Glad you had no problems, but I would HIGHLY advise AGAINST doing this. At the onset of the update, it indicated that it would take somewhere around 10 to 15 minutes to run and if you let the update complete itself, that's exactly how long it takes. I received both updates today as well, and while the phone stopped at the Droid "eye" for several minutes, it eventually came back up just fine.
ANYTIME you pull the battery while the phone is doing its own thing (powering up, powering down, or updating), you stand a HUGE risk of losing a LOT of information. I know - I accidentally messed with the battery during a power down and lost 90% of my apps and other info. So - DON'T DO IT!!! Let the phone do its own thing during updates. Trust me, it's NOT worth it to get impatient!
P.S. Remember to sync your apps with App-Brain on a regular basis just in case something dreadful DOES happen!