Author: rkelleyc

Shortcuts, Hacks, and Systems for Painless Meal Prep

/ rkelleyc / Leave a comment

Each week, my goal is to plan simple, healthy meals that require the least amount of “active” time. Here are a few tips that I’ve learned along the way, ranging from how to pick what to make, how to simplify the shopping and planning process, and a few shortcuts to get food on the table quickly.

Deciding what to make:

  • Think about what you like to order when you go out to eat, and then search for a copycat recipe online. My favorite is Chick-fil-a style grilled chicken!
  • Follow food influencers on social media and save your favorite recipes to make the next week. My favorite is Jack Perez on Instagram.
  • When looking for recipes, prioritize crockpot recipes, sheet pan dinners, or one pot meals.
  • Look at active time, not just total time. Also how many ingredients does it need? And how many dirty dishes is it going to make?
  • Consider starting with an “ingredient of the week” and thinking backwards. I usually start with a healthy base like lentils or sweet potatoes, but it could be as simple as picking what you already have on hand.
  • Keep a list of your favorite recipes. Rotate, don’t re-invent!

Planning and shopping for the meal:

  • Make a plan and save your recipes. There’s nothing worse than buying ingredients and then losing the recipe!
  • Look for shortcuts! My favorite is buying pre-diced onions and pre-made sauces. I also keep minced garlic and lemon juice on hand.
  • Shop online! You can shop for the best price, avoid junk food, and go back and forth to your pantry to see what ingredients your already have. I love to use Harris Teeter’s online pickup service!
  • Look at Harris Teeter’s “FoodHealth Score” and it’ll recommend healthier options. I haven’t tested this feature yet but it seems that Harris Teeter also has a way to input a recipe and it’ll auto-add the ingredients.
  • I’ll usually plan 2-3 meals at a time, with each meal making 6-8 servings. When thinking about which meal to make first, think about which ingredients will go bad first.
  • Have one hustle meal in mind that you could make later in the week but also won’t go bad (maybe a frozen pizza?). Keep some backup options in the freezer if you run out.
  • Buy staples like pasta and rice in bulk.
  • Date everything in your fridge and pantry!

Shortcuts and tips for getting it on the table:

  • Always use the air fryer or crockpot when possible– I hate cooking chicken on the stove.
  • Use AI to fix annoying recipe formatting. Paste the link or text into ChatGPT or Gemini and ask it to embed the ingredient amounts directly into each instruction step. It can also scale the serving size up or down or as needed.
  • Clean up as you go, and use parchment paper on baking sheets for easy clean up.
  • Start potatoes in the microwave and finish them in the air fryer.
  • Pre dice and pre portion chicken or ground beef before putting it in the freezer.
  • Cook a large batch of chicken and use it for two meals. For example, if I’m grilling chicken, I may make half barbecue chicken and half Mediterranean chicken.

My favorite recipes so far..

Want more?

  • Send me a message to join my weekly email with new recipes.
  • Check out how my cooking style has changed since college. Previous blogs include “How to Food” and “Less than Four and Under 20.”

Calculating Savings from a High Efficiency Heat Pump: A One-Year Follow-Up

/ rkelleyc / Leave a comment

A little more than a year ago, my HVAC bit the dust and I replaced it with a new high-efficiency heat pump. I wrote about this extensively in the post, How to heat (and cool) your home: Choosing between Natural Gas and an Electric Heat Pump. In that post, I promised a one-year follow-up, and have spent the past 12 months combing through every utility bill to bring you these insights.

My annual utility bill dropped by 11% after upgrading to a high-efficiency heat pump

In the simplest sense, my annual utility bills went down by 11% ($283.79) between 2024-2025 (with the old system) and 2025-2026 (with the new system). This was pretty close to my projection of 13% when I bought the system, however, that projection assumed that energy prices would remain the same, which, unfortunately, is not the case.

After adjusting for higher energy prices, the savings rate was closer to 18%

Between these two periods, the average price of electricity went up by 4.28%, and the average price of natural gas went up by 13.70% (note inflation was around 4.2% during this period). This helped justify my decision to move from natural gas to electric heat, but brace yourself… Duke Energy is currently seeking to raise electricity rates by 11.6% starting on January 1, 2027.

To strip out the effects of the higher energy prices, I went back and applied the 2025-2026 energy rates to my 2024-2025 utility bills. In this scenario, my “adjusted” utility bill for 2024-2025 would be $2,801.43 (a $210.78, or 8% increase, from the actual total of $2,590.65). By comparing the 2024-2025 “adjusted” utility bill of $2,801.43, to the 2025-2026 actual utility bill of $2,306.86, the new system actually helped save $494.57, or 17.65%!

I wasn’t able to adjust for the different weather between the two years, however, according to memory (and ChatGPT), the 2025-2026 period had colder winters and hotter summers that the previous year. This means that the new system likely had to work harder in the latter period, which downplayed some of the cost savings. We reasonably kept the thermostat at the same temperature across this two-year period, so I assumed that didn’t affect these calculations.

I saved money on both cooling and heating my home, although the biggest savings came from the more efficient cooling

Swapping the air conditioner from a SEER 13 to a SEER 17.5 was a pretty big upgrade. On paper, the new system should reduce energy consumption for cooling the home by 25.7% (1-(13/17.5)). After adjusting for the rate hike in 2025/2026, my calculated savings on cooling between June-Aug. 2024 and the same period in 2025 was 24.41%, so that calculation was pretty spot on. The savings from heating was also significant (12.4%-18.6%).

So the new system will pay for itself in… 28.5 years?

It’s not worth buying a new HVAC system just to lower your utility bills. But if you’re buying a new system anyway (like when mine broke), it’s worth considering a high-efficiency model. It may cost more upfront, but you should be able to get the difference back pretty quickly.

For example, the upfront cost of the high efficiency system was $17,500, whereas I also got a quote for an entry-level system from Sure Comfort for $14,500. So the high efficiency system cost $3,000 more upfront BUT I also got a $2,000 tax credit and $1,400 in rebates from Duke Energy. After accounting for the credits and rebates, the nicer system actually saved me $400, and that’s not even accounting for the energy savings and increased reliability of the nicer system! The federal tax rebate has since expired, but it’s still worth looking into local rebates, and factoring in energy savings over time.

If you’re looking for a heat pump, the two key numbers to look for are the SEER rating (how efficient the air conditioner is) and the Coefficient of Performance, or COP (which measures the efficiency of the heating system). With both numbers, higher is better. I’d recommend looking for an Energy Star rated model, and one that has a “cold climate” designation. Check out last year’s blog for more to get into the weeds on efficiency.

Loyalty is Overrated

/ rkelleyc / Leave a comment

I got a wakeup call on February 9th, 2017. It came in the form of an unexpected email from Nationwide. It read, “Hi Ryan. Your dad and I were talking about the car insurance this morning and he wants me to quote your 2002 Toyota Camry on its own policy for you.”

This was my dad’s tough love way of kicking me off the family insurance plan and I was pissed. Especially when I got the bill in the mail for $1,023.16. But it did help me learn an important life lesson… loyalty is overrated. Have you ever seen the Geico commercial claiming that “15 minutes can save you 15% or more on car insurance”? Well, it took a lot longer than 15 minutes but my record is 46%. By 2018, I’d dropped the comprehensive insurance on my aging car to get the premium down to $776 (24% savings), and then scored another 29% savings by switching to Erie at $552/year (which was down 46% from that original Nationwide bill).

Over time, I’ve collected quotes from 13 different insurance carriers and changed companies three times. I know that seems ridiculous but then again between 2023 and 2025, my insurance bill with Erie went up by 48% ($3,897 to $5,787)! Just the homeowners portion of the bill was up 77% over that two year period. I pressed my agent on this and she forwarded a canned message from Erie corporate. It read (in part), “There is no way to sugarcoat that this is going to be the most challenging period we have seen with regard to personal auto and home insurance.” Whatever. I switched to NC Farm Bureau to save $1,023 (18%).

My rate with NC Farm Bureau actually went slightly down between 2025 and 2026 ($4,763 to $4,643) but it still never hurts to test the market. One particularly honest agent sent me a candid note, “Currently, I do not have a competitive quote to offer or recommend switching from your current carrier…” Thankfully my friend (and now agent) Zach helped me to find a split policy (Erie for auto, Utica for homeowners) that actually provides better coverage than my prior policy, while still saving $684 (15%).

A few lessons learned as a consumer:

  1. Check with an independent broker (or two) who can shop multiple carriers on your behalf. Shopping for quotes is hard… It typically requires picking up the phone, figuring out how to make an apples to apples comparison for different policies, and then ending up on a spam list. A good broker can do this heavy lifting on your behalf. Want to borrow mine? Reach out to zach.routh@allchoiceinsurance.com.
  2. Track your data! My goal is to pay the full premium up front, not think about insurance for a year, and then keep a record in a Google folder of how it changed since last year. Don’t put it on auto-pay, otherwise you might get complacent and just let it auto-renew.
  3. You don’t have to keep your auto and homeowners policies with the same company if bundling isn’t actually saving you money. For example, splitting coverage (like using Erie for auto and Utica for homeowners) can sometimes provide better overall coverage while still saving you money.
  4. Don’t skimp on the liability coverage just to lower your bill. For example, I could deal with a slightly higher deductible but it’d be a lot tougher to recover from a $1,000,000 lawsuit.
  5. Disclaimer… Insurance isn’t a commodity so you need to be careful about what you’re signing up for. When comparing different proposals, I’ll read the policy (including the riders), check their reputation via Consumer Reports, Reddit, and a general web search, and review the Company’s AM Best rating, which rates the financial health of the company. And aside from the coverage numbers highlighted on the quote, you need to understand what’s covered and what isn’t. That can make a big difference! With the most recent switch, I upgraded from an HO-3 policy (Farm Bureau) to an HE-7 policy (Utica). An HO-3 will cover all “named perils” like a fire, theft, or hail, whereas an HE-7 will cover any accidental loss unless it’s specifically excluded. So just as a wild example, if a raccoon broke into my house and tore up all my furniture, I’m covered under the HE-7 (subject to a $2,500 deductible).

A few lessons from Zach, a friend and independent agent (that doesn’t work off commission):

  1. If you can afford it, raise your deductibles. Then put aside the amount of the deductible in an emergency/rainy day fund, so you have that money on hand if something were to happen. Upping your deductible will likely significantly lower your rate.
  2. Read your policy and make sure your information is correct. It can sometimes saves some extra cash, but most importantly, you know your needs way better than any agent or carrier, and you don’t want to be up a creek in a claims situation because you didn’t check the details.
  3. State minimum liability requirements terrify me. North Carolina increased the requirements for automobile liability coverage in the summer of 2025. However, having the minimum is exactly what it sounds like. $50,000 of Property Damage Coverage seems hefty until you consider that $50,000 is basically the average cost of a new car these days. If you are wondering why I recommend $250,000/$500,000 for Bodily Injury Coverage, take a second to think about where all the money comes from to plaster injury attorney advertisements on our billboards and televisions.
  4. Ask an agent. Sure, you can acquire insurance in minutes on your phone, and it might save you money. But there is a tremendous value to working with a local insurance professional who is invested in your well-being rather than a bottom line.
  5. Talk to an agent before you file a claim. Insurance companies can drop you for claims experience (or raise your rates), so before you file, make sure doing so is in your best interest.

Discovering the Real Peru: Photos and Insights from Machu Picchu

/ rkelleyc / 1 Comment

You’ve probably already seen the professional photos of Machu Picchu. So here are a few pictures of what a trip to Peru really looks like, with a few educational tidbits tied in. It’s a long trip to get from North Carolina to the top of Machu Picchu but definitely worth it!

