Fatal error (clueless newbie stumped)

Please forgive my abject ignorance, but I'm an old-old-old-school programmer who knows virtually nothing about PHP (and even less about MySQL), other than the fact that I've been able to install and use several PHP/MySQL-based packages (e.g., PHP-Nuke) successfully.

I _think_ Drupal may offer what I really want (i.e., a community blog portal) without all the extraneous garbage of PHP-Nuke, but I've run smack up against a brick wall already. I swear, I've read all the docs, searched these forums, and Googled the problem until my eyes are ready to bleed, and can't find the solution.

Here's the error when trying to run index.php (or index.php?q=admin):

Fatal error: Table 'globalblogs.variable' doesn't exist query: SELECT * FROM variable in /absolutepathto/drupal/includes/database.mysql.inc on line 75

(where "globalblogs" is the correct name of the MySQL database, and "absolutepathto" represents the correct path to Drupal)

I have a working MySQL database in place, but beyond that...

Am I supposed to create a new table?

Does there exist any sort of automatic installation program that will create whatever Drupal needs in MySQL (like nukesql.php for PHP-Nuke)?

Is there a truly step-by-step bonehead guide to installation somewhere?

Yes, this line:

$db_url = "mysql://mysqldatabasename:mysqlpassword@localhost/globalblogs";

...in conf.php contains the correct variables.

Thanks in advance for any replies (and your tolerance -- I know how incredibly stupid this question must sound -- but I'm completely frustrated, exhausted, and this-close to hanging it up).

JR