Speak Your Mind Reviews

I needed a new reel that could handle the bigger fish like musky, pike and that type of thing. After looking around at some reviews and actaully handling them at the store I made the leap & bought it.

The 6501 is the left handed version. The crank is on the left hand side of the reel. THe 6500 is the right handed version

After using it for a couple of weeks and throwing a lot of big lures, bucktails, big body baits etc, I can say that I really like this bait casting reel. It has a switch that turns on/off the clicker if you want to use it for trolling. Once I got the casting brake adjusted I could toos the big musky baits that I was throwing a long ways. Especially downwind.

One thing I like about it is that it’s not too big. It fits my hand comfortably on a 6 foot heavy action ugly stick. The small spool release for casting does kinda suck when compared to the bass baitcasting reels but doesn’t take but a second to get used to. The drag is very smooth and works great. I had the chance to test it on a smaller musky and there where no issues at all. I’ll find out more when I tackle bigger stuff like salmon & hopefully a big musky or 2 this year.

The only thing I dont like is that if you go from casting downwind to casting up wind and forget to adjust the casting brake be prepared for a backlash, unless you really feather the spool with your thumb. Beyond that I really like this reel.It handles the 50lbs fireline that I have spooled on it extremely well.

I am highly ticked off about the new taxes they put on cigarettes.  The state wants more money they tax cigarettes. I dont see why they dont tax something everyone uses instead of driving people to either quit or pay them.  Highest unemployment rate so lets raise taxes! You can go to other states and a carton is half the cost.  Shows us just how much tax MI goverment decided to keep putting on. I think they need to put a control on what people sell them for.  One place might be selling them for over 7 dollars a pack then you go down the street and you pay 6 something a pack. Stores are pricing them whatever they want because they know its an addiction. It needs to be more regulated since prices are going through the roof.

I personally know the health risk etc. behind it and everyone is going non smoking but it is peoples choice to smoke.  I just hate that we are so heavily taxed on them.  They just keep making up excuses why they tax it. Schools,roads,budgets etc.  My personal favorite excuse was schools. Then they put a law that you can not smoke on school grounds even in your own car.  The employees can not even smoke even if there are no children around (like the bus compounds) I think its stupid and something needs to be done.  I wish I knew how to help get it changed. I am sure other smokers as well wish they could do something.

I found an interesting video to watch. Go to www.youtube.com and search for Obama deception. Its about 1hr 54min long but a decent video.

This is a great small chicken and rib take out joint. It’s located at the north end of a strip mall on the northwest corner of 17 & John R.

They use Amish chickens from millers poultry farm in Indiana. Which means no steroids or anything else like that in the chicken. That is a step I think most places should take. As a whole there are too many chemicals in our food and it’s reeking havoc on our health as a whole, especially our kids. Not to mention the environment.

The ribs are really, really tender. The chicken is broasted and then soaked in BBQ sauce. Their sauce is really smoky and a little bit goes a long way.

Good slaw & broasted taters which they add a garlic butter to if you want. MMMMMMMM.

Overall I like their food. As with all ribs places it’s not the cheapest but definitely worth it when you just gotta have ribs.

To see their menu checkout chicken stop of troy website. It’s not much of a website but it’ll give you all the info you need

350 lbs Tractor tire

I found this tire on craigslist for $50 and I have really enjoyed training with it. When I went to go get pick it up it turned out that some fireman had it to train with and their superiors were making them get rid of it! That just disgusts me!

It was the warren fire department. The location of the fire station is right across the street from warren mott high school.

I can’t believe they would make these guys get rid of training equipment. The fact they are willing to risk their lives to save our asses should be a good enough reason to let them keep the tire. I personally think they should have all the training equipment they could possibly ever use provided to them for FREE!!!

They do a job that gets completely forgotten about until there is a fire and then people care about them. What is it that makes people forget about,  disregard or even mistreat them until they need their help.

These men and women deserve nothing but great respect for what they do. Making them get rid of something like a tractor tire that they had behind the fire station and used to help keep them in tip top shape is uncalled for and completely ridiculous. Personally I think the officers of the warren fire department who made this decision need to re-evaluate the way they think. Training for these men and women is an almost daily ritual and having better and more interesting ways to train can only help them perform their jobs better.

