Yesterday was my wife's birthday. She's Filipino, and wanted Filipino food and, well, I suck at cooking it. So we went to a local spot called "Lumpia House", where she had beef soup and chicken adobo. I had eggs and rice, and some vegetable lumpia. Not bad.

Last night, I could feel a "new" kind of sore throat. I've never had strep, so I worried about that. My throat felt swollen and raw when I swallowed. I went to bed.

This morning, when I woke up, I remembered what happened only a few short months ago, in December. My mother-in-law had made a Christmas feast for the amily. (No, no, no "I can't believe it's not Jesus" crackers...just a whole bunch of food for everyone to gorge on.) She even made some vegetarian lumpia for me (which is a lot of work for one family member, especially if he's not one you care for.)

As a kid, I used to assert that I was allergic to shrimp, as they'd make me nauseated.

After I ate, oh, I don't know, maybe 20 of the vegetarian lumpia on Christmas, I knew something was wrong, and took some antahistamene. For the first time in my adult life, the "allergy" was showing itself. Further investigation revealed that my m-i-l had fried the lumpia in the same pan (not the same oil) that she'd fried shrimp in. Apparently, the allergy is that strong.

So, imagine how stupid I felt this morning, when it occurred to me that I had ordered lumpia from a frier that undoubtedly also fries shrimp. And, I'll bet, that was the source of my "sore throat" last night. It was closing. But I never put the two events together (see...STUPID!)

(Oh, we Jews don't go to confession, and I feel I'm missing out. So I'll also take this opportunity to point out that I chipped a tooth pulling a broken ball needle out of Buko's soccer ball on Sunday.)