Todd Peterson's Blog

Hmm a post from my phone.  Was getting blood work this morning and noticed the following light up at the ceiling…

Kind of makes you wonder what the designer was thinking..

Short post here.  I went to a Photoshop training class a week or two ago.  During lunch went to an Irish restaurant called the Dubliner  (http://www.dublinerstl.com/) in downtown St. Louis.  This was the first time I had Bangers and Mash, which is essentially sausages on top of mashed potatoes, covered in a mustard sauerkraut sauce.  However there was almost no mustard or kraut like taste.  The sauce was rather unique tasting, but very very good.  I’d highly recommend it.  I just wish it had been a bigger serving!  Here’s a pic of it for you to drool over:

If you are in downtown St Louis I’d recommend giving it a try.  At the very least you can get some good beer.

Sometimes people ask me what I’ve had for dinner and I get mixed reactions when I tell them.  I guess my taste in home cooked food is not quite the same as others.  But some people are quite interested in my concoctions, so I thought I’d make a little post and describe one for you.  Below is a picture of it:

This is basically a modified beans and franks or beenee weanies if you like.  Here’s how I made it:

1 Can of baked beans (partially drain the juices)
3 or 4 of your favorite hot dogs
1 to 2 teaspoons of sugar
Favorite Barbeque sauce
Worcestshire sauce
Ketchup
Bread for Toast
Mashed Potatoes (I use Idahoan potatoes that you mix up with boiling water, milk, and butter to make the mashed potatoes

Here’s how you cook it up:

In a pot, combine the beans, sugar, bbq sauce, worcetshire sauce, and ketchup (proportion to your tasting.  I usually use about a tablespoon of each except the sugar, which I use 2 packets of)
Mix well until all ingredients combined
Cut the hot dogs into 1/2 inch pieces
Add to the pot
Cook on medium heat until gently boiling and stir until everything is good and hot.
While it is heating up, make the mashed potatoes
Make 3 or 4 pieces of toast

At this point you can make the portions how you like.  This might be good:

On a plate place a piece of toast.  Top with a scoop of mashed potatoes.  Top with a good scoop of the cooked bean and hot dog mix.

Who knows maybe you or someone else might like a recipe like this.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything.  A few days ago a friend of mine sent me an article on Hermann MO suggesting I should visit.  An excellent idea!  However I did visit Hermann last year for Oktoberfest.  I realized I had never posted any photos from Hermann, so here are a few from the day that I was there.  Not sure yet if I will go again this year or not.  Definitely will go someplace for Oktoberfest, maybe Hermann, maybe someplace else.  Anyway, here are the photos.  I hope you enjoy them, Hermann is a cute little town.

Yesterday a friend of mine passed through town on the way to vacation and stopped over for the evening.  So we went out for the evening and went to the Arch downtown and then to the Hard Rock cafe for dinner.  Overall it was a pretty enjoyable evening, even though I only got to see my friend for a few hours.  Now, being the super-intelligent guy that I am, I left my camera at home on the coffee table, so I had to take these pictures with the camera in my phone. Surprisingly, they turned out fairly good!

Here are some photos from my 4th of July weekend.  Some are of fireworks I shot off while visiting my mothers.  Others are from the 75th Anniversary of the Lion’s Club fireworks display in her home town (Rolla, Mo.)  Hope you enjoy them.

Not sure why I’m posting this other than I feel like it. I talked to an old friend of mine who I haven’t spoken to in quite a while.  Don’t you hate how you have friends, lose touch for a little while only to find out so much has changed?  Seems like that happens to me a lot.  In some cases I haven’t talked to friends in a while to find out that while I was busy doing whatever it is I do they had gone and had one or two kids since the last time I talked.  But most of the time it seems like in the interim time, rough times have fallen upon my friends.  In a way it makes me kind of sad since I wasn’t there to help them through those issues.  On the other hand, it gives me a pretty good perspective on my life as well.

