Abound

Signs of spring abound - and melted snows are lending springtime force to the cascading waters at Lake Roland in Robert E. Lee Park. This piece of wilderness, in Baltimore County off Interstate 83, features miles of hiking and jogging trails and is a popular spot for dog walkers. To see a multimedia presentation go to baltimoresun.com/waterfall.

In the aftermath of No. 13 Johns Hopkins' devastating 8-4 loss to then-No. 7 Loyola last Saturday, senior defenseman Tucker Durkin said the week of practice leading up to Friday night's contest at Army would be the most important one of the season. Coach Dave Pietramala said he has been pleased with the players' effort and attention to detail Monday and Tuesday. But one thing the Blue Jays are not paying attention to is their tournament profile. “We don't really talk about it because we can't control that,” Pietramala said Wednesday morning.

"Aprons: Icons of the American Home" by Joyce Cheney (Running Press, 143 pages, $24.95) With vast affection for motherhood, a collection of aprons curated by Ms. Cheney has toured 15 cities. This catalog, cleanly designed and delightfully illustrated, is a small coffee table gem. There are aprons old, and aprons way out new. Imagination, irony, ceremony, utility, ornamentation, ritual, antiquity and outrageousness abound. Apparently, the actual use of aprons is in decline -- but this book might just reverse the trend.

Those stories you tell about your roommate from hell just might pay off. Live Baltimore is running a contest, offering a $100 prize package for the best worst roommate tale. A front-runner is Jennifer Anne Jobson, who talks about her freshman year roommate, who was sharpening a big knife the first time they met. One day, the girl -- who liked to eat fried chicken in bed -- took the knife to Jobson's mattress, some of her clothes, their rug and their bean bag chair. She also used it on a squirrel, which she left, dead, in Jobson's bed. Another person had a roommate that peed in the bathtub.

During a visit in 1827, John Quincy Adams described Baltimore as "the Monumental City." Nearly two centuries years later, it is still easy to see why. Monuments abound in the city. "To the Memory of the Unknown Dead," erected by the Women's Relief Corps Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic, sits in the National Cemetery. One standout statue sits at the Clifton Park golf course - "On the Trail," a statue of a Native American that was donated in 1916.

1 Shoot 'em up: The NBA regular season begins, and TNT has a doubleheader (Cavaliers-Celtics, Trail Blazers-Lakers) starting at 8 p.m. 2 What's it all: about, Ralphie?: Check in with our Maryland blog, baltimoresun.com/ terpsblog, to see what Ralph Friedgen has to say about his team. 3 Tournament action: Regional semifinals in field hockey abound today, including Towson at defending state champ and No. 3 Fallston (3:30 p.m.). 4 They are Marshall: Your Tuesday night college football: Houston at Marshall (8 p.m., ESPN2)

Oyster beds lie dormant.Open-mouthed shells abound,Headstones of days of plenty.Rotting hulls of treasured work boatsDot the sloughs,Discards of another time.Once they plied distant sounds,Harvesting nature's$ subaqueous bounties.Now, defiled, desecrated,An unfitting end, anunjust reward;Desolation abounds.When the sea was freshand fertile,Youths were eagerly followingWatery paths of rugged men.With dying time setting in,Riding pitching gunnelsIn the half-light of morning,Wet, cold, discouraged,With each lick tendering lessyield,The mind entertainssobering thoughts.

For every "champagne dream" suite, there are dozens of beer-budget flats sprinkled about, all clean, comfortable and conveniently located.In England, you can pick an apartment in fashionable Mayfair or Kensington, or find a reasonable rental near Piccadilly.Heading out to the countryside? Vacation cottage rentals abound, from Cornwall to the Cotswolds and beyond.In the mood for the posh in Paris? High-fashion apartments abound in the Right Bank. And funky Francophiles can take their pick on the Left Bank.

COMING UP Jazzy Summer Nights, taking place on First Thursdays through September, strikes again next week with performances by Fertile Ground (right) with Marcel and the Truth. The event takes place at War Memorial Plaza at City Hall (Fayette and Gay streets) at 5 p.m. Admission is free, lawn chairs are welcomed, and no open containers are allowed. For more information, visit www.visionary marketinggroup.com. NOW OR NEVER It's not often these days that you get to hear the music of the Beatles live.

The bad guys in "Les Vampires," French director Louis Feuillade's 1915 movie serial, don't suck blood, they steal jewels. And Bela Lugosi is nowhere in sight (although one of the actors looks suspiciously like him). But this 10-part, eight-hour silent journey through the streets and along the rooftops of Paris, as a nasty band of thieves (led by the sinister Irma Vep, played by Musidora of the Folies Bergere) prey on the rich and powerful, is more than eerie enough to warrant tonight's Halloween-season airing on TCM, beginning at 8 p.m.Grotesqueries abound (at one point, a box is opened to reveal ... a severed head!

