You look at pictures like this (it’s St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church in Hingham, MA) and I can’t even imagine what life in snow-bound and frozen New England is like these days. I know as much as I’d probably want to turn around and grab the next plane bound for Phoenix or Las Vegas or Palm Springs or San Diego as soon as the plane touches down, there’s a part of me that would like to spend a few days with family and friends just to take the whole historical aspect of it in.

Fortunately (or not fortunately) there’s just too much going on around the Great White Shank hacienda to allow it, so I’ll just hang outside on my 70-degree patio and glare at the pool where our $500 pool vacuum sits at the bottom like some happy-colored Titanic on its side doing nothing. I’ve cleaned the debris out of the skimmer baskets and made sure the motor wheel isn’t jammed. So it will be down to the pool place this weekend to have the unit checked out in the hope I can avoid a third service call next week (the plumbers coming Tuesday to rip up our sewer line in the front, the landscaping company coming Wednesday to repair a broken irrigation line in the back).

Sigh. I’ve never been more ready for Vegas.

But enough about us, back to the misery back home. With all that snow and cold my Goodboys peeps need something to make them long for swaying palm trees and gentle breezes by turqoise-blue waters. So here you go – it doesn’t getter a whole lot better than Astrid Gilberto and Stan “The Man” Getz. Can you say taste, class, and appreciation?