Friday July 1

[JGraham]

Had an old banana for lunch. Just this side of rotten.

Like a lot of people I've been watching the real estate market with considerable interest. I'm 32 and single, and I've lived in the same area for about 7 years now, bought my house 5 years ago. Even though I like many things about Northern Virginia (specifically DC) I'm thinking of moving since I'm not really in love with my job.

Which brings me to: Where do you live, do you like it, how long have you been there, and my main question is: If all else were equal, where would you choose to take up your permanent residence?

So I'm in N. Virginia, and I've been thinking of moving to either Austin or Phoenix.

[johnreardon]

Bangers and mash + a pint of London Pride, actually in a London Pub.


Currently live in Brackley, which is a little Kingdom in Northamptonshire, England.

Was actually born in Newport Wales, which is about 160 miles away from Brackley. Left Wales back in 1971 and have no real desire to move back there. Both my children and grand children live within 20 miles, so happy to live out my days here. Besides the jam session at Yardley Gobion would miss me;)


Too late for me now, but if I was a lot younger, I would like to live either in Sardinia or San Francisco. If the latter, I would teach the locals how to speak English, proper, like what I does. :)

[Adam]

I swallowed some snot a minute ago.


Right now I live in Indianapolis. While it's not a bad place to live (being somewhat metropolitan on a midwestern scale) I think I would prefer to go back to Seattle. I've never felt as 'at home' anywhere as I've felt there. The light, clean air, the cultural diversity, heck I even miss Mt. Rainier looming over the skyline on clear days (even though it will probably erupt some day).

I miss the street musicians playing cellos and hammer dulcimers in Pike Place market.

I miss going to Whitby Island for a few days to get away and relax.

I'll go back there some day, but right now my job and my band keep me anchored here.

[tms13pin]

Italian hoagie (leftover), chips (the 'merican kind!), and an apple.

I live in Pittsburgh, PA. I grew up here, got my bachelors here, left for
Boston for a couple years to get my masters, returned for my PhD, left again
for a year to teach in Tennessee, and came back 7 years ago and have been
here since. I didn't return (or stay here) because I didn't want to be anywhere
else, I just seemed to end up back here for various reasons. Now that I'm
married, we moved back 7 years ago and stayed mainly because my wife
wanted to be near her family moreso than I particularly wanted to be here.

But, back to the topic. I do like it here, it's a great place to raise your family.
Boston was fun, but expensive. Great place to be in your 20's, but I wouldn't
have wanted to raise my kids there. Real estate in Pittsburgh is very
inexpensive compared to most other cities. I have two sisters and a step
sister living in Seattle, and the cost of real estate there is nuts. One sister
and my step-sister both had Amazon.com husbands, so they did well and
can afford it, my other sister (who has been there the longest, since '91)
still has a condo and wants badly to buy a house, but just can't find
anything she can afford. She's single.

Tennessee was nice, but kindof a different world. I didn't mind it, but the
Nashville area has really been growing, and the price of things is going up
there as well. Plus, not many basements, a must for the home studio!

Living here is affordable, great for family, great for the home studio, not
so great for music, and as long as one can find a job one likes, a nice place
to work too as your commutes also aren't bad compared to other places.
People are also friendly here.

--Tom

[Peter]

Breakfast: whole milk yogurt with granola on it. Yes, I'm from California.
Lunch: TBD.

I live just over the hills from Oakland, among oak trees. I have no intention of moving anytime soon. It's quiet, well-located for getting to points of interest in the Bay Area, the weather's great, and our house is nearly perfect for us. Sometimes I think it would be nice to have something bigger. but that would just mean more rooms to take care of.
I would not want to live anywhere else! As nice as Hawaii is, for example, living there year-round would be a pain - plus even more riduculously expensive than California.

[irwcustom]

Cheese sarnies again - and some chicken noodles later.


I've lived in the same village since I was 7 - it's nice to be by my folks and help them. I thought I would miss the sunday lunch so I didn't venture far, but I've become quite domesticated and cook for them more than I go back.

I really really want to move for job reasons. I'm fed up with getting ripped off for my skills and knowlege which took a very long time and a lot of effort to learn. My chosen occupation(s) are dwindling away - hence in my opinion, part of the reason we have a price slump in real estate which again in my opinion will become worse. I guess I could change what I do or use the skills I have to do something different, but I want to use my skills, have variety and a challenge. The big question is where.

People can't see why I don't really want to move within the UK, but I would emigrate - it's because I feel the situation would be the same wherever I go here. All the services we pay for are substandard, expensive and abused. I'm sure I would miss certain things a little, but I have travelled quite a bit and like other cultures and ways of life, so I'd be happy to trade in.

I love the US, but that seems to be going the same way on a larger scale - so less noticable as a whole. I saw a place in Virginia actually whilst over there a few months back - that looked real good value. Some places were over inflated though nearer DC- suburbs etc.

It's difficult to say where in the world as maybe you get a bit of a false impression of a place when there on holiday. Singapore was nice as was Malaysia. I've not been to Canada yet, but I've heard it's a good place to be for what I do and it looks pretty good - have got the lowdown on the place from quite a few friends. Australia and Nz are other possibles.

PA in general looked really nice and I even spotted a potential workplace in the sleepy town of Nazareth - other than the guitar factory.

In short, I'm up for a change, but haven't got a clue where.

[bryanrheem]

rice and tonkasu


I also live in Northern VA and have been in the DC area most of my life. I actually grew up across the river in MOntgomery County (Rockville, MD), went to school in NC and then got my first job back here in VA.

My wife and I have toyed with the idea of moving to DAllas, HOuston or Irving but nothing serious. Even though the housing market is crazy, both my parents and the inlaws are close (which helps with our kids) and the best job opportunities are here in DC since I contract to the FED.

[tone4days]

i just had a double angus steak and cheese sub combo from Quiznos ... salt/vinegar chips and a diet pepsi ...

i live in central maryland ... i like it just fine, in a "very comfortable but not very inspired" way ... i have lived here full time since '87 ... its a fine place to raise a family ...

there is no other place where i know i'd rather live .. i can think of aspects of many other places, but none enough to name as THE place i'd rather be ...

t4d

[rbiederwolf]

Roast Beef Sub - chips -TGIF

I live in Palm Beach Gardens FL. Born and raised in Palm beach County Florida, went to school at University of Florida, moved back and have been here ever since. I Love it. My family is here, but also the weather is perfect for me. The winters are between 60 and 75 degrees from November to April (actually into June this year), and the summers although in the 90's always seem to have a breeze because of the coast. There are many other places in the US that get much hotter with no breeze. Golf and water sports year round. If I want the snow or the seasons I visit for a week or two. There are many places I love to visit, but as a homebase I think this is paradise.

The downside is property and most everything else is very expensive. Thus even if you decide to sell your house and make a small fortune, it is almost impossible to find something affordable in the same county.

Having said this we are contemplating a move for maybe part of the year to Costa Rica. Luckily we bought a house on the Northern Pacific coast about 5 years ago and have just purchased another lot on the water. Prices are increasing drastically, but still very affordable compared to waterfront here. The best thing is that the lifestyle is very laidback, property taxes and insurance are almost nil., and Costa Rica offers many of the things I enjoyed growing up in South Florida, before it got so built out - diving, fishing, surfing, four wheeling etc, hikning etc, plus you can whitewater raft, swing through the trees, visit waterfalls and active volcanoes all within a few hour drive of each other. And to top it all off, it is only a direct 2.75 hour flight from Miami - it takes me longer to fly to the Northeast.

So as I don't think I would want to live anywhere else in the states, Costa Rica is becoming option 1 for at least part of the year. Excuse the Shamless advertisement, but since I am talking about it, if anyone is interested check out my website for our house in CR - http://www.villalunademiel.com/

[jas]

A tuna hoagie from Wegman's. A warm birch beer.

I live near Bethlehem, PA. I was born and have lived in this area most of my life. I went to school and lived for a time in Atlanta, which is a glorious place.

I have travelled extensively throughout the US and not so extensively in Europe.

I can't really imagine living anywhere other than where I live now. We're an hour and a half drive to NYC, the greatest city in the world (but I wouldn't want to live there) and an hour's drive to Philadelphia, the greatest city in Pennsylvania (with the possible exception of Pittsburgh which is lovely).

We can fly to Europe when the need arises and are only a 5-hour flight from San Francisco when you need that scene.

If I had unlimited funds I would like to live in Amsterdam or maybe in Holland Park in London.

-John

[Axemeister]

Today is some fruit and cottage cheese. Maybe a cracker or two.

I have never wandered far from Los Angeles, where I was born. I grew up in a nice area not far from the coast, and went to Pacific Palisades high school...My college days were spent at University of California at Santa Barbara, which carried on a similar California beach theme. I now live in Encino just about 7 or 8 miles north of where I was born and raised.

I have traveled extensively around the U.S. and have had a fair amount of world travel too.

L.A. is a mixed bag, but I like living here. I hate the cost of living, traffic, urban blight and crime, but I like the climate, the beach and the variety of year-round activities that it offers. A couple of times in my earlier days, I went skiing in the morning at Big Bear and was surfing the late afternoon "glass off" at the beach on the same day. Not bad. My kids are great, but they have had the benefit of private school, at a very high cost.

It is far from paradise, but I like it here....I would probably like living in Santa Barbara even better, but my business needs to be in the L.A. area.

[kingsleyd]

"must-gos" from my fridge... a slice of garlic+shroom+spinach pizza, half a piece of haddock with tomato/breadcrumb crust... and my usual chaser (limeade)

I live in the seacoast area of New Hampshire, about an hour north of Boston. I grew up in the suburbs south of Boston but have lived as an adult in north central Mass., Virginia, and outside of Cleveland. Also went to school in Delaware (HS) and Maine (college). I'm pretty happy with where I am. I like being near Boston, I like being within a couple of hours of most of my family, I like being near water and mountains and having a real winter.

I also like what I do and the company for whom I do it. Ponder this... I lead a pop/rock cover band with several fellow employees; the co. just paid for all of us (including our non-employee drummer) to fly to a conference in San Antonio last week so we could perform at a co.-sponsored social event. And (unlike the Paul Reed Smith band) we're not even remotely in the music business!

[darial]

It's too late to chime in on lunch, but I think I had leftover pizza.

I currently live in Boulder, CO. It's nicely located and has good weather and skiing, but the downside is that it's populated by complete flakes. I'm quite convinced 1/2 the population is comprised of trust fund babies. The real estate prices are disproportionatly high as well (which probably goes back to all the TFBs). I've been here 23 years.

All things being equal (they never are) I liked Kwai, HI the best in summer. That was pre-frog, though. I'm not sure how it is now. And I do like Boulder in winter because of the world-class skiing.

[TRandy16]

I live in the small town of Camdenton, Missouri, population 2763. There is no crime, no traffic (we only have two stoplights), none of the headaches you normally get in the big city.

The living is slow, easy, and oh-so affordable. This area is located in the Lake of the Ozarks region...a huge resort area here in the Midwest. Being a local I prefer the winters because there are no tourists around...but the summers are fine also. Since it is a resort area we are lucky enough to have dozens of very good restaraunts and more than adequate shopping.

I have traveled a bit...including some world-wide jaunts in my wasted squandered youth that are best left undiscussed. I plan on being here until I retire...then plan on a move to the Florida panhandle....Pensacola, Ft. Walton Beach, Destin,etc. area.