I ended up with 131 posts (1 late hit, sorry), not counting any duplicates with Brent or Steve. It was clear that people really took this thing seriously and put thought and effort into the posts. I wish I had about 60 iPad’s to give away instead of only 10. But, decisions had to be made. The point system is utterly meaningless, but, points were awarded for pithiness (I warned you), for a well-turned phrase, and as much as I’m loathe to admit it, for poetry (just because of the work involved). Originally, I planned on just randomly picking the winner. But, I only had 131 entries, and you all worked so hard, I decided to read them all and work hard for you in return. This really was a lot of fun for the time of year. Thank you all for taking part. Thanks to Brent Ozar (blog|twitter) and Steve Jones (blog|twitter) for their hard work behind the scenes. Thank you Red Gate, the SQL Monitor Team, the DBA Team, and the Friends of Red Gate, for sponsoring such a wonderful contest and for picking this blog as one of the three.

In no particular order, here are my top 10 posts, and the winners of the iPad and SQL Monitor license:

Gianluca Sartori - For “Sometimes I ask myself if you’re married with me or with your boss”
Allen Kinsel - ‘Cause I identify with the need to monitor the teenage daughter
Gary L - Because, just because
Tim - Because he avoided the use of Nantucket
Wendy - For “play file tetris to keep your apps running” because it’s a game I play too
Carla Johnson - To help
Matt Whitfield - Haiku, what else can I say
Jane - While not a tea fan, I support the effort here
Dave Mulanaphy  – How could I not support the efforts here
Allen White - He said PowerShell

Tomorrow I might pick a different 10. These were all excellent posts. Congratulations to the winners.