Can you believe we’re headed into summertime already? Wheeeeeee! Is your swimsuit bod ready yet? Are you hankering for some good tunes by the pool? Then head over in your finest scanties to "Five-Finger Slippy," the Manor's popular new jazz and supper club, because DJ Li'l Scratch is spinning tunes by a terrific jazz singer who only put out a handful of LPs. We're talking the incomparable Frances Wayne. Ain't she lovely? Or "bella" as her parents might have said, since she was born of Italian immigrants in Boston. As for her singing, sometimes when you have it, you know it and you know it early - and so does everyone else around you. Frances hit New York city as a teenager and almost immediately found herself in high demand, singing and touring with the Charlie Barnet and Woody Herman bands, amongst others, and creating a solo sensation at nighteries in NYC and L.A. In short order, she nabbed a recording contract, later scoring one of her biggest hit...

Holiday cleaning? Who's up for it? I don't know about you, but our place is a minor mess of wrapping paper, gifts that need to be put away, dishes that need to get washed, and all sorts of holiday rigamarole and detritus. But I don't want to deal with any of it right now. In this hazy time between Christmas and New Year's, all I want to do is eat spanakopita, meet friends for cocktails, cuddle with hubs and Elder Cat, and maybe go to the movies if we can motivate ourselves to do so. Meanwhile, at Peckerwood Manor, the the Bunz Boy™ cleaning staff is busily rubbing and buffing every inch of the manse (and themselves) for those of you already returning and for those returning after New Year's Eve. How clean is your house right now?