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Looking a new city to call home UPDATE: New job accepted! Move in progress.

2

Posts

  • donavannjdonavannj Registered User regular
    edited October 2013
    JebusUD wrote: »
    If you are looking for cheaper I don't think you are going to get it in Seattle. I understand that is one of the highest cost of living places in the country. A 2.5 hour combined commute is insanely long. Nowhere here will be that long driving.


    I agree with Matrix up there. A train ride is so much better than a drive, so I'd consider moving to somewhere with nice transit.

    Your avatar thing says you are German? Come here and play hammerschlagen at octoberfest, drink some nice beers, and eat sauerkraut on everything. Germans everywhere! Minnesota is not as Siberia as your wife would expect i'm sure, but if she is set against it... then that is that.

    Well... if you're in the far exurbs and working in either downtown or commuting across nearly the entire metro (like say Maple Grove to Cottage Grove or Eden Prairie to White Bear Lake) your combined roundtrip would be near that long, but that's easily avoided by negotiating for either later hours or earlier hours, or just simply picking somewhere closer to work. Even along some of the worst corridors you could still easily keep your round-trip commute generally under 2 hours if you don't end up living in the middle of nowhere (and even then you might not have a hard time keeping your round-trip under 2 hours).

    However, it looks like your heart is set on Seattle. Seattle's good for relatively stable year round weather, from what I gather, but I'm not sure if it actually gets 4 whole seasons in the city proper every year. :P Minneapolis would cover you there, but you'd probably have a hard time convincing your wife to stay after the one week of the year where temperatures drop like a rock from about 10 F to -20F (this tends to be the week where my own sanity lapses and I tend to start thinking 20F temps are pretty darn close to t-shirt and shorts weather the rest of the winter). On the flip side of that one week, our summers tend to peak out with several 3 or 4 day stretches where the mercury tops a moderately humid 90 F. Generally cooler than DC most of the summer.

    We get less snow than most Great Lakes cities, which is a plus for those who hate cleaning up after heavy snowfall, but it's still often enough that you'd have to shift your start to your commute earlier to account for possible clearing off snow and/or defrosting the windshield if you park outside.

    donavannj on
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  • CapsaicinCapsaicin I asked my 2 y/o son to draw a pic of my German mom, and thats what we got. Registered User regular
    Man! I think I'm starting to lean more towards Nashville. Salaries are probably 80% of what they are in DC, but housing is closer to 33% of what it is here. LOL!

    It also makes me :(

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  • CapsaicinCapsaicin I asked my 2 y/o son to draw a pic of my German mom, and thats what we got. Registered User regular
    I think I'd love MN, I loved Madison, WI when the in-laws used to live there. Cheese, beer, snow? YUP!

    Though we did visit during the winter, and my wife was all NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE

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  • amateurhouramateurhour One day I'll be professionalhour The woods somewhere in TennesseeRegistered User regular
    Nashville is pretty four seasons. We had a 90+ degree summer, the weather just now hit the 60s and will drop into the 30s from December through about March, then spring hits in the 70s. We do get snow, but not much (except for a few years ago we got it every day for almost a month)

    We've had one MAJOR flood in the last 100 years or so which devastated a lot of stuff but that's unlikely to happen again anytime soon. Commute is about 45 minutes or so, and that's me going in heavy traffic for about 25 miles. Sometimes it can be worse, but it's pretty decent.

    are YOU on the beer list?
  • donavannjdonavannj Registered User regular
    edited October 2013
    Capsaicin wrote: »
    I think I'd love MN, I loved Madison, WI when the in-laws used to live there. Cheese, beer, snow? YUP!

    Though we did visit during the winter, and my wife was all NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE

    She had a pretty typical reaction to winter up here. I especially see this in non-native transplants, but the quality of life outside of that is generally upper-tier compared to other cities and median household income is 12th in the nation for 2013 according to the Census Bureau. At least, if all those quality of life surveys are to be believed.

