The Move Continues, But Stuff Already Works

I've been distracted over the past week by our ongoing move into the new building. I now have a working computer in my new space, the one that's hooked up to my good compound digital microscope. Network Services on campus has a rigamarole set up so that computers have to be re-registered for our new, faster network in the building, and that only took me about 15 minutes the other day. First I had to figure out what name they wanted, and then the appropriate password. Oh well, it works. This week I begin to pack up teaching lab gear, in between giving two intro biology exams.

My cunning new plan is to set up either a 130 gal. or 55 gal. native fishes tank in the Zoology lab, where space exists. First, of course, I have to move the tanks but once that adventure is over I should have an interesting new space. My other cunning plan is building an aquarium rack for my lab. I have a space about five feet long, and my design is to have a three shelf rack with the three shelves being made from two one-inch planks screwed into a supporting rectangle of 2x4's, and each resulting shelf attached to the four legs of the rack by lag bolts. This is the design I had in my apartment in Boston that turned out to be so solid that I couldn't take it apart and move it when we left that apartment. But I don't plan to leave this lab anytime soon, so that part's OK. I realize that I can use the bracket-mounted shelves in my current office; this material will be left behind as we move out, so I can recycle (no, not steal!) some of that material for my rack. Hopefully I'm not being too clever with this design; at least I can afford it.