OK, here's some more news: I really hate to do this, as I was excited to participate and make it to the finals and all, but because I left work early yesterday for my closing appointment, I've got a buttload of stuff to do this morning, and will be unlikely to get a story done until sometime this evening at best -- which even I feel is unreasonably long. This closing thing, which I probably should have seen coming, was a much more involved process than I anticipated, even though I tried to plan ahead of time to avoid a lot of this headache.
Anyway, I feel the only thing to do at this point is bow out with as much dignity as I can muster and apologize for not giving our viewers at home the grand finale they were hoping for.