  • Any trip to Peru starts in Lima. It sits at sea-level, but the elevation reaches as high as 22,000 feet in other parts of the country.
  • Their electricity grid is a tangled byproduct of rapid urban growth, a mix of old and new infrastructure, and a focus on function rather than beauty.
  • Traffic is a gorilla! Peru’s primary mode of communication is honking and squeezing through spaces I wouldn’t dare.
  • The good news is that things are very affordable compared to the U.S.! This was part of a three course meal for 40 soles, or about $12.
  • There are lots of dogs that just hang around town. They don’t beg and they’re not homeless– their owners just let them roam throughout the day.
  • Llamas are everywhere and they’re goobers. Before the Spanish arrived with horses, the Incas used llamas to transport up to 100 lbs / up to 20 miles per day.
  • This llama recovered gracefully from falling. Not pictured, Peru is also home to alpacas.
  • The Incas built terracing systems into slope terrain for agriculture. This helped with drainage, irrigation, and creating different micro-climates for different crops.
  • There are two very different styles of architecture throughout Machu Picchu. The near-perfect style on the bottom is reserved for sacred places, and so tight/secure it can survive earthquakes.
  • There was an estimated 750 people living at Machu Picchu at its peak. The site is thought to be a royal estate for the Incan emperor.
  • Climbing at elevation is tough! I spent a lot of time trying to keep up with Brittany.
  • Some of the stones at ancient sites can weigh up to 100 tons, and crossed valleys and mountains to get to their final resting space.
  • In traditional Incan attire, this woman is naturally dying alpaca fibers before making it into clothing. Alpaca is similar to wool but generally warmer, softer, and better for sensitive skin.
  • The Larco Museum in Lima has some pottery that’s over 2,000 years old. Lots of erotic pottery too.
  • Here’s John showing everyone on how drink Pisco, a unique spirit from Peru. It’s most commonly used to make their famous cocktail, pisco sour.
  • We skipped eating the traditional food of cuy (guinea pig). They’re way too cute.
  • These aren’t crop circles, this is Moray, believed to be the Inca’s test site for growing and adapting crops to different elevation and micro-climates.
  • When travelling, do as the locals do! This is Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, the 9th Sapa Inca (emperor) of the Kingdom of Cusco and later the Inca Empire.
  • My Spanish speaking abilities are good but not good. I tried ordering two scoops of ice cream and got two cups of ice cream. Close enough!
  • Need a beer? You can get one for 12 soles (~$3.50) from the vending machine at the airport.
  • Not really sure why the TSA bin is full of confiscated nightsticks?
  • This is the Spanish Qorikancha built on top of an Incan foundation. It was a long way to get here but worth it!

From the archives: The Revolution Sheds Light on Elusive “Boy Cliques”

/ rkelleyc / Leave a comment

Around 2011, I was co-editor in chief of the school newspaper and tasked with writing an article about high school cliques. I don’t remember exactly how this article came together, or why it was allowed to be published in the school newspaper, but the good news is my writing (and general world outlook) has gotten a lot better since then… knock on wood. Without further adieu, here’s a highschooler’s take on cliques…

Girls have given cliques a bad name, and that is why men don’t have cliques.

A clique is defined as an “exclusive circle of people with a common purpose.” While many males often hang out with a specific group of people, or “crew”, these are very different from cliques. 

An example of one of these so called guy “crews” is The Revolution. It consists of six members: juniors Carter Fields, Matt Stockburger, Zach Routh, George Oliver, myself and sophomore Thomas Fallanca. This group is aptly named after a Dave Chappelle skit in which Prince refers to his crew by this name. 

“The Revolution is more than just a group of people,” Stockburger said. “It’s a lifestyle. We make Taylor gang look like a bunch of wusses.”

In order to find out more about guy “crews”, I took the liberty of asking some members of the Revolution what The Revolution is, and how it is different from a clique. Here are some of their responses. 

