Rafael Furcal walked in without crutches this morning, and the swelling in his left ankle was almost completely gone. More importantly, he said he thinks he'll be ready for opening day, which is eight days away. "I'm still feeling a little sore," he said. "It's sore when I walk. I don't think it's 100 percent, but it's better than before." ... The Hong-Chih Kuo story suddenly got intriguing this morning when the left-hander told us he DID inform the training staff that he felt discomfort in his left shoulder after the Boston game on March 16. He also said that after he threw a side session in between starts, during which he felt what he thought was normal discomfort from the strain of regular pitching, he was cleared to start against the New York Mets last Wednesday night. That is in direct contrast to what Grady Little said two days ago, that Kuo hadn't told anyone about the pain until after the Mets game. This will require further investigation, but my initial gut reaction for now is to believe Grady's story over Kuo's. ... A great time was had by all last night, when the writers dined with Grady and Donnelly. Went to the Okechobee Steakhouse in West Palm Beach, a favorite haunt of Grady's when he was a minor-league manager for the Braves during the years when they trained in West Palm. I believe we all had some form of steak. Al Balderas (OC Register) and I had the 24-oz. porterhouse (mine was au poivre style), A Martinez (one of the all-time steak connoisseurs) had the 23-oz. "cowboy steak," Steve Henson (Times) had the 16-oz New York, Diamond Leung from the Press-Enterprise had the Delmonico, and Grady, Rich and PR director Josh Rawitch each had the filet. This was not a vegetarian-friendly gathering, but we ALL left happy.