[inebriate]

1. search for flyout menu in the completed mods section
2. set number of columns to 1 in the admin section (but then you will have to have a small image and mess with the products_t.tpl to get that elongated look)
3. wrap the product in a div (within the loop) and then in your css file define a class with ":hover" and if you want that alternating background pattern use modulo 2 against the index using smarty and just assign it different classes