  • “Oh man, this question separates the boys from the men from the boys,” Fields said. “Good thing I watched that documentary on those red fire trucks last week!” 
  • Routh said, “Well this one time at band camp…”
  • Fallanca declined comment, saying that he “ felt more comfortable ordering with Denise.”
  • Oliver stated, “What isn’t the Revolution? We do what we want. We have our own name. We do the most fun stuff. The other day we watched Megapython while making special pudding.”

While girls often give cliques a bad name, guy crews are out in the world causing mayhem and making a name for themselves.

 Fields explained that The Revolution has made a habit out of ziplining out of windows, liberating traffic cones, playing Fruit Ninja… seriously, and carrying half-baked cakes into Harris Teeter.

Oliver said that the group has made a habit of watching extremely poor and low budget films in the Fields’ basement. “We go onto Netflix and pick out the movie with the lowest amount of stars. My favorite has been Megashark vs. Giant Octopus by far but we’ve also seen Megapython vs. Gatoroid, Dinocrock, and Godzilla,” Oliver said. 

While The Revolution may not sound like a very intelligent group, five of the six members have competed on academic team, while Carter is still hoping to get on the general knowledge team for sports. “I like turtles,” Fields said. 

“When the group is together,” Stockburger said, “We like to stick to the three D’s; Dave Chappelle, doing other stuff and driving. What can I say, that’s a pretty average day for us” he continued. 

The group shares a brotherly comradery that girls will never get to experience. After all attending the same college and being in the same fraternity, the group plans to move into the same neighborhood and dig underground tunnels to each of the members houses. 

If you have any more questions on what a typical day might look like for a group of guys or for The Revolution, check out The Revolution’s website at www.totalfreakingawesomeness.com/werule [2026 note: unfortunately this domain has since expired].

As Stockburger says, “I’m pretty sure the American war for Independence was named after us. We’re kind of a big deal.”  

The Price of Hope: Analyzing the Cost of UNC Football Season Tickets (2021–2026)

/ rkelleyc / Leave a comment

UNC football was absolutely awful last year, which is making the high season ticket renewal price tough to swallow.

When UNC hired Belichick just before the 2025 season, the season ticket price spiked by 69%, from $275 in 2024 to $465 in 2025, despite 2025 having one less home game than the prior season. On one hand I get it… UNC’s got some big “Bills” to pay between paying the players, coaches, and ongoing facility improvements. But the bigger budget clearly didn’t lead to more wins, with UNC finishing 4-8, their worst finish since 2018.

Despite last year’s disappointment, the university set the 2026 season ticket price at $470, a $5 increase from the huge spike in the prior year. Are UNC fans going to pay the price to give the team another chance? The optimist in me says this could be the year to watch a historic turnaround in person. The Heels will likely have four ranked opponents on their schedule (TCU, Notre Dame, Miami, and Louisville), with three of those matchups being played at home. I’d be kicking myself if UNC won all (or even just one) of those games and I wasn’t there.

I think we’ll find out pretty quick if this will be UNC’s year when UNC faces off against TCU in Ireland on August 29th. By the way, traveling to that game in Dublin is going to be a very tough sell for Heels fans after TCU spanked UNC 48-14 last season.

Season Ticket Prices are up 124% over the past five years; blame Belichick and the NIL era

And fans are getting less bang for their buck… UNC only won two home games last year, so the price per win was effectively $232.50.

However, UNC will host three ranked opponents this year (Notre Dame, Miami, and Louisville), so blind hope may help to sell the high ticket price

Looking Ahead…

Higher ticket prices are likely here to stay following the beginning of the NIL era in 2021. The reality is that we’re not just paying for a college football game anymore, we’re paying for the talent and infrastructure of a professional sports program. Most “Power Four” schools are budgeting $20M+ to pay the players. Notably, Tennessee already added an explicit 10% “talent fee” on top of their season ticket price to help cover their roster’s payroll. While UNC hasn’t added an explicit “talent fee”, the 124% jump in ticket prices over the past five years tells a similar story. In this modern-day arms race, hope isn’t just a feeling— it’s a line item on the university’s budget, and it’s coming out of the fans’ pockets.

