Hoopo

First time I've missed it in several years. My heart ached for 17 straight days and nights!

How was the weather?

Ever noticed how sticky cat spit is? Kitty gives a little playful bite, then you stroke her and get a handful of fur.

They've evolved so that we will pet them and do their cleaning for them. As if they need the extra half hour or so for important sleeping.

Feed them a brand they don't like and they'll find your favorite chair and hork up hairballs on it. The insolence!

Are cats our gods?

Is this a waste of Herradura Anejo?

I'll admit to not being a full tequila snob just yet. I've heard people here in Florida order this with well tequila.

What do you think?

The Jayhawks lost Julian Wright to the NBA lottery and Brandon Rush, potential NBA baller, has an injury.

What do you think of the Jayhawks' chances to win their first NCAA Title in 20 years?

This wonderful place is adjacent to the ***** Leagues Baseball Museum -- and just down 18th Street from legendary barbeque joint Arthur Bryant's.

There are lots of things to look at, including videos and a perpetually running film loop in a theater with interviews with jazz luminaries like Max Roach, Shirley Horn and Jay McShann.

But, WOW, the museum's most remarkable thing is that it actually centers around THE MUSIC. There's music in the hallways, at personal listening stations where you can read about the musicians and tunes while looking at the memorabilia.

Bird's Massey Hall white plastic alto is there (allegedly KC Mayor, now congressman, Emmanuel Cleaver outbid Clint Eastwood for the item), a gorgeous ball gown owned by Ella Fitzgerald, show posters, union cards, old records and some of the most amazing photographs this jazz afficianado has ever seen.

If you haven't gone to Kansas City to this place and you claim to love jazz, why not?

This Hudgens thing is just the lastest release of pent-up, sexual frustrations that cause so many problems in the USA.

I'm investigating all things east Asian these days. The local Asian supermarket has an entire aisle of soy sauces.

Which ones are best?

I bought a bottle of Lee Kum Kee, which is more flavorful than the Kikkoman I'm used to tasting. Wikipedia says I should get one that has yeast (koji). As the bottles are often in Chinese, how can I tell if it has koji?

Help!

I prefer extra sloppy.

I'm thinking of starting in Thailand and making a two month tour. What other countries would YOU recommend?

They seem cheap right now. What's the best value?

I've been noticing the last 24 months have seen precipitous falls in prices of data storage devices. Some retailers are selling 500 Gig external drives for $130. Is this because the new 1 TB drives are the "new thing"?

How fast are prices likely to fall on 500 GB drives? What'll they cost, in your opinion, in six months? A year?

Thanks in advance for good info.

I have three weeks left of my pre-installed trial version of Norton 2007 left on my Dell laptop. But I just bought a version on Buy.com of Norton Internet Security 2007 for $59.99 (with $50 of mail-in rebates, however). Should I install it now or wait for the trial version to expire? Does it matter? Will I need to install all kinds of updates to this packaged version I just got? Thanks in advance for thoughtful responses.

They are both feisty guys. But against the likes of Romney, Giuliani, McCain and the rest of the sadsack Republican lot, could they manage to overcome their collective charisma deficit?