3 years

Three years ago, I married this stud. I still love him and his morning hair.

Roasterphobic

Hello. My name is Kelly and I am roasterphobic - severely roasterphobic in fact.

That's right. It's official. Jim Perdue diagnosed me via his online roasterphobia test. The diagnosis was made a few months ago so I've had some time to accept it. Ever since that day I've been on a hunt for a Perdue Oven Ready Roaster. Last weekend, my dream came true and I spotted this beauty in the meat section.
Why was I so interested in this bad boy? It comes in a cooking bag. There's no need to ever make contact with the chicken until it is cooked. Jim Perdue is my hero.

The directions seemed easy enough but I was nervous.
Step 1 : Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut open outer blue bag and remove Oven Ready Roaster Bone-In Breast, sealed in cooked bag, place in a shallow roasting pan, seasoned side up.
Kelly step 1a - Google "roasting pan". Determine that you don't have a roasting pan. Pick between a pan and a glass dish. I selected the pan.

Step 2: Cut one small 1 inch slit in cooking bag over the breast to vent during cooking. Note: Cooking bag will expand during cooking; allow enough room for the bag to expand without touching oven rack or walls.
Step 3: (From fresh, from frozen takes longer) Place pan with Roaster Breast (still in cooking bag) on lower shelf of oven and roast for approximately 80 to 90 minutes until internal temperature of the breast reaches 170 deg F.
Kelly step 3a - Put pan in hot oven, realize your top rack is definitely in the way, wish you were better at paying attention while reading, move piping hot top rack.
Kelly step 3b - Wonder who the heck has or needs a meat thermometer anyways?

Making Shawn earn his keep.
Ta-Da! It's finished.
But how does it taste?
The verdict is in...YUMMY!
Corn, chicken and caramelized onions. Mmm Mmm good.
I'm still roasterphobic but I think this counts as a teeny tiny baby step in the right direction.

Dude, You Just Got Iced

Tonight, I iced Shawn in the comfort of his own home. It seems like there should be some kind of rule against icing your own husband on your property. Unfortunately for Shawn, there is not. Sometimes I am just not a nice person.
What's icing? Please see the ABC Nightline clip HERE.

Monster

Monster standing room! Woot woot! We were lucky enough to have a chance at getting Monster tickets. We were only able to score standing room. But at $30 each, it's a great way to get on the Monster.

View from the Bleacher Bar before the game.
Shawn during batting practice.
Me looking very, very naturally athletic. Can you tell that I didn't play any hand-eye coordination sports?
View of the field.
Shawn and the newlyweds. The newlyweds, Mike and Alison, were just back from their honeymoon. It's a tough life.
During the game.
Me and a lobstah.
Me and a Papa Gino's slice. I immediately felt the need to confess to my lactose intolerance. Maybe that's why it looks like the slice is trying to strangle me a little.
We managed to work our way to the seats. First, we made it to the 2nd row and eventually to the 1st! Thank you to the people who paid big $$$ for these seats and didn't stick around!
Shawn's pics of Lansdowne St. I think these are titled "Ha ha, we're up here and you're not".

Zippy Shoes

Did you see these shoes on last night's episode?
Me neither. But Mom and Dad dvr'ed (how do you spell that?) the episode, so I can't wait to watch the race footage in super, duper slow-mo! Maybe our moment of fame is somewhere in there!

Congrats to Deb on finishing her 5k and making me cry my eyes out last night!

Watch Tonight

Watch Losing It with Jillian tonight and you might see a familiar face in the crowd or a familiar funny run with arms positioned for take off.

In our area, it airs on NBC at 10 pm tonight. Goooooooooooooooo Deb!

Karma is a Funny Thing

I've believed in karma for a long time -- not necessarily in the cosmic, come back as a jellyfish kind. But in the simple, what goes around comes around kind. But I recently learned that karma has a great sense of humor. Case in point: if you sign up for a 5k with a fake name (that's right, a fake name), karma will have a super star celebrity show up and race with you. Then you sound like an absolute weirdo when you try to brag to people.

I haven't participated in a road race for almost 10 years. For some reason, I recently felt compelled to run a 5k. I had two levels of goals. My base goal was to finish the 5k. My super goal was to finish in under 30 minutes. I was really nervous about the whole thing. I honestly didn't know if I could do it. I picked a dinky race with a wide range of finishing times for 2009. It was close to home so if I bailed, we didn't lose the day. I didn't register ahead. Instead, I showed up on the race day and signed up under a fake name.

While Shawn and I were waiting, we noticed that the race set-up seemed a bit more involved than usual. There was a professional boom w/ camera, lots of production people, a food services table, make-up artist, etc. That's odd. We thought that maybe they were covering it for the local news but that should be one reporter and a camera guy tops. Oh well, I had more pressing issues to attend to like using the bathroom 501 times and trying not to shart my shorts.

Finally, they lined us up in the starting area. Shawn wishes me luck and leaves. Then suddenly, he comes running back saying "Jillian Michaels is here, Jillian Michaels is here". Okay, yeah, we're regular viewers of the Biggest Loser but did I think he could spot her, no. Plus, why would she be at a dinky road race? Then over the loudspeakers, who's voice do I hear? Jillian Michaels. She was there to shoot for her new show "Losing it with Jillian".

Here she is pumping everyone up for the race.
Oh my gosh. I'm running my race with Jillian. I have visions of Jillian and Deb (the mother she worked with for this episode) passing me and it being displayed on national television. I had a new goal...don't embarrass yourself! If you see Jillian coming, run into the woods and hide until the camera crew passes you. No one needs to know. It will be our secret.

Team Deb at the starting line.
Team Deb at the finish line. Congrats Deb!

Things I learned:
1. Shawn is a risk taker. While I ran, he ate a plain bagel with cream cheese and sipped an ice coffee in the presence of Jillian. I would not want to make that lady angry with a nutritional black hole breakfast!
2. Jillian is tiny. Not in a gross way. She's petite. But whoa those guns are impressive.
3. Running Moms are amazing. I ran the last mile with a Mom who pushed her four year old in a stroller the whole time. Amy and Katy - you'll be happy to know that I told her she was awesome and that she was my hero (yeah I did). As we came in, she had enough gas to sprint to the finish while I tried not to trip over my tired feet.
4. I can finish a 5k. I finished a bit ahead of 30 minutes.
5. Technically, I beat Jillian in a road race (results). Oh yeah, except I didn't because I registered under a fake name. Nice one.

The One and Only Cure-All

There are lots of promises and wacko medicines available. But there's only one cure-all that truly delivers - ICE CREAM!
After having a sore throat for a week, nothing helped as much as this giant cone of sorbet. After playing frisbee golf, Shawn and I stopped by the Crescent Ridge Dairy for the first time. I just wanted a little something so I ordered the kiddie size. It's almost the size of my head!