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Some packing hints......Star should have some hints too.

Step one, after you have an address, is find a box. You can get Priority boxes from the Post Office and they are free. My box of choice 90% of the time is about 3" x 12" x 13", a "shirt box". Another good size is 12" x 12" x 8". Bigger boxes are always available for more stuff and a unit, rather than just one. Priority boxes are also available online at www.usps.com. You order online, they deliver to your doorstep and THEY ARE FREE!! While you are at the Post Office, get Priority mailing labels and Customs forms. If you get boxes from WalMart, etc. just ask the Post Office for a roll of Priority Mail tape (free). And you will need lots of clear packaging tape. By the time your box makes it to its destinaton, it will have had quite the ride.

THINK BAGGIES BAGGIES BAGGIES!! If you have something too big for the biggest baggie, use the different size garbage bags. Experience has taught that the big containers of lemonade/Tang/pre-sweetended Kood aid/Gatorade can split their seams and spread all over everything in the whole box. Baggies will be used again in the land of sand.

Stuffing the box will help its contents make the trip. When the box is all packed, shake it to make things settle. Full in with something. Personal size toiletries work really well. Think stuff that fits in pockets. Just walk down the aisles at the store.

A U.S. Army soldier looks at an overturned Bradley armored vehicle, which lost a track on Baghdad's airport highway and veered off the road July 29, 2004. The incident caused no injuries.

Experts are saying the Army's Inspector General Office are carrying impromptu roadside safety inspections a bit too far.

Pfc. Natasha Jones, an Army cook with the 3rd Infantry Division, mans her post during an ambush drill at Fort Stewart, Ga., Wednesday, July 28, 2004 during a training exercise to prepare for the upcoming deployment back to Iraq. The 3rd Infantry lead the way into Baghdad last year when the U.S. invaded. The 3rd Infantry, which led the assault on Baghdad last year, received deployment orders last week to be ready to leave for a second tour in Iraq between November and February. It will be the first Army division called back since the U.S.-led invasion last March.

Now that we see where the Army cooks get their ingredients from there is little question about why the "chicken surprise" often tastes so rubbery.

Iraqi Olympic Committee official Talib Mutan displays a steel chamber with interior spikes at Al-Shaab Stadium in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday. The device is said to have been used by Saddam Hussein's son, Uday, to torture Olympic athletes.

After the anniversary of the death of Sadaam's two sons the former despot has announced through his attorneys that he is willing to engage in arena combat President Bush using the traditional armored garb of Iraqi tyrants. So far the International Olympic Committee has not sanctioned this unusual competition for the 2004 Games.