trinacriabob

depressing

office

Oregon

Acapulco

distraction

lobby

Yes. I agree with this clarification. It would have to be cream, and not tan, to work well.

Tell us how you really feel. My parents have friends who relocated from Rancho Park (Pico/Westwood area) to South Orange a long time ago. They had one daughter. When I was last there in 2004, her mom pulled out this girl's wedding picture. The wedding dress was fairly low cut. She had these really exagerrated SPHERICAL tits. I remember her as having a runner's build. The, light bulb goes on *ah, yes, I'm in South Orange County* Yes, agreed, love the West Valley. Compared to the beach towns, it would be more affordable, but it has a very different vibe...maybe an even more relaxed one. Poor moltie, we're supplying him information overload.

parlor

"Less is more" just kidding...I needed an excuse to say that... Carry on...

Olive Oil

Hiking (by yourself) in NM? The only reason I say this is because NM was the site of the last fatal mountain lion attack on a human recorded in North America. This one dude lived in the NM mountains in a trailer and he set up his bathroom (tub/shower/shaving area) outside. One fine day, while away from his trailer in his makeshift bathroom outside, he didn't even know what hit him. Very sad. So be careful Rob...and all you other SW aficionados.

Don't live there now, but a native of the area...I think that counts...so I'll chime in. Most small coastal towns are nice. They are also expensive. That would mean San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano to the south and Oxnard Shores and Ventura to the north. Personally, I loved the maritime layer that shrouds these towns in a cool gray mist in the morning, that then burns off. Slightly bigger towns would be Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach. They still have a sense of community. San Pedro can be hit or miss...proximity to the port and all the ocean liners coming and going would make me a pig in $h!, and there are some nice areas as you go up the hill, and some crappy areas near Gaffey that are very "ghetto." Also worth mentioning are Redondo Beach (particularly Hollwyood Riviera, nowhere near Hollywood itself), Huntington Beach and Seal Beach. Long Beach is too big of a town, at almost 500,000 people. Venice is too bohemian. And Santa Monica just plain bothers me and is waaaay overrated. It's kind of soulless, with it's numbered grid and bland shopping areas that haven't been updated. Inland, there are few towns of note. The whole south side of the San Fernando Valley has an "ok" individual community feel while still being counted within LA's 4 million residents. I have always liked Calabasas, Woodland Hills and Sherman Oaks. There are some interesting mountain communities perched up in the foothills of the San Gabriels and San Bernardinos, such as Montrose/Tujunga, though tough for commuting into the city's core or the West Side. In reality, they are better for Pasadena or SGV workers. Incidentally, I do not like anywhere in northeast Los Angeles metro, and think Pasadena is also overrated. It looks butt ugly when the San Gabriels are so damn parched in the summer. The only SGV community I like is San Dimas, for its hilly topography and reasonably nice residential housing stock. Hope that helps. I know croc and tmp are also valuable resources when it comes to this topic. The O.C. might be a little too biased. :wink:

I picked dark slate/taupe. The other choice seems to clash more. Now, had the main color in choice #2 been a dark brown, I would have picked that.

Weird sensation...I only feel really comfortable in the upper Northeast/New England area, and I'm not from there. I really like it and the 3 to 4 weeks of color are almost worth putting up with the rest of the year. A co-worker has a sister in Saranac Lake, almost at the NY-Quebec line, and it is very peaceful and very beautiful. I have a very hard time boarding the plane in Montreal to come home when I make that trip. I also feel really comfortable in the thickly vegetated Southeast. I still have CLT and RDU in the back of my mind, seeing how much Atlanta has grown. Don't know. I'm out here for now. For me, the hard reality is that, while the PNW is where my parents relocated and settled in almost 20 years ago, I do like being there and thought my physical enjoyment of the area would override everything, but I don't like the vibe of the people. The West is very different from the East. Newly transplanted Easterners in the West complain about things, which is fine with me, since I complain 24/7. :wink:

The Brady Bunch

A couple of things: (1) there are a couple of GM dealerships, whether I've lived in PDX or Northern California, that are in smaller scenic areas, where the service advisors know me, they like to talk cars with me, they tell me when there's a special coming down the pike, and do great work...generally on those "menu priced" items. Plus, they have decent Saturday hours. The oil change place can work on my car whether on Saturday or Sunday morning. (2) the independent is a little far, in a direction I don't usually travel, and in an industrial neighborhood. I am glad to use him for any non-menu item, R&R type stuff. He also keeps odd hours 6:30 to 3:30 because he is primarily a large truck mechanic, so he has to schedule passenger car work around that work. I usually have to bus back to work (*a little sketchy*) or, if the appointment hours coincide with this wife's driving in, I can get a ride from her.

Ditto to the OP. Did not care for Bob Dylan's voice. Hey, people tell me I'm nuts when I tell them I don't like the all time classic "Stairway to Heaven." I did like "The Immigrant Song," though, with that ridiculous waling sound in the refrain...

The towns strung along the Florida Keys have this really attractive laziness about them that makes them seem like one would be on intravenous demerol if they lived there. There in nothing like the towns of upstate NY and all of New England, in general, in the fall. I just sent my cousins and some friends an e-mail with attachments of pictures of Quebec in the fall and they were stunned...in a good way.

There's a lot to be said for trusting one's gut...not specifically about the NJ outfit versus your present location, but on a general level...*sigh*

I found this on a news homepage. Check out this link and hit the "slide show" Link to MSN article on American towns It lists and talks about America's "prettiest" towns (subjective). In a way, they probably tried to appease everybody and scatter them all over the U.S. The ones that don't interest me: (a) tourist towns on the California coast that you can't afford anyway (Monterey, Cambria), (b) ski resorts (Aspen), ( c ) towns which...ahem...attract people I can't relate to (Sedona, Santa Fe) The ones that interest me: (a) I stumbled into Burlington VT once (needed to get over to the US "side" from Montreal to make cell phone calls and go to Kinko's), beautiful, but I'm sure it's an icebox, (b) Savannah, GA...I've only heard good things, but never made it there from Atlanta Some interesting things to note or surprises: (a) Deadwood SD is on the list (that's Charger4U, or Chargerino's, town), (b) Lanesboro MN, which I've never heard of, and ( c ) Union WA, which I'm sure is within 100 miles of Seattle and I've never heard of either What do you think of the list? Others that deserve mention in your opinion?

fault

Wasn't he in "Office Space"?

Yes. A good day, indeed. However, there are TOO MANY MORE walls that need to come down, with oppressive dark regimes most of us aren't even aware of...as well as the "standard" ones that are constantly mentioned in the news. Freedom empowers people. It can be taken a bit too far, but most societies have prospered because their underpinnings are all about individual freedom and respect. I probably won't be going to see Berlin any time soon, since my tried and true itinerary of Mediterranean Western Europe and southern South America work very well for me. But, hey, there's so many people who don't want to travel at all, so.... I'm waiting for the day when I can board a flight in Miami or Houston and go to Cuba for a week...and eat a huge serving of "ropa vieja" in Havana.

+1 - I vote So.Cal. I agree with everything you say, with the minor exception that San Francisco has always been regarded the financial/banking center of the West, though that has even out over the years. That's right, the "procession" over the SF Bay Bridge...accelearting up ono the East Span...temporarily disappearing into the Yerba Buena tunnel...and then doing 4 spans of Bay Bridge, with the skyline always visible on your right hand side, is NEVER tiresome. But, you're right, too. SF doesn't have any snow-capped mountains in its backdrop. So that's L.A.'s trump card.