After watching the twilight movie last night I was eager to start reading the books.  So today I woke up this morning wanting to rush to the bookstore to grab my copy of the twilight book series. So I quickly Popped up my browser and went to the barnes and noble website because I have one close to my house and like to support local businesses.  I noticed since I am a member I can get it for ……

Usually ships within 24 hours

So I looked over to see this……………

FIND & RESERVE AN IN-STORE COPY

Enter a zip code

(picture little box with find button)I was thinking great!!! It can be ready when I run in so I wont be late for work. So I reserved my copy and left.  I didnt have time to wait for the email. So my husband drove me there and I ran in grabbed it from the counter where they had it stashed. Since I was there and my employee and myself are addicted to starbucks I went to get my normal Yummy carmel frap with hazelnut. He rang up the box set of books and to my suprise it was 70 something dollars!! I go there must be some kind of mistake just ring me up the coffee and I will go and talk to someone.

So I proceeded to Customer service desk and began to ask why the huge price difference.  She told me its because of the shipping and overhead of the local stores. I can understand a few dollars or so for convience but almost 30! I left it there and walked out with my Yummy fraps.

Needless to say I was angry. So I got to work and called the customer service to ask why and voice my complaint.  Since online its free shipping on top of the huge savings. He proceeded to tell me the same story and him telling me well I can go to online and order it. I was hoping to avoid going online and ordering it. Thats what I thought the whole point of a local store chain was for. I guess it is just to rip people off for the price of convience. Why have a nation wide online site competing with your local stores?  After my phone call I checked my email and low and behold there is the email.

Dear Tami
Your requested merchandise is available:

Qty: 1
Title: Twilight Saga Collection
ISBN-13: 9780316031844
Store Price: $83.00 <<<<<<<<<<<<<< !!!!!!!

This merchandise has been placed on hold in your name at the location below. It is available for immediate pick-up and will be held through 03/28/2009.

Thank you for your online reservation. If you have questions or need assistance with your reservation, please contact the store at 248-577-5056.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Sincerely,
The Booksellers at Barnes & Noble 2923
396 John R. Road
Troy, MI, 48083
248-577-5056
Sun 9-8 Mon-Thu 10-10, Fri & Sat 9-10

I ended up going to www.amazon.com and ordering it for cheaper and less tax. I hate to wait but its better then giving  Barnes and Noble my business.I am never going back for them to rip me off again.

Last night we decided to try Rib City out. Mainly because wifey has been on a huge BBQ kick since we got back from Georgia.

When it comes to BBQ  wifey is very picky. She’s jaded from all the visits to her family in Alabama. The first question she always asks is if they have sweet tea, and they do. Surprisingly she did like it. Outside of mickey d’s that’s really the first place she’s liked the sweet tea up here. So score one for this place in her eyes.

I got the BBQ pork dinner and she got Tony’s combo which is a slab of baby back ribs and 1/4 pound of pork.

It didn’t take very long to get, which has been a problem at a few other places we’ve eaten recently. So that was nice.

The pork is sliced very thin instead of being pulled like typical BBQ and you add the sauce to it that you like (there are 3 on the tables a sweet, a tangy and something called a carolina mustard. They also have a hot BBQ sauce that you have to ask for because they keep it in the back. I think I’ll try that one next time!). They served our plates with a side of garlic bread which I think should be switched to corn bread to keep things a bit more authentic, but that’s just my preference.

The pork was really tender and had a great flavor to it. I can’t speak for the ribs but they were obviously tender. The bones came right out with no resistance at all.

Our waitress was really good and had great timing.

The total bill was $33 something which is right on par or better than the other BBQ places around.

Oh before I forget they do have pulled pork in a sandwich which I’ll probably try next time.

Overall I have to say this is one of the better BBQ places around and the great thing it’s pretty close to us. So if they keep up the good service we’ll become regulars there.

You can find their website here for more information

We tried Cheeseburgers in Paradise located in front of the Lakeside mall yesterday.
My wife got the coconut shrimp & I got the baja burger.
I have to say I wasn’t impressed at all. $8.29 for a burger & fries is very pricey in my opinion. The burger was pretty small with a huge quantity of fries that were seasoned with salt & pepper.
I do have to say the burger was pretty good taste wise. It had lots of toppings on it – sour cream, salsa, cheese, green peppers, onions and some other stuff. The problem is they seem to compensate for the small size of the burger with excessive amounts of the side, in my case fries.
Something else that surprised me is that my coke was $2.19!
My wife got 8 coconut shrimp with a small amount of cole slaw & a huge pile of onion strings for around 12 bucks. She loved the cole slaw but the shrimp was nothing special. The cost was around $12.
For an appetizer she ordered fried pickles. She said they were alright & I don’t care for fried pickles.
The bill was just over $36 for our order without tip. I couldn’t believe it was so expensive for this meal.
I wont be back, the value we got just wasn’t there. There are plenty of other places where you can get better and larger burgers for less and 3 times more shrimp for an extra 2 dollars.
If your looking for a place that has different burgers than you find anywhere else and don’t mind that they’re small & over priced then give them a try but if you want a good value for your money I would stay clear.

