mango-avocado salsa

I dunno if anyone cares about this sort of thing, but since the blog is experimental anyway, let me tell you about what I made for dinner, with which I was well pleased:

avocado, ripe haas, 1, cut into small salsa-size chunks
mango, 1, chopped small. mine was mexican, not too sweet but very spicy
pepper, green sweet capsicum, 1/2, chopped small. I peeled mine but you might not bother
chili, indian-style hot pepper, 2, minced. you might want to try just 1 first.
lime, 1, juice of
onion, red, 1/4 cup or so, minced. I'd use more next time.
garlic, 2 cloves, minced or squashed in a press I suppose
cilantro/coriander, 2-3 sprigs with stems, minced
salt, plenty.

Directions: Combine in non-metal bowl. Let sit for bit.

Serving suggestion: This was great with grilled chicked thighs marinated in oil/vinegar/salt/pepper. Would like to try it with tuna or salmon.

P.S. While I am on the subject of food, let me tell Mr P. A. that I have finally taken his advice and got a big-ass Le Creuset which we use for everything now. Well, not for uncooked salsa obviously.

my speech to the graduates

Transcript of the Rutgers Graduate School of Education Commencement 2006 if I was in charge:

"Welcome everyone. Now you are officially unemployed. In conclusion, there is free beer and chicken on the quad."


The real graduation was 120 minutes longer and there was no beer or chicken. Men talked at us for ages. Some old guy presented his brave vision for revolutionizing K-3 education which must have been really interesting to someone somewhere.

Still, it was a beautiful day. My loving wife and parents sat through the whole ordeal with every sign of good cheer, and we all went for Ethiopian lunch afterwards.

Exotic Ocean City

We had a great time in Ocean City, which is like our own familiar Point Pleasant raised to the power of Blackpool. The birthday girl started her day with yoga on the beach and did a headstand at 20 weeks of pregnancy.

We went off with Kim while Michael studied for his paramedic degree. At the boardwalk the birthday girl strengthened herself with a wholesome calcium snack and then we rode on the great big Ferris wheel.

Then, for something completely different, we went to Assateague Island to see if we could find some of the wild ponies alleged to live out there. Turns out we didn't have to find them, they found us. In fact the whole island was infested with wildlife. We saw a red winged blackbird. And a ton of horses that looked like little-girl pony-porn come to life.

Gretchen drove out from DC and we all had a festive birthday dinner. Michael grillled steaks and I went around the corner for a sack of hot and spicy Callinectes sapidus. While waiting for the nice man to slaughter twelve invertebrates for our dinner I got to watch a crab moult. It was amazing, the shell popped up at the back and then, really slowly, a bigger crab came out. Not, like, a slightly bigger crab but a BIGGER crab. It was like a David Blaine trick.

If anybody needs to know a better way to field-strip a crab, get Michael to show you his method.

Then we had an epic birthday cake and went to bed. Maybe Grey will make a post about what happens if you are pregnant and eat too much crab and birthday cake. She's fine now though!

Update: I have learned that the latin name of the blue crab means "beautiful swimmer that is savory."

birthday weekend

Tomorrow is Grey's 40th birthday. As I write she is off to ShopRite to get ingredients for her own birthday cake. She has her heart set on pink icing with a ballerina on top, and there was a certain amount of deliberation this morning about frosting and filling recipes. And cake tins. And choice of flour. The only thing not uncertain is the fact that some form of Chocolate will feature prominently.

We had been planning a camping weekend in Delaware but the timing turned out to be unfortunate for most of our friends, and now it's supposed to rain all weekend. So that's officially off, but we are looking forward to a visit with Michael and Kim at their shore house in Ocean City, Maryland.

new d'amato well underway

Well, we went for another ultrasound yesterday and spent 40 minutes looking at the baby. As medical procedures go this is pretty low-impact. The scariest part was when the tech squeezed blue goo on the maternal belly. It looked cold. But it turns out I was worried for no reason, the goo sits in a warming device in between customers. Would be good for shaving cream too I bet.


Short version: everything looks normal except the baby is a little big for his age. Still looking at a due date of about October 4. Oh yeah, and he's definitely a boy.

What they can do with the technology is kind of amazing. There was a lot of looking at the heart. You could see all four chambers pumping and the valves opening and closing. There was a doppler-shift function where all the blood coming at you was colored blue and moving away was red. Pretty amazing combination of physics and biology. (I think a lot in terms of lesson plans these days.)


It was an emotional experience but maybe not as acute as last time. I think we are starting to get used to having him around. That's intense in a different way.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

I think this is my favorite book ever.

G and I were reading it together back in ought-four but I started school before we finished. I thought about it for a year until I finally bought the audiobook version off audible, for my commute back and forth to Rutgers. It livened up a semester spent on mostly unexciting classes.

This is the best money I ever spent online. And on a DRM'd proprietary format no less. It simultaneously gave my iPod a reason for existing too.

The reader was great and every minute of the 32 hours was a pleasure. I think I have finally figured out how to be an adult student and still read a book once in a while.

If anyone knows where I can get a copy of Thomas Lanchester's Treatise concerning the Language of Birds please let me know.

this time last year

We were enduring our family cruise to Alaska. As you can see from the picture, Alaska is a terrible place. We had to put up with a helicopter ride and hike several miles just to get to this location, and once we got there we could not even find a Dunkin Donuts. Just some porcupine quills and an answer to that old question about the bear.


No, seriously, it was a wonderful trip with Joe's company, on the sister ship to this one. We went with both D'Amato and Valenti parents and Mark and Lauren and the kids. We gotta get more pictures up one of these days.

The contrast between wild Alaska and the shockingly indulgent shipboard treatment really did show both lifestyles to their best advantage. Or at least on high contrast. I never expected to see wild bear poop and a four foot eagle carved out of butter on the same day.

Two cats, no waiting

Here's an oldie but a goodie. In exchange for cat food, the beasts must endure occasional indignities for the benefit of the humans. In this case, their person is conducting a team-building exercise.

The cat on the left is usually known as "the big one" and nicknamed Stretch. Her real name is still unknown. The one on the right is the small one, nicknamed Stumpy, known to the vet as Blueberry.


I wonder if anyone else has ever posted a cat picture on their blog?

First post

Chris and Grey are online, and this time they're not writing their own html! Of course we could if we wanted to. We can manage at least two or three posts a year that way.