I am happy to report that I violated my company's dress code this week by wearing flip flops into the office. I know a guy at work who said he'd be going surfing on Friday morning, so I decided to tag along. He was going to a break I consider to be a short-boarder wave, so I decided to just body board. Although he did refer to me as a "sponger" and I got some dirty looks, I had a good time. The issue with going to work after surfing is that it's hard to get from a wetsuit into a worksuit. I decided to just pull on my jeans and shirt, and leave the shoes for when I got to my desk. This was ok, but I did wear my flip flops into the building before changing into company approved shoes.

We had Mom here this week, and had a great time spending time together and talking. I'm glad to have a Mom that I can talk to for a really long time about lots of stuff. One must admit that it's getting pretty bad for Dubya when even Mom has to give ground on issues like Rumsfeld and government spending. The other thing
Mom's visit did was require us to come to terms with our failing Select Comfort bed (the kind with the adjustable air bladder). We bought a new one few years ago when we bought a larger bed for our Pittsburgh house, so we have a queen size one for our guest bed. It's worked fine for a long time, but just recently (when my brother in law came to help us move) it started crapping out. He said he woke up in the middle of the night to find himself in direct contact with the bed boards and most of the air out of the bladder. No matter - I'll just call up these yokels from Minnesota who made the bed in the first place and get them to send me new bladders. Upon closer inspection of the 20 year warranty, however, this appeared to be a fruitless strategy. Although the company spares no expense in advertising the warranty, if you've owned the bed for longer than 2 years, you have to pay 20% of the replacement cost plus 4% for each year since you bought it. If you bought the bed 19 years ago and it breaks, you will pay 96% of the replacement cost. How is this a warranty? We bought the bed 8 or so years ago, so I decided not to waste my time calling them.

I thought originally that the pump mechanism was leaking, but I put a clamp on the air hose that went to Mom's mattress, and it still deflated. The air bladders are rather large, so checking for leaks was a pain. However, when I did (by spraying soap water all over), I found multiple leaks all over both bladders (see picture). I then marked each leak with a crayon, and slathered "GOOP" (a common sealant/adhesive) on the problem areas. This appears to have worked, but I still don't know whether the leaks are a one-time thing or they will continue to spring up periodically. In this age of self-assembling nano-materials and airliner fuselages made from composites, an air-tight mattress bladder doesn't seem like a real tall order. Apparently, though, it is.

Tonight we attended the baptism of one of Jerome's classmates. I was just getting settled into my seat when I saw Jerome file into our row, and noticed that he had his pants on backwards. This was immediately apparent because there are no boys (or mens) pants that have pleats on the butt. I spent a long time trying to figure out how this could have happened. I mean even if you don't notice that they feel funny when you put them on, you still have to reach around behind yourself to zip and button them. Turns out the pants are loose enough that he can just pull them on without unzipping them. It reminds me of when we were living in Philly, and Mari chastised me for putting Asha's pants on backwards. Asha had lots of pants that Mari made, and so there were no helpful tags. "You can always tell where the front is" Mari said "by looking inside at which side has the shorter distance to the center crotch seam". Fine, I thought, I can do this. One day I went to put Asha's pants on her and no matter which way I turned them, it looked like the distance to the seam was exactly the same. They also looked funny both ways, so I gave up. When I protested later to Marie she said "Oh, sorry. I accidentally made those pants with 2 butts".

Note to Cougs: please call me when coach has changed.