Sometimes I get lost in the problems I have in my life, which are somewhat run of the mill.  I’ve been very sick, lost my job, lost a lot of things.  But then I hear about what my friends have gone through and it makes me realize that my problems probably aren’t as bad as I think they are.  For example, I found out my friend I haven’t talked to in a while, his wife had a heart attack at age 34.  That’s hard to take in.  She’s all right now from what I gather.  I was at work when he called to catch up and I couldn’t talk very long.  I’m hoping to catch up more this weekend.  The heart attack in this case was caused by a congenital problem.  So it was unexpected.  Another friend of mine, his wife had a stroke at age 25.  Two other friends of mine when I had not talked to them for a while had been married, had children and gotten divorced.

All of this makes my little problems seem very inconsequential.  I guess the point I’m getting at is that life can pass you by before you know it and it is best to live it while you can.  All of my friends had these problems that were much worse than mine, they all got through it and are stronger in the end for it.  So I would say this to others:  If you are feeling like your life is rough, talk to others.  You may find out things are not as bad as they seem, and if you persevere you will come out better in the end.  Life is full of ups and downs and here’s hoping that you have many more ups than downs.

Was planning on going to the zoo today.  So we got into the car and drove over to Forest Park where the zoo is.  Well it appears I made a huge mistake by not checking the schedule for things going on in Forest Park.  I did check the zoo schedule and didn’t even think about the park.  Well long story short, we got there and there was some sort of charity walk or run going on.  Probably 5000 people at the park.   All roads near the zoo were a parking lot and we couldn’t even get close to it.  So decided to give up on it for this weekend.  Maybe I’ll try again next weekend.  I hear the zoo here is pretty good so I’ll definitely have to try to go again soon.  On the flip side, forest park looked like a wonderful place even if it was way overcrowded today.  Oh well, live and learn.

Went to the Global Market food store instead and bought some interesting treats and a few good beers for tonight.  Then out to lunch and hung out at the mall for a little bit.  Mostly went to the mall to get some bubble tea.  May sound strange if you have never had it, but they are delicious fruit drinks with large tapioca in them.  I had strawberry yogurt and it was quite tasty.

So I’m driving home today in the usual terrible St. Louis traffic (left work 10 minutes late and paid for it)  Anyway I ended riding next to this rather interesting car.  It was a 1980′s or early 90′s cadillac, grey with a soft top.  Had 22 inch rims with the usual 1″ thick tires.  What made it interesting was the fact that the owner had apparently taken a blow torch to the passenger and driver side doors and removed their door handles.  He then replaced them with metal plates that he had welded into place, making it pretty much impossible to open the car doors from the outside.  Gee I wonder what business he was in?

I created this category mainly so I could have a place to post things I find curious or amusing as I experience life.  Posts here will just be about things that I see and may or may not have any real point to them.  But if they make you laugh or smile then maybe it is worth it.  I figure I would start with two items today.

The other day I was heading to work.  I go up this 4 lane blvd and turn on to the interstate.  At the interstate intersection is a double left lane turn.  I always get in the far left to make it easy.  I found it amusing that the lady driving the car in front of me got in the left turn lane as well.  When the light changed we all started to make our turns onto the interstate.  But halfway through the intersection, she decides to turn on her left blinker.  Seriously?  Made me wonder what she was thinking about since it was obvious she was going left from being in the left turn lane for over 30 seconds…  Eh, it made me laugh a bit.

The second item might be more of a rant.  Every few days I fill up my car on the way to work.  I usually stop at a BP station, mostly because it is convenient (even though I’m not sure I want to keep stopping there given the situation in the gulf)  Anyway, I usually pay with a credit card at the pump.  When I first starting using credit cards at the pump, the pump always ask questions, tells me the amount and finishes by saying thank you for buying at whatever station I’m at.  These days, however all the pumps are now programmed to not even say thank you.  Even if it is an inanimate object, I still liked it when it said thank you at the end.  Our world is already too full of people and things that don’t say thank you. Why can’t we have a pre-programmed gas pump that at least attempts it?  I mean come on, it’s just one line of code…..  I guess they are more interested in me buying a car wash on a rainy day than saying thank you for spending my $40 at their pump.  Lets hope as the economy improves, so do company and people’s manners.