It's been a while, but I don't think there's much of anything to report, to be honest.

The Chicago Bulls just opened the season with a huge win over the defending champion Miami Heat and, for about the fourth straight year, I'm really excited about their prospects for the season.

Of course, this season, their prospects are actually legitimately good. John Paxson took the team with the best field goal percentage defense in the NBA, and added the Defensive Player of the Year. He also added rugged PJ Brown to the middle, certainly an upgrade over starting Malik Allen or, I'm sad to admit, Tyson Chandler. Further, today he locked up Kirk Hinrich, a guy that had no business being a top ten draft pick, for five more years. Of course, Kirk Hinrich has turned into a fantastic NBA player, one of the top point guards in the league, and he figures to only get better. Paxson and Scott Skiles have built a true rarity - a no-star team with 12 (15?) guys who, without exception, seem to play hard all the time. The no-star system can be problematic - Who gets the ball in crunch time? Who gets the star treatment from the refs? Has a team ever won a title without one of the league's top ten players on its roster? - but I prefer to be excited about a team who has four potential players (Hinrich, Gordon, Nocioni, and Deng) capable of exploding for 30 on a given night.

Tyrus Thomas certainly isn't ready to be a star, but his effort is awesome. He was crashing the offensive boards within ten seconds of ripping off the warmups.

Judging not on this game tonight, but on the offseason as a whole and the performance against Miami in the postseason last year, I think anything less than a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals this season is a disappointment. That said, I'm pretty sure they'll be fun to watch regardless of how they finish.

Moments before the end of the game, former Willie the Wildcat Craig Sager reported on the NBA Cares efforts to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. It was Antoine Walker playing dominoes with a bunch of old Cubans. It was kind of cool, though not particularly charitable. I bet Walker got some smokes out of it, too.

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A few unimportant but at least a little important moments on the "New Guy at Work" (a month in, still the new guy, certainly) front:

- Last Friday marked the first time I've gone out with coworkers since coming on staff. A coworkers birthday, a post-work beers-then-dinner-then-more-beers kind of thing, eventually winding up at a coworkers house to watch the bitter conclusion of the World Series. Raucous at times, and fun most of the time, I was happy to be a part of it. I also got acquainted with a coworker's guest bedroom, thankfully.

- Highlight of the night, carrying over from Friday through Monday. I was lamenting my "New Guy" status to a coworker, and I did so thusly: "I mean, end of my second week with the company, and I come in with absolutely ridiculous sideburns. And nobody - nobody - has made fun of me once for them." That was Friday. Monday, I had a nice point during break time volleyball - maybe a block, maybe a dig, and certainly a point-ending kill. "Hey. Nice play, Chops," my boss yelled from the back row. I chose to believe that she hadn't been tipped off to my lamentation.

- I'm no longer the New Guy. A new staff member joined our department last Monday, and another tech dude came on today. Psychologically, I think that means a change of some sort - I'm obligated to be more friendly and, consequently, more silly, with the others, I guess. Maybe? I don't know.

- Today, new department member asked if I was familiar with Ween. That's an odd question, anyway. Odder, of course, because I had been, thanks to Jenny, singing "Push the little daisies and make 'em come up," earlier in the day. Cosmic really. Anyway, when I think of "Push the Little Daisies," I think of the Beavis and Butt-head Sex Education episode, when Beavis sings along. I asked her - a recent MSU grad, from the rich part of The Ring Fingernail - if she had seen much in the way of Beavis and Butt-head. Her response: "I own four DVDs. Three are Beavis and Butt-head." I find this inconceivable, but, again, I'll choose to believe her.

- I'm a full staff member and everything. Clients that I'm responsible for. A new one coming on Friday. This ups the stress level, I guess, but also makes the work day go far quicker.

- Of the thirty or so employees, I believe six came in full costume today. That's worth something.

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The Tigers sure sucked in the Series. Disappointing, or annoying, that they played so well for 10 days, then completely tanked. But it'll happen. When I was at the grocery store Sunday morning, I wore my Tigers hat. "I'm pretty upset about them, too," the greeter said, without prompting. "Yeah, me too, but I have a feeling we'll be celebrating a Series in about 363 days." He agreed.

I didn't tell him that I had been a Tigers fan for less than four months, so I wasn't really broken up about the whole thing. Certainly, though, Chris Duncan, Ronnie Belliard, and Juan Encarnacion are among the worst regulars ever for a Series team. And Adam Wainwright will never be a closer again. And Anthony Reyes won't be good for two years. So, yeah, they're the worst Series champ ever, but them's the breaks.

