Surprise, surprise!

One of the things that goes to Idaho every year is a fully stocked bar. When the fisher folk get home in the afternoon, they clean their catch and their own filthy bodies then it's toddy time. The Engineer takes orders from Gramma then the Twin's Wife and the Kidlette (a nubile and adorable girl), then the Twin. Occasionally he even asks me if I would like something. The Twin's Wife is a vodka martini drinker (two olives, please.)

The Engineer took her order the first afternoon, got out his silver shaker (I said full bar) added ice, vodka, vermouth and shook it up good. He poured it into a martini glass over the requisite two olives and gave it to the Twin's Wife. It looked lovely.

She drank it, but with a rather odd expression, and asked for another which the Engineer produced with a flourish before heading outdoors to fire up the grill.

She sipped her second martini, made a face and said, "This tastes strange. Does 100 proof vodka taste different than regular vodka?"

She sniffed the bottle and passed it on to me.

I sniffed the bottle and said, "It sure doesn't smell like vodka."

Kidlette took the bottle, sniffed it, then upended it and chugged about half of the contents.

Gramma and the Twin's Wife practically had heart attacks right there.

Kidlette staggered theatrically, then announced, "It's water."

Only thing we can figure is that one of the contractors working on our basement drank the bottle dry and refilled it with water at some point after New Years when the bottle had been opened.

The Engineer was not a happy camper. Fortunately, it being a full bar and the vodka being a partial bottle, he had brought a second, unopened bottle.

(P.S. I'm very pleased with the way my digital martini drawing came out.)