Activities§
These posts provide information about my activities as they happen or afterwards. They include information about things I’m doing (e.g., cooking, decorating) or things in which I have an interest (e.g., photography, travel, work).
This site was deleted recently. We made backups each day, but we still lost many of the photographs. We’re slowly restoring them, though — as we find the original photographs. We have annotated each post as to whether it has been restored.
posted: march 24, 2018; past month: 877 views
Today I met some people in the business district of Moscow, with it’s high-rise buildings, much like any modern city in the world. It’s quite a difference from the traditional center of Moscow with buildings from the time of the czars.
posted: july 15, 2017; past month: 803 views
A few months ago I bought an etching from about 1900 by Paul Cesar Helleu, a famous artist from Paris. I had it reframed recently and hung it in my bedroom this week. It’s marvelous. I got it at a very good price and I’m delighted to have it.
posted: october 30, 2014; past month: 1553 views
After years of wanting to see a performance at La Scala theater, I’ve final gone to one. They’re world famous for their operas, but they also produce ballets and symphony orchestera performances. I bought deep discounted tickets to a ballet.
posted: october 24, 2014; past month: 1903 views
For a few years I have been trying to improve my cooking skills. I’m fairly good, but I have gaps in my skills. I don’t know how to cook many things I’d like to be able to cook. So I started taking classes at a cooking school in Milan.
posted: june 10, 2014; past month: 1349 views
As a child, we had plenty of original art in our home. I like original, hand made art. It feels more genuine than prints. It feels more like a home. A couple of weeks ago I bid on my first picture at an auction and won.
posted: june 9, 2014; past month: 1024 views
It’s the start of Spring in Italy and the poppies are flowering, filling yet unplowed fields and lining the road sides. They’re reminders of peace. They are symbols of freedom, as well as other such emotions and hope for a better life.
posted: april 8, 2014; past month: 1002 views
When I moved into a new apartment, my old sofa was too long to fit in the stairwell of the new place. Since it was shabby, I bought a smaller sofa I thought would clear the stairs. It didn’t. I had to get a moving company to bring it over my balcony.
posted: december 16, 2012; past month: 925 views
New Site for Stories & Writing
As another move to make my personal site simpler, I created a new domain on the web for my stories and other writing related information. The new domain name is russelljtdyer.com. Please look at that domain to read my stories and posts about my novels.
posted: march 24, 2012; past month: 807 views
This year for Christmas, I wanted to have a small tree for my apartment. My daughter and I discovered an artificial tree like the one in Charlie Brown Christmas cartoons. It’s perfect. It fits how I’ve been feeling lately.
posted: january 27, 2011; past month: 2242 views
When I was a kid, my grandmother would make occasionally a wonderfully tasting lasagna. She has since died and I have been trying to find lasagna similar to the way she made it. So, I finally decided to try to make it myself.
posted: march 6, 2010; past month: 820 views
This past Thanksgiving, I did nothing reminiscent of the American holiday. Hosting a Thanksgiving dinner is a potentially stressful challenge for me. I did at least work on developing what’s needed to cook and host a Thanksgiving meal.
posted: december 14, 2009; past month: 1051 views
It’s Christmas time in Milan. They brought in a giant Christmas tree and placed it in the piazza in front of the Duomo, next to the Galleria. It was quite a job putting it together and triming it.
posted: december 7, 2009; past month: 994 views
I decided to make and assemble a desk for myself.
posted: november 28, 2009; past month: 1038 views
For a while now I’ve been wanting some artwork for the wall behind the sofa in my living room. So I decided to print a few of my photographs and have them framed. Although I may change out the photos every few months, I like the choices I made.
posted: october 10, 2009; past month: 869 views
I’ve created a new site on photography. My travel photos will stay here, though, as they’re related to my personal life. The new site is called FotoCapito and will include photos and articles on photography.
posted: august 19, 2009; past month: 842 views
Last year my daughter came to visit me in Italy. She came across the Atlantic with me, but returned with my friend Rusty after a month stay. This Summer she’s returning with my mother and will be staying for a month again.
posted: may 14, 2009; past month: 865 views
It’s Spring time in Milan. Not that my African Violets need it to be warm outside to bloom, but they’re doing quite well lately. They get plenty of sunshine — at least as much as can be offered from a window this far North of the Equator.
posted: may 13, 2009; past month: 1121 views
In January, there are sales at most of the stores in Milan. Prices are reduced from thirty-percent to seventy-percent. Some stores attempt to sell every item in their store during January.
posted: january 17, 2009; past month: 817 views
I must be getting comfortable in my new apartment because I keep baking. It could be a sign of depression, but I also like to eat when I’m feeling good, too. Regardless of the motivation, tonight I baked fennel scones.
posted: january 5, 2009; past month: 820 views
After three years of being in Milan, I am finally able to see the Duomo without the front of the cathedral being obstructed with scaffolds. As of December 2008, the front of the Duomo is fully visible again.
posted: december 27, 2008; past month: 809 views
In June 2006, when I went by train from Lyon and to Zurich, I had about an hour layover in Geneva. Since that trip, I’ve wanted to return to Geneva, as well as travel by train through Switzerland during the winter to see the snow covered mountains.
posted: december 27, 2008; past month: 802 views
My mother is very good at cooking. I know most people say that about their mother, but it’s true in this case. Although I’ve never learned to cook, I am good at baking. This past week I baked a Lemon Yum-Yum pie from a recipe I got from my mother.
posted: december 27, 2008; past month: 881 views
Finally, all parties involved have agreed and the tickets have been purchased for my daughter Marie to go to Italy. I’m in the U.S. at the moment; she will go with me when I return at the end of May. This will be her first trip to Europe.
posted: may 19, 2008; past month: 850 views
Over a year ago they began repairing the grounds inside the castle in Milan. Before it was just dusty gravel. This past week I took a walk through the castle and discovered that the project had been completed and rather nicely.
posted: february 25, 2008; past month: 775 views
Last year I purchased a digital based video camera, primarily because I want to create videos for my web site. However, I’m really at a loss as to what to video record. I have some vague notions, but really I’m not sure what I want to do.
posted: february 2, 2008; past month: 840 views
Near the Missori metro stop in central Milan is the church of Sant’Allesandro. They have one of my favorite paintings of the Madonna. It’s a fresco painted by Guglielmo Caccia in 1613.
posted: july 8, 2007; past month: 794 views
This past week I was surprised like many here in Milan to see a new statue in Piazza del Duomo, near the entrance to the Galleria. It’s well done and classically done, but clearly modern in its nature.
posted: july 3, 2007; past month: 1030 views
I stayed for Hurricane Katrina. It was a pretty rough storm, but I survived. My apartment is on the third floor in a suburb of New Orleans, less than two miles from where the levee broke and flooded New Orleans.
posted: september 4, 2005; past month: 1056 views