After careful consideration, here are the winners of the Metamorphosism 3^rd/5^th Valentine’s Day Limerick Contest:
First place goes to Joeri
Second place goes to Michael (go congratulate him quickly, in case he has more than a cold)

Lisa wins third.
Honorable mention goes to Pam, who would have done better, except she got the “hair bands” wrong.
Extra-special lifetime achievement award goes to D.
Thanks to everyone who entered. See you next year.

Thank you! I had no idea so much prize money was involved! Acceptance speech on Monday.
Here is the final list of winners:

Here are the winners of the 2nd Annual European Weblog Awards, also known as the Satin Pajamas:

Most Underappreciated Weblog: Metamorphism by Mig

Best Central European Weblog: All About Latvia by Aleks

Best Expat Weblog: Petite Anglaise by Petite

Best Personal Weblog: Petite Anglaise by Petite

Best French Weblog: Journal d’un avocat by Eolas

Best German Weblog: Atlantic Review by various

Best UK Weblog: A Welsh View by Robert Gale

Best CIS Blog: Neeka’s Backlog by Veronica Khokhlova

Best Southeastern European Blog: Argumente by Dragos Novac

Best Culture Weblog: Amateur d’art by Lunettes Rouges

Best Writing: Bric a blog by the widow Tarquine

Best New Weblog: La Poulette by Poulette

Best Humor Weblog: My Boyfriend Is A Twat by Zoe

Best Non-European Weblog: 3 Quarks Daily by various

Best Expert or Scholar Weblog: Early Modern Notes by Sharon Howard

Best Political Weblog: European Tribune by various

Life Time Achievement Award: Neil Gaiman

and finally (drumroll) …

Best Weblog: Neil Gaiman’s Journal by Neil Gaiman

You can still see all the finalists and their share of votes on the award page. Do yourself a favor and go look at all of them. Last years winners are here.

It is cold and raining here so I was thinking, where in the world is more suitable for human life than the South of France? Once you get past the fields of lavender, which sound, and look, nicer than they smell. Maybe it was the lavender ice cream that I ate at the olive fair that marked my personal turning point with lavender. It was quite disgusting, tasting as it did more than anything else like dirt. But other than the fields of lavender, the South of France is quite nice. Then I thought, yes, but I was there in the summer. Maybe it sucks in the winter. Then I remembered delivering a harp to Beta this time last year, i.e. winter and before Alpha and I left again, at about 4 in the morning, standing in the kitchen, looking out at the pre-dawn sky, drinking a giant cup of cafe au lait (me drinking), thinking, I AM STANDING IN A THREE HUNDRED YEAR OLD FRENCH FARMHOUSE DRINKING CAFE AU LAIT AND EATING A BAGUETTE! THIS ROCKS!
So I’m thinking, even in winter it could be nice there.
Then I got showered (here, this morning, not in France last year) and dressed and drove into town with Beta sleeping in the passenger seat and Vivaldi on the car stereo and the sun just beginning to brighten the sky and snow melting in flooded muddy fields and that had its own beauty.
And I remembered two days ago, talking to Gamma, trying to explain the story of Rip van Winkle to her.

He meets these dwarves in the woods. They’re bowling and he sees them and they catch him and put him on trial. And he turns out to be a good guy so they spare his life and give him a wish. And before he can make a wish they read his mind and he wants to sleep for twenty years. So they put him to sleep for twenty years and when he wakes up he’s an old man and no one in town recognizes him in his white hair and long white beard. And his wife is old and his kids are grown and he doesn’t know where the time went. And he deals with that in one way or another.

As I may have mentioned, this weblog has been nominated for a Satin Pajama Award in the category of “most underrated weblog”. Sorry, “most underappreciated” over atFistful of Euros. However, if this weblog receives the most votes, i.e. “wins”, that would mean that it is, among the nominees in that category, actually the least underappreciated. In which case the award should go to the nominee receiving the fewest votes, i.e. the loser. It is a difficult situation.

This is cool. Link found here.

Reader review: …my kids had fun and learned a lot about how the government works in the process.

Mr. Sun again, this time for the children.