To Cook a Potato

My roommates all went to Galway this weekend, I however contracted the plague and had to stay home. For those of you keeping score, this is the second time I've claimed to have caught the plague, the other time was a false alarm, I am legitimately sick this time. 

Friday night found me sick and alone in the apartment. I was hungry, the cabinets were empty. I turned to our sole food item, a sack of potatoes (how stereotypically Ireland can you get!) and decided that a baked potato would be both easy and delicious. 

I carefully read the directions on the back of the bag, which simply stated "Stab with fork, put in oven for 1 hour". Sounded hard, but I could do it. I gave the potato a couple of extra stabs just for good measure and put it in the oven. Feeling proud of myself I went off to go watch the Office while I waited for my meal to cook. One hour later I opened the oven to find said potato, warm, but in no way cooked. Alright....lets give it another half hour, and lets put it on the top shelf where its hottest. 5 minutes later the room fills with smoke, my potato has burnt, but not cooked. hmmm.....lets move it back down to the bottom shelf. 

Moral of the story is that 1 hour and 45 minutes after placing it in the over, I still was left with a very raw potato. Major failure, I cannot even cook a potato.