After Puzzle 7

As they say in Vancouver, I believe I skated a clean program. 7 compulsory elements up, 7 down, no mistakes, but no triple axels either. I'm in 41st place after 6 puzzles, and puzzle 7 (by Merl Reagle, with fewer puns than usual, but still a nice gadget; more on that later) was smooth but slow. So I may gain or lose a place, but the top 40 almost certainly remains uncracked this year.

Here are my times for each puzzle, compared to Dan Feyer, the fastest solver through 6 puzzles:

Puzzle My time Dan Feyer's time
------ --------- -----------------
1 - - - - - 6 minutes 3 minutes
2 - - - - - 9 - - - - - 4
3 - - - - - 11 - - - - - 6
4 - - - - - 5 - - - - - 3
5 - - - - - 19 - - - - - 6
6 - - - - - 8 - - - - - 5

So through 6 puzzles, I took 58 minutes, and Feyer took 27! I will concede that the evidence suggests Feyer is a faster solver than I am, but the sickest thing is his time on puzzle 5, which was a legitimately hard puzzle, and which Feyer solved in the same time it took me to do warm-up puzzle #1. I say "feh" unto him.

More on puzzle 7 later--I have to go pick up Alison, Jodie, Lauren, and Susann at the airport.