Room

Last week we learned that adult children of divorce will almost always revert to childish behaviors. Case in point, Briana, the daughter previously known as The Most Reasonable Person in Orange County, dissolved into a impertinent, recalcitrant, petulant brat upon meeting her mother's boyfriend. This week Briana grows up and fights like a big girl … but we'll get there soon enough. Elsewhere in the O.C., there are tiaras to be worn and bling to be bought as Alexis goes all out for her little princesses, and Slade decides to declare Gretchen his queen.

In an effort to make guests' experiences more "distinctive," the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, N.J., is undergoing a $51 million face-lift that includes refurbishing poker and guest rooms. The Borgata opened in 2003, but hotel officials said it was time to freshen up. "Having such high customer volumes and almost 50 percent of the poker market share in Atlantic City, it was simply time," said Joe Lupo, the hotel's senior vice president of operations. Renovations to the poker room, which opened in 2006, include new carpeting throughout the 21,500-square-foot area and installation of 23 flat-screen TVs. The hotel also introduced The Boardroom, a high-limit poker lounge that requires a minimum buy-in of $10,000.

In the wake of WWE's Over the Limit pay-per-view, a new Intercontinental champion has been crowned, four other champions continue to hold onto their titles and John Laurinaitis remains employed. Sunday night's show delivered an evening of quality entertainment and good in-ring performances. On a non-major PPV event, WWE delivered a product that surpassed the expectations of many. Here's a match-by-match look at the show: Battle Royale This last-minute addition to the card was a means of crowning a No. 1 contender for one of the midcard titles.

ADVERTORIAL CONTENT The allure of city living continues to draw interested homebuyers to downtown Baltimore. With its historic landmarks and social centers like the Inner Harbor, it's no wonder so many are looking to call downtown Baltimore their home. In response to the growing demand for new construction homes in the city, Ryan Homes has opened the doors to the lowest-priced new townhome and condominium community in Baltimore, Wyndholme Woods. Perched on a hilltop with a picturesque wooded setting, this metropolitan oasis combines the convenience of an urban lifestyle with the charm of low-maintenance, suburban living.

Sometimes the small things make all the difference in professional wrestling. Too often, critics -- especially those on the Internet -- nitpick every decision WWE makes and find the logical or creative flaws. Many times, this creates an unnecessary sense or allegation of failure. But on tonight's Raw, WWE (or, more specifically, general manager John Laurinaitis) made a mistake that is almost unforgivable. While I personally wasn't offended by Sunday's match between John Cena and Laurinaitis at Over the Limit , many people have lashed out against the match.

Deputed Testamony is 32-years-old. His dark brown coat is shaggy, and his biggest excitement is going into his paddock at Bonita Farm for three or four hours of grazing each day. He is a pensioner, an icon. The oldest living winner of a Triple Crown race. But when Billy Boniface looks at the horse in his paddock, he sees the striking colt that was born and trained at the family farm and raced to victory in the 1983 Preakness - the last horse bred or trained in Maryland to do so. "Oh my gosh, I still get goose bumps when I look at him and remember that day," said Boniface, who was 18 then and had just taken over the breeding operation at the farm.

Q: I have lived for several years in a stately old home with a wood-paneled dining room. As much as I have enjoyed this sedate setting, it's time to give the space a new look. Pulling out the panels, which extend about two-thirds of the way up the walls, is unthinkable to me, but I'm prepared to replace theheavy oak furniture. How can this room be made more appropriate for contemporary furnishings?A: Lots of people would love to have your problem. Wood paneling is usually considered a great asset in a room, giving it a certain masculine air because of the color, weight, detailing and texture of old carved oak. Still, I can readily sympathize with your desire to achieve a lighter, less somber look.

I n Jim Slayton's and Rob Hradsky's living room, a verse has been painted in flowing script over the camel-back sofa. It reads: "Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." For the two men, that simple saying is indicative of their life's work, joy and sacred pledge to the care of their four adopted children and the reason for their move into a 6,500-square-foot Colonial-style home in Woodstock, Md. "We have a commitment to adopting," said Slayton, a nurse in the Howard County Public School System.

From a table on their deck, Greg Grenier and his partner John Heizer can sit and admire the beautifully landscaped garden below them. Amid tall oak and maple trees that shield like an umbrella, the outdoor room is enveloped and protected from the summer sun. "It's almost like living in the country," said Grenier, 65, who works for the Foreign Service. While the feel is delightfully bucolic, the location is the Reservoir Hill neighborhood in Baltimore. Grenier and Heizer, the 61-year-old director of music at Zion Lutheran, purchased the townhome for $240,000, an excellent deal given the fact that it was previously and impeccably restored by the prior owner, who worked in the Smithsonian Institution's American Furniture Restoration Department.