After a 2 year layoff I finally got the chance to get back to weightlifting – strongman stuff for fun, powerlifting (trying to get competitive again) and some olympic lifting to be exact. So in my quest to add variety to my training I bought a strongman yoke from Pitbull strongman equipment.

It took a while to get as he had to build it. Once done he sent it UPS, the shipping is included in the price ($355) by the way. It came in as 2 pieces. Thankfully UPS kept them together! Of course they beat it up a little bit. But what do you expect for out of shape people handling heavy equipment!!

I have had the chance to use it several time in my backyard and absolutely love it!!! It was easy to assemble, very well balanced and made of really heavy gauge steel for added strength. I haven’t tried dropping it for a conan’s wheel training yet but will do that soon.

The Deluxe Yoke Set up for Conans Wheel In my back yard with my American bullies

You can get a hold of alan at the following email if you don’t have a myspace page (I don’t but thankfully my wife does and got a hold of him for me) pitbullk9 yahoo.com. I wish I wouldn’t have ordered other equipment before my wife found him. The equipment I ordered was made in china and I really would have preferred to give my business to him, a US company based in kansas, especially considering how well the yoke is made. He does offer equipment that I don’t have yet and if I decide to order that stuff he’ll be the one I order from.
Another kewl things is that it’s quite obvious from his page that he competes in the strongman competitions. All I can say is great job on the yoke & I wish you the best of luck in you strongman competitions!!
Here are some of the pic’s of his equipment

Deluxe yoke $355 as of this post

Economy Farmers Walk Handles $105 as of this post

12 inch Diameter steel log $310 as of this post

About a year ago my wife came home with the Sun Beam Hotshot and the first thing that came to mind was “Oh great!! Another kitchen doohickey well never use…”. Ooppss! This is a case where the womanses new best.
I have to say I really come to love this thing. I use it on a pretty much daily basis. If I need hot water, screw the microwave this thing is quicker. I use it for oatmeal, hot chocolate & dissolving peanut butter for my after workout drinks.

My only dislike is that the space under it, where you slide your cup or bowl is pretty small. It’ll fit a typical coffee cup but not much else.

The water capacity is about a coffee cup full, maybe a little bit more.

The first time I used it I got a bit freaked out because of the way it shuts off. The shut off is basically a weird pop that reminds you of an electrical circuit that blew. When I first heard it I ran over checked everything out thinking something blew up or went wrong. I expected to see smoke or something. It is made in china after all. But that didn’t turn out to be the case. Thankfully.

I have to say I’m very happy with it and it has become a valued piece of equipment in our kitchen. My hope is that when it finally dies they are still making them so we can replace it.

I recently bought a refurb Garmin nuvi 255w GPS System from www.ihavetohavethat.com. It’s one of the many deal of the day sites. I wasn’t sure what to expect as I have never dealt with this company before. Woot yes these guys no.

Everything I expected came in the box and it seems like it will be a good GPS for my many cross country trips. Gonna test this thing out in some notoriously bad GPS territory (northern Indiana and then in a week or so Central Ohio Amish Country).

But back to ihavetohavethat.com. As with other DOD sites it does take a coupe of weeks to get your merchandise. When I logged into my account there they listed it as shipped but didn’t provide a tracking # even though there was a field for it. After this continued for about 10 days I started a support ticket and got no response until after it delivered. The email they sent is as follows: “Typically, an email is sent once tracking information has been added to the system. Since you haven’t received it, here is the UPS.com tracking#1Z7xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

According to UPS.com, delivery has been confirmed. If you still have not received your product, please check with UPS to track the package.

Your ticket will now be closed. Should another issue arise, please submit a new ticket.

Thanks for choosing IHTHT.”
So not getting the notification was either a bug or they just didn’t get a chance to add the info to the system, at least I assume so. I imagine they’re pretty busy so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.
Outside of the tracking thing I’m happy with the way things went with these guys and will more than likely do business with them in the future. Depending of course on what they offer!!
Once I get back from the trips I’ll be sure to give a full review of the GPS!