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I should comment that Jenny's E2V1 mix arrived in the mail last Thursday or Wednesday or Friday. I'm quite impressed with the thought she put into it. It's all bumpin' at the beginning, then it's foreign language bumpin', then there's Fatboy Slim for no real reason, then a few bumpin' pop tracks, then Califone fits its way in there with a typically beautiful Tim Rutili song ("The Orchids" - God, I forget how awesome Califone is sometimes), then we get bitches yelling with Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Goldlion" and the Sonic Youth classic "Bull in the Heather," and then we close with Smokey and Miko (Milo?), who I don't know, and Joanna Newsom, who'd always been on my "to hear" list, and Regina Spektor, who's delightful. "And on the radio, they were playing 'November Rain.'"

There's a craftsmanship to E2V1, though I was a bit put off by the early bumpin'ness. Put off is the wrong term. Just surprised, I guess. I expected a bit of indie pop.

I'm not going to go so far as to say I'm excited about E2V2, but I'm kind of excited. Strong seeds have been planted, and now it's a matter of getting that crap in the mail.

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The Hold Steady have taken over my brain. I think that, barring a late run from Dan Bejar plus the guy from Wolf Parade project Swan Lake, or if the Modest Mouse album comes out, Boys and Girls In America is my album of the year for 2006. I'm pretty sure that, upon review, The Hold Steady's Separation Sunday is my favorite of 2005.

Point is, The Boy got to see The Hold Steady at Metro on Thursday night. He called me and held up the cell phone prior to opener "Stuck Between Stations," though it was a false start and I hung up before the song started.

Anyway, he sent a concise but strong show report immediately upon his return home on Thursday night, and I was eminently grateful. A pretty complete setlist, a description of the band's attitude and the singers charisma ("They seemed like the happiest band in the world. Craig Finn uses a lot more vocal inflection on stage. He also makes many hand gestures and dances or claps every time there's a little solo. He also routinely repeats lyrics away from the mic when there's a little break
in the song." He didn't use any run-on sentences here), and a crowd summary.

Also, from a normally subdued kid, the most enthusiastic sentence he's ever typed, I'm pretty sure: "I'm up writing this email because, after that show, I'm not in the mood to go to sleep."

I know the feeling. I once tried to jump in Lake Michigan at four in the morning, despite being already completely shirtless. Ahh, the good old days.

He confirmed that it was the greatest show he's ever seen.

I didn't go see The Hold Steady in Detroit on Friday. I hope they tour this record again.

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For the record, this was my second straight travel-free weekend. I watched some football, hung out, did some tidying up, and generally had a perfect time. That's the plan again this weekend, though maybe I'll be restless. I've got a good feeling about the Iowa game, though I have a good feeling about every NU football game.

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Last week, I wrote about the stress that has come from a fringe-long commute, the desire to run on a daily basis, and the desire to cook a real dinner on a nightly basis. Well, last Monday I was introduced to a slightly-quicker route, cutting my trip from 30-35 minutes to 25-30 minutes, which is nice. I've still run after work on a daily basis. But I made soup for dinner twice last week, and I'm doing it twice again this week. I think it's a pretty good plan - a pot of soup is good for two meals, at least, and probably three. That makes dinner prep significantly easier.

Last week, it was chili on Sunday and taco soup on Wednesday. This week, it was a potato/garlic/red pepper soup on Sunday, and a black bean and Canadian bacon concoction on Thursday. I'm pretty excited.

I've also cooked tilapia twice in the past two weeks. From what I can tell, fish is pretty easy because all you have to do is fill the pan with olive oil, crank the heat, drown the thing in lemon juice and oregano, and fry for about three minutes. It's cooked, and you've wasted less than ten minutes. And it's yummy.

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For breakfast recently, I've been eating lots of raisins. In cereal or in oatmeal, raisins are awesome.

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I had quite a music haul at the library last Wednesday, bringing home the maximum ten CDs:

Leonard Cohen - I'm Your Man (fantastic)
Comets on Fire - Two CDs I haven't listened to yet
Constantines - Constantines
Constantines - Shine a Light
Cornershop - When I Was Born for the Seventh Time
Elvis Costello - This Year's Model
Lifter Puller (Craig Finn's previous band) - Fiestas + Fiascos
Liars - They Threw Us In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top
Liars - Fins Make Us More Fish-Like

I didn't realize how awesome Elvis Costello was. My first and only previous exposure to Leonard Cohen was WNUR's 50th anniversary weekend, when some trying-to-relive-her-youth guest DJ played his "First We'll Take Manhattan." As far as all-time great album openers go, it's certainly in the team photo.

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Rambling. Done.