I was chicken about cooking chicken

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I have the taste buds of a seven year old and I'm a very inattentive cook (by that I mean I boil water and walk away until I remember that I'm cooking).
That being said, this year is the year I change that. Learning to cook and eat well is a goal I've set for myself. There's no specific things I want to make or try eating, but in general to expand my scope.
Monday my office was closed for MLK Jr. Day, so I decided that I'd cook dinner for my mom and Rich. There's a great cookbook I found in a used bookstore that breaks down how to cook staple foods right down to "properly chopping an onion."
Cleaning the clucker was terrifying and I probably would have made a great vegetarian. After rinsing it in cold water, trimming the fat around the cavity (aka its butthole, but this is a POLITE blog) and patting it dry with a paper towel, it was placed in the pan.
My mom pointed out that I put it in upside down. Thanks, Ma.
After setting the oven to pre-heat at 450 degrees it was veggie chopping time. I used an onion, a leek, a few carrots, a beet, 6 garlic cloves, and about 12 golden finger potatoes. I stirred in some olive oil, salt and pepper.
While chopping veggies I chopped an extra onion and garlic cloves. I stuffed the chicken with the onion and jammed the garlic cloves under the skin along with a butter/salt/pepper mixture. The whole chicken was then smothered in butter and a freshly squeezed lemon (which was also promptly stuck up its butt).
Everything went in the oven for an hour.
Since I knew I couldn't leave the kitchen for awhile so I made some lemon dill rice as an extra side dish: Boil 2 cups of broth and a garlic clove, add rice and simmer until the liquid disappears. Remove the garlic clove and add a few table spoons of chopped dill and butter.It was delicious and no one died from eating raw meat: SUCCESS.