Analyzing ticket price trends: How far in advance should I buy to get the best price?

/ rkelleyc / 2 Comments

Most people intuitively know that the best opportunity to find a deal on tickets is just before the game. But is that one day before the game, or one hour? And how much can you actually save?

To find out, I (along with my editor George Oliver) manually tracked the price of five UNC basketball games over time; both daily and then again at multiple intervals on the day of the game. We tracked these prices on seatgeek.com, the official ticket reseller for the university. We also tracked two categories of tickets; the cheapest overall ticket (usually meaning the upstairs corner), and the cheapest lower level ticket.

Key Takeaways:

The Six Hour Golden Window: In every tested scenario, the best ticket price was available on the day of the game, usually between six hours before the game, up until the actual tipoff. As a rule of thumb, prices generally stayed flat until about 72 hours out, and then began to slide downwards. For example, the cheapest ticket to the Wake Forest game decreased from $92 (three days before the game) to $27 at tipoff, a potential savings of 71%! However, the downward slide isn’t linear, and prices can actually spike in the last 60 minutes leading up to the game (particularly for bigger conference games). For that reason, I’d recommend checking ticket prices at regular intervals on game day, and pulling the trigger when you see a standout value.

But watch out for volatility! Ticket prices can have big swings at any time, and often for no discernable reason. The bigger games exhibited the most dramatic swings, and the lower level tickets often showed significantly more variability than the upper level tickets. While nerve wracking, that variability also presents the opportunity for even bigger savings on lower level tickets. Just look at the FSU game. Three days before the game, lower level tickets were trending around $150. Thirty minutes before tip-off, tickets hit a low of $44, but if you hesitated, those tickets rebounded to $63 just fifteen minutes later. If you held out until game time, the price crashed to $34.

How to Plan Ahead: Sometimes you just can’t wait until the last minute to get tickets. In that scenario, I’d consider buying directly from the university at goheels.com. They only sell the less desirable upper level tickets (the good tickets are snatched up by season ticket holders), however the list price is usually less than if you bought a similar ticket from the University’s official re-seller at seatgeek.com. For the FSU game, for example, GoHeels.com had the cheaper price on 27 of the 47 tracked days (57%). However, as noted above, the tipping point is typically around 72 hours before the game. On the day of the game, tickets on seatgeek.com plummeted as low as $19, less than a third of the $62 list price on goheels.com.

Other factors that warrant additional study… There wasn’t a clear trend that UNC’s wins and losses affect future ticket prices. However, preliminary results suggested that late night weekday games are more likely to generate last minute bargains. I’d further predict that ticket prices are also dependent on the weather (e.g. some fans don’t want to travel in the rain or extreme cold). I’d also be curious if the trends noted above would hold true for other sports like UNC football or the Carolina Hurricanes. If you’re interested in further exploring these areas, let me know your hypothesis… my friend Ryan L. has already offered to write a program to automatically track ticket prices.

Diving into the Data:

Ticket prices are relatively stable up until ~3 days before the game

Lower level tickets often show more volatility than upper level tickets (which can lead to even better last minute values)

If you do want to plan ahead, and are fine with upper level tickets, consider buying directly from the university at GoHeels.com. In this example from the FSU game, GoHeels.com was often cheaper, but it’s worth checking both sites.

The best time to buy is usually between 6 hours before the game up until tipoff

But watch out! Ticket prices, especially for lower level tickets, can spike in the final minutes leading up to the game (ECU, FSU, and WFU)

Do you have another hypothesis worth testing? What should I track next? Let me know!

Recapping the 2025 Fantasy Football Year: Lowest Points and Fastest Chugs

/ rkelleyc / Leave a comment

The rules of the Revolution league are always the same– if your fantasy football team scores the least amount of points across the entire league for the week, you have to chug a Smirnoff Ice and send video proof to the group. Unfortunately, my team came up short the most times this year.

