this content div is floated left, but appears where we want it, butting up against the 200px padding

it has the light green background

the "container" div holds heading, main, content, and footer

the left nav div is absolutely positioned over the 200 px padding that main has. Main contains the top nav div, and content div

A Heading

more content in content div

much more content in content div

when content is greater than the content on left side, we have the white background of main div showing through, (the padding of main)