1) Nice looking set-up! Just make sure that he won't be able to get stuck inside any of those decorations. It's not fun having to break open a nice looking ornament with a stuck snake on the inside.
2) Your "really good thermometer" is actually a thermostat - GOOD JOB! You'll want to have it plugged in to the UTH though instead of the heat lamp. Your snake will spend the majority of his life on the bottom of his enclosure and you don't want the UTH being uncontrolled and end up accidentally burning him. You should place the sensor for the thermostat between the UTH and the glass on the bottom of the aquarium.
3) On that note, you should move the UTH to the bottom instead of the side (occasionally done with arboreal species). Place it on one end or the other of the bottom to create a warm side and a cool side.
4) The temperatures you mentioned (90 on warm, 80 on cool) are exactly what you should be shooting for. Nice! As long as this stays consistent when you move the UTH to the bottom, you're good as gold.
5) If you wanted to get rid of the heat lamp, you could instead add a second UTH and thermostat to the other side on the bottom. Heat lamps can be a hindrance to proper humidity levels and your life in the future will likely be easier without one. If you decide to do this, regulate one UTH to 80 and the other to 90 (or 82 and 92 to account for the difference between the very bottom of the tank and the surface of the substrate the snake is actually sitting on).
6) Whatever you decide to do for decoration inside the tank, make sure that none of it is done with any kind of tape! Hot glue is much safer to use. A ball python stuck to a piece of tape or other similar adhesive is a horrific thing.
I'm sure others will chime in as well, but it sounds like you got lots of good advice from the associate at the pet store. Hooray!
Best of luck with your new addition! This community is awesome - you're going to love it here.
Eric
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