This week has sucked ass. The office closed at 2, "if you have finished all your work", which is BS, because people had flights to catch and EVERYONE but 4-5 of us left by 2:30 regardless. I stayed because the office was quiet and no one was interrupting me.

All that resulted in was me finding a bunch of errors in peoples' work. GRRR.

My work gripe of the day is that a new editorial assistant gave me a bunch of files to combine late this afternoon (which is not part of my regular work responsibilities since I'm not officially working on the project), did not inform me it was urgent, skipped out of the office promptly at 5, and then after I'm the last one here I got a call from a more senior editor asking if I was done and could get the combined document to freelancers since this was apparently incoming artillery-level urgent.

People, I know nothing at all about the project you're working on beyond its anagram letters. I have not been in any of the meetings, received any memos or work schedules, or even been told what exactly it is. Since I'm apparently the only person in our entire company who can do what you need done to these files, just maybe keeping me informed of priorities before you scurry away for a long holiday weekend would be a good idea.

BOISE, Idaho - Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig will resign from the Senate amid a furor over his arrest and guilty plea in a police sex sting in an airport men's room, Republican officials said Friday.

Ha ha!

HELOCs are great. It took me several years after breaking up with the ex and trading the OR house/buying him out of the CA house before I knew they existed, and having one let me sleep at night. I bought long enough ago that I look really good on paper, even though I'm secretly barely making it, so I have huge HELOC. Good thing, since I needed it to help bail a family member out of a huge financial jam this summer.

My house had holes and blown-in insulation done right before we bought it! H and I spent all summer digging out the cheap plastic plugs, hammering in wooden plugs, sand/patch/prime/repeat and painting. But the house is so very comfy most of the time. A good attic fan and a ridge vent are other good non-A/C ways to cool a house.

Also, hello. I think this is the first time I've posted in Natter (or read it) in months, maybe year?

Hee! Yay, Java!

So when you guys are talking about blown-in, you mean cellulose? Or that weird new blow-able fiberglass? Cause we really want to do foam, if our volunteer comes through. We are doing the ridge vent thing.

Cellulose, I think. Some environmental type.

It looks like shredded newspaper, though it can't possibly be.

Does foam outgas?

Ridge vents rock. My ex and I are friends, he moved to Petaluma, where it's a lot hotter, and insists that whole house fans are the best thing ever, esp. in combo with good vents. I forgot to take a look at the WHF the last time I was up there.

H was a solar & elec contractor for years. If fiberglass bats were left over from a job, he'd pitch up out in the attic. Pretty much the only cold comes from the floor at my house these days, but hardwood is a pretty good insulator all by itself. Only if I lived in freezing country would I have to do something.

The stuff on TOH was foam. Not sure what kind, though. It reminded me of a friend's foam-covered cinderblock place growing up. It had a thin layer of concrete or some sort of plaster crust sprayed over the foam, then was painted. White. Looked like a giant lumpy marshmallow. A whack of an idle bat or ball (or idle picky children) and the "shell" would break and they'd have to patch it. Very strange.

I'd forgotten about it until you said that, but someone from my old women's group and her contractor husband built a Quonset-hut looking foam house a few years ago. It's made out of 3 feet thick chunks of foam cut and fitted together to form the shell. I can't remember what the outside is but a thin layer of concrete would make sense. The framing was wood, 2 story house (possibly split tri-level?) on a somewhat steep hill. It's a very weird looking place from the outside but it's really nice inside.

That sounds like where the Barbapapas live!