So I've done a lot of dumb things in my life...

but this one seems particularly so.

Anyway - this all starts yesterday when I notice on my back porch that I have quite a few ripe tomatoes as well as a pile of ripe jalapeno peppers. my pepper plant in particular has been producing like crazy! so I think... hmm... tomatoes and peppers... I can make salsa! yum! I had some more tomatoes around too, and a red bell pepper, and garlic, and limes, so I figured why not - and I was excited to make something out of my little porch garden.



see! yummy. So I washed them up and got to work





You can see in the last picture a good shot of my little fireballs as well as about half of the tomatoes I ended up using. The final count was kind of unknown... I just added things until it tasted right, but there was one white onion, the juice of one lime, four cloves of garlic, and one bell pepper in there too at the end. Karl helped me taste test, and we came up with something that's pretty tasty and not too spicy, though the kick it has is definitely late in the game - it doesn't burn until after (how prophetic this was)



So anyway, I got done with this, scrubbed my hands with dishsoap, and figured I was good to go.

Now, let me preface the rest of this story by saying that I've witnessed my mother's 2nd degree chemical burns from the first time she made salsa and the oil got under her wedding ring. I should have known better. About half an hour post salsa making, my hands started to tingle.

twingey tingling, kind of warm, not too horribly bad. Both hands, though I'd been very careful to only handle the hot stuff with my left hand to avoid too much issues. so I scrubbed them down again, and they felt better - for about 10 minutes. Then they started to burn again. a lot. So I soaked them in milk for awhile, which was both cold and seemed to do some good - then they started to burn again. I busted out the aloe, and that helped for a little bit too. but not for long.

so I went to bed.

Woke up this morning... hands still burning. grumble at husband, who thinks it's kind of silly, and go searching on the internet. I've tried vodka, and I've tried bleach. I've tried yoghurt. they all help, but at this point I've gone past having oil on my hands, and into the realm of "hunan hand" (yes, this has a name!). mild chemical burns all over both of my hands - concentrated on the fingertips and back of the fingers. it hurts.

so wear rubber gloves. at this point, I'm not even sure I want to so much as *look* at my homemade salsa. ((the only fortunate thing at this point is that I have avoided Jalapeno Eye. No, I won't be wearing my contact lenses today))