Thank you!

donation should post soon

afe

I’d take $250 at Wegmans and consider it a deal, were I to receive one, anyway.

I smell something amiss here. Didn’t she just trade upn Alpine in the last year or so. I would assume she would have had to put down some serious cash to underwrite the note.

On the other hand, is this a fallout from the credit crunch

Shoprite has a deal. But if I had one of those rebate checks in hand, I’d try to dicker like Mike.

Shoprite is offering $330 cards for every $300 in “stimulus” checks you cash there.
http://www.shoprite.com/PressRelease.aspx

I’d go to Wegmans with the deal and ask for $350.

Generally, the weather just sucks during the winter and 1st part of summer. Rain rain, damp and gray sometimes for weeks on end. Growing up there, it never bothered me much until I lived in the midwest and NYC where you really do have sunny skies so many days of the year. Now I go home and go a bit crazy…

The way we always got around this, was to go skiing – rain the lowlands usually means good snow up high.

Job market out there is not well diversified, nothing close to the amount of companies or general economic activity vs. northeast. It’s important to note, because your job mobility will be be severely reduced, unless you happen to be in software or a few key industries. You should be comfortable with the idea that your job and company will be much more permanent because there aren’t so many choices, and getting big increases in comp is tougher. As a result, most people make a fraction of the money they do out here.

Mass transit pretty much nonexistent, cars are used for everything, including going to work. In Seattle for instance, traffic jams and gridlock are a real headache, and no meaningful investment in infrastructure to solve it on the horizon.

Along with lower wages, housing also was historically very cheap compared to NYC/NJ, but it’s now gone up much higher than justified by incomes, so buying in a metro area isn’t the deal it used to be. I remember when you could by a house in the city, on a major lake (e.g. waterskiing every day) for like $300k in mid-nineties (now many times that). Overall cost of living though is still much lower than here, however.

So, those are the major downsides. Upsides? People are very friendly, pleasant, life is much more balanced and incredibly less intense and less stressful than NYC. Life moves slower, which can drive type A New Yorkers crazy.

For outdoor activities, there’s simply nowhere like it. Incredible mountain ranges, lakes, saltwater, forests and natural beauty which could take you a lifetime to explore – right outside your doorstep, accessible year round. Mountain biking, skiing, mountain climbing, camping, hiking, fishing, boating, anything you want in that arena. World class.

Public education generally quite good, including some major universities (e.g. U of Washington), and also quite cheap. Not so much emphasis on private schools or colleges, which is good for the pocketbook, can put kids at a bit of a disadvantage competing if they come out east but it can be overcome. My UW tuition (top 20, state school) was about $1100 freshman year in mid nineties. That’s not a typo.

Taxes are generally much lower all the way around. Washington state I don’t believe has a state income tax, even in the best areas property taxes are very low compared to the People’s Republic of NJ.

Most from the northwest never leave, they love it and wouldn’t trade the life for anything in the world. A little insular, quite liberal and a bit naive perhaps. More likely to be passive/agressive culture than in-your-face new york style, each way of interacting has its pros and cons.

If you have some $$ in the bank, a good job lined up and want a 180 change from NYC lifestyle, it’s something to consider.

Just my IMHO, have family in Portland but never thought much of it myself. A 3rd tier city in my opinion; the state was always considered to be backwoods (it’s all relative of course, ha). Compared to NYC, urban life in SF is the closest, but nothing comes within orders of magnitude.

Just my two cents..

Thanks, appreciate it.

Does this mean Bennys will shrink the size of their slice?

an example of a photo i took at my wedding

http://picasaweb.google.com/ndrews07/TestPics/photo?authkey=g7Q-tQfGHxI#5159617549672630034

can you put them on picasa (google photo software) and share them online. I would be very interested in seeing what you have.

https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?hl=en_US&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Flh%2Flogin%3Fcontinue%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fpicasaweb.google.com%252F&service=lh2&ltmpl=gp&passive=true