"Children Should Never Mix Martinis"

So I screwed up the French Martini, I think; Sourpuss probably isn't an acceptable substitute for Chambord, though both are raspberry liqueurs. One sip of that and I decided I might as well be drinking a plain old vodka martini, so I made that next. Has the whole adult world known this before now, that the vermouth is added then poured off, leaving only the flavored ice?? That's an important concept, that up until now I've somehow missed. According to Cocktail Genius, "children should never mix martinis, they always use too much vermouth." Children and Mennonites.

Despite my cautious pouring off of vermouth, the plain vodka martini is also unpalatable. I eat the olives, then dump it.

My stomach has been bothering me a little, so a day without much alcohol probably won't hurt. I've started stealing Nexium samples from the clinic. I'm really not keen on taking it, because I should really take a multivitamin as well if I do, and multivitamins tend to upset my stomach. I think it's being on an SSRI that's the primary problem - but without that, it seems, I'm a wreck.

This book contains recipes for 300 cocktails, supposedly, but the last chapter, "pure & simple", is all non-alcoholic and there are 23 recipes there, and I'm not going to bother with those. So that means 277 drinks, and if I do that over the course of a year, that's only 5.3 drinks per week. If I make two some days, like today, and consume less than half of each, that's only three or four drinks per week, which is about what I normally do. Of course if decent red wine is open I have a hard time resisting that, so that would be in addition...

I'm quite enjoying this, though, and have made a grocery list for Winnipeg next week: every flavor of vodka, kumquats, pomegranate syrup, and so on. I'm hoping I can find some vodkas in tiny sizes. I haven't checked Atikokan's LCBO yet; I will this week, just in case, and I'll buy my final couple of Christmas gifts at Voyageur Books or The Enchanted Florest, and two rubber chickens for the kids' stockings, and I'll be ready for Christmas.