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Greg Cantori plans to downsize when he retires. Really, really downsize. His retirement home is 238 square feet — one-tenth the size of the average new American house — and sits in his Anne Arundel County yard. He and wife Renee can hitch it to a truck and take it with them wherever they go. "It's so cheap — that's what's so cool about this," said Cantori, 52, who envisions a surf-and-turf future, alternating between the house and a sailboat. "We bought the house for $19,000.

The Port of Baltimore led the nation in vehicle and roll on/roll off traffic in 2012 and surpassed previous marks for general cargo handling, state officials announced Wednesday. The port's public and private terminals moved 652,000 vehicles last year, up 18 percent from 2011. Roll on/roll off cargo, consisting of farm and construction machinery, was up 16 percent to 1.09 million tons. General cargo at the public terminals was 9.59 million tons, an increase of eight percent over 2011 and beating the old mark of 8.96 million tons set in 2008.

The 20th annual Howard County Volunteer Awards Luncheon will be held at noon Monday at Columbia Inn.Outstanding volunteers in each of six categories -- student, community group, business, individual/arts, individual/human services and individual/education-recreation -- will be given recognition.Sandra Trice Gray, vice president for Independent Sector in Washington and member of the board of directors of the Columbia Foundation and Howard County Arts Council, will speak.The event is sponsored by the Columbia Business Exchange, United Way Community Partnerships, Columbia Foundation, Association of Community Services, Howard County Arts Council and Howard County Government.

The Restaurant Association of Maryland is now accepting nominations for its annual awards, which will be given out at its 59th Annual Awards Gala on April 15. The public is invited to submit nominations in categories like favorite restaurant, favorite new restaurant, chef of the year, wine and beverage program and favorite food truck. The nominations page is here . Follow Baltimore Diner on Twitter @gorelickingood

Xtra Heat served notice with a rousing victory Saturday in the Barbara Fritchie Handicap that she is still a star at 4. The final word on her 3-year-old season will be delivered tonight at the 31st Eclipse awards banquet in Miami Beach, Fla. The Laurel-based filly is a finalist for a coveted Eclipse statuette in two categories: 3-year-old filly and sprinter. A sprinter has never won the Eclipse for 3-year-old filly. The other finalists are Exogenous and Flute. The other finalists for sprinter are Squirtle Squirt, who defeated Xtra Heat in the Breeders' Cup Sprint, and Delaware Township, who defeated her in the Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash.

Compared with the Grammy Awards, the Academy Awards have it easy. Year in and year out, the fundamental things apply in movies -- writing, directing, acting, illusion-making techniques -- and the 75th annual Oscars still have only two dozen categories. The Grammy Awards, which return to New York City tonight for the first time since 1998, suffer the perils of pluralism. Long ago, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences decided that, except for the top Grammy awards, it was unfair to pit classical music against pop, country against gospel or, more recently, polkas against Native American music.

Carroll County schools have maintained their status among the top-performing in the Maryland School Performance Program, in results released statewide yesterday as a school "report card."Superintendent R. Edward Shilling and his staff emphasized that Carroll schools have continued that trend while spending less per student than the state average and even less than Baltimore.He said he has told principals, as they share school results with the community, to "celebrate the success. I want the teachers to know we absolutely believe the reason for our success can be put right at their feet."

When Carlos Santana released his first album, way back in 1969, neither Ricky Martin, Backstreet Boys nor the members of TLC had even been born. So how must the veteran rocker feel to be competing against those young sprats for the Record of the Year Grammy? Probably about the same as Cher. When the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced its nominations for the 42nd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles yesterday, the slate for the top three awards -- Record, Song, and Album of the Year -- shaped up as a battle of the ages.

There wasn't even any film in the camcorder, remembers Nicole Roberts' mother, Brenda. But that minor technicality didn't stop 11-year-old Nicole and her neighborhood buddies from taping - or pretending to tape - "Monsters in the Woods," which they had written, cast and rehearsed. By then, Nicole had already distinguished herself as a visual artist. When she was little, she drew people proportionately with heads, necks, arms and shoulders, while her friends drew stick figures. At Sudbrook Magnet Middle School, a teacher told Brenda E. Roberts that her daughter "really had it."

An article about the Oscar nominations in yesterday's editions said that Al Pacino was the first male to win a nomination in both acting and supporting acting categories. However, in 1944 Barry Fitzgerald received nominations in the acting and supporting acting categories for the same role in "Going My Way." That practice has subsequently been disallowed by the Academy.

