The intrepid Jane and Sarah spent a fabulous Saturday night plotting and planning. (While, incidentally, worrying about everyone in the Gulf. Stay safe, and best wishes.) But especially as voting comes to a close tonight at midnight, there are a couple of important points to make.

• First, we are thoroughly delighted that you are all so into the contest, and we love giving you a place to compete for votes, display your awesome creativity, and get new readers. But some of you, frankly, are freaking us out a little. We’re doing everything we can to make this as big and fun as possible, but please don’t take this more seriously than it should be taken.
• Second, remember it’s just us – two bloggers who had a fun idea a month and a half ago. As superhuman as we indeed are in many ways, certain things are beyond our powers. We can’t control acts of God. We can’t control what any of our 359 nominees have done or might be doing. And sadly, as stated in the first FAQ, we are not women of independent means. We’re doing what we can to make the calendar shoot fabulous for the people who can get there. And if you can help, please let us know.
• Third, yes, we did eliminate the ability to view the vote count for this last day, because we thought it’d be a fun way to keep the anticipation high. After all, when we announce the winners, shouldn’t it be something you’re excited about?
• Fourth, voting IS still open till midnight!
• And fifth and finally, one last campaign video from the indefatigable Slackmistress.

It’s Labor Day! Don’t you people have beaches to go to? Dead animals to barbecue? School supplies to buy? Clearly not, because the pimping continues apace.

The MomDot campaign rocks a truly crazy lot of posts all rooting for Trisha. (Note, the first link is a video I can’t get to embed properly.)

And the Slackmistress keeps bringing the noise with a very compelling argument. Provided you like kittens.

You know this is the last weekend to vote! That countdown on the right, it counts down for thee.

Now, Jane and Sarah have a dinner date in Manhattan to plan what happens next. Thank goodness you’re the ones doing the voting, because we’re up against a tough choice of our own: sangria or margarita?

Is there anything better than the Friday going into a long weekend?

Yes, yes there is… reading the Hot Blogger Calendar leaderboard post on the Friday going into a long weekend.

Ladies first:

Chic Shopper Chick
Amy of Permission to Peruse
Trisha of momdot
Moosh in Indy
Jill Notkin (the Daily Grind)
Technology Goddess
TheMia
Miss Britt
Blackbelt Mama
Katja Presnal (Skimbaco)
The SlackMistress of TheSlackDaily
Blessings From Above

And the gents:

The Comics Curmudgeon
shawnp0wers
Avitable
Geri Druckman
Ghost of Keywork
Wil Wheaton
NYC Watchdog
Pete Cashmore
betheboy
Busy Dad
Peter Shankman
Backpacking Dad

The craziness has not subsided. If anything, y’all just keep bringing it.

One might say it has already been brought.

Lots and lots of pimpage to get to tonight…

This is apparently why Jen A. Miller is hot. Perhaps… but this certainly doesn’t hurt, either. Yes, that is really her. And yes, it just made me rethink that second brownie.

NYC Watchdog has started the Vote for the Hawt Dawg campaign, with a raffle and everything. And he has really mastered the “come hither” look, I must say.

Channeling David Letterman, BlackBelt Mama has come up with a Top 10 list of why she’s hot. And wow, she does a mean Carrie Underwood. You’ll have to click on over to see what I’m talking about.

Katja Presnal has a sexy librarian vibe going on with her “What? I’m not hot enough?” picture. And she’s hosting a giveaway for a cute Blume Election Collection tee to get a place in the top 12.

Busy Dad is bringing out the big guns – the really, really cute ones – to keep himself in the running:

Technology Goddess is schooling you on what makes a woman hot. She’s done her research, folks:

Jennifer of Blessings From Above set up her own photo shoot at home, which didn’t go completely as planned:

BlondeBlogger is doing a little role playing. One question: Whatcha gonna do when she comes for you?

Phew! Did I miss anyone? Are we having fun yet?

Bobby Brown (and later on, Britney Spears) said it best.

It’s my prerogative.

(And let me just say that it’s a strange, scary day when these two collectively make a whole lotta sense.)

Ever since the nominations first started rolling in, one thing I’ve loved about this Hot Blogger Calendar contest is the variety of it all. I think sometimes we can get wrapped up in our own blogging world and forget about all the other types of bloggers out there.

Of the 359 nominees (Sarah and I had to count today), there are tech bloggers, real estate bloggers, mommy bloggers, dad bloggers, celebrity bloggers, political bloggers, sex bloggers, social media bloggers, style bloggers, PR bloggers, humor bloggers, sports bloggers, travel bloggers, business bloggers… the list goes on.

The field is vast, baby.

And here’s the thing. How you want to promote yourself? It’s up to you. There are about as many ways to do it as there are nominees.

Some ladies are going the risque route. Other aren’t. Some guys are turning their votes into charitable donations. Some aren’t.

There’s no right way, there’s no wrong way.

And if you’re one of the final 24 and get to appear in the calendars? Don’t fret. Sarah and I are leaving our smoking jackets, pipes and girls next door at home in the grotto.

The photo shoot – and the photos themselves – will be fun, tasteful and appropriate for all eyes.

So breathe, OK?

There are certain images we don’t want burned in our minds, either, you know.

Now repeat after Bobby: It’s my prerogative.

And now we reminisce… back to when we thought that Britney Spears had hit her low point by marrying Kevin Federline:

Looking for today’s leaders? See the Sarah’s post below.

Three quarters of a million page views. Over eleven thousand votes. And two-to-one on girls-vs-guys votes. What, aren’t the boys hot enough for you?

Posting quick this morning, so no hotlinks, but here’s where we stand.

Boys…

1. The Comics Curmudgeon
2. Shawnp0wers
3. Geri Druckman
4. Avitable
5. Wil Wheaton
6. Peter Shankman
7. Ghost of Keywork
8. Busy Dad
9. NYC Watchdog
10. Francesco Explains it All
11. Backpacking Dad
12. be the boy

Girls…

1. Chic Shopper Chick
2. Amy (Permission to Peruse)
3. Trisha (MomDot)
4. Moosh in Indy
5. Technology Goddess
6. Jill Notkin (the Daily Grind)
7. TheMia
8. A.V. Flox
9. Blackbelt Mama
10. Miss Britt
11. Deb on the Rocks
12. The SlackMistress

Betheboy and the Slackmistress, as our token husband-and-wife nominee pair, have been busy: they won’t stop talking about the contest. (Vote for them and maybe they’ll shut up.)

And Moosh in indy calls herself the token prude – but we at HBC agree: modesty is hot. (Which brings up a good point: ain’t nobody saying anybody has to take their pants off. More on this later.)

In campaigning for Trisha, her fellow MomDotter Toni ranks us slightly ahead of the Olympics and the presidential election in important events of 2008. We like how Toni thinks.

Finally, Backpacking Dad has this to say about being up against Wil Wheaton:

“Wil Wheaton tried to steal my daughter and my wife loves him more than she loves me. (Drago voice from Rocky IV): I must break him. He vill lose.“

[Disclaimer: we here at HBC cast no aspersions on Wil Wheaton and suspect that he is neither a kidnapper nor a homewrecker. Also we are pretty sure that he was not in Rocky IV.]

Keep the ridiculous pleas for votes campaign efforts coming!

Don’t forget you have to tell us what you’re doing. We’ve seen great stuff out there, but if it doesn’t get sent in, it doesn’t get here!