Can someone explain to me how the number of blocks my payout is delayed is INCREASING, instead of DECREASING??

I started out with a payout on a ~360GH/s address yesterday that was 16 blocks back... then it was 17... now it's 18...  wtf?

I'm an itty bitty miner. I don't need the Bitcoin. Yet even I'm starting to lose my patience with the (many) issues the pool seems to be dealing with lately.

Just makes me wonder... where is the NMC, anyway?

[ADD] In the meantime, since I entered the queue about 20 hours ago, according to my ability to count, the pool has found 15 blocks... yet I'm now 18 back.