MY WIFE IS a sportswriter. This is good and bad. The good part is this: Say I'm lying on the sofa watching pro football, and my team, the Miami Dolphins, has the ball, and it's third and four, a situation in which the Dolphins, after considering all 3,487 of their offensive plays, always decide to send the running back into the middle of the line for a gain of two yards. Always. The other team expects it, as does everybody else watching the game, including stadium-dwelling cockroaches, who wave their feelers to indicate: "Here goes the running back up the middle for two."

Taylor Cummings couldn't imagine going through high school without playing three sports. The McDonogh senior briefly considered giving up basketball a few times but could never let it go. It fit right into the flow of her school year as she moved easily from soccer to basketball to lacrosse. Cummings has put together perhaps the most impressive run ever by a local high school girl. No other athlete in Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference history has played on three straight championships teams - in three different sports.

Baltimore's own Stacy Keibler was front and center Thursday night for her boyfriend George Clooney's record-breaking fundraising fete for President Obama. She may have missed being at Clooney's side for the recent White House Correspondent's dinner. And she may have missed that state dinner that he attended a few months ago. But, ending speculation (at least for the moment) that the two of them are on the rocks, she wasn't going to miss this. Guests paid $40,000 each to be there.

The Orioles have placed right-handed reliever Matt Lindstrom on the disabled list with a right middle finger injury in order to make space on the 25-man roster for tonight's starter, left-hander Dana Eveland. Eveland's contract was purchased from Triple-A Norfolk, and the Orioles designated minor-leaguer Zelous Wheeler for assignment in a corresponding 40-man roster move. Lindstrom allowed his first earned runs of the season in the second game of Thursday's doubleheader (3 runs, two earned, in one inning)

I believe to this day that I accepted the job I was offered at the Evening Sun in 1981 because of the Bromo Seltzer clock. The route from the airport took us right past the downtown tower that (at the time) still defined the Charm City skyline, and I was immediately taken by it. It was retro. It was kitschy. And it seemed real. Just like Baltimore in 1981. Although I'd come to town for an interview at the morning paper, Bob Keller, then the editor of the afternoon paper, was clever enough to snatch me up at the airport.

If the julep ceremonial previously described is too fussy for you, I offer a traditional drinking game from the Commonwealth.  Two people go into a room. Each has a bottle of bourbon.* They sit at leisure, drinking and talking.  When the whiskey has been consumed, one of them stands up and walks out of the room. The other tries to guess who left.    *Please, no Tennessee whiskey. 

NBC News announced Friday that Brian Williams' ratings-impaired, journalistically-challenged "Rock Center" newsmagazine will have a report on what it was like inside the Situation Room on the night Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy Seals. I guess bowing to the president and hiring the secretary of state's unqualified daughter as a special correspondent should be worth something, shouldn't it? Check out the breathless language in the first paragraph: "In a first for network television," "unprecedented access" and "exclusive airing.

Editor's note: A rhyming Scottish folktale passed on to the author by her grandfather recounts the outcome of Lachie MacLachlan's hospitality.There was a wee house in the heather --'Twas a bit o' a but and a ben --And in it there lived all togetherLachie MacLachlanAnd his good wife,And his bairns to the number of ten."There's a fire on the hearthstone to warm me,And porridge to spare in the pot,"Said Lachie. "The weather is stormy,So me and my wifeAnd our ten bairns,Will be sharing whatever we've got."

Backgrounds are very often a designer's first concern. That's because they establish a tone and a direction for an entire setting.I find it helpful to think of a room's background as a sort of envelope. It sends a message while also enclosing all the contents. Careful attention must be paid to the background, which includes the walls, floor and window-covering, regardless of whether one is creating a palatial interior or something much more modest. The textures, colors and patterns chosen for these surfaces invariably will have a major influence on a room's overall appearance.

The new John Hopkins Hospital opens this weekend and that means there is a new emergency room for adults and children. Beginning Sunday at 7 a.m., the public, police, ambulance crews and others will need to go to 1800 Orleans Street. The current entrances on East Monument Street will close. The new entrances are next to the front entrance to the new hospital. Patients also are being moved this weekend from the old hospital buildings. A parking garage is directly across the street from the entrance for non-emergency visitors.

Our Harford County Public Library was given a opportunity to expand its "Journey Stories" partnership with the Maryland Humanities Council and the Smithsonian Institution by participating in the "Journey Stories Youth History Project," a national pilot program to empower youth to collect, record and share local oral histories. The Aberdeen Room was pleased to be asked to be a part of this project, and for the past weeks we have worked with Iris Leigh Barnes and Christine Tolbert.