After the Goldrush Jerky

So, I don't exactly know when it started, when I first spotted the face of that rugged pick-baring gold miner on my first package of Gold Rush jerky, but I will forever be changed by the tasty meat inside his package. I have purchased and eaten such a great amount of this product, I should own stock in the company, so I figured it deserves a blog post at the very least. You know, spread the word. It's good stuff! After tasting the tender pieces of beef made by Goldrush Farms, there has been no other jerky for me!

I've always been a big jerky fan; there's nothing like protein to keep you going. I've tried many kinds. I can honestly say Goldrush is my favorite, hands down. The package declares "Moist & Tender" and "Delicious" and they aren't just whistling Dixie! You get 3.25 oz (91 g) of yum for around $5.25 and although jerky in general is pricey, it is seriously worth every penny. My husband even says he would gladly pay a whole dollar more for it. The package says to refridgerate after opening, but it seldom lasts long enough to need it. That's mostly what sucks about paying over 5 bucks a pop.

Goldrush is better than Oberto, and even better than Jack Links, in my opinion. It has great flavor, is incredibly juicy and not overly salty. I have only seen it at The Market Place, it's sort of a local buy, being made in Litchfield, Ohio. They have it at The Market Place, and as long as I see it there, I'll buy it like milk and bread. It's a staple. It comes in Mild, Sweet Barbecue, Spicy, and Teriyaki. Sometimes I wonder if I'm forming an addiction to this meat. It's marvelous. Marvelous meat!

Overall Goldrush Jerky is an excellent buy. It's the best jerky I've had aside from homemade venison jerky. As long as it's there, I'll buy it! That old bearded gold miner has the key to this girl's heart; after the Goldrush jerky, nothing else will taste quite as good.

Magically Suspicious Erasing

I was introduced to the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser probably over 5 years ago.  I can't even remember when I used it for the first time, but it was a magical moment indeed. I was in disbelief for the longest time.  I was attacking my house's stains and grime just for a chance to witness its power.  I was in shock and awe.  "I can't believe it!"  "Oh my god!!"  "No way!!"  This thing defied all laws of nature.  Nothing on Earth removes these kinds of stains with so much ease!  Nothing!!  Not true.  At one point I wondered if it was covering UP the stains somehow?! (I know, but I just couldn't believe it.)

If you have never used a magical Magic Eraser, I suggest you give it a try.  I actually gave one to my brother for Christmas this year.  I jokingly say that they probably cause cancer or are made out of a raw chunk of cancerous tissue themselves, for nothing fights grime and saves time like this product from the clean man himself.  At first it almost seemed like cheating. It makes you feel pretty spoiled; imagine the hours of labor required of women back in the day.  As if all of our luxuries as women today don't enough already, this makes their continuous work seem like slave labor compared to our duties.  Thankfully we live in the Magic Eraser Age.  Not that it is effortless, some types of stains still require a bit of elbow grease and really break down the eraser, but it makes a lot of jobs a LOT easier.  It really does erase dirt!!  I'll be damned.

One of the first things I discovered the eraser was good for was rust rings.  Ever sit an empty tin can on your counter and get that ring?  The Magic Eraser takes them right off! POOF!!  Another thing it works great on is soap scum.  It wipes rings on tubs and shower walls right off.  It removes dirty hand prints off of walls and ceilings.  It is harmless to most surfaces too. 

The only surface I found it messed up was wood paneling.  It actually is very abrasive, it rubs a fine layer of the surface off, I think.  DO NOT CLEAN YOUR KIDS WITH IT.  By watching how it works, it is OBVIOUSLY abrasive.  A woman apparently scrubbed her child's arms with it, "burning" their skin.  People freaked, acting like the thing chemically burned the kid's flesh or something, but I think what it would have been was a really bad burn from friction.  After hearing about that story I slightly rubbed the eraser on the back of my hand to see how much pressure or rubbing it took.  It obviously started to turn red and give me a rash type of irritation after a few scrubs.  I couldn't imagine scrubbing my kid with it, the abrasive nature of it alone, but who knows exactly what it IS made of.  It could even chemically burn too.  Who knows?  Bad news.

