Yesterday, E and the rest of his group got OC-sprayed.

the spray went from ear-to-ear, then they had to go through an obstacle course. They had to knee and punch some targets (30 seconds each), OC spray a target (but that was just water) and then arrest someone. Afterwards they went to the decon station.

I felt so bad for all of these soldiers because I can only imagine how much it must suck to get sprayed in the face like that. Getting gassed or tased is nothing compared to getting OC-sprayed. Gas is like 10 minutes of suck, tased is a few moments of suck but OC-spray is like over an hour of suck. I captured pictures of E going through the obstacle course and then followed him to the decon station where I helped him and the other soldiers. There wasn't much I could do, other than pouring water on them, offering them paper towels and getting them baby shampoo and telling them to face the wind to help with the burn. One of the soldiers said to me, "you know, you're a very nice person. thank you." That made me smile :) I told E to slather sour cream on his face after flushing with water because it will help neutralize the burn. A lot of the other guys laughed, but once they slathered some sour cream on their face they realized how much it helps :)

Now E can no longer make fun of me for slathering sour cream all over my fingers and hands one day. We made guacamole and added some finely-chopped jalapeno to the mix. I didn't wear gloves and failed to properly wash off those capsacein oils. I just used some soap and water. That didn't work. Later that night I took a shower and rubbed my eyes and they were burning and then my fingers and hands felt like they were on fire. It was miserable. There was nothing that really could be done because the pores in my skin were already open and the capsaceins have already penetrated into the skin, but sour cream and dairy provided temporary relief. Once some ibuprofen kicked in I felt a lot better. Now I'm NOT comparing the burning from the jalapeno to the burn in your face/eyes from the OC spray, but it really helps to neutralize that burn! Now every time I chop up jalapenos I rinse with sour cream/yogurt/milk and then soap & water. I haven't had a problem since :)

(click to see full pictures because of my stupid layout...)
































































Lol aww...so proud of him! His face is fine now :)

Last night we went to The Hub which is a German restaurant. I don't mind German food, but I've never been "blown away" by something by so much where I *HAVE* to have it. I got the zigeur schnitzel, which intrigued me because of the "jalapeno & mushroom sauce." when I got it, it just looked like a bunch of brown gravy...wasn't spicy at all. There was only like 1 little slice of jalapeno and that wasn't even hot. At least the pork was tender.

E got the kaiser schnitzel with spaetzle. The kaiser schnitzel had some sort of weird creamy sauce on it that tasted like it was mustard-based (and I hate mustard) but it had a really good flavor. E loved it. Everything was good, but I would rather go to Seoul Garden or El Jimador the next time I come here. Plus the service at The Hub was VERY slow. We waited over an hour just to get our food.

Tonight we're going to Saint Louis so that should be interesting :) We're going to an Arabic restaurant for dinner which I'm excited for! :)