Ryan’s team struggled, ending 4 weeks with least amount of points

*Carter still holds the record for most weekly last place finishes over time (29) by a pretty high margin.

*Robert (aka Bobby) is the only player who hasn’t had to chug an ice over the past two years.

*Will’s team showed tremendous improvement, going from 4 chugs in 2024 to none in 2025.

Despite only finishing one week with the lowest points, George still finished the season in last place. Bobby rightfully captured first place.

Andrew dominated the Ice Chugs and it wasn’t even close

*If you don’t send the Ice video by Thursday of the applicable week, you have to chug an extra Ice for every week that you’re late. Andrew was two weeks late following his Week 1 loss, meaning he had to chug three Ices, back to back to back. Andrew didn’t let us down; in fact, his third consecutive Ice was faster than every other chug over the past two years by more than an entire second. His only competition came from Jacob, reminiscent of their competition during the Revolution Taste Test Challenge (which Jacob won).

Highlights from the 2025 Season

  • Jacob’s Holiday Chug
  • Evan’s filter chug
  • George was confused and ended up on the ICE website?
  • Andrew’s Iconic Three Ice Performance
  • Ryan iced in public (with Bobby cleaning up some spillage)
  • Zach in fighting shape
  • Carter Repping the Cubs
  • Nathan dressed as a leprechaun??

Want more? Check out last year’s stats here.

The Revolution Taste Test Challenge

/ rkelleyc / 1 Comment

Every party needs two things; a good theme, and good food.

Over Thanksgiving, my friends combined both elements into one event dubbed the “The Revolution Taste Test Challenge.” Each person brought three different varieties, brands, or flavors of a certain food or drink, and we spent the party taste testing each food and trying to determine which one was which. Here are the winners, along with few takeaways that may help you out on your next shopping trip.

Winners:

1st Place: Jacob

  • Jacob led the pack with 20 correct picks. And he gets major props for winning the tiebreaker (which we later found out wasn’t necessary due to an incorrect tally). We gave both Jacob and Andrew two cups and had them guess which one was Smirnoff Ice and which one was Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Only Jacob was wise enough to know that both were Mike’s Hard Lemonade.

2nd Place: Andrew.

  • Andrew came in second with 19 correct picks, but the crazy thing is that he left three categories (representing 10 potential points) completely blank because he was too busy entertaining others. Of the 25 guesses that he actually made, he got 76% of them right, which is insane compared to the group average of 42% (and Jacob’s first place score of 57%). Note Jacob and Andrew both got five categories perfect.

3rd Place: George

  • George got 16 of 32 picks right (50%), and got four perfect categories.

Hot Takes and Lessons Learned:

  • 100% of people know that Poppi is different from Coke and Pepsi, but only 9 out of 13 people (69%) could differentiate between Coke and Pepsi.
  • Only 3 out of 11 people recognized Halo Top (the healthy ice cream) compared to its full sugar counterparts. So you might as well get the healthier Halo Top ice cream.
  • 100% of people confused Barbecue Wings with Honey Barbecue wings. I’m thinking George and Maggie mixed up the labels…
  • Six of 12 participants (50%) thought the instant mashed potatoes were homemade. My recommendation– don’t waste your time making homemade mashed potatoes.
  • Seven out of 10 people (70%) can correctly identify a bottom shelf glass of wine. However, the difference between a mid and upper-mid shelf bottle of wine is harder to distinguish. So next time you’re at the store, go with your gut and buy the second cheapest bottle of wine.
  • 11 out of 12 people correctly identified homemade guacamole. It’s just different, and in my opinion, probably worth the extra time.
  • Zach’s mom makes a really awesome Moravian Sugar Cake.
  • For cookies and mac and cheese, buying the store brand is probably just fine. Only 3 out of 11 people (27%) could correctly identify Harris Teeter cookie dough, and only 3 out of 13 people (23%) could correctly identify store brand Mac and Cheese. Those odds are even worse than a true guess (33%).
    • That being said, it may be worth buying brand name mozzarella sticks. Five out of 13 participants (38%) correctly identified the store brand mozzarella sticks, which is just better than guessing. This doesn’t mean that the store brand mozzarella sticks necessarily are worse (or better) than the brand names, but the data suggests they may be just slightly different enough to notice.
  • Are you a water snob? Most people can’t tell the difference. Only our top two testers (Andrew and Jacob) got all three water picks correct. And while Dasani gets a lot of hate, only 4 out of 13 participants could pick it out of a crowd of premium brands. For the most part, water is water.
  • 75% of participants could correctly identify Gouda, but 42% confused Cheddar with Monterrey Jack. It’s important to know how to lay out a cheese board, but it’s also okay to use a little creativity/flexibility.