    Also, as a side note, having lived here my whole life, I hate snow simply because it means more backbreaking, necessary, and unpleasant labor because it tends to ice over the driveway before you have a chance to clear it with the snowblower.

    Nashville strikes me as interesting, but I've seen some stats on it having a high violent crime rate for its size. Was just an MSN slideshow, though, so it was probably using older data. Suburbs are probably pretty safe places to live.

    donavannj on
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  • KharnastusKharnastus Registered User regular
    edited October 2013
    heh, ever thought about Omaha Nebraska? Union Pacific, ConAgra, universities etc are always hiring system admin's and developers. metro area has a little less than 1 mil. If you avoid the west and north of the city it will feel mildly unique. Also, great schools etc for your kids. aaaaand zoo and baseball. Really its a great choice for you family types. Mind you I need to get out of the area because I have lived here for too long as well.
    If you are worried about ignorant corn football types, don't worry they avoid omaha. If you like those types, move to lincoln. :)

    Oh and the longest commute you could suffer is 25 minutes. BONUS

    Kharnastus on
  • JohnnyCacheJohnnyCache Starting Defense Place at the tableRegistered User regular
    The kneejerk reaction is to say something bitchy about mormons, but seriously: Don't overlook Salt Lake. Salt Lake was virtually recession proof and is actually kind of a bustling place, and it has grown up socio-politically a LOT in the last 20-30 years. Also, it's an airline and highway hub - a manageable drive or cheap flight to lots of places. I just spent a year or so there and would move back.

  • Jeremy23000Jeremy23000 Indie Developer Halifax, Nova Scotia, CanadaRegistered User regular
    I'm not sure how you'd feel about looking outside the USA, but if it's an option for you I'd recommend Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada).
    The growth here in Technology is pretty good. Although with RIM closing it's office here, the IT job market might be a bit competitive. I know as a newly graduated Computer Scientist, I get contacted regularly from recruiters/headhunters about setting up interviews and things though.
    The area is nice, crime rate is a bit high (for Canadian standards), but you're close to nature and commutes are very short. The main issue I suppose is humidity in the summer. If you like water you're on the coast, lot's of historical sites to see as well. If it's an option anyways, I'd definitely recommend it.

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  • schussschuss Registered User regular
    The kneejerk reaction is to say something bitchy about mormons, but seriously: Don't overlook Salt Lake. Salt Lake was virtually recession proof and is actually kind of a bustling place, and it has grown up socio-politically a LOT in the last 20-30 years. Also, it's an airline and highway hub - a manageable drive or cheap flight to lots of places. I just spent a year or so there and would move back.

    It's a bit of a cultural wasteland, but it's got jobs and access to some of the best skiing, climbing and biking in the country, if not the world.

  • Dark_StangDark_Stang some nerd Registered User new member
    edited October 2013
    You're looking for a place that doesn't exist. But honestly, I live in St. Louis and it meets most of your demands.
    1. We have a large and quickly growing IT sector. Employers love it here because the cost of living is very low, so they don't have to pay employees as much to keep us satisfied. The average software developer here earns around 82k a year and you can live very comfortably on that. We have offices here from Microsoft, Riot Games, Enterprise and loads of other development/IT shops. There are actually some places here looking for Sharepoint developers. But if you cast a bigger net you could land a C# job very easily here.
    2. Cost of living is cheap. I live on a 1/4 acre with a tri level house. It only cost me 140k.
    3. As long as you aren't commuting across a bridge from Illinois traffic is not bad.
    4. The north city schools are bad, but the Patonville school district (where I live) and many other school distracts are rated very highly.
    5. We experience all seasons to the extreme. Summer is hot as balls. Fall is amazing and beautiful. Winter usually brings a couple ice storms (I just work from home on these days). Spring brings wondrous flowers (the botanical garden is amazing) and tornadoes. Just make sure your house has a basement.
    6. It's a 1 day drive to Virginia
    7. Far enough away from cleave lend i guess... Don't drive there. And you can cite the violent crime reports about St. Louis being dangerous to keep them away (it really isn't dangerous though, our city and county crime rates are calculated separately so they are skewed)
    8. It's not absolutely massive. Rent is reasonable as long as you don't want a crazy downtown loft or something. Housing prices are cheap or expensive depending on the area you want to be in (Chesterfield is expensive for example. Maryland Heights and Creve Couer aren't bad. Ballwin is pretty cheap).

