Hot hands???

So, thought i'd share a little anecdote from my so-called life...
I came off of a day shift on Saturday with a plethora of energy that needed to be harnessed in some sorta useful way. I had been discussing my garden with a co-worker and had been frustrated with myself for the waste of produce that seemed to be happening - the beans were growing too fast, the broccoli had gone to seed and the tomatoes were ripening so fast that i didn't know what to do with them.
So, into the garden i ventured after work and set to work harvesting the crops (sound like an old pioneer woman eh?). I picked the last of the beans, the cherry tomatoes that were ripe, the round tomatoes, the shepherd peppers and even a carrot or two for good measure (boy were they ever bitter!!). Unfortunately, all this bounty now required me to process it. So i busily set to work and put the cherry tomatoes in the oven with some parmesan cheese, some garlic and other goodies and roasted them - boy were they good!! Then the beans were blanched and popped in the freezer to be enjoyed at a later time. Then the tomatoes were stored carefully downstairs to be dealt with at a later date.
Finally, the peppers were cut up in little bitties and put in a baggie in the freezer to be used as colourful accents in nasi and other dishes. Towards the end of all this processing and such nonsense, i began to notice my fingers were pretty tender, burning in fact. I thought as i was doing dishes at the time, maybe the water was too hot... but nope, that wasn't the case, i don't usually wash with scalding water the way my mother does. So like a good two-year old, i stuck my finger in my mouth to make it better. Imagine my surprise when my mouth and lips turned into an inferno and i experienced a curious hot feeling as i swallowed. Something else fishy was going on here! I began to suspect the awful truth that i had not just processed sweet peppers, but something super, super hot! Sure enough, that's what it turned out to be and i spent the next few hours trying to put out the fire raging on my poor palms.
Mom and Dad researched online and we discovered milk would be a good solution - the fats in the milk somehow would slow down the burning from the pepper oils. Sad thing, i drink skim milk... but it still worked. I debated going to bed with cold washandjes on my hands for comfort but that idea didn't work and only caused me to pitch myself out of bed and run for the Advil bottle, eventually finding enough comfort to sleep. The next day was work again, and i'll tell you, wearing gloves for any extended periods of time was enough to panic me because the heat would creep up my arms and drive me crazy! Fortunately with lotsa handwashing and time, the burning has subsided and my poor dear hands are back to normal. I still have no idea how i got hot peppers in my garden. I even went out purposely to check the pepper tag which is still out there and it says "sweet shepherd peppers". How a rogue plant made its way in there, i don't think i'll ever know but at least it makes for a good story!