Want to really dive into the data?

Here’s the summary table below, or click here for the source data and more analysis.

Celebrating One Year of Zach and Spencer

/ rkelleyc / 1 Comment

About a year ago, two of my best friends tied the knot. Zach had given a knockout speech at my wedding the year before, so here’s the toast (and light roast) that I gave to the happy couple. It seems to have worked because they’re happier than ever today. Cheers to many more!

Zach has been my best friend since the third grade, although it feels more like I’ve been a part of the Routh family since the third grade. 

When we were little, Mr. Routh would take us to high school football games, Mrs. Routh would take us to events at Christ Moravian, Nathan would pick on me and Zach, and naturally, me and Zach would pick on Jacob. We even went to Laurel Ridge together in the third grade, although I got homesick and didn’t go back until Spencer hosted Zach’s 30th birthday party at Laurel Ridge a few months ago. 

A few years later, Spencer, Zach, and I all went to the same high school. I didn’t know Spencer at the time but apparently Spencer knew who Zach and I were. And apparently, she thought Zach and I were cool, although I’m not really sure why. Me and Zach were on the academic team, which wasn’t exactly very popular. And just to put Zach’s coolness in perspective,  some of his hobbies over the next few years would include reading books about traffic, taking classes about lawn care, and growing a mullet. But hey at least Zach had the football thing going for him at the time. 

As far as I know, Zach and Spencer probably met at Laurel Ridge when they were in high school, although I’m not exactly sure because I never went back to camp because of the whole third grade incident. Anyways, I think it took a few years for Zach to become cool enough for Spencer to finally give him a shot. They reconnected a few years later in 2018 and I could tell Zach was totally smitten. I don’t think I ever told Zach but I definitely remember thinking, “dude she’s way too cool for you.”

At the time, Spencer’s best quality, at least from my eyes, included the fact that her parents had a sweet beach house. But over time I learned that she has so many other amazing qualities. And as their relationship grew, Spencer quickly integrated into our friend group called the Revolution. She fit right in with the boys because she’s always down to camping, sit through back to back football games, scheme on new business ventures, and even invite us to her parent’s beach house. But as time went on, my favorite thing about their relationship is that it’s never felt like I’ve been losing my best friend to a girl, it feels like me and Zach have both gained a new best friend.  

Spencer, I’m trusting you to take over some of the daily duties of being Zach’s best friend. These duties include hiding photos of Gio Bernard around the house, always keeping a stash of Smirnoff Ice and banana liquor on hand, and making up games that always put Zach at a slight disadvantage. But I’ve got to warn you that being Zach’s best friend isn’t always easy. I don’t remember why but in 2008 Zach posted on my Facebook wall, “Hey I just kicked Blake’s ass and you’re next.” And one piece of advice– don’t ever make a sports related bet with Zach. One time Zach and I were playing basketball, I lost a best on a half court shot, and had to sleep outside on the porch that night. 

Zach, I’m not sure how you did it, but you really did hit way out of your league in finding Spencer, and I couldn’t imagine a better match for either of you. 

Zach and Spencer, I love both, don’t miss your 7am flight tomorrow. Cheers! 

Note Zach has been a regular feature and contributor to my blog. See more of Zach here.