Tonight while cleaning the bathroom counter, which also doubles as my dark room for my screen printing, I found that the Magic Eraser easily removes dried emulsion from formica counters.  Wood stain, however, is a lot harder to remove and took a lot more elbow grease and it didn't even entirely come off.  I wonder what that says about those two chemicals in comparison to each other.  I also found that it removed dried latex paint from my plastic sink facet knobs.

The Magic Eraser should be tried, get it wet and rub it on all of your stains and gunks.  They cost 2-4 dollars each, come in multi packs, and even a heavy duty version now.  I don't know if it's made out of cancer, or toxic waste, or heavenly clouds.  I don't know what all surfaces it is safe on, but it is for most.  I do know this thing works like a charm!  The Magic Eraser is certainly worthy of its name; it is truly magical.

Have you ever tried the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser?  What type of stain amazed you the most?

November Blog #19: "Contacts, Updates, and Eyeware"

I posted before about my experience with my Acuvue Advance with Hydraclear contacts, that I had then had in for 14 days!  As awesome as this seemed when I posted, I knew it wasn’t really stretching it for contacts.  My friend I blogged about had worn his for months straight I think.  I thought my vision was worth updating about.

This Saturday, November 19, 2011, will make 3 weeks that I have had my contacts in.  I actually thought about taking them out last week after I blogged about them because they were becoming quite clouded.  I actually decided to pop them out and give them a quick rub down with saline solution.  (I would normally do this with multi-purpose solution and be using rewetting drops throughout the day but during this whole “experimental experience” I have only had saline solution and been rewetting multiple times a day and cleaning occasionally with that.  I still have yet to pick up some MPS and drops.)

I was about to take out the contacts because my vision was blurred but after cleaning them they seemed okay and daily upon rising I am able to refresh them to a good state by simply using saline. I know that this probably isn’t the best for my eyes, but I don’t feel like they are hurting or not breathing right and they aren’t red, puffy or sore or anything and I can see pretty well considering. 

I actually  plan on ordering some contacts off of the internet and wearing them more often now instead of my contacts.  All in all, even when my eyes are blurry from deposits, it doesn’t interfere with my vision as much as grime on my glasses or all of the scratches or distortion from being away from my eyes.  I know this wouldn’t be good to stretch them out like this all of the time, but it was my last pair from the prescription I already had.  It’s like running your car down to E until it runs out to find out how big of a tank it has; I want to see how long I can get out of them.  Before what I am not sure, before I get an infection or am blind?  Definitively; I'm not pushing the limits of safety for my health in the name of my silly pseudo "science experiment" or anything like that.  I have always been very clean and thorough about my contact routine and have not noted any problems with my eyes during this time. 

I am definitely buying more contacts and incorporating them into my daily life more often like this.   I also miss my glasses, though.  I would like to have two pairs I could switch between, but vision equipment is so expensive, I’m lucky to get a pair of glasses AND contacts.  I went to Wal-Mart’s vision center for these contacts and my current pair of glasses, which isn’t exactly current at 3+ years now.  I really do not want to go back to Wal-Mart, for many reasons, so I plan on weighing my options.  I have never ordered contacts off of the internet before.  This prescription seems okay, so I think I might do that.  It’s worth a shot.  Who knows?  It may change my life.  

I put these contacts in on October 29th.  It is now November 19.  I have had them in for a total of 3 weeks day and night without even using multi-purpose solution (I know, I know.)  But hey, they have stamina. 

November Blog #12: "3….2….1….Contacts!"

3….2….1….Contacts!:  14 Straight Days of Seeing Clearly

I have worn contacts since I was in high school.  I would get up every morning and put in my eyeballs and miraculously I could see!  If you don’t wear contacts, then it’s hard to explain the world of eye ball play.  It’s a routine you get used to, but is pretty odd to the untrained eye.  Really easy to maintain, but weird if you think about it; there is a foreign object sitting on your eye all day long. 

A buddy of mine once told me that he swore the guy at the optometrists office told him to just continue to wear his normal weekly disposable contacts over night for two weeks straight.  He pretty much wore his contacts all of the time, and only his glasses when he was letting his eyes breathe for a day or was out of contacts.  He ended up stretching it out farther and got at least a month or more out of his contacts, I believe.