The last time Yasmin and Adil Degani bought a home, they took the traditional route. They went with a commission-based real estate brokerage to show them homes and guide them through the homebuying process. This time around, in an effort to save money and time, they decided to try an emerging path. The Odenton couple went with Redfin, a "technology-powered brokerage" that employs salaried agents and encourages buyers to use online profiles of homes to determine what properties to tour.

"Is there any way out other than the main stairs?" I asked. My husband, our real-estate agent, the seller's agent and I were standing in the finished basement of a home in Owings Mills. It was a vast space: a nice bathroom, a media room, a room big enough to waltz in and another room with hidden panels in the walls for stashing who knows what. There was even a fireplace at the bottom of the stairs, creating a spa-like atmosphere. But no, the selling agent said that there was just the one staircase, noting that some people like having only one way into the basement because exterior doors attract thieves.

With country music blaring, honky-tonk decor, and a menu stacked with smokehouse favorites, Cowboys & Rednecks (also known as CNR) is hardly shy about its theme. We half expected the hostess to greet us with a "Yeehaw!" CNR's owner, Federal Hill resident and big-time country music fan Guy Naylor, opened the bar in late 2011, imagining that it would be a fun addition to his neighborhood. Local bar-hoppers agreed; CNR is often packed to overflowing on weekend nights. CNR's success as a bar is uncontested, but its status as a go-to restaurant is less confirmed.

A Basket, Vera Bradley and Pandora bingo will be played today (Friday) at the American Legion Bernard L. Tobin Post 128, 44 N. Parke St., Aberdeen. Tickets are $12 ticket, $5.00 for extra. Doors open at 6 p.m., early bird is at 6:45 p.m. and bingo begins at 7 p.m. Sponsored by Aberdeen High School girls basketball. Tickets available by calling Brenda Conjour, 410-273-7332. Food and drinks available. Bring a canned good and/or non-perishable for bonus prize ticket. The all-you-can-eat breakfast at Harmony Lodge will be held on Saturday from 7 to 10 am. Happy birthday wishes go to Ruth Sales on her 103rd birthday celebrated on Dec. 28. Birthday wishes go to my niece, Isabelle Glatts, who turned 14 on Jan 3. She is the daughter of Susie and Jimmy Glatts and little sis to Kelsey.

Whitney Collins' head hung low Sunday as he walked down South Charles Street in Federal Hill in his purple Ed Reed jersey. He had abandoned his pricey seat at M&T Bank Stadium more than 10 minutes before the Ravens game had ended to numb the pain of a lopsided loss in a nearby vodka bar. "I said, 'Forget this,'" he said. "I'm going to watch it at the Stalking Horse so I can drink more. " Monday, he said, loomed like a thorn patch, taking an already bruised ego after Baltimore's 34-17 drubbing from the Denver Broncos, and rubbing it raw with taunts he expects in his U.S. Navy office in Washington.

Jutting out from Persimmon Point on the Broadneck Peninsula, the view from 1128 River Bay Road is expansive and expensive. From the private dock, the Magothy River stretches to the left as far as you can see and to the right to where the river empties into the Chesapeake Bay. Across the way the homes on Gibson Island dot the shoreline. Built in the 1950s as a shore home for the Pumphreys, one of Cape St. Claire's prominent families, the home was sold to a son, who replaced it five years ago with a contemporary home.

Junk English, by Ken Smith (Blast Books, 142 pages, $12.95) In his introduction to this work of splenetic splendor, Smith writes: "Junk English is much more than sloppy grammar. It is a hash of human frailties and cultural license: spurning the language of the educated yet spawning its own pretentious words and phrases, favoring appearance over substance, broadness over precision, and loudness above all." Then he gets mad. I am entirely on his side -- and who really respects truth in communication and justice in expression cannot be?

IN THIS bear market and business slowdown, should you be looking to buy securities? "These stocks beat the S&P 500 in the past four recessions," says Standard & Poor's research, "and their issuers remained profitable throughout each severe business downturn." The list includes Abbott Labs, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Hershey Foods Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp., Pfizer Inc., Philip Morris Cos. Inc., Procter & Gamble Co. and Wisconsin Energy Corp. CHEERFUL NOTE: "The purchasing power of baby boomers has more impact on company fortunes than the price of oil, interest rates or politics.

Prince George's Little Theatre opens its 53rd season by bringing laughter to Bowie Playhouse with playwright Paul Slade Smith's "Unnecessary Farce. " The company's choice of this 2006 whodunit comedy (which is making its Baltimore-Washington area premiere) underscores PGLT's commitment to fun. Audience members can expect to be amused by improbable situations where bumbling characters resort to disguises while dealing with cases of mistaken identity and increasing mishaps. Devoid of brainy pretensions and usually lacking in witty dialogue, the standard farce is mostly physical, with frantically paced action.

As an NBA assistant coach since retiring after a Hall of Fame career, Patrick Ewing might have a better seat than many of his contemporaries to compare this year's U.S. Olympic men's basketball team to the fabled Dream Team of 20 years ago. Ewing was one of 11 Hall of Famers on that team and played in the shadow of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and even Charles Barkley in Barcelona. But Ewing doesn't't think the current team led by LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant could compete for one simple reason.