Ah, the joys of a lost retainer. Last week Alex realized hours too late that he had left his retainer on his lunch tray at school, and it was gone. Any clutching-at-straws hope we had of it turning up in a pocket, or a lunch lady picked it up, or something, were for naught. So, with all of a couple days of use out of the retainer, we spent $195 to get a replacement for it today.