    Dark_Stang on
  • lunchbox12682lunchbox12682 MinnesotaRegistered User regular
    MichaelLC wrote: »
    And in the winter you can make some hotdish there, eh, don't cha know! :P

    Went to school in Winona, near Rochester, and yeah Minn/St Paul was nice but very isolated.

    How important to the city is Best Buy these days?
    The Twin Cities are isolated? I guess living in Vermont will give you a different perspective.
    Anyway, I'll second (third?) the Twin Cities area. I've been here a year and it's been nice.
    I'm in aerospace and my wife is in health care, but both are decently represented here, as well as other tech stuff.

    I think Best Buy is less of a big deal since the layoffs recently.

  • schussschuss Registered User regular
    I think isolated in terms of access to other things. In some regions, such as New England, you have access to a lot of different areas and cities, whereas with the Twin Cities, you have nothing in every direction for a bit until you hit other cities.

  • CapsaicinCapsaicin I asked my 2 y/o son to draw a pic of my German mom, and thats what we got. Registered User regular
    Lots of good advice here guys! I appreciate it all and please keep it coming!

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  • donavannjdonavannj Registered User regular
    edited October 2013
    schuss wrote: »
    I think isolated in terms of access to other things. In some regions, such as New England, you have access to a lot of different areas and cities, whereas with the Twin Cities, you have nothing in every direction for a bit until you hit other cities.

    Precisely. But MSP's isolation causes entrepreneurs to fill in the voids with things that similarly sized cities closer to larger metro areas might not have because the larger city has it. Though MSP is quite large in its own right at about 3.3 million, putting it at about the same size as Seattle's metro (SeaTac sitting as the 15th largest metro and MSP being the 16th largest). Though Seattle arguably has more amenities because it's closer to the coast and closer to both Vancouver and Portland than MSP is to Milwaukee.

    donavannj on
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  • schussschuss Registered User regular
    edited October 2013
    donavannj wrote: »
    schuss wrote: »
    I think isolated in terms of access to other things. In some regions, such as New England, you have access to a lot of different areas and cities, whereas with the Twin Cities, you have nothing in every direction for a bit until you hit other cities.

    Precisely. But MSP's isolation causes entrepreneurs to fill in the voids with things that similarly sized cities closer to larger metro areas might not have because the larger city has it. Though MSP is quite large in its own right at about 3.3 million, putting it at about the same size as Seattle's metro (SeaTac sitting as the 15th largest metro and MSP being the 16th largest). Though Seattle arguably has more amenities because it's closer to the coast and closer to both Vancouver and Portland than MSP is to Milwaukee.

    Yeah, wasn't meant as a knock, but if you do anything mountain-related or heavier on culture, it's not a good spot. You have some bright spots in the music scene and some other things, but it's not like Seattle or Boston where you can just pop to another major city on a whim for the weekend easily, or alternatively, the mountains/ocean.

    schuss on
  • DhalphirDhalphir don't you open that trapdoor you're a fool if you dareRegistered User regular
    I had a whole thing typed up over why you should consider Melbourne or Sydney in Australia, then realised you were still planning on staying within the US.

    Whoops.

  • CapsaicinCapsaicin I asked my 2 y/o son to draw a pic of my German mom, and thats what we got. Registered User regular
    Dhalphir wrote: »
    I had a whole thing typed up over why you should consider Melbourne or Sydney in Australia, then realised you were still planning on staying within the US.

    Whoops.

    @Dhalphir don't let that hold you back. Going OCONUS just seems less feasible with kids and dogs and the whole 9, but that does peak my interest.

