Vivarium, Part 1

So, as I mentioned before, we started work on a vivarium on New Years Eve day. I thought I should probably get around to posting the story. It's too good to not tell you.

(And by now, Mot thinks he's in the clear, and that I've forget to tell you. Silly fool!!!)

My fish recently passed into the great brackish body of water in the sky, and we were looking for something to do with his empty tank.



It's a basic 35 or 40 gallon hex tank. Nothing special.

(Neither are the bath towels it's sitting on in this picture. They are like sandpaper and were demoted to projects around the house. I like to multitask, but exfoliating and drying off should not be combined if you can avoid it. :-)



This is a piece of egg crate, used in office fluorescent light fixtures. We (Mot) cut it to fit into the bottom of the aquarium, to be used as a false bottom. It looks like someone took a bite of it on purpose....that will eventually be the pond section of the environment we're creating.

To keep the false bottom off the bottom of the aquarium, we (Mot) cut PVC pipe into 3 or 4 inch tall sections.



He also decided to cut notches into the bottom of each pipe section...so stagnant water wouldn't collect in the tubes at the bottom of the tank.

There are numerous ways to cut notches into the bottom of PVC pipe. I left to tend to something in the house...and this (below) is what I came back to.

Do you remember the cartoon...the Animaniacs??? I watched the crap out of it when I was younger. Pinky and the Brain were the best.

Anyway, during each half hour show, there was this segment they used to do....

"And now it's time for another Good idea, Bad idea."



Notice how in the second picture...you can see the saw blade chopping its way closer and closer to his thumb. Yeah, I saw what he was doing.....took these pictures.....and left.

You ever have one of those moments, when you know what's going to happen...and you know that if you tell your stubborn hubby it's not a good idea...he'll just get all defensive and say something along the lines of "I know what I'm doing" ???

Well, I decided to skip all that, and just leave the garage.

This is what it looks like when the saw met his thumb. (About 2 minutes after I left.)



I hate it when I'm right.

Most of the time. :-)

It really doesn't look that bad in this picture. He knew I was there with the camera, so I was lucky to get this shot. But let's just say that he should have gotten stitches...it wasn't good. In fact, it was so un-good, it actually worried him.

Did it worry him to the point of going to the hospital though? No!

We went to the fire station down the street...so his buddies could tend to it for him. They thought it was funny that I came along, with my camera. :-)



This is what it looked like when they were done.



We decided to call it quits for the night. Go figure.

(To be continued.....)