that I now know for certain that I have a problem breathing in their basement, and its not just an odd allergic reaction to the Cleveland area on a whole, as this would be quite sad as Cleveland is really a much more pleasant city than where I currently reside in the greater (???) Cincinnati area.

So anyway, there you have it. I am allergic to my in-law's basement, and I pray that repeated vacuumings and useage of the HEPA filter will make it bearable by Christmas time.