Yeah my bad on that. Trying to be too smart too quick doesn't usually end up paying off in the end :)
Thankfully, I actually got to use A* on a later problem, and I was able to copy most of the code from my first day 15 attempt, so that was a little redeeming... I don't think you are alone in taking a break; I see others doing it and almost did so myself. I can feel my sanity slowly fading as we bounce between cellular automata problems one night and assembler reverse engineering problems the next.
