Howard's Grab Bag of Fun, Part III

Here are two items that just had to be blogged as part of the Grab Bag of Fun, because neither of them were long enough to merit their own post:

• The contractor who's building my Arts & Crafts masterpiece sent me an email about two hours ago telling me that he had a nice talk today with a certified wood flooring inspector -- sort of a CSI of hardwood, if you will. This certified guy filled my contractor's head with horror stories about the failures of bamboo flooring over radiant floor slabs. So he came to me with worry in his email voice, asking if the owner and I might not reconsider. Now you don't know the history behind this design decision of ours, and all the months of research and frustrated cul-de-sacs I have gone through to ensure that my specifications for the bamboo flooring over radiant floor heating system would meet all installation requirements that the bamboo flooring manufacturer and local installer could think up. It's the one aspect of the specs where I nailed "due diligence" down with a 22-ounce framing hammer. I kinda wrote a long and empassioned treatise--in email form--back to the contractor letting him know that all the specifics in the specifications MUST be followed because all of them are important requirements to ensure that the bamboo floor stays put. Back to the certified guy he surely will scurry.
  
• A friend of mine recently put her condo on the market and moved her belongings -- which include two ferrets named George and Emma -- from the neighborhood megalopolis to a whole other megalopolis. We wish her well, especially with her new job, which, interestingly enough is in the field in which she earned her college degree -- interior design. Why is this interesting, the wiser guys among you will ask? Because after college, she has been working for something like eight years in architecture offices doing the Work of Architects. Of course she could never become a licensed architect for reasons that I described in this post from an earlier era of Why Howard Laughed. But she was--and still is--smart enough to pick up on all the things that an architectural intern learns while putting in those long years of "interning." Simply put: She never worked in an interior design office before now. I'm sure she'll be quite good at it, and working all those years in architecture offices just HAD TO LOOK GOOD on her resume, don't you think? Finally, I couldn't resist giving her some advice for her new job. For you know: I am not just a know-it-all; I am THE know-it-all, as she (and my wife and kids) will surely attest. This was my advice: Everyone is insecure about color selection. So when you as a designer propose a color palette or two to a client, do it with extreme confidence and assurance. That's it. By the way, that advice is #27 on my list of The 50 Most Valuable Bits of Advice to New Design Professionals. The photo above? Oh, just a little something she took a week ago and sent to 200 of her best friends in the whole world. A typical American streetscape that I can't quite place. Has sort of a Jetsons feel to it, donchuthink?