Ok here I sit waiting patiently for it to be 10am so I can buy my Can Open tickets I figured I might as well try for a review. I warn you in advance though as I have gotten very little sleep in the past 3 days here may be some inaccuracies here. Also since I was manning my camera, I wasn't taking jump or music notes. That's all a very nice way to say that this is strictly from my memory - however faulty that may be :}

Short Programs:

The biggest group of Edgers had center ice about 5 rows up which provided for an excellent view of the whole ice. The men came out for warmup and were all looking quite good. Of course I was focused on Todd so I have no idea what the other men did. In warmup Todd landed a 2axel than a 3axel before he started warming up the quad. He took two passes at it with the result of two triples. He might have taken a third but I'm not positive. So on he 4th (or possibly 3rd) go around he lands a beauty of a quad and to make it nicer he tacks on a double toe. Of course we all cheered heartily at that.

Todd Eldredge: new program to "Exotica" looks o be a real winner. However if the costume is blue I'll eat my laptop. (later in the evening when I quizzed Todd it he admitted that the pants and shirt are indeed black but the shirt has some blue sparkly "stuff" on it). Anyway as has been mentioned right before he started some idiot woman yelled out into a completely silent arena "Do the quad Todd" and you could tell it totally blew his concentration. So he winds up for the quad and manages to land this horribly leaning 3toe and tacks a 2toe on it. How he managed to land anything amazed me! From there it was on to the 3axel that had a small step out and then to seal matters it was a 3lutz with a hand down. Even his trademark spins weren't as fast as usual.

The one good thing I have to say is I think this program is ging to be amazing when it's done right. There's all kinds of new footwork and hand motion. I think this is just going to be a winner for him.

We all still threw our beanies and cheered for him. He was truly ticked off though. He picked up my beanie (quackers the yellow duck) and when he got to the kiss and cry he whipped the poor thing right into the chairs! But then he bent over and picked it up. It was funny because he stopped to read the card which I've never seen him do and whatever I wrote must have been right because he got this wry grin and then gave the duck a quick pet while waiting for the marks. It was really kind of cute :)

Steven Cousins: Poor Steven just wasn't having a good night for the sp. I spoke with him beforehand and he admitted to not having practiced the sp in a long time and so it was a bit last minute. He was doing "Cool Jazz" but crashed on both he 3axel and 3lutz. He did manage to hit the 2axel though. Same costume as before.

Ilia Kulik: Had on plum pants and a black button down shirt with a plum stripe down the front. Decent program but nothing spectacular. Was the "standard" old style program: 3axel/3toe (possible 2toe), 3lutz, 2axel I think. (wow it's amazing how quickly the details have dropped from my mind!).

Alexei Yagudin: Interesting costume that looked sort of like a kimono type top in reddish-burgundy and black pants. Similar to Anissina's costumes, he carried the red fabric down onto he leg of his pants. Kind of striking. Unfortunately I have a total blank on the program other than to say it was clean.

SP standings: Yagudin, Kulik, Eldredge, Cousins.

Interpretive Free

Going into this half us Edgers were wondering just what Todd's mindset was going to be. We were hoping that because he didn't have time to wait around that he'd be angry with himself and just go out and blow away the competition. WHile they were waiting for the go-ahead to warm-up you could see Todd with this look of intense concentration on his face. He was angry and just wanted to get out there. During the warmup we all got a bit nervous as he landed both the 3lutz and 3axel but only managed three 3toes, no quad. We all hoped this wasn't a bad sign, but figured that of all the program Todd could do, "13th Warrior" was the best to do angry as it was a strong kind of program.

Todd: Ok now us fans are having trouble remembering that we're supposed to be breathing at this point. Todd goes out to his starting point which was at the end of the ice where the heckler was. He looks up in that direction and gave the dirtiest look! My comment was that 'if looks could kill, Todd would be withering cropland' (for some reason later in the night my fellow edgers thought this was just the funniest thing). Anyway he looked pissed and ready to go. The music starts and it's time for the quad. He heads into the turn and up 4 turns and down and it was HUGE!!! It was right smack in front of us and as a group we screamed and leaped to our feet only to immediately sit back down as we realized he still had a program to skate.

Now here's where we got nervous again as landing the quad but missing everything else wasn't going to silence those critics. Thankfully that never even became an issue as he landed a 3axel/2toe, 3axel, 3lutz and I think another 2axel! And the anger he had helped sell the program even more - it was just amazingly powerful! At the end of the program he was elated - we were on our feet and he was doing that fist pump so famous from 96 worlds. Of course we were screaming our bloody heads of and pitching beanies his way so he waved at us. As he left the ice, he got this huge hug from Richard and just about everyone else nearby. He and Richard were just grinning from ear to ear!

Steven Cousins: "It's About That Walk" He must have fed off the crowds energy for Todd as he turned in an excellent version of the program with a 3lutz, 3sal, 3toe and the charm was just in high gear. This program just always makes me smile so I threw Steven a nice beanie afterwards. I've always had a soft spot for him :)

Alexei Yagudin: Ok first off let me say I do like the music for Gladiator (this being my first listen) but the costume he wore scared the hell out of me. I can't even begin to put it into words but I'll try. Black pants and a shirt where one half was like white and gold material with a red velvet ruffle on the shoulder and the other half was sheer black with black plastic like appliques that includes spikes (yes spikes!) on both shoulder and wrist. Add to that he was holder silver knives (which weren't soft plastic as others later said they heard them 'clink' in each hand. Needless to say I hated the program. Lots of violent looking moves and this horrible section of writhing on the ice. The music indicates that this boy doesn't have bad taste in programs, but needs serious help with choreography and costumes. JoAnn told us later that some of the kids in her section were actually scared by the program.

Ilia: Yet another program I really disliked. I can see that the program has all kinds of complicated footwork and moves (think a harder version of the Baseball Cap routine) but the music is like this horrid techno punk. The one cool think about the program was he skated it in sunglasses. I think a program that features footwork is wonderful and I appreciate the footwork in the abstract, but in the context of this music it was just painful.

Final Standings:
1. Eldredge
2. Yagudin
3. Kulik
4. Cousins

So it was something of a skate of a lifetime that took Todd to the top. I for one was so glad that I decided that I was going to Boise and didn't miss the moment.

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After skate. We adjorned to the bar and there are I'm sure lots of stories we could tell, but I'll only mention some high points

Paul Wylie was in the bar with Tracy Wilson so after they'd eaten I couldn't resist and walked over with Autumn and said "excuse me, but I just can't wait two weeks til this airs - what was your reaction when Todd landed the quad?" To which Paul's reply was "We freaked out!" and his face totally lit up. Tracy agreed that it was amazing and that they were both terribly happy for him. It was too cute.

-Hoo