I would love to live in PHX if for nothing else the heat. It'll get me in much better shape and I can play golf as much as I want. I could also abandon the use of a car and switch to me having a bike and the girl keeping a car. But the idea of the closer ocean being the Pacific is still unsettling to me.

ETA: I'd also love to live there just to have the right to defend myself. NJ + firearms = Sucky Together

I am so bored I am thinking about doing actual work at work.

Give me cold any day. My three years spent in Bizarro Houston (Gorgeous City, Always Cold - Edinburgh) were fantastic. Just walking the 100 yards from the bus to the park n ride parking lot yesterday were brutal. I could actually feel myself cooking in the sunlight. My guess is that it was at least 107 in the direct sun (official temps are always measured in the shade), with about 70% humidity.

Yesterday was really bad.

I am still holding out hope that we'll get the afternoon rainstorms like we used to.

She knows it's done being paid for, but nothing past that...all talk of lack of sleep and RJ's stays in the Box. :D

Just as a side note, if you all get down here early enough to want to loosen up full-swing, the range that I'm talking about is across the street from where the directions take you. There's a short game area next to the 1st tee of the course we're on, but the full-length range is part of the closed East course on the other side of the road.

Tee time is 11:06, and I'll be there from about 9:20 onward. Phone ahead with coffee requests, if any. Wawa is right down the street.

My skin misses the Houston humidity. After 18 months of dry, dry, dry weather, I feel like a raisin. The temps are great here and we can actually sleep with the windows open at night, although we did turn on the a/c when it hit 110 last month.

Before I was born my fam lived 4 hrs north of edmonton and after that vowed not to live in a cold place again. With the exception of living in Chicago for 4 yrs we have always been in warm weather. Once they had to choose btw 2 projects, one in Norway and one in Saudi, which do you think they picked? Saudi! Houston summers are unbearable and if you go outside at 5am it is still hot and you are going to sweat! (plus they bring all the nasty bugs and lizards!), so I spend the summer in Peru where it is winter. (that is why you live .5 yr in the N. Hem. and the other .5 in the S. hem. :D) But by far we liked the tropical destinations the best S'pore and Venezuela....winter means it rains but temp is about the same yrs round.

70% humidity is nothing.

You definitely would need a car in PHX.

Ugh. I could never live in a place where 3 digit temperatures are the norm for half the year. I don't care if it's a "dry" heat. It's still ridiculously hot.

I agree. I could so easily live in Scotland.

A bike of the motored variety, sorry.

It wasn't too bad up here yesterday. The high was about 90 for an hour or two in the afternoon, but then a rainstorm cooled it off quickly. And then the sun set, and the temperature was instantly in the low 70s. I actually woke up freezing around 6:30 AM and had to turn the heat on to warm up the hotel room a little. It's amazing what 5,000 feet in elevation will do to cool you off in the West Texas desert.

Today is shaping up to be a three-digit day in DC. I'm looking forward to the 45 degree temperature drop when I arrive in SEA.

2 more days being a resident of Houston, here are a few updates and thoughts...

- Eating out a lot with family and friends. Getting tired of dim sum at Ocean Palace on Bellaire Blvd.

- Brought a couple of Chimay Blues to dinner at my friend's place. Best $24 bucks I've spent. :)

- Doing next to nothing at work, naturally.

- Not getting that many comments on the 5.8 earthquake in LA as I've thought.

- Started another spread sheet for UNESCO World Heritage Sites I've visited. Current standing is 72, fewer than airports I've flown into or out of (97).

- Bought a super nice, super lightweight (3.5lb) violin case to take my instrument IAH-LAX-HKG-LAX and future uses. Handmade in Germany. Smells like a brand new Audi or BMW when it first arrived.

- Looked at furniture that I may get in LA at places like BoConcept, Crate and Barrel and West Elm. Love the fact that they're right next to each other in Highland Village on Westheimer. Also found out that Design Within Reach is actually design beyond my reach.

- Booked my mom some flights for travel later this year. I can't believe it, but for 2008, she will have flown on at least 8 different carriers.

- Still haven't processed pictures from my LA and NYC trips from the past month. You guys have to wait longer for the view from my corner room on the 39th floor of Time Square Westin or night view of the LA metro.

- Read that Benningan's has filed for Ch 7. I often eat at their Humble restaurant after work if I have to pick up my parents at IAH in the evening.