The bed went together pretty quickly, even though as you’ll notice in the video we had to spin it around a couple of times to get the pieces to all line up. The green “thing” towards the front of the video is, as near as we can determine, some sort of body pillow.  We weren’t expecting it, but it was in the box so it is ours now.

The frames are 10 seconds apart.  The first video is compiled at 6 frames per second.  So if my math is right, that means each second of video was one minute of real life.  If you don’t have 39 seconds to spare, take a look at the second video.  Same images only at 30 frames per second (or 5 minutes of real life to 1 second of film).

Right now I give the bed a rating of “Interesting”.  We’ll have to see how it feels after a couple of nights.  It is basically a couple of air mattresses with built in pumps (similar to the Aerobed) wrapped in some memory foam and zipped into what looks like a normal mattress cover.  The kids dig it for sure.  Up, down, click, blow, hiss. What’s not to love?  Even as geeky and techy as I am, I must admit I never thought I’d own a bed that needed to be plugged in.

Oh! And it stinks to high heaven.  It was manufactured on the 17th, the same day it shipped and it has that new petroleum product smell.  We had the windows open as long as we could stand the cold.  Hopefully this mellows out quick or we are going to have to go bunk with the kids.

If there is anything I like more than having to wait even longer for the bed to arrive it is finding out I’m just like everyone else. Apparently just about everyone is buying this bed. How mainstream.

Our new mattress. Matching stools not included.

After many years of sleeping on a mattress we hate we finally broke down and bought another one using some of our tax return. We’re doing our part to stimulate the economy. Our old mattress wasn’t cheap, but it did suck. And continues to suck in new ways all the time. First it was too firm and caused my arms to fall asleep. That lasted about 6 months. Then for about 2 months it was actually somewhat comfortable. And then it started to form pits where Amber and I sleep.  They have gotten so pronounced that we both tend roll toward the outside of the bed.  Basically we hate it.

So we ordered a new bed from Costco.  It was a good deal and the best part is that it I can return it whenever I feel like it.  Heck, they’ll actually come pick it up if we need them to.  It is an Infinite Comfort Memory Foam Sleep System. For those of you who don’t know that means Sleep Number Bed knock off.  It is of the type that you can adjust the firmness on each side of the bed with little remote controls.  I can honestly say I never thought I’d own a bed that required electricity to operate.  We’ll see.  Hopefully it is comfortable, else back it goes.

The trouble now is that the thing has not arrived.  Heck it hasn’t even shipped yet. And I know that shouldn’t be a real surprised.  We ordered it on January 30th and it says to expect 10-15 business days for delivery.  So we passed right on by 10 days and of course Monday (President’s Day) doesn’t count so 15 business days might not be until February 23rd.  But I have to admit I thought “It’s Costco.  They are just being conservative.  It’ll show up in a week.”  And so my body decided to wait.  For several nights I basically didn’t sleep at all. It was as if my body decided that it had had enough and was not going to take this old bed any more.  Now I’ve returned to my normal lousy sleep, but at least I am getting some (When the kids allow.  Jillian, I’m looking at you, miss 5 am this morning).

In my impatience for the bed to arrive I’ve taken to checking Costco.com several times a day eagerly looking forward to seeing the tracking number that will tell me when our bed will finally show up.  Akin to the way some people press the elevator button a thousand times or continuously press the button for the cross walk I’ve decided that Costco ships their beds based on how badly someone wants it.  So I keep checking their site, many times a day, letting them know I want it more than anyone.  If I click that “Order status” button often enough I’m sure I can get it to ship.

Apparently when the thing does arrive we’ll have to assemble it.  It comes in a box and you have to put together all the pieces and of course inflate the air bladders that allow it to adjust in firmness. I’ll post some pictures of that when it finally happens (If I can be bothered to get out of bed to use the computer).