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  • DhalphirDhalphir don't you open that trapdoor you're a fool if you dareRegistered User regular
    Well essentially I think Melbourne in particular offers exactly what you want in a climate - mild winters, not too hot summers. Sydney is warmer in both seasons than Melbourne. Average winter temperatures during the day are from 10-20 degrees celsius, average summer day 28-40ish. Lower end of that scale for Melbourne.

    I dont really know much about the IT sector as i am not in that industry, but SharePoint is huge over here.

  • CapsaicinCapsaicin I asked my 2 y/o son to draw a pic of my German mom, and thats what we got. Registered User regular
    edited October 2013
    Dhalphir wrote: »
    Well essentially I think Melbourne in particular offers exactly what you want in a climate - mild winters, not too hot summers. Sydney is warmer in both seasons than Melbourne. Average winter temperatures during the day are from 10-20 degrees celsius, average summer day 28-40ish. Lower end of that scale for Melbourne.

    I dont really know much about the IT sector as i am not in that industry, but SharePoint is huge over here.

    @Dhalphir whats Australia's top job search engine?

    EDIT: I found one called Seek. I put a profile up there but damn, you were right, the market in Sydney and Melborne is pretty hot for SharePoint developers.

    Capsaicin on
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  • DhalphirDhalphir don't you open that trapdoor you're a fool if you dareRegistered User regular
    seek is the one, though there is a lot of recruiters. I don't know about the IT industry, but in the sales world I tend to stay away from recruiters. You might incorporate them.

    You should also consider Perth, which is where I live - though again, I don't know the IT industry here. The climate is better than Melbourne, and its a quieter city and surrounds than most of Sydney or Melbourne.

    But you really can't go wrong with any major Australian capital city except Canberra (the actual capital).

    Anecdotally, I can say that I probably know a couple dozen people in my work and social life who emigrated to Australia from somewhere else - the UK, the USA, Canada, Asia, South Africa, South America, Europe - and I've never met anybody who regretted the decision. I know plenty of people who left, but usually they did so to return to family in their home country. Never met anyone who left because they didn't like Australia.

  • DhalphirDhalphir don't you open that trapdoor you're a fool if you dareRegistered User regular
    And the whole dangerous animals thing is an exaggerated meme :)

  • CapsaicinCapsaicin I asked my 2 y/o son to draw a pic of my German mom, and thats what we got. Registered User regular
    edited October 2013
    Dhalphir wrote: »
    And the whole dangerous animals thing is an exaggerated meme :)

    @Dhalphir I'll wear a helmet for Drop Bears. ;)

    Also where can I look at housing prices?

    Capsaicin on
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  • DhalphirDhalphir don't you open that trapdoor you're a fool if you dareRegistered User regular
    for western Australia you can use www.reiwa.com.au

    I can give detailed real estate advice for Perth and surrounds. For Sydney and Melbourne best bet is to google real estate websites and look for suburbs that catch your eye.

  • a5ehrena5ehren AtlantaRegistered User regular
    I will point out that Australia pretty much kills #6 on your list. Depending on time of year, etc, you're looking at $1500-$2500 per person for a flight to return to the US or for your/her parents to come visit.

  • CapsaicinCapsaicin I asked my 2 y/o son to draw a pic of my German mom, and thats what we got. Registered User regular
    a5ehren wrote: »
    I will point out that Australia pretty much kills #6 on your list. Depending on time of year, etc, you're looking at $1500-$2500 per person for a flight to return to the US or for your/her parents to come visit.

    To be honest I was just trying to be nice. You can probably scratch #6 from the list.

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  • CapsaicinCapsaicin I asked my 2 y/o son to draw a pic of my German mom, and thats what we got. Registered User regular
    So just a quick (and long overdue) update in case anyone is following along at home.

    I've been interviewing with three different companies in three completely different areas. I'm expecting offers from 2 and have a final interview this Friday for the third.

