Weapon Cords and Using a 3rd Weapon

[JazzyBear]

There seems to be some disagreement amongst our group about the limits of weapons and weapon cords.

Per the rules:
Weapon Cord: Weapon cords are 2-foot-long leather straps that attach your weapon to your wrist. If you drop your weapon or are disarmed, you can recover it as a swift action, and it never moves any further away from you than an adjacent square. However, you cannot switch to a different weapon without first untying the cord (a full-round action) or cutting it (a move action or an attack, hardness 0, 0 hp). Unlike a locked gauntlet, you can still use a hand with a weapon cord, though a dangling weapon may interfere with finer actions.

There are two questions that seem to be related to the bolded section...
first, does this mean that if I have a sword on a weapon cord in my right hand, can I drop it and draw a mace? Some say no the SWITCH word means WIELD and some say SWITCH means switch weapons on the cord. Related to that is the question of can I have a sword on a cord on my right arm and a mace on a 2nd cord on my right arm? What happens if I have a weapon cord on my left arm with my bow? Can I have another on my right? Can I use the bow or not because my right hand has a cord and weapon on it as well.

[Bronnwynn]

It means use.

Go outside. Find a big stick. Four feet long, hefty. Now tie it to your wrist.

Now drop it.

Now find another stick, and try swinging *that* one with the hand the other stick is tied to.

Yeah.

Weapon cords for game balance and realism are intended to allow you only your normal allotment of hands for the purposes of combat. You can pull out a scroll or something, but not another weapon.

[blahpers]

I've never met anyone who thought it meant "switch weapons on the cord", particularly since one of the possible actions required is cutting the cord (which would ruin it).

Bottom line: If a weapon is hanging from a character's hand by a weapon cord, she cannot use another weapon with that hand.