chemical burns stink

i'm a glutton for punishment, apparently. i keep forgetting how much i hate salsa, and when mark brings home tomatoes from coworkers, first thing in my mind is "salsa!". so, mark and i ended up chopping all day yesterday, between the tomatoes, peppers & onions. we agreed that the big batch would be with jalapenos and green peppers (these are green tomatoes, mind you), and the smaller batch would be colored peppers and a different chile, as long as it wasn't habaneros. we have about 10 pints of salsa in the basement we made 3 years ago with habaneros that is so hot few people can eat it. mark even put one pint in a gallon of chili, and the chili was too hot to eat. so, being a contact lense wearer, i refused to handle the jalapenos, which was fine with mark. he chopped them, and ran them in the food processor, and put them in the pot with all the other ingredients.

i've just spent my morning reheating the salsa, because it too so long to cook last night that we were afraid we'd be up until midnight canning the crap (i was up that late anyway, but that's beside the point). and discovered that i had gotten chemical burns just from STIRRING the crap. oy. and it stinks. i hate green peppers and i hate jalapenos, and this shit reeks of it. oy. fortunately, it's all in jars now (11 quarts and 5 pints, plus a small plastic container that will go in the fridge), at the expense of about 10 dishclothes to hold the jars, and several heat burns on my hands. thank goodness there are no blisters, but i'm going to have to wash my hands about a dozen times before i pick up my knitting.

speaking of knitting, i got deawn's square in the mail on thursday, and it only cost me 90 cents. not bad for going to montreal. i didn't mark it though, so i hope that's not an issue, lol.

i've received more things for the super secret project, so things are going well in that department.

the vanilla socks are almost finished. i have to kitchener the toe on the second one and block them. woot!

i think i'll frog the carnival socks. i was looking at the pattern i was using, and it calls for size 3 needles. i don't think so. the toe i've got is impossibly small for what i want.

Janice's hat is almost done, although it did stall out over the weekend. one more round and i'll wash it and send it on its way. i'm looking forward to seeing the prizes she's got.

i started a sweater for steph, we'll have to see how it goes. i used sweater wizard, and put in cropped, but i'm thinking itmight actually be too short, so i may go back to standard length. i'll have to look when i get that far.

well, i have to go back to the dishes (canning always leaves so goddamned many dishes!) so i'll bid adieu for now.