Alright. . .it's nice to take a second to not run from tropical storms and hurricanes and all sorts of other weather-related goodness and get back to what we do best around here. . .talking about the Beloved Purple.  Let's take a good look around at what's going on in Viking land this evening.

 The Vikings have released their first injury report for Monday's game against Green Bay.  It only has four players listed on it as of right now:

QB Tarvaris Jackson (knee)
HB Maurice Hicks (foot)
WR Robert Ferguson (ankle)
S Madieu Williams (neck)

Of those four, I believe that Williams is the only one that is set to miss Monday night's opener.  Jackson has repeatedly said that he's going to play, and I've not seen anything that indicates otherwise as of yet.  Ferguson was on the field for individual drills on Tuesday (according to Access Vikings).  I haven't heard anything else about Hicks' injury, but this is the first I've heard about it, which leads me to believe that it isn't terribly serious.

Green Bay's injury list is significantly longer at this point, as they've listed the following players with injuries:

S Atari Bigby (ankle)
T Chad Clifton (knees/chest)
DE Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila (knee)
RB Ryan Grant (hamstring)
LB A.J. Hawk (chest)
WR James Jones (knee)
S Charlie Peprah (hamstring)
G Josh Sitton (knee)
DE Jeremy Thompson (groin)
C Scott Wells (back)
LB Tracy White (ankle)

Players don't need to be listed as out, doubtful, questionable, or probable until the final injury reports come out on Friday.  I'll attempt to dig up more about the extent of those injuries throughout the evening and into tomorrow.

Over at SI.com, Dr. Z continues the warm, fuzzy Purple love by putting Minnesota at #4 in his first Power Rankings of the season, behind only New England, San Diego, and Dallas.

I'll tell you what. . .I'm not used to all of this pre-season warm fuzziness by any means, but I think that it's something I COULD get used to.  I don't like the fact that Dr. Z has decided that we made a "big push" for Brett Favre in the off-season. . .you know, considering that we didn't make ANY push for Brett Favre. . .but we'll take what we can get at this point, I think.

Apparently the love is, indeed, spreading over at SI, as out of nine writers polled, eight of them have chosen the Vikings to win the NFC North.  Three of them. . .Dr. Z, Peter King, and someone called Dominic Bonvissuto. . .have chosen the Vikings to get all the way to the NFC title game, only to fall one step short of the Super Bowl.  King and Bonvissuto have them losing to Dallas, while Dr. Z has Philadelphia ending Minnesota's season.

 If you want some entertainment, I went onto a BetUS Radio Podcast along with Brandon, the head blogger over at Acme Packing Company.  It was a lot of fun, as Brandon is a rare breed. . .a Packer fan that's not completely detestible.  Anyway, it's entertaining, and it leads into an interview with K.C. Joyner, who I happen to be a big fan of, so go ahead and check it out.

That's all for tonight, folks. . .we'll get some more taken care of tomorrow night.  For now, I'm going back to channel surfing a few different things and keeping an eye on the Atlantic.  Hurricane Ike is already a Category 3 storm. . .and we all know that if anyone or anything is capable of kicking someone's ass, it's something named Ike.  Heck, it's a good thing that there isn't a Hurricane Tina anywhere to be found out there anyplace.

With that, I'll take my leave for the evening.  Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday night, and we'll see you back here tomorrow. . .hopefully with details for this year's Daily Norseman Pick 'Em Pool.