He did it for a higher calling -- namely having a penguin as a pet. Maybe if you make that your justification too your wife will jump on board, so to speak.
It's funny that the pool made it on the list of interesting things about tynan, but not the penguin.
To be fair, I never got the penguin :(
So the pool in your living room was just a preemptive one? ;)
Way back in the early days of Internet, there were pictures of some fellows who moved all the furniture out of their dorm room, got a sheet of heavy-duty waterproof plastic big enough to cover the floor and three feet up the walls, and ran a hose from the bathroom...