61. Paper or Plastic? Presta or Schrader?

With some free time at work, I thought I could complete a long-planned project to replace mountain bike tires with a smoother "urban" street tire, thinner and smoother.

In the rain, the smoother tire is theoretically better than the knobby mountain style: more tread touching the ground at any given time, so better traction.  Also, because the street tire is thinner, there is less traction so a more efficient ride.  Am I the only one to sense a contradiction here?  Must be quantum mechanics

So I pull a tire off, put the new one on and grab the pump.

I can't believe it, I had a schrader pump and presta tires.  Dumb.

I could put the old tires back on and bicycle to a store, but they're not open yet, and besides, I'm philisophically opposed to backtracking of any kind.  So I find a co-worker who's an avid cyclist.  As predicted he has a compact presta pump with him which I borrow.  An hour of pumping later my tires are just half full (I'm thinking, do I not know how to use a pump?), so I just walk to the bus stop, then walk again home, where I have an adaptor.  Finally the tires are full.  Time wasted: 2 hours