Sometimes the best presents are the small ones. The present I think I’m going to use the most through the next year is a folding laptop tray that my wife picked up at Bed Bath and Beyond as a spur-of-the-moment gift. It elevates my laptop about 60 degrees from ground-level, which raises the computer screen almost to eye level. This simple elevation fixes the problem I’ve always had with laptops in that I would always have to type “into” them. Put a laptop in your lap and you’ll see what I mean. Since the computer folds, the screen is always at arm’s length and the keyboard is flat. But with this tray, the laptop is balanced in front of me. This tray has now made the couch the most comfortable place for me to work on the computer.

I played in Kansas City’s Merry Tuba Christmas concert yesterday. After the rehearsal I was asked a few questions by a KC Star reporter on camera, and they used my answers in a video story about the event. I’m not used to being on camera or in the paper (outside of the letters-to-the-editor section), but I think it went pretty well.

You can view the video by clicking the image below: