multiple loops

ADAPTED from my post: http://www.transformationpowertools.com/wordpress/playing-with-columns-stacking-posts-grid-style
TWO FULL WIDTH POSTS, AD BLOCK, TWO COLUMNS OF POSTS


<?php $do_not_duplicate = array();
global $query_string;

query_posts( $query_string . '&posts_per_page=2' );
while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

<?php //FULL WIDTH POSTS ?>

<div class="news_item_a" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
            <h2 class="contentheading"> <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a> </h2>
            <div class="newsitem_tools">
              <div class="newsitem_info">
                <span class="createdate"> <?php the_time('j F Y, h:m') ?> </span> <span class="createby"> <?php the_author() ?> </span>
              </div>
              <!-- end of info-->
            </div>
            <!-- end of tools-->
            <div class="newsitem_text">
              <div class="news_item_article">
              <img class="thumb" src="<?php echo catch_that_image() ?>" border="0" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" />
                <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
                <?php link_pages('<p><strong>Pages:</strong> ', '</p>', 'number'); // for multi page posts ?>
                <p><a rel="nofollow" class="readon" href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><span style="display: none;"><?php the_title(); ?></span></a></p>

              </div>
            </div>
            <span class="article_separator">&nbsp;</span>
         </div>

<?php // END OF FULL WIDTH POST ?>

<?php $do_not_duplicate[] = $post->ID;

endwhile; ?>


<!--ADVERTISING BLOCK HERE-->
<h2>ADVERTISING</h2>


<?php //TWO COLUMN POSTS START// ?>

<?php
global $query_string;
parse_str( $query_string, $args );
$args['post__not_in'] = $do_not_duplicate;
$args['posts_per_page'] = -1;

query_posts( $args );
?>


<?php $num_cols = 2; // set the number of columns here

for ( $i=1 ; $i <= $num_cols; $i++ ) : ?>

<div id="post-column-<?php echo $i; ?>" class="post-column">

<?php $counter = $num_cols + 1 - $i;

while (have_posts()) : the_post();
if( $counter%$num_cols == 0 ) : ?>

<div class="news_item_a column<?php echo $i; ?>" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
            <h2 class="contentheading"> <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a> </h2>
            <div class="newsitem_tools">
              <div class="newsitem_info">
                <span class="createdate"> <?php the_time('j F Y, h:m') ?> </span> <span class="createby"> <?php the_author() ?> </span>
              </div>
              <!-- end of info-->
            </div>
            <!-- end of tools-->
            <div class="newsitem_text">
              <div class="news_item_article">
              <img class="thumb" src="<?php echo catch_that_image() ?>" border="0" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" />
                <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
                <?php link_pages('<p><strong>Pages:</strong> ', '</p>', 'number'); // for multi page posts ?>
                <p><a rel="nofollow" class="readon" href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><span style="display: none;"><?php the_title(); ?></span></a></p>

              </div>
            </div>
            <span class="article_separator">&nbsp;</span>
         </div>

<?php endif; $counter++;
endwhile;
rewind_posts(); ?>

</div> <!--closes the .post-column div-->

<?php endfor; ?>



CSS for the above

.post-column { float: left; width: 49%; margin-left: 1%; }
#post-column-1 { margin-left: 0; }