Snake update

So, I got a tank yesterday, and an undertank heater and a thermometer to lay in the center of the hot spot; 86 F is the goal, I think. I need to get another thermometer for the cold (75 F, hah!) side of the tank, and a dimmer to control the undertank heater; at the East Bay Vivarium (which is worth a trip just to look at the critters... I mean, damn. I didn't grasp how big snakes and lizards got. And they're all different! And you're just a pane of glass away from them! Also, the time I dragged Silent E there, they'd just fed the turtles, so we got to watch turtles singlemindedly attacking lettuce and strawberries...) they had special dimmers that cost upwards of $20, which seemed a bit much; since I'll be in Berkeley Thursday for Howl's Moving Castle at the Pacific Film Archive, and I was planning on buying a snake bath/water bowl from one of the street vendors on Telegraph, I might as well stop by Berkeley Ace Hardware; such a nice store.

Alas, the tank needs to be cleaned before I can set it up and get the temperatures balanced, and it's suddenly all misty and rainy outside. Also? I've needed to wash my car for a long while, because several months back when I went out to do so, I found that someone had stolen the handle that allows you to turn on the water. Finally, I bought a new handle Monday... Only to find, when I went to check that it fit, that in the intervening time someone had stolen the hose. Maaaan...

So. Hose, dimmer, thermometer, water bowl.

The roof is on fire

Further cataloging the splendors of working in a lab: is it yet another experiment involving Beta Mercapto-ethanol? Or is a major gas leak?