This week’s cocktail is a pre-prohibition-era concoction called The Old Pal (it has a pretty good story – you can read more about its history here: http://cold-glass.com/2013/03/05/the-mystery-of-the-old-pal-cocktail/).

Why an Old Pal?

Well, it feels as if we have an old pal helping us with this sewer pipe problem. Thanks to some very hard work by a city employee, who – as luck would have it – used to live down the street from where we’re building and knows our neighborhood and its magical wonderfulness well, we’ve reached a mutually agreeable solution to the pipe problem. Weather permitting, work should begin Monday.

After a not-so-helpful conversation with a locally owned window retailer, we found an “old pal” in the form of a Home Depot employee named Chester. Thanks to his heads-up on a 15% off sale on Andersen windows, we’ve figured out a way to use super energy-efficient windows in this house while keeping the cost under budget.

And finally, we spent the weekend with the best of friends (who live both near and very far away) and we learned that few things recharge your battery better than old pals and a properly placed sewer line.

The Old Pal

1½ oz rye whiskey
¾ oz campari
¾ oz dry vermouth

Combine all ingredients and stir with ice until very cold. Strain into a chilled cocktail stem. Serve with orange or lemon.

Have you ever been so busy you didn’t have time to open a box of wine? Yeah, me neither – until this week. Things are moving along, we’re working with the city and we had a productive meeting with the builder in which we sorted out some glass wall and window stuff.

Coming up next week: what to drink when that ‘great little mom ‘n pop window shop’ turns out to have pretty jerky customer service while the big box ‘home improvement’ store you wanted to avoid really knocks it out of the park in terms of customer support.