Alan O’Rourke is selling Blog Awards T-Shirts via his Sheepstealers store and the T-Shirts are cost price.

Nice deal for just €12.90. Alan makes no money from this whatsoever which is nice of him to offer to sell them online.

.. but at least three of this years nominees are going to be Daddys soon. Wonder can you guess who? Another nominee that was in the long list had a baby a short while ago too. Congratulations Sorcha!

Welcome to the Blog O’Sphere Rhiannon. Hope to see you blogging soon.

Edit: Gavin just informed me that Richard D became a Dad this morning too. Tis the season! I would get a little freaked out though if 9 months after March 11th a lot of babies were born.

So I counted the wrong numbers last time I announced how many people voted. 1100 actually voted for Best Blog but in total 1700 people (minus the spammers) registered and voted for various blogs. I’m quite blown away by this result. Blogs may not have hit the mainstream yet but that’s an impressive figure nonetheless. Wonder how many people we’ll see voting next year?

I got an invoice this morning for rental of the function room in the Alexander. You best sit down: It’s €2000. Microsoft has stepped in and offered to cover costs for it. I’m totally blown away by this offer and there were no conditions about it. We don’t now have to be called The Microsoft Irish Blog Awards or The Vista Irish Microsoft MSN Blog Awards or anything else.

The room has its own stage and podium and PA system and roaming mic. We have a projector and wireless broadband though unfortunately it is not free as Bitbuzz don’t supply the Alexander. The room I think may have its own bar or else there’s one next door. All very swank and cushy. So remember to say thank you to the Microsoft people who turn up on the night and buy them a drink or two at the very least.

Some people were worried about the dress code for the night as the Alexander is quite a posh location. It’s informal so worry not ladies and gents. Though if you want to wear your fav Donna Karan black dress we won’t stop you.

Lastly the preAwards tech event will now be held in the same room as the Awards. The room is now booked from 1500 onwards and not 1800. Again thanks to the folks in Microsoft. There shouldn’t be a problem with space now. Someone from Microsoft is going to come along (at my request) and talk and answer questions about IE7 and RSS. Bernie is organising this and can supply more details.