It's very satisfying to build a proper cocktail.

Especially because in our house, it usually involves antique implements, setting something on fire, or, on really good nights, both!

Yeah, it does. A highball is just booze plus mixer. 7&7, Rum and coke, etc.

But they aren't made better by being put in a glass! Rum and coke is made better by adding a lime, but then you have three ingredients! Is what I was getting at.

I think a cocktail needs a garnish. Twist of lemon for the 7&7 and a lime wedge for the rum & coke. Therefore if you take a swig of diet coke, add some vanilla vodka and squeeze a little lime before you swallow that'd be a cocktail.

antique implements

Pete makes all the cocktails?

That's why you have simple syrup. Rose's is yuck compared to real lime.

As a serious gimlet drinker, I respectfully dissent.

I will agree with Hec, though I'm likely biased since even at home, mine are made by a professional.

I avoid the problem by drinking beer or wine at home. Though wine involves a glass, which is a dish to wash. (I refuse to drink wine out of the bottle, because even though I can eat a whole family-size box of Oreos in one sitting, there's just something unseemly about drinking a nicely aged cabernet right out of its bottle.)

And I am going to have to agree with bon bon, at least when the gimlets are made by me. I LIKE the Rose's.

In other news, now I have the special events assistant sitting outside my office door, and she's making follow-up calls to some invitations we sent out. Practically everyone she's calling is Someone, and I can tell she has no clue who any of them are. It's kind of funny, really.

Pete makes all the cocktails?

I'm going to tell him you said that, missy.

But no, I'm the drink-concoctor in the household. Last night's Tasty Beverage was vanilla vodka spiked with sweet carob balsamic vinegar. It smelled exactly like perfume I'd wear. It tasted pretty good, too.