    Locations are:

    St. Paul, MN (expecting official offer today)
    Nashville, TN (offer, strong possibility)
    Austin, TX (still interviewing)

    I was actually in Nashville this weekend checking out the city, neighborhoods, and interviewing Monday. Overall it was a good experience. Unfortunately the St. Paul company doesn't want to fly me out (all interviews were telecons) so that sorta leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I'd def want to check out the area before committing and it's easier to do so on someone elses dime.

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  • schussschuss Registered User regular
    How do you feel about snow and cold?

    Minnesota is cold-cold.

  • CapsaicinCapsaicin I asked my 2 y/o son to draw a pic of my German mom, and thats what we got. Registered User regular
    schuss wrote: »
    How do you feel about snow and cold?

    Minnesota is cold-cold.

    I like the cold. Wife doesn't. But we're so burnt out on the DC area that she said she doesn't care so long as she is able to buy some nice winter gear.

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  • KharnastusKharnastus Registered User regular
    edited April 2014
    heh, sweltering humid summers and frigid dry winters with a heavy dose of snow! Best of both worlds... (worst?) Google, Paypal, Conagra, Union Pacific, other large call centers and a whole lot of culture! mmm tasty culture. The best part is that you are over 8 hours away from any REALLY large city so people think that Omaha is a big city! mmm false assumptions. We have the best zoo in da world too. I think doing IT for a bunch of zoo researchers would be heaven... yes? Also someone has to administrate those Mastodon cloning computers right? You could pull a snowden and tell the world of the evil bioresearch! FUN! Also if you get that job you should hire me as a highly paid co-conspirator. Stock options would be nice and a company car...

    Kharnastus on
  • CiriraCirira IowaRegistered User regular
    The recommendations for both Omaha and St. Louis seem like good ones to me. I lived and worked in the DC area in IT and now live and work in St. Louis in IT. My pay here in St. Louis is more than it was in DC (mostly due to experience), and I own a house for 1/3 of what an apartment rented for in DC. If you can handle the humid summers St. Louis is a nice place to live. They have a growing IT sector and has a few different major companies like Monsanto, AB/INBEV, and RGA (the company I work for) that all have good sized IT departments. You may not want to live in the city itself, but living out in Chesterfield, Creve Coeur, St. Peters, or O'Fallon, MO will get you close enough to the city. It has a decent sized airport as well.

    My wife did med school in Omaha and we're looking at is as a place to move to soon. They also have a bunch of tech companies that @Kharnastus mentioned above.

  • KharnastusKharnastus Registered User regular
    oh and that offer in nashville looks very appealing to me... that live music scene yo.

  • hsuhsu Registered User regular
    edited April 2014
    Nashville vs St. Paul? I'd pick Nashville any day. Being an important music production city means theaters, musicals, and shows galore; the type of culture you normally only see in cities several times larger.

    Housing wise, my suggestion is finding a place within a 20 minute rush hour commute to work, and also within a 20 minute non-rush drive to downtown, even if you have to pay a premium, or get a smaller/older house. The amount of time you save in your commute, both to work and to downtown, is immeasurable in how much it will improve your quality of life.

    hsu on
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  • zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    The dc area can do that to you. Just be sure you and your wife are employed before leaving. Virginia is currently " fully employed," and so work is easier to come by. Although Portland is a cool area.

  • CapsaicinCapsaicin I asked my 2 y/o son to draw a pic of my German mom, and thats what we got. Registered User regular
    Nashville has been chosen!

    I start early June and my family meets me there at the end of June.

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  • dispatch.odispatch.o Registered User regular
    edited May 2014
    Hope you're not working at Vanderbilt. I recommend living to the west side of the city, down 40 toward Charlotte Pike. Avoid South Nashville areas like Antioch, Harding Place, Near 100 Oaks, Don't live east near the airport or in the slums out north.

    Nashville is full of people who really want to show off their money, lots of old cash floating around in certain areas and the live music scene is great if you like Las Vegas country. Racism is alive and well in every community, lots of college students. The city went and became a metropolitan district years ago because they were afraid of having a black mayor, so the entire county of Davidson is considered Nashville for the sake of the census. Wages are insanely low and the state is bullshit awful when it comes to employee rights, most employers know this and will fuck over whomever they can whenever they can.

