Boy, you take a “few” months off and some people really seem to miss you. Actually, they think you are a lazy bugger, call you names and taunt you into writing again. Some do it because they like what you have to say, some do it because you owe them something and some do it just because they are bored at work and need something to read to pass the time.

So, here we are. Eight games into this 2007-08 season and we are at 6-2 after an amazing game in Golden State. Down 22 at one point, I was ready to turn the game off. But I just couldn’t do it and something was telling me to stay up and watch. It was weird, but I never felt like we were out of it. Sometimes that happens and it seems my intuition was right this time. Why doesn’t that ever happen when I’m sitting at the roulette table? Black 22…

Somebody asked me at the beginning of the season what I thought our record was going to be after 10 games, and without even thinking or looking at the schedule, I said 7-3. I knew we were going to be on the road early and felt like if we came out with seven wins in the first 10 games, not only would that be a pretty good start, a lot of people would be happy with it.

A game on Friday in LA and then the “get away” game in Sacramento on Sunday and if we go 1-1, my prediction will be dead on. Again, why don’t these premonitions come to me at the blackjack table? Double down on eight, with the dealer showing a nine. He’s got a seven under there and the next card after YOUR ace is...a queen, lots and lots of queens.

So far, I’ve been impressed with our play, particularly that skinny version of Rasheed Wallace that showed up in October.

My nomination for play of the season so far happened in Portland the other night when ‘Sheed laid a pick on Jarrett Jack that basically crumbled him to the floor. You didn’t really get a good view of it, but all you saw was Rasheed setting him up as Chauncey dribbled it up to half court. Suddenly, BOOM Jack hit ‘Sheed and you could just see him fall as the camera continued to follow Chauncey. And at 6’3” and 202 lbs., Jack is no small dude.

Then to add insult to injury, Mr. Big Shot hit a trailing Rasheed at the top of the key and ‘Sheed calmly knocked down a three. Yeah, I know we lost the game, but that was old school, baby...old, cold school.

What I haven’t been real impressed with, and yes, I know I’m completely biased on this, is the amount of attention our team gets. Every year we go through this because we start at a time when the Red Wings have just started, the Lions are three or four games into their season, the Tigers might still be playing and UM and MSU are several games into their seasons.

I know that there is only so much space in the papers and the broadcasts only have so much time, but damn, how about some love? This is a great town to be a sports fan, tough one to be a promotions guy.

I’m sure it will get better as we move along. In fact, I know it will get better…we have three games over the Thanksgiving holiday: the Knicks the night before Thanksgiving, the 76ers the night after Thanksgiving and the Jazz on Sunday afternoon. So, we’re going to see Isiah, Willie Green and Mehmet. Talk about having relatives in for the holidays!

And now, some housekeeping…

So, I made this bet with this woman…yeah, yeah, I know we are off to a terrible start so far.

Anyway, the woman is the wife of my brother-in-law, the mother of my nephew and my parents’ other child. I’ve known her all her life and should know better than to make a bet with her, particularly if the stakes involve some sort of recognition for her.

You see the bet I made with her was based upon a contest – a weight loss contest -- to see who could lose the most in a certain time period. The span stretched (pardon the pun) from August 1st to Labor Day this summer.

This woman was four months from giving birth and I figured she had lost most of the baby weight, so I felt I was in a pretty good position. Neither of us were really OVERweight, but neither of us was at our fighting weight and both felt like we could stand to lose a few of the lbs’.

Now, I’m not going to give you a blow-by-blow description of the struggle and the effort that I put in to lose the weight – mostly because it would bore the heck out of you, but more so because I did absolutely NOTHING to diet.

So, let’s just suffice it to say this…she won, okay. She’s the champ. She lost like 15 pounds, regained her muscle tone and looks as good, if not better than she did before she had the little peanut (a figure of speech to be sure, as the six-month old “peanut” weighed in at about 23 lbs. this past weekend at his baptism).

Fine, I lost. I concede. She IS the biggest loser! I did lose five pounds during the bet and have kept it off, but I’m still not at my fighting weight – while my younger sibling continues to maintain hers.

Now you know ONE of the reasons I haven’t written since May. It’s because I have been putting off having to say this:

Andrea Elizabeth Siekierski is my sister. And I will, from this day forward, refer to her as my sister, Andrea, Dre or some derivation other than the ambiguous terms I have in the past.

She is a beautiful woman, a loving mother and a fierce competitor. She is the cool one in our family. She knows all the latest music, sees all the latest movies and is (or was until she had to focus on “peanut”) a virtual expert on pop culture.

She is, and always will be, my hero. Yes, she is my sister and I love her.

Congratulations Dre!

BLECH! YUCK! LOUD, OBNOXIOUS WRETCHING NOISES!

Man, I hate losing! Now I have to go hold her down and let a line of spit drip from my mouth, down to her face, just barely touching her nose…and then suck it up back into my mouth.

Yes, I am 40 and she is 34 (gotcha, Dre) but, hey, it’s in the Big Brother Manual and I could not find a statute of limitations when it comes to tormenting younger siblings.

(Maybe I got myself…can I really be 40 years old?) How time flies…