If You Could Live Anywhere in the US Where Would You Live?

Loyal readers I want your opinions. One career option I'm seriously considering is becoming a patent analyst. Patent analysts work in firms that specialize in searching previous patents and other scientific publications to help a company decide if they have a reasonable chance of protecting their inventions through patenting. I know, it sounds VERY exciting but there is one excellent perk. A lot of these companies let their employees telecommute from anywhere in the US. So, if I can land one of these jobs where should I live? Ozarks, Vermont, Southern Utah? Taliatha and I think it would be cool to live somewhere where the cost of living is low so we could afford a big old homestead. Where would you live and why?

A Few Points

1. Books
Taliatha and I recently decided that she should defect from her book club (a bunch of sisters in the ward) and start reading one book a month with me. We just finished A Room with a View and A Wrinkle in Time. Most of you are probably familiar with those books, so I won't review them here; but I enjoyed their themes of honesty and love, respectively. I remember trying to read A Wrinkle in Time back in elementary school, and maybe again in middle school, but having it blow my mind. This time around it was a cinch! It's reassuring to know I can handle juvenile fiction now. Speaking of juv. fiction, did anyone else see Bridge to Terabithia? I thought it was quite good.

2. The Cougs!
Man, they almost pulled it out against UCLA. That was a fun game to watch. They will be awesome in conference this year and look out for next year. All of the offensive weapons will be back and the entire offensive line except for this year's starting center. Boo yah!

3. Depressing Ice Cream Social
Our department has a semi-annual ice cream and sheet cake social at the start and end of Fall and Spring semesters, respectively. This year I looked around at all of the grad students and had the sinking and lonely realization that I am now the senior grad student in the department. There was only one other PhD student in my cohort and she finished in May. At least I got to drown my sorrows in cake and ice cream.

4. Free Lunches
I've been having "business lunches" with some of my contacts--you know how you're supposed to network and stuff, right? Anyway, it's a SWEET deal because I ask them if they want to go to lunch and give me free career advice and then they end up paying because they feel guilty about letting a graduate student pay for his own lunch. Right on!

Moose Makes Bills

Kirk made the final roster cut for the Bills (article here). Congratulations Moose!