I had only ever had the yearly ones or whatever you call them; the extended wear, I guess, not the daily/weekly disposables.  I always had to take my contacts out over night every night and soaked them weekly in the enzyme solution stuff.  It was more  of a pain, but at least they were soft contacts and not hard lenses, which are pretty much unheard of now.  After I got out of wearing my contacts, I started to rely on my glasses pretty much constantly for quite a few years.  I had an old pair of glasses that I had forever because I didn't go to the optometrist for so long (money).  I just got used to always wearing them because it was more of a pain than anything to take them out put them in take them out.  A year or so ago I got a new type of weekly disposable contacts when I got a new pair of glasses and an eye appointment.  I always just wore them daily like my old contacts, but instead of throwing them away, just saved them and reused them.  I was able to make my entire prescription of them last probably 2 or 3 years that way while still wearing my glasses most of the time.  I opened the last pair and put them in at the end of October.  I decided to try it out wearing them how my buddy suggested.  I have left them in for a few days before, but decided, since they were a fresh new pair, to see how long I could get before they started to bother me. 

The contacts I am wearing are Acuvue Advance with Hydraclear.  It is November 12.  I have a pair of contacts in this morning that were a fresh pair I opened and put in on October 29.  I have had these in day and night, and been sleeping with them in for over 2 weeks now.  I have been wetting my eyes with saline solution before bed and then in the morning, but I can’t get over how comfortable they still are and easy this is.  I can see!  Given, I don’t think I have had eye make up on in the two weeks (wow) that I have had them in, which can make contacts more of a pain.  But overall, I am pretty satisfied with these contacts.  My eyes don’t really hurt and I don’t get that crazy white haze you would always get from the other contacts that reminds you of the chlorine fog you get after swimming with your eyes open in the pool all day.  None of that. 

I do have some slight residue on the lenses in the morning that either just works its way off or out with the saline or sometimes I use a Q-tip to swipe my eyes out clean, but nothing close to what you would get with the old contacts we wore in high school.  I think that it is the Hydraclear that is so awesome about these things.  They definitely make them different now I think.   I remember seeing a 20/20 way back when that was pointing out that the extended wear contacts and the disposables were actually the same thing.  These ones are supposed to be worn weekly I think and then thrown away.  The optometrist told my buddy to just wear them for a month constantly without taking them out.  My friend would then even leave his in longer usually up to a month or so, just taking them out for a day or two to air his eyes and let them soak.  He found he could get a long time out of them.  [This way of wearing your lenses, however, is not recommended by your optometrist or on the box.]

I have half a month already in these without even taking them out.  I was in desperate need for new glasses, mine are annoyingly falling off of my face every time I bend my head down and at this point so scratched and ill positioned from broken nose guards that I feel like I have blurry vision all of the time.  Quite an annoying phase of the frames.  So I threw these in.  I was thinking of ordering more of them off of the internet, because my prescription seems alright.  Then maybe  I could just wear contacts for awhile and put off getting new glasses.  Although, glasses are me and I would like to find a 2 frame deal somewhere because it would be worth it for me.  I love my glasses, I’m so used to me with them, but I really am enjoying the simplicity of being able to wake up in the morning and pretty much see!  It’s amazing.  In high school I remember my eyes were just so messed up if I slept with my contacts in.  I did it once in awhile and if you wet them the white fog would eventually go away, but it didn’t feel anywhere near as comfortable as these are.  I believe the Hydraclear definitely allows your eyes to stay moister and breathe better.  I like it.  I think that today I may end up letting them sit air.  They are still okay, but getting perhaps a little blurred.  2 weeks, though, is a good amount of time, I think.  14 days is over twice as long as they are intended for, so that would cut the price in half for you at least.  I’m sure some could go even longer.  I think they are actually suggested for weekly disposable use, so keeping that in mind, I think two weeks is awesome!  I'm sure I could even get more out of them if I really wanted to wet my eyes aggressively.  When they are fresh, they seem fine overnight.  I think maybe I will let these soak tonight and then try to see if I could get two more weeks out of them.  Even if I can't comfortably get a month out of them, I can easily get twice as long as they are intended. I'm sure a lot of people do this and I think that is something to think about and could potentially save you a lot of money. 

Well, all in all, the Acuvue Advance with Hydraclear contact lenses…thumbs up!