“The competition starts now,” Simon said at the beginning of the episode. I guess the last four weeks have been pretend. Sixty will become 24! No more joking around, this is serious.  We've got four groups; teens, young adults, over 25 and groups. Only six acts in each group will move on. Each group will get one mentor. I call this pop culture calculus 101. First group to get the news were the young adults. Right away, they called chetah face, I mean Cece Frey, up to tell her that she's through.

As it prepares to open its Atlantic Coast Conference schedule Saturday against Wake Forest, Maryland is in an unaccustomed position. The Terps - who lost their last seven conference games last season - find themselves as favorites to beat the Demon Deacons and avenge a 21-point loss last season. The Terps (2-2), who were beset by early-season injuries, are as healthy as they have been all season. In Wake Forest (3-2, 1-2 ACC), they will encounter a team ranked near the bottom of the ACC in most statistical defensive categories.

Derek Nie sat down in front of the camera at the Maryland Table Tennis Center in Gaithersburg and fielded the question from the television reporter. "Will [making the Olympics] make all this hard work worthwhile?" Derek, of North Potomac, paused and then shook his head. "No," he responds. "Because I still have to win the gold medal. " Never mind that the United States has never won an Olympic medal of any kind for table tennis. Never mind that Derek is just 11 years old, and never mind that he is about 4 feet tall and weighs just under 70 pounds.

In response to popular demand, this year's White Marlin Open will include a new category for small boats. The addition is intended to level the playing field for anglers at the 39th edition of the event, to be held Aug. 6-10 in Ocean City . "Over the years, people have expressed their opinion that we should do something with smaller boats, because maybe some of the smaller boats feel they can't compete against some of the bigger boats," said...

Statistically, UMBC was superior to Robert Morris in shots (47-32), groundballs (38-27) and faceoffs (15-6). But in the end, the only numbers that mattered involved the final score. The visiting Colonials outlasted the Retrievers, 10-8, in the season opener for both teams Saturday, and the outcome - not the other categories - is what resonated with UMBC coach Don Zimmerman the most. “It's disappointing to lose no matter what the stats say,” he said Monday morning. “It just lets us know that we were there, and we had an opportunity to win the game.

Children's book author Jerdine Nolen remembers the first time she saw her name in print. As a second-grader, she wrote a Thanksgiving poem that was published in the school newspaper, and she kept her eyes glued to the pink publication while walking home. "It was really a moment to behold to see my name in print," said the special-education teacher at Mount Hebron High School, who has published about a dozen books and picture books. Her latest work, a novel titled "Eliza's Freedom Road: An Underground Railroad Diary," is one of five books nominated for an NAACP Image Award in the category of Outstanding Literary Work — Youth/Teens.

The Maryland Bankers Association announced its 2011 Financial Education Award winners and, for the first time, The Columbia Bank placed in all three categories. The bank won first place in the Adults and Seniors category, and second place in both the Young Adults and School-Age Children categories. This past year marked the eighth year where members of the Maryland Bankers Association could showcase their banks' efforts by participating in Maryland Bankers Association's Financial Education Awards Program.

One category in the 1990 Great American Home Awards was especially hard-fought, according to Sara Chase, one of the six preservation professionals who judged the National Trust for Historic Preservation's second annual competition. While each of the categories -- including exterior renovation, interior rehabilitation and bed and breakfast inns -- had many worthy contenders, the "sympathetic addition" division was a particularly tough call.But when jurors gathered in Washington for a three-day session of reviewing materials, comparing notes and (as Ms. Chase jokes)

If Baltimore City schools and Basketball Academy officials have their way, the popular event will return to a college campus next year. Because of NCAA regulations banning "nonscholastic" high school basketball events from Division I college campuses, this week's 16 t h Annual Basketball Academy had to be moved from Coppin State to Lake Clifton. Basketball Academy officials, however, believe their event is a scholastic event. "I feel very confident we'll be back on a college campus," said Bob Wade, coordinator of athletics for the Baltimore City Public Schools.

Just after sunrise, a caravan of nearly 1,000 new cars begins streaming down the ramp of a massive cargo ship, a procession that won't end until evening. Mercedes-Benz and BMW models go one way. Land Rovers and other models go another. Some days, the routine at the port of Baltimore runs in reverse, with thousands of U.S.-made cars being loaded for overseas destinations. All that traffic means 2011 will turn out to have been a record year for the port of Baltimore's public auto terminals.