Nightowl You asked for people's thoughts but decided to stick with your current solution. All good, but perhaps get this thread pulled or you might get further suggestions that are superfluous to your needs.
Well technically I asked what people thought of having a towel on the lap, not for alternative solutions.
And forums would be no fun if people just deleted the whole thread at the end of a discussion! Sometimes the info is useful to someone else later. Anyway, these things tend to peter out on their own after a while...