LIMIT question

["EXT-Rothermel, Peter M" <Peter(dot)M(dot)Rothermel(at)boeing(dot)com>]

I need to use a LIMIT count in a query but I also need to know how many
rows the query itself would yield without the limit.
I can do this inside a transaction like this

BEGIN
SELECT COUNT(*) from table1 where blah;
select * from table1 where blah LIMIT 1000;
COMMIT

Now I can give some feedback like your search matches 200,000 but was
limited to 1000 items.
Is there a better way to accomplish this goal?