Fred has a lot of hangover discomfort which may be caused by those toxic chemicals formed during fermentation known as congeners. His drinking along with his friends’ visits and hangovers are causing his marriage to suffer. Vodka is said to have the lowest congener content with gin being next and those are Fred’s drinks of choice. However, it’s another story with the buddies he hangouts with. They drink everything else, including the blended scotches which have four times the congener content of gin. Brandy, rum and pure malt scotches have six times that amount, and bourbon eight times. 
Fred’s wife, Marla now 39 is contemplating ending the marriage even though she is able to tolerate Fred’s drinking. However, she feels her marriage is on the rocks because of those three friends that he hangs out with (Jim, Mike and Greg). She is frustrated and has a difficult time coping since all they want to do when visiting her home is drink, argue politics and sometimes play a little poker.
If Fred doesn’t have the liquor in the house they bring it with them. If not, they head for the nearest liquor store and then want to make a weekend of it with Fred and Marla. Recently, Marla started serving fatty foods – a variety of cheese and cold cuts like salami. She’s also tried to get them to use water as a mixer with the alcohol thinking the carbonation would speed the absorption of alcohol. Fred can cope with his hangovers because he takes aspirin, tries to rest and hope time will do the rest. However, Greg and Mike’s marriage ended and they have no one to go home to and their hangovers have Marla’s on edge. Jim’s in a marriage, but his wife does TV commercials and lives on the other side of the country and only makes it home on average five to six days a month; he has no idea if his marriage will last.
Marla and Fred have a marriage without children, but she often confides to Fred that she feels they’ve adopted three kids. Fred thinks she is over reacting, but Marla is totally stressed and is seriously considering talking to an attorney though she would hates to go that route because otherwise she has a happy marriage even after 18 years. At the same time, Marla’s frustration is growing because she hasn’t been able to convince Fred to see a marriage counselor with her.
