Yips from the Llamas!

With Robbo out for the day safely ensconsed in the garden, I thought I'd take the opportunity and issue some long overdue "YIPS" to folks who've helped and inspired us over the 11 months we've been doing this. We've been getting traffic as of late, and it's only right to give some payback.

Our first set of "YIPS" go to Reverend Pixy, the benevolant poo-bah and overlord of the Munivinian Universe. For giving us a free sandbox to dispense our mudballs, snark, nooz, and mindless dreck from, we heartily give thanks to thee! And two of our fellow Moo-Knew-ers--John Lanius of Texas Best Grok, and Ted at Rocket Jones--helped get us on the gravy train, and have helped us at countless junctures with all the technical details of moving from the crack shack that is blogger to the dee-lux apartment in the skyyyy that is MT. That, and kept us in the supply of JPEGS so that we could fulfill our desire for being the one-stop-shop that for all your "Babes of the Battlestar" Galactica porn needs.

We'd also like to thank those who gave encouragement early on when we were mere "Petulant Microbes"---Ed at Monkey Watch, who was the first to blogroll us back in December (and the man who personally brought down Gov. John Rowland of CT!) Now, this might have been an accidental link at first, since Monkey Watch lovingly monitors the hilarious excesses of the zoological world, and perhaps he was thinking we were going to be offereing alpaca snuff films or something. No such luck. But, you never forget your first one, as they say (link, that is, not alpaca snuff films you pervs.)

While Steve Green was the first big time blogger to link to us, we benefitted immeasurably from the help, advice, and general support of Dean Esmay and The Commissar. For a grouchy old commie constantly purging the ranks of the loyal followers, he's been extremely willing to answer questions and give encouragement at important times for us. Plus, he's given us a model of how to mix comedy and commentary that's something to aspire to.

One of the things which is interesting to me about blogging is the relationship you form with other bloggers you start at the same time with. It was an unanticipated benefit that's kept us going. To this, we give a rousing round of YIPS to INDCent Bill at INDC Journal, as well as Rusty "That's DOCTOR Rusty to you, bitch!" at My Pet Jawa Report.

Last, there are the blogs who we like to read and help keep the creative juices flowing around here, including Kathleen at Cake Eater Chronicles, the Crack Young Staff at the Hatemongers Quarterly, Gordon at The Cranky Neocon, Nicole at Potomac Ponderings, Lawren of Lawren Mills, Jen of Freakin' Jen (accept no imitation "Jen" blogger substitutes!), the indomitable Willow, the enigmatic Lynn S. at Reflections in d Minor, the scrumptious Eloise at Spitbull, and of course the one and only Sheila O'Malley. Thanks for the inspiration, guys!

UPDATE from Steve: Aint he sweet?