I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m thinking that today is the kind of day where I’m going to really want a strong drink.

When it comes to alcohol, I have had a long and diverse relationship. Back in my college days Dave and I used to think that a nice evening at home consisted of a fifth of tequila, some lemons, salt and a good game of M.U.L.E. on his AtariST (extra points if you actually know what that was). Then, once I started to make money in the whole dotcom boom, the drink of choice was scotch. Yes, a good single malt. Or “God’s way of saying you make too much money” as we used to call it. $150 a bottle? Didn’t even bat an eye.

We used to tell this story that on New Years Eve 98, during the height of the boom; we were all sitting naked in some guy’s rooftop hot tub. A case of Dom Peignoin and a box of smuggled Cuban cigars were ours for the night. The conversation ran from topics like who’s IPO was going to pop first to the upcoming sailboat we were chartering in the Caribbean. Fast forward 2 years to New Years 00… we are naked in some guys bathroom tub, drinking thunderbird out of paper cups, smoking swisher sweets and talking about how soon our unemployment will run out.

These days when I drink, I usually stick to a nice pint of Guinness. I find that I can nurse one of them for a long, long time and not wake up in the morning feeling like the cat shit in my mouth during the night.

However I do have a penchant for a certain pink and ever so flamingly gay cocktail… the Cosmopolitan. You see, one year a certain lover and I made it our quest to find the perfect Cosmo in Seattle. Every Friday night we would dress to the hilt and cruise the town in search of it. We hit the big, swanky hotels and the divyest of dive bars in search of the perfect Cosmo.

Let it be known, the gayer the bar…the better the Cosmo. Period.

Monk’s Perfect Cosmopolitan
2 parts Raspberry Stoli Vodka
1 part Cointreau
3 parts cranberry juice
(Squeezed lemon or lime) Just a pinch
Crushed Ice, not cubed!
¼ cup Sugar

Pour sugar into small wide bowl or dish. Wet rim of martini glass and dip in sugar so just the outer rim has a ring of sugar crystals.

Pour the rest of ingredients into sharer and shake with crushed ice and strain into a chilled martini glass. The perfect drink will have tiny bits of lime and flecks of crushed ice floating on the surface of the drink.

Of course what I fear is that by the end of today, I’m just going to want a double Maker’s Mark served neat.