Congratulations

...to the winners of the 1st Annual Catholic Blog awards. Kudos to all of the nominees all of which I frequent on my blogwatch.

A special thanks to the 204 people who voted for me in the Most Humorous Blog category and those 44 for the Most Bizarre Blog Category. I will not become another Al Gore just because the well deserved Fr. Sibley of A Saintly Salmagundi beat me by a total of two votes in the Most Humorous Blog Category. No investigation of e-chad or civil rights investigations around Computer poll locations will be requested. I am actually pretty happy that I came in so close to the good Father. I had expected to be behind him and Victor Lams.

I originally started blogging as a result of an article in the National Catholic Register on Catholic blogging. I recognized Mark Shea's name and Googled his site. From there I explored his links to find other blogs. To display how un-sharp I am, I had been reading Amy Welborn's blog for two months before I realized she was the same person whose articles I enjoyed in Our Sunday Visitor. The first time I visited Victor Lams' blog I enjoyed it so much that I went and read through his archives. Victor deserved a lot more votes then he got. My own blog was greatly influenced by his humor, parodies, and more serious discussions. His use of graphics started myself in that direction. If there was a category named "Blogger most desired to be independently rich" it would belong to him. His period of unemployment produced some of the funniest things I have ever seen. His "Plogging" video deserves special mention for comic genius.

Fr. Sibley and his charism for finding funny and unique items on the internet has also been greatly influential to the style of this blog. Other bloggers might find the occasional Sibley-type item, but he does it constantly and notes them with great humor. His combination of orthodoxy and humor gives me great hope in the younger priests. So again congratulations Padre for winning in three categories.

Thanks to those readers who voted for me and if you accidentally voted for Pat Buchanan let me know.