For Windows 8 Professional 64-bit, today, there are 15 "important" Windows 8.1 updates and 1 "optional" update. There are also another 15 important updates for Office 2013 published today. With the default Windows Update settings of downloading and installing automatically, these may be distributed to various systems incrementally, as not to overload Windows Update servers. You were able to get the updates expedited to your system by forcing a check for the updates. This pulls them manually.
I had the same experience, David. I have no idea why they were not waiting for me to download. Oddly, as normal, the "definition " update was waiting.
Anyway, all done now.
P.S. And yes, those Office updates.