    There are some pretty cool people there though.

    Edit: Most shows I wanted to see never came to Nashville, everyone went to Atlanta to do stuff.

    Good things to check out. Go to Antioch, there is a Thai place called P.S. Noodle Pot which is great. It's just off exit 59 on i24. The Slider House is okay times, The Flying Saucer off 10th downtown isn't bad, but is amazingly overpriced. Deli called Noshville over off 21st, Cafe Coco in the same area. If you like arcades and such Game Galaxy is cool to check out. There's also an arcade in Antioch at the "Global Mall", but Antioch is a fucking ghetto and the mall is dead. I lived next to it for 4 years and watched it slowly die. The sign out front has had all the store names taken off of it, all that was left was a rim store and a "ood urt" because they were too cheap to replace the missing letters. Huge parking lot, great for drug deals and feeling at risk of being raped (several rapes, shootings and abductions in the lot in the last few months before I moved).

    Edit: I hope you like church, churches and talking about religion as a focal point of every Monday when you go to work. Because holy fuck.

    dispatch.o on
  • CapsaicinCapsaicin I asked my 2 y/o son to draw a pic of my German mom, and thats what we got. Registered User regular
    dispatch.o wrote: »
    Hope you're not working at Vanderbilt. I recommend living to the west side of the city, down 40 toward Charlotte Pike. Avoid South Nashville areas like Antioch, Harding Place, Near 100 Oaks, Don't live east near the airport or in the slums out north.

    Nashville is full of people who really want to show off their money, lots of old cash floating around in certain areas and the live music scene is great if you like Las Vegas country. Racism is alive and well in every community, lots of college students. The city went and became a metropolitan district years ago because they were afraid of having a black mayor, so the entire county of Davidson is considered Nashville for the sake of the census. Wages are insanely low and the state is bullshit awful when it comes to employee rights, most employers know this and will fuck over whomever they can whenever they can.

    There are some pretty cool people there though.

    Edit: Most shows I wanted to see never came to Nashville, everyone went to Atlanta to do stuff.

    Good things to check out. Go to Antioch, there is a Thai place called P.S. Noodle Pot which is great. It's just off exit 59 on i24. The Slider House is okay times, The Flying Saucer off 10th downtown isn't bad, but is amazingly overpriced. Deli called Noshville over off 21st, Cafe Coco in the same area. If you like arcades and such Game Galaxy is cool to check out. There's also an arcade in Antioch at the "Global Mall", but Antioch is a fucking ghetto and the mall is dead. I lived next to it for 4 years and watched it slowly die. The sign out front has had all the store names taken off of it, all that was left was a rim store and a "ood urt" because they were too cheap to replace the missing letters. Huge parking lot, great for drug deals and feeling at risk of being raped (several rapes, shootings and abductions in the lot in the last few months before I moved).

    Edit: I hope you like church, churches and talking about religion as a focal point of every Monday when you go to work. Because holy fuck.

    You paint a beautiful picture...

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  • MichaelLCMichaelLC In what furnace was thy brain? ChicagoRegistered User regular
    Sounds like Nashville killed their dog, stole their wife, and impregnated their daughter.

  • BubbyBubby Registered User regular
    I have nothing to add other than I live in SoCal and have been wanting to move to Seattle for over 6 months now. I don't know how in-demand videographers/video editors are over there though...

  • SherlokSherlok Registered User regular
    Thoroughly enjoyed this thread. I'm in a similar situation, but I'm a bit younger with no family (different requirements as well). You'd think there'd be a site somewhere that would let you check boxes or rate things important to you, but that doesn't seem to exist. Just reading endless 'Top 10 Cities for X' lists and doodling on maps.

    Regardless, best of Luck OP.

  • CapsaicinCapsaicin I asked my 2 y/o son to draw a pic of my German mom, and thats what we got. Registered User regular
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