Paul Wylie was incredible! He skated two programs, Long Time (by Boston), and Hero (Enrique Iglesias). He skates with so much speed, and was really on. I didn't take notes, but from memory I know he did a double axle (can't remember if he did one in each program or just one though ... sorry), he did a few other jumps that were too far away from me to see clearly, but he landed everything. In fact, everyone landed all of their jumps with the exception of Yuka, during Misty. She popped open her first jump, IMO she realized she was too close to the corner of the ice and would not have been able to complete the jump, and I think that threw her off since she double footed the second and it looked like the third jump was singled.

Katia Gordeeva did The Red Scarf ... I really love that program!, and A Sunday Kind of Love. She was wonderful! Todd Eldredge is incredible!  His triple axles are sooooo huge!  Both of his programs, Flamenco (Steve Stevens) and When You Come Back To Me Again (Garth Brooks) were just awesome.  What can I say about Jenni Meno & Todd Sand?  They are so sweet together, and thier Shall We Dance (Joan Ryan) program was beautiful and romantic ... I am really going to miss them next year.  Jamie Sale & David Pelltier were so elegant in Come Away With Me (Norah Jones), and hysterical in Ballroom (Strictly Ballroom), my daughter Charis says they are now her favorite skaters.  Elena & Anton were exciting and riveting.  Let Me Fall (Josh Grobin) was romantic and exquisite, Kalinka was upbeat and fun, but still very much B&S in the stroking and edgework.  They both seemed to enjoy the show this year more than last and really seemed to connect to the audience more, which I was very happy to see!  Kyoko & John's Look At Little Sister was very exciting and very upbeat, that candle lift still amazes me, no matter how many times I see it! 

Ok, now for Alexei.  He was smiling during the opening, and waved and smiled at us when he left the ice. He landed everything perfectly during Memorial (Michael Nyman) I LOVE that program, but I noticed him tensing up just before the death drop into the combo (sit) spin he did in front of us. He was doing something like Lamaze breathing coming into the death drop.  After he took his bows and was heading back into the tunnel ... well I'm really sorry to say this ... he was doubled over in pain and almost fell before he got through the curtain. You could tell just by the look on his face that he was in terrible pain!  I was just about crying. Charis hugged me and tried to tell me it would be ok, but it really broke my heart!  Anyone who knows me knows that I know pain, it's been over 5 years for me living in pain.  But professional that he is, when he came back out for TGIF he was smiling again. And somehow he looked almost completely recovered for Ain't That A Shame!  I don't know how he was able to do it, to change costume and come out again and skate 100% ... he is incredible!  All of the guys were all smiles for Work 'n Time. No dropped brooms, and let me tell you, they really were crashing into each other out there!  The audience seemed to really start getting into the show during the second act. There were partial standing ovations for Todd, Paul & Kalinka!  Most of the lower bowl were on their feet after ATAS and Ballroom got a great reception too!
It was a great show, even with my sad heart after Memorial.  After the skaters took thier final bows Katia spotted us with our signs in russian and gave us a very big smile and wave. 

We took quite a few pictures.  Unfortunatly, most of them did not come out :(   We were using a digital camera and maybe I just didn't have the settings right, or maybe the camera could not compensate for the speed of the skaters.  But, here are some of the pictures we took that (sort of) came out.  These pictures, as poor as they may be, are mine, so please ask my permission (click on the contact me link) before reproducing them.