Mike’s blog

Well, I have been searching for a car for my wife for about 2 months now. A couple of weeks ago, I saw an ad for Capital One auto finance. The "blank check" thing. I thought to myself, "Hey, this sounds pretty good." I was wrong! They wouldn’t tell me my interest rate online. Instead, i had to wait for a package in the mail with the info. I found out once receiving the packet, I was approved for what I wanted but the interest rate was awfully high! Close to double what they had advertised!! I decided that maybe it would be best to try somewhere else. We found a car we liked at a dealership chain about an hour and 15 minutes away. I took the day off work to look at the car and meet up with the salesman I had contacted online. When we got there, the whole family, we found out that the car we inquired about was sold. Funny, they didn’t mention that when we spoke on the internet, or when I signed up to get pre approved for their financing. I got pretty annoyed at this. The assured me they would have something we would like. I was very specific about what i would buy: Toyota, Mazda, or Honda…That’s it! Sedan preferably but a 4 wheel drive SUV with a V6 would be okay too. I gave them a price I was willing to spend. Now why did they show me Mitsubishi’s and Hyundai’s? Saturn’s and Jeep’s? I told the guy I was about to leave! The sales manager comes up (he’s a prick) and says,"We’ll find something for you." I told him what I wanted. He looked up on the computer and found a 2007 Mazda 3 with 6,000 miles on it. Looked nice…except, it cost too much. He assured me they could work on the price for me. That got my attention. We test drove it and liked it. We sat down to talk numbers and he was like,"if you put this much down, the payments will be where you want them." Say what?! That is not working out a price. That is typing in some numbers! I looked at him point blank and said,"you sell me this car for $2000 less, and I will drive it home." He then informed me they couldn’t reduce the price. But you just said?!!! they wasted 4 hours of my time! The kids were getting grumpy and my scheduled alone time with my wife was coming to an end. We left! I get back online and tell my wife we can use the higher interest rate loan to buy another car we found at a buy here pay here lot. I read the carfax on it. The only thing I needed to do was test drive it. We got up early the next morning to look at the car only to find out that the Capital One blank check was only good at dealerships that were in a chain or a rental place that sold cars like hertz or budget. WTF??!!! I was really pissed. You can not use it at an independent used car dealership! Sorry but I think that is BS!! I decided to go to my bank and talk to them. Seems I should have done that in the first place. The interest rate was much better and I can use the loan anywhere. I guess tomorrow is another early morning. We are going to look at a 2005 Mazda6 S! Wish me luck!

So I was thinking to myself a few days ago, "where is the snow?" My question has been answered! Yeah, it’s only 5 inches but 5 inches nonetheless. That was Monday. Then last night, after all the streets were plowed, we got about  1/2" of ice! Yeah, the good kind that packs down really tight! It’s snowing now so when they plow, they will be taking away the only traction we have! LOL…I did manage to make it to the gym last night. Granted it was a lazy night at the gym, I did that slow tempo chest routine again. I really feel the stretch and burn in my chest that way. I can’t use as much weight but as of right now, I just want my chest to grow!!!!! Thursday night will be my big deadlift night so hopefully I can push myself harder than I did last week! Not too sure what is in store tonight. I guess it depends on how I feel.

Weak stomached reader need not read!!!

This was so freaking awesome that I had to write about it. See first sentence. You’ve been warned!!

So I was hitting my back today…I love working back!! Started off with some pullups. that’s a good pump. Moved on to deadlifts….now this kinda made me mad! I was down 20 pounds on my deadlift from 2 weeks ago! aaarrrrggghhhh!!! Maybe I should get a barbell and some weights and deadlift when I get up in the morning! Nothing but deadlifts….anyways….I moved on to single arm dumbell rows. Man I got so swollen that a pimple on my shoulder busted and I didn’t even touch it!!! LOL!!!! My skin was that tight!! HaHaHaHa!!!! Seriously, how many people can say they were so swollen that their pimples started bursting! So freaking awesome!!! The rest of my back workout was good. Got dumbell pullovers with the 100 pound dumbell!! woohoo!! 3×8. That’ll make you sweat! Sorry, I had to share the pimple thing….isn’t that awesome???!

Today was international chest day so I decided to jump on the band wagon and rep out a few! I tried something a little different for me today….Instead of just repping the weight, I concentrated on going very slow on the negatives (4 seconds on the negatives), the a pause at the bottom for one second, and then exploding the weight up. I did this every set, every exercise! Which ones you ask? Let me tell you! Flat bench-3×10, 1×8 (increase weight by 20 pounds each set!) + 1 warm up. Incline bench-4×10 Increase weight by 10 pounds 1st and 2nd set, then decrease weight back to starting weight 3rd and 4th set. Followed it up with 3×10 on incline flies and for the hell of it, did one set of dumbell presses. My chest is swollen! It’s a good feeling! Today is the first time in a while I concentrated on the feel of the weight and not the weight of the weight!! LOL

Just added a picture of the family from this weekend. We went to a place called portrait innovations. They did a great job and we got our pictures the same day! Plus, their prices were awesome! Check out their website at  www.portraitinnovations.com

I lifted my first transmission tonight! The guys at work were going to get a dolly to move it and I was like, "Let me try to pick it up first." They were telling me I couldn’t do it and I was going to get hurt. I bent over and picked it up! F*cker is heavy!! I walked about 5 feet with it and said, "that’s enough!" They just stood there looking at me funny! It was great!! Now I want to know how much that thing weighed!