Comfortable

The main problem with laptop computers is that they're not very comfortable to use on your lap. First, today's hot microprocessors put out a lot of heat, which is often vented downwards through the bottom of the computer. As a result, a reasonably powerful computer can wind up slow-roasting your legs. Second, your lap isn't a very stable place. Move a leg or squirm a little - which is going to happen when you get cramped enough from sitting with your legs together with a computer balanced on them - and your expensive PC winds up, with a "thunk," on the floor.

Sunrise Senior Living asked interior designer Emily Henderson to redo the apartment of resident who uses a wheelchair resident at its Washington facility. From that experience, Henderson created tips and advice for other seniors who are downsizing. "The biggest issues are storage and organization," she said. "But the important thing is that your home should look like you at any age, and you should have your favorite things around. " Henderson was given free rein by the resident, Fran Ferguson.

Does a recumbent bike work different muscles than a traditional stationary bike, or is it just designed differently for comfort? The recumbent bike, in which you sit in a reclined position with your back supported and your feet outstretched, is gaining popularity these days at the gym. Mark Milani, a trainer at the Downtown Athletic Club, in Baltimore, says, "If we're making a choice around here, most of the people are going for the recumbent cycle."...

The sweat and nerves that accompanied St. Mary's journey to the NCAA tournament turned into a leisurely jaunt after the team had upset reigning national champion Salisbury, 13-11, in Sunday's final of the Capital Athletic Conference tournament and earned the automatic qualifier. It was a relaxing moment for a Seahawks program that had never advanced to the NCAA tournament until Sunday. “Well, it definitely took a little pressure off,” coach Chris Hasbrouck said with a chuckle Monday afternoon.

The instinct among human beings to live in the open is as natural as their instinct to find shelter. But to indulge that impulse effectively at home, you must have the equivalent of outdoor rooms, spaces that are every bit as alluring, inviting and comfortable as indoor areas. For a porch, patio or backyard deck to be truly livable, it has to meet the same standards set for indoor rooms. It has to cater to physical, visual, emotional and even spiritual needs. To get the most out of an outdoor space, ask yourself what purpose it will serve.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Jeff Conine switched gloves again yesterday, slipping on a smaller model to take ground balls at third in an ongoing experiment by Orioles manager Mike Hargrove. Having spent most of his career at first base or the outfield, Conine is being tried at the hot corner this spring. He made four appearances there last season, his first since before the 1995 season while playing for the Florida Marlins. It wasn't always pretty, but it also wasn't enough to scare off the Orioles from trying again.

Liz Claiborne, who was one of the first designers to dress the American working woman and built a vast business using her name as a recognizable brand, died Tuesday at New York Presbyterian Hospital from cancer. She was 78. Her personal assistant, Gwen Satterfield, reported her death yesterday. Ms. Claiborne, who began her career in New York in 1950, was one of the most recognizable names in fashion in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly among women who wanted quality, career-appropriate clothing and style, too. Ms. Claiborne and her husband, Arthur Ortenberg, founded Liz Claiborne Inc. in 1976.

The vote of confidence was not necessarily needed. Backup quarterback Chris Redman already felt comfortable about his standing with the Ravens. So even though coach Brian Billick reiterated earlier this week that Redman would be the No. 2 quarterback next season regardless of whether Randall Cunningham signs, it had little effect on Redman. "I can't control any of that," Redman said. "I just have to go out there and do what I do best. If Randall does come in, I think it will be a positive for me. Whenever you can be around a great quarterback, you can grasp knowledge from him. You take a little bit from everybody and hopefully get better."

Olive W. Dennis, whose work as a research engineer for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad made railroad travel vastly more comfortable for passengers, occupied a unique position in the railroad industry for more than 30 years.As supervisor of passenger car design and service, Dennis had wide-ranging influence in the area of creature comforts, and many of her innovations remain in use today. They include designing the railroad's famous blue and white Colonial dining car china.For passenger comfortShe was an advocate of air-conditioned coaches and individual reclining seats covered in fade-resistant upholstery in a variety of colors.

It would be correct to say that the current-generation Chevrolet Corvette has remained essentially unchanged since its introduction as a 1984 model. But it also would be misleading.Indeed, America's sports car still looks much as it did, and is fundamentally the same mechanically. But over the years, the raw rookie has slowly metamorphosed into a refined veteran. The car's enhancement has been a tour de force in substantive automotive evolution.There has been a steady procession of technological advances, such as anti-lock braking and adjustable shock damping, and the replacement of the crude original manual transmission with a slick, six-speed ZF gearbox.

Winning last year's Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament was a breakthrough for Loyola. This spring, the program was just an overtime loss to Denver on April 13 away from completing an undefeated season in the league and earning the top seed in this week's conference tournament. The No. 5 Greyhounds (11-3) will face No. 8 Ohio State (10-3) in one semifinal Thursday night at Hobart in Geneva, N.Y. No. 3 Denver (11-3) and No. 19 Fairfield (8-6) will tangle in the other semifinal.

Of the 11 different players who have started in UMBC's midfield, freshman Pat Young has the most starts with 11 and junior Conor Finch is second with six. Next on that list is senior Joe Lustgarten, who has made five starts after spending the last two seasons as a starting attackman. As the Retrievers prepare for Thursday's America East tournament semifinal against Hartford at Stony Brook, Lustgarten is slated to make his fifth consecutive start in the midfield. In the team's last four contests, he has scored four goals on nine shots and assisted on five others.

Penn State has had a run of the neighborhood for as long as anyone can remember, from its years as the most successful independent Division I-A football program on the East Coast and a national power, to a little more than the past two decades in the Big Ten. As the Nittany Lions continue to rebuild and rebrand in the aftermath of the off-field child abuse scandal that ended the legendary career of Joe Paterno in 2011 and brought unprecedented sanctions...

If you've ever heard a baby fox screaming for its mother on a dark spring night - foxes can sound eerily human - you'll know why a team of volunteer firefighters in Harford County was alerted to the howls of a desperate pup trapped in a storm drain in Edgewood late Tuesday. But thanks to the yipping plea for help, the furry redhead ended up getting a ride in a fire truck and spending the night with a bunch of firefighters at the Joppa-Magnolia Volunteer Fire Station. The firefighters are "tasked with protecting lives, not just human," the station said in a news release.

There is no set criterion for a great dive bar. A dingy bar can have character. An unassuming exterior could hide a spectacular interior. Sometimes, the right jukebox is all it takes. But all great dives are unified by one factor: They possess an instantly comfortable atmosphere. That can come from a warm bartender, cheap drinks or an overall lack of pretension. The really good ones have it all. Coach's Rendezvous (which was called Rendezvous Lounge before new owner Ray Harcum took over)

NEW YORK -- After going through an early-season 1-for-18 slump, third baseman Manny Machado is starting to find his comfort zone in the No. 2 spot in the Orioles batting order. Since hitting the game-winning home run in the team's 8-5 comeback win in Boston on Wednesday night, Machado is 6-for-12, including a three-hit game Thursday and two hits Friday against the New York Yankees. His game Friday will be remembered for hitting into a triple play that ended the eighth, but Orioles manager Buck Showalter said before Saturday's game that he's proud of the way Machado has put some early struggles behind him in his first full big league season.

The rain is coming down in sheets and the sky over Glen Burnie is the color of boiled cabbage, but you don't care.A hundred yards up Ritchie Highway, a late-model Honda Civic has hydroplaned into a Ford Taurus and the Taurus looks like it might be in the body shop until the Al Gore presidency, but you don't care about that, either. In fact, you don't care much about anything right now, because you're inside the vast, quiet, cocoon-like elegance of the La-Z-Boy Furniture Gallery, your body melted into a recliner so comfortable it may take a cattle prod to get you out of this baby.

Female Trouble: Stories, by Antonya Nelson. Scribner. 249 pages. $24. Nearly all of Nelson's 13 stories are satisfying because she is able to limn from the banality of domestic comfort insistent little truths that linger like incense. First among these revelations is how women are just as capable as men of stirring up a perfectly comfortable life until it is subverted and forever changed. It is in "Palisades" that one finds Nelson at her most challenging. Here, a woman in comfortable circumstances feels compelled to topple the bourgeois good fortune of her predictable life.

BOSTON - The steady season that Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy had defensively in 2012 - which was capped by his first career Gold Glove Award - hid the pain that Hardy played through from spring training to the final game of the postseason. After nearly every throw he made, Hardy would feel a sharp pain in his shoulder. Often, he'd shake his arm to get the numbness out, and over the course of the season he needed two cortisone shots to help alleviate the pain. The injury - a muscle imbalance that he's dealt for years with with varying degrees of discomfort - hasn't completely gone away.

When the Hontz family lost their Hanover home to a fire last summer, it wasn't long before they started missing the basic necessities. First, it was a toothbrush. Then, a Band-Aid. But for Lauren Hontz, who was just 9 years old at the time, all she really wanted was a blanket to call her own. The family quickly received more blankets than they could possibly use, which gave Lauren an idea. If all she wanted was a blanket after her fire, then wouldn't other people want one too? With this in mind